Motril

Our campsite’s address is Salobrena, although it’s much nearer to Motril. Motril is a working city that gets short shrift in the guidebooks, but it’s not without its charms. Here’s part of the city centre with an apartment block as well designed as in any posh city.

On the edge of the centre is a church and public park. The church is set in landscape gardens and very pleasant, but unlikely to rival the Alhambra Palace.

The church interior doesn’t disappoint. It’s very ornate and beautifully maintained. The chapel behind the altar is the centrepiece, an area of total magnificence. I’m not sure of the significance of the pair of horns that could have come off either a Viking helmet or Desperate Dan’s cow pie.

The park is below the church, which we can frame between the two sculpted figures that represent the discovery of the New World. The Europeans (nude man on right) are meeting the Native Americans (nude man on left). You may note that the tableau has been ‘enhanced’ by graffiti and also purple paint on the European’s private parts, fortunately not luminous.

Back at the campsite, we set off for a walk along the side roads behind the site. These are always interesting; usually we spot many birds and creatures.

This time it’s the humans’ turn. Around the corner of the narrow, pot-holed road there comes a lightweight motorbike bearing two men and a dog. Sequence of events: bike stops at a field gate, man gets off and hastily picks up large armful of wood; bike makes off, now with wood, two men and a dog, weaving between deep ruts. ‘Good luck’, is all you can say!

Our time in Salobrena is coming to a close. The question is, ‘where to next?’ We considered the Cabo de Gata National Park, but decide to take the easy option and return to a site we have enjoyed staying at many time before: Los Madriles.

Salobrena Town

Salobrena is an Andalusian white town near our campsite. This is a typical steep street that we ascended on our way to the castle.

The houses show a simple elegance in spite of the angle of the street.

The beautiful shrine at the top of the street looks like a dead end, but steps carry on upwards from both the left and right of the Virgin Mary. It looks like she might be there to point out the paths for those confused.

We pass through delightful little squares like this one at the top of the long flight of steps from the shrine. 

Onwards and upwards! But very picturesque, with ornamented cobbled paving, so well worth the effort.

Now we have arrived at the castle, the highest point in Salobrena. It was built by the Moors (the Arabs) in the 10^th century and has only just opened to the public after major restoration that is still not complete.

It’s a traditional looking castle for those days with big, strong walls set on a good defensible position like a mound, or hill, or rocky outcrop.

The view over the battlements is extensive although a little too misty to see the distant mountains. However, I did zoom in on the last sugar cane processing factory in Europe, which closed in 2006. The Moors brought the sugar cane crop with them in the 10^th century when they settled on this coast, and found the climate around Salobrena to be ideal for it to flourish. The area became a major sugar producer until the plant was introduced to the West Indies by Spanish explorers where it thrived even better. Thereafter, the home industry went into a slow decline. 

The fort’s practical purpose didn’t prevent the builders from including artistic design features, like the circular patterns in the brickwork on the top of the water cistern.

Leaving the castle, we descended the steep streets back to the car and drove a few miles to the coast. A glance back shows the rock on which the castle is built; you can see what a good defensive position it occupies.

We end on a sad note, from the Spanish Civil War. Its tragedies are overshadowed by the Second World War that started soon after, so are not much reported outside of Spain.

This monument below describes the flight of thousands of refugees heading east from Malaga to escape Franco’s advancing troops. The fleeing refugees, mainly women, children and old folks, were bombed and shelled by Franco’s forces as they retreated. At the Guadalfeo River near Salobrena, swollen by winter rains, many drowned as they tried to cross in panic to escape. In that complete journey between 3,000 and 5,000 refugees perished.

We enjoyed an interesting day out, rounded off with a very enjoyable Chinese meal at €5.95 (£4.60) for the 3 course set menu.

Fish Market of the Future

Stan has an unusual local visit lined up: the fish auction at Motril. It’s just a couple of miles and located, unsurprisingly, at the fish dock. We see a traditional fishing boat on blocks presumably for maintenance. It makes a fine sight in the evening sun.

But these aren't the usual boats anymore; it's now the world of the deep sea trawler, and these are the boats tied up at the quay unloading their catches for the auction.

Close up, these boats look as if they mean business with those metal plates hanging off the back. You wouldn’t want to tangle with the trawlerman in the yellow leggings either.

It’s not all mechanised though, and we surprised this chap mending nets in the traditional way. 

Now we come to the futuristic bit. The fish come off the boats, all sorted into different types, in these blue boxes.

Nothing unusual about that, but then each box gets put on a slowly moving conveyor belt that passes in front of rows of seats where the buyers sit. Notice that there are several TV screens facing the buyers.

The conveyor belt stops at each blue box under a downward pointing camera so a picture of the fish in that box is shown on the TV screen. The bidding for that box now starts, in complete silence! This is how it works.

You can perhaps see that each buyer is holding something: it’s an electronic pad that he presses to make a bid. The highest bidder’s device also identifies the bidder, and a ticket is printed out that falls into the box so the purchaser can find what he’s bought at the end of the auction. The conveyor belt then moves on to the next box.

Stan’s comment, on looking at the TV screen images of the various fish types going past, was, “It’s very sad, this is their last family photograph!” 

So it’s goodbye from the fish auction, and from the big fella in a box all to himself. 

Salobrena

We arrived last Thursday and met with our friend Stan who has been staying at the campsite since before Christmas. He had earmarked an excellent pitch for us on the edge of the site with a view of the mountains. The floor surface looks like grass in the photo but is mesh fabric, a sort of economy astro turf.

The mountains are part of the Sierra Nevada, the highest range in Spain, and are snow covered at this time of the year. There are tracks just over the hedge and scrub land so it’s good for walks and some bird watching

Across the road from the campsite is the beach. It’s wide and long, in a pleasant setting but quite gritty. We weren’t going to swim anyway. 

The Mezquita and Cathedral

The Mezquita (mosque) was extended several times; the final version held up to 40,000 people. Here are some of the 1293 marble columns connected by distinctive supporting double arches, stretching into the distance, giving some idea of the scale of the building and its unique design.

These columns were mainly reused roman marble brought in from previous Roman territories. Coming from various sources, the columns were of different lengths and were cleverly adapted by putting the short ones on plinths or sinking the tall ones into the floor. So recycling isn’t a new idea.

Extra height was achieved by adding arches as the next photo shows. The sunlight streaming in adds to the harmonious beauty the builders achieved.

The most intricate decoration is reserved for the Mihrab, the most sacred area of the mosque that points precisely towards Mecca. However, in this case, it isn’t aligned correctly because the old St Vincent’s cathedral wall was incorporated into the structure and that was pointing due east, as Christian churches do. St Vincent’s revenge, you may say.

The detail of the craftsmanship is astoundingly intricate, an example of which is worth reproducing here. 

The ceiling above the Mihrab is also incredibly ornate and beautifully designed, but might look a bit ott in the average house.

So, if this is the mosque, where’s this added cathedral? The answer is: right in the middle!

In 1236 Cordoba was reconquered by the Christians, so ending 500 years of Moorish rule. The mosque was ritually reconsecrated as a Christian church, and over the next 300 years some internal modifications were made, for example some of the columns were partitioned  to make chapels, mainly  around the perimiter. But substantially it was still the same mosque as built by the Moors.

However, in 1536, despite local opposition, it was decided to build a cathedral right in the centre of the mosque. The resulting edifice is quite ornate and magnificent  although it occupies less than 10% of the mosque floor area. They needed to demolish the mosque roof where the cathedral was to be built to get the extra height needed for their design. This is a shot of part of how it turned out.

The cathedral is open sided, so look around and you peer into the original mosque. It’s a strange combination.

The chapels referred to above that were created around the edge of the building appear to be of conventional Roman Catholic Church type until you see how the Moorish features have been incorporated and redecorated.

Some chapels though have barely bothered to alter any of the Moslem decoration, as in the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) shown next. It’s a testimony to the original craftsman.

We visited the Mezquita/Cathedral on two days running as there was so much amazing architecture to be seen. The place held an atmosphere of calm and harmony; a unique building, certainly one of the most extraordinary we have ever seen.

Monday 7th March: Cordoba

The journey from Aranjuez to Cordoba crosses the high central plains. These are sparsely populated agricultural lands, cold in winter and baking in summer. We got the cold bit, with some sleet, but otherwise easy driving on a deserted motorway. The weather perked up towards our destination, so we visited Cordoba the following day in bright sunshine.

Cordoba’s archaeology goes back to the Bronze Age, but recorded history starts in 152 BC when it was founded as a Roman city. The roman bridge still survives, and crosses the wide river Guadalquivir near the historic centre.

The Moors’ (Arab) conquest of Spain began In 711, and within 10 years they controlled most of the country. In 756 Cordoba became their capital, and grew to become, it is said, the greatest city in Europe.

Water supply was a particular Moorish skill, and here’s a reconstructed waterwheel of the type that was used then and continues to be used, in some places, up to the present. The wheel draws water up from the river and feeds it into the supply system. Might explain why the campsite mains water is such a trickle.

The old town is a huddle of narrow streets with whitewashed buildings, following the lines of the old Moorish city. This is similar to Moroccan towns we’ve seen, not surprising as many Moorish craftsmen and settlers came from Morocco.

Parts of the old city walls still stand, and again notice the water features fundamental to the city’s functioning in this hot, dry region.

The old centre is adorned with various grand buildings displaying high quality workmanship, for example this doorway. 

But Cordoba’s jewel in the crown, and the reason for its World Heritage status, is the Mezquita (the Mosque) and the Cathedral. Extraordinarily, they are both part of the same building.This is one of its external walls stretching into the distance, on the right side of the photo, which indicates how extensive it is.

The Mezquita (mosque) was built by the conquering Moors in 786.They bought the old St Vincent’s cathedral from the Christians and demolished most of it to create room for the mosque.  However, they incorporated the part of St Vincent’s wall shown in the photo below, where you can see both Christian and later Muslim styles. I’m not sure exactly which is which, either.

The Mezquita is entered through a large courtyard containing a bell tower that was built around the original minaret. The courtyard contains fountains for Muslim ritual purification before entering the mosque. The current fountains are not original but the essence of the courtyard, with its orange trees, is preserved.

So let’s enter this magnificent mosque and discover how it comes to contain a cathedral. This is nothing to do with the original St Vincent’s cathedral, but a later and more controversial addition. That’s the subject of our next blog.

Spain Spring 2016

Start: Monday 29^th Feb

We’re lucky with the weather for our first day; although cold, it’s clear, bright sunshine. Even the predictable A14 traffic jams melt away by Fenstanton (10 miles) and we made an earlier tunnel crossing than the one we had booked, so we managed to get as far as Le Mans by nightfall.

Our next stop is near Blaye, in the Bordeaux area, where we stay for a couple of days. It’s wet and windy, but we take a quick trip to the citadel at Blaye which is on the Gironde estuary. The citadel is a massive fort built to protect Bordeaux from assault via the estuary. It looks even more forbidding in damp, miserable weather.

The defences were constructed by ace French fort builder Vauban, in the late 17^th century. The citadel was never captured. The entrance gate shows the thickness of these impregnable walls. It just needs the Three Musketeers galloping through to bring it all to life. 

Inside the battlements was a large area more like a village than a military camp. However, we didn’t explore with our usual enthusiasm as a downpour settled in for the afternoon and we beat a retreat back to the shelter of the caravan. 

We left the Bordeaux area the next day and went for a longer journey than planned, as far as Burgos in northern Spain, so as to run out of the unsettled weather. Burgos was an overnighter, cold and dry, from where we ran due south to Aranjuez. Crossing the mountains to Madrid saw some real snow but the roads were all clear. Aranjuez is 30 miles beyond Madrid.

We visited Aranjuez four years ago, with not such happy memories as we were kept awake all weekend by a heavy metal rock concert! This time it was relatively quiet and we were able to enjoy the town’s faded elegance. It was acquired for the monarchy in 1178 and used by various kings, queens and nobility since that time. This is part of the royal palace.

No palace is complete without extensive grounds so there are parks and fountains galore surrounding the palace. One fountain coming up.

The Prince’s garden, in another part of the town, is probably the most impressive. It claims to be the largest enclosed garden in Europe. The gates are certainly very grand. 

Actually, we need to go through this park to get to the campsite, so walking into town we enjoy the gardens and ornamental paths. Even at this time year there’s some colour.

Another view shows a walk with a boundary wall lined with urns. There are hundreds of these identical urns all over the park and also the palace gardens. They must have got a job lot from somewhere.

At the far end of the park we cross the bridge and walk the short distance to the campsite. Tomorrow it’s up stumps, to Cordoba.