Mediterranean Spain

by Mary Williams 

In February I traveled with a longtime 82-year-old friend, Kay Newman, on an Elderhostel to “Mediterranean Spain.” We visited Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Mallorca and Ibiza. It included some places I had been wanting to see for a long time, and I thought the trip was well planned and very interesting.

All went well getting to Spain; the weather was cool and sunny for the first 10 days and we had a good group of 28 people from all over the U.S. and two from Montreal. We were an interesting group of mostly retired professional people, all well traveled and many with a number of Elderhostels behind them. My vegetarian meals consisted mostly of omelets with a lettuce and tomato salad. Always just vinegar and oil on the table, and always hard crusty rolls. The rolls got better as we went along.

Madrid was as glorious as ever (my daughter Kathy and I were there in 1989, but we had continued to Granada, Segovia, Seville, Cordoba, Costa del Sol, Toledo, Salamanca, Segovia, then on to the area around Lisbon). We began with lectures on Spanish geography and early Spanish history and then toured the city by bus, including a trip to the archeological museum - all very interesting. Our hotel was on the main square (Puerta del Sol) in Madrid, very convenient for everything. The next day we went on a guided tour of the Prado art museum (full of Velasquez and Goya and other artists – also lots of groups) and a tapestry factory; then with our afternoon free, Kay and I went to another art museum, the Reina Sofia, where we saw the Picasso “Guernica” and other modern art, including a wonderful Calder exhibit.  In the evening we attended a Zarzuela performance in a nearby theater. Zarzuelas are similar to our musicals and are about the life of people in century-ago Spain, always with lots of singing and flamenco dancing. Though we didn’t understand the Spanish, we did enjoy the very good singing and dancing.

The next day we went to Segovia and El Escorial. Segovia is a small town NW of Madrid famed for its standing Roman aqueduct, which still runs right through the middle of the town. We hiked up the hill on winding cobblestone streets to the main square and to the castle, where we toured the castle. There was a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. El Escorial is nearby and was a monastery built by one of the King Philips who turned religious in later life. There is a beautiful church there, royal apartments, library and the crypt where many kings and queens of Spain and other royalty are buried. In the evening back in Madrid we walked to a nearby square that had many tapas restaurants and ate tapas at two of them. Lots of folks were out on the streets till the wee hours. 

Our next stop (by bus) was Valencia. Weather remained cool and sunny (50s - 60s). I loved Valencia with its mix of old city and art nouveau buildings, but especially the new City of Arts and Sciences designed by the living architect Calatrava.  - can’t wait till we have his bridges in Dallas. The complex includes an oceanographic museum (aquarium/water park) that we toured, a science museum, botanical garden, domed theater with IMAX and planetarium (which are all open) and an opera/symphony hall under construction. They are all white soaring buildings surrounded with ponds of blue water (Calatrava’s colors are white and blue.) The former riverbed in the city is now a lovely park (the river having been diverted south to prevent flooding). We visited a Ceramics museum in a beautiful Baroque palace and the museum of modern art – IVAM – with exhibits of Roger Bacon and several very good Spanish contemporary artists. I was also fortunate to see some Catalan folk dancing going on in a square. 

Next we went to Barcelona by bus and enroute visited the town of Sagunto and its Roman Theater that has been restored and is still being used. We began our stay in Barcelona with two very good lectures on Catalan history, culture and language and on Spanish Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Then we toured the city by bus and drove to the area around the Olympic games grounds – Montjuic; the park is high on a hill with a great view of the city and also houses several permanent museums. There we toured the Joan Miro museum and the Catalan art museum with its good collection of Romanesque frescoes rescued from small churches in the Pyrenees- very good!   

We were especially thrilled to see all the Gaudi architecture we saw next and tour his famous Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) church, which has been under construction for the past 80 years off and on. They are now saying it will be finished in 2021. I was amazed that they let tourists walk through a construction site, but we did. Visitor fees are helping to keep the construction funded. We visited the Guell Park and an apartment building Gaudi designed as well – La Perdrera - very interesting - with undulating surfaces, metal sculptures and tile work. It was also interesting to visit an apartment built in 1906 that we would call VERY MODERN and see Victorian furniture from that time in it. We also saw a maritime museum in a building originally used for shipbuilding, with an excellent exhibit and a real Roman galley (with about 100 oars) that tooled around the Mediterranean back in Roman times.  

We had some free time to explore La Rambla – the pedestrian walk with its many shops and markets, including a vegetable market and bird market. I was also able to go into the old city to the Cathedral and other churches and to the Picasso Museum, housed in several old (now adjoining) palaces of shipbuilders. Again, we were well located.   Our beautiful weather for the first part of the trip disappeared our last day in Barcelona – rain, wind and chilly weather set in. We spent our last night at a flamenco show – really an art from Andalusia, not Catalonia. But it was very enjoyable. 

We flew to Palma, Mallorca for our next visit. It was our misfortune to be in Mallorca on a weekend, as no one works on weekends and everything was closed.  However, the old town is very interesting with a combination of art nouveau and 15-19th century old city and a beautiful cathedral. We also traveled by bus to Valldemosa and Port Soller in the NW mountains with beautiful views, cobblestone streets and rugged coastline. We visited the apartment in a refurbished monastery where Frederic Chopin and George Sand stayed when they lived here.   Our treat in Palma was to be able to view two parades held previous to Ash Wednesday - on Saturday for the children who were all dressed in costumes, with lots of balloons, clowns, slides and jumping things for the kids, goodies to eat, etc. The kids were sure cute! On Sunday the adults dressed up and there was a two-hour long parade with floats just below our window. So we had a good view and really enjoyed it. I wished we could have seen more of the island and seen the museums that were closed on Monday. Our lectures here were very good – on the more modern Spain and Franco period, and also on Spanish music. 

We ferried to Ibiza, nearly an all-day trip, though the island is not far away. Ibiza is a small island mainly known for its white sand beaches and beautiful people. Well, this was February. It had snowed in the mountains a few days before and was overcast and boarded up. No one was at the beach, though a few funky shops were open for the few tourists there. We did have a very nice hotel there with a great view of the sea, the beach, pool and palm trees from our window. We had a walking tour of the old city (all up steps at the top of a hill), an interesting lecture on the architecture here, which is unique, and a visit to the countryside. We visited a 17th C. farmhouse with thick, whitewashed stucco walls around a courtyard. Each room was on a different level. It had a wine press, an olive press and lots of tools displayed.  It would be nice to be in Ibiza in warmer weather, but then we would have to battle mobs of other visitors. Oh, well! 

Our trip back was long but we arrived home safely on Thursday, Feb 26.  Highpoints of the trip were getting to visit the creations of the two architects Calatrava and Gaudi and hearing the excellent lectures by local speakers. I came away with an enhanced appreciation for beautiful Spain. This was my fifth Elderhostel, and sure not to be my last.

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