Holiday in Spain 西班牙假期

A brief description of my recent holiday in Spain:
- Duration: 11 nights, from 21 March to 1 April, 2004.
- Itinerary: Madrid (1) - Seville (2) - Granada (2) - Cordoba (1) - Madrid (2) - Barcelona (3)
- Transportation: London (flight) Madrid (train) Seville (train) Granada (bus) Cordoba (train) Madrid (flight) Barcelona (flight) London

Madrid

Madrid, the capital, is the least attractive tourist city among the five I visited. The top attractions are the museums (I went to two of the top three: Prado and Reina Sofia but not Thyssen Bornemisza), the rather austere Palacio Real (royal palace), and the Plaza Mayor.

The day trips to Toledo, Avila or Segovia should be great, but I decided to stay in the city during my second stopover there, primarily because of the miserable rain and wind (the weather during my first stopover there was glorious). I went to a jam-packed Irish pub to watch the Arsenal vs. Manchester United Premiership game - an interesting experience.

The Atocha rail station, near which the bomb exploded, looks like a rainforest. It was just over a week after the bombing when I made my first stopover in Madrid. I have included 2 photos showing how Madrid remembered the victims.

I had a pleasurable first encounter with the "chocolate con churros" drink. Actually, the chocolate is not for drinking but serves as a dipping sauce for the flour sticks.

(1) - Museo del Prado
(2) - Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
(3) - A building in Plaza Mayor

(1) & (2) - Estacion Atocha
(3) - Chocolate con churros, a demonstration

(1) & (2) - Remembering the bomb victims (near Puerta del Sol and outside the Atocha station)
(3) - An evening in Madrid

Seville

What the three Andalusian cities have in common is a rich Moorish cultural heritage, since the region was under almost 800 years of Arab rule (roughly from 700 to 1500). Today, Moorish art and architecture is still everywhere, and has become the main tourist attraction of the region.

I took the fast train from Madrid to Seville (Sevilla in Spanish). Orange trees were everywhere, and in late March, the city was full of the scent of orange flower.

The following photos show what travel guidebooks refer to as the "Cathedral and Giralda". It has three main parts. The first is the Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in the world, which was built on the original site of a mosque. The second is the Patio lined with oranges trees (The patio is an important part of Moorish buildings and homes. More on this later). The third is the Giralda, a tower structure which was the minaret of the original mosque.

(1) & (2) - The outside and inside of the Cathedral
(3) - The Patio, as seen from the Giralda
(4) - The Giralda at night
(5) & (6) - Two views of Seville from the Giralda

The second major attraction is the Real Alcazar, the royal palace. The Alcazar was the palace of the Moorish ruler, later taken over by the Christian king.

Although I hate bull fighting, the whitewashed Maestranza bullring was nevertheless worth visiting.

Other photos of Seville:
(1) - Looking up inside the Cathedral
(2) - An enclosed pool structure inside the Real Alcazar, providing a magical view
(3) - Arches of the Plaza de Espana
(4) - The patio of a 5-star hotel
(5) - The front entrance of someone's home
(6) - Torre del Oro, an octagonal tower near the river

Granada

The Alhambra is undoutedly the star attraction of Granada. It is a complex of fortresses, palaces and gardens built over the centuries on top of a hill:
(1) & (2) - Partial views of the Alhambra
(3) & (4) - Granada as seen from the Alhambra
(5) & (6) - Granada through the arches
(7) - (12) - The Nasrid Palaces
(13) - (18) - Other parts of the Alhambra

Other photos of Granada:
(1) - (3) - Almost like being in Morocco
(4) - A street scene
(5) - Who's she waiting for?
(6) - Jamon, jamon, jamon!

Cordoba

Cordoba is where the world famous Mezquita is located:
(1) - (3) - From the outside
(4) - (6) - The red-and-white arches inside the Mezquita
(7) & (8) - Inside the Mezquita
(9) - The Mezquita has since been turned into a cathedral

The Alcazar de los Reyes was not particularly interesting, but the gardens were:

A river runs through Cordoba:

Flower pots were everywhere in Cordoba, making it one of the loveliest cities I have visited:

Barcelona

Barcelona, itself a vibrant commercial city in Catalonia, achieves touristic fame largely from the works of Antoni Gaudi and other moderistic architects.

Here are some photos of Parc Guell, a park designed by Gaudi.

Casa Mila (or La Pedrera), by Gaudi. It has probably the most famous rooftop of any building in the world. The apartment open to tourists was, however, comparatively conventional.

The colourful Casa Batllo, also by Gaudi.

Gaudi's yet-to-be-completed Sagrada Familiar, the Gothic cathedral with a modernist twist. I regard it as an interesting (and crazy) object of art and a huge generator of tourist income. But as a church?

Of course, Barcelona is more than just Gaudi. Below are some of the other famous modernist buildings (Casa Punxes, Hospital de la Santa Creu, Casa Amatller, Casa Lleo Morera, Caixa Forum, Palau de la Musica Catalana). It seems that, compared to his contemporaries, Gaudi is a master in using curves.

Finally, photos of shops in Barcelona. Photo 3 is the La Rambla entrance of the Mercat de la Boqueria. Photos 4-6 are stalls inside this food market. They demonstrate convincingly that product display is no less an aesthetic pursue than architectural design is.