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A brief jaunt through Europe

Friday, July 13th, 2007

When you’ve recently spent three months in West Africa and most of your travelling life in the Third World, you realise that Western Europe really is quite fun after all. Sure, it’s not exciting culturally or religiously the same way Asia is, but at least things work, the electricity doesn’t go off every night and there are pretty buildings to look at…

AqueductAnyway, we certainly realised our honeymoon was over when we spent all night on a bus leaving Sevilla, northbound for Madrid (and then back southbound for an hour to Toledo, which is the only way you can get there). We spent the next few days in the historic towns of Toledo, Ávila and Segovia. Segovia was my favourite of the three – we went to see the famous Roman aqueduct but the town offers lots more than that, including a fairytale castle, an impressive Gothic cathedral and several other beautiful sandstone churches. We didn’t get to spend as long in Ávila as we liked, and it was raining more or less the whole time we were there, but nevertheless I thought it had pretty much the most impressive medieval city walls I’ve ever seen. (This thought lasted precisely three days, until we got to Carcassonne. See below.)

We spent our last night in Spain in Barcelona. We’d both been there before, and I liked it the first time, but this time it struck me as a dirty and seedy place, and I don’t really get why everyone raves about it. The Andalucian cities are infinitely more enjoyable places to spend time in, with far better sites and nightlife/entertainment that’s at least comparable. Anyway, Barca was just a stopover on our way to France, really, so we didn’t mind it so much.

CarcassonneThe next day we crossed the border – though you don’t really cross borders in Europe, you just realise at some point that you’re not in the same country you were in the last time you looked (and since four of our five West African crossings were nightmares, this EU deal is kind of fun). Carcassonne in the south of France is a magnificent old city that belongs in fairytales, with its stone walls and towers topped with orange witches’ hats. It was naturally pretty touristy but I didn’t mind because the walls, towers and castle were so magnificent and very photogenic.

We next headed to Nimes for its first century AD Roman two-tiered amphitheatre and temple, both in fabulous condition and well worth seeing, and then to Avignon, another enjoyable town with a famous bridge and lots of other medieval relics. Our last stop in France was a picturesque canal town called Annecy close to the Swiss border.

Lauterbrunnen ValleyBeing so close to Switzerland, we thought we’d duck in to see my friends Sally and Denis in Lausanne. We had a really nice time with them and the weather cleared up enough for us to do some hiking in the beautiful Jungfrau region as well.

After that, the ‘extended’ honeymoon unfortunately came to an end. We’re now living in Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands, working for a month at Infostrada Sports headquarters. It’s really quite an attractive town and we’re enjoying it so far; hopefully we’ll be able to see a bit of the country while we’re here, starting with Amsterdam tomorrow. Then, at the end of July we’ll move to Paris for three months for our RWC2007 project.

Meanwhile, loads of pictures of Europe and more of the Arabia/Africa journey are now on the web here.

Our honeymoon in Andalucia

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

Well, we’re a little sad that our luna de miel (literally: moon of honey … how funny!) came to an end today. We had a fabulous time in three Andalucian cities, enjoying many sights, sangrias and siestas! It wasn’t nearly as hot as everyone told ys it was going to be, especially compared with West Africa! It was sunny every day except today and usually about 30 degrees Celcius, so it was pretty much perfect. I took loads and loads of pictures, and it was just really nice to be able to stay in nice hotels, eat nice meals etc for a change.

So, some impressions…

SEVILLA

Santa CruzSevilla is a beautiful town, almost too perfect with the pristine Santa Cruz district, the Alcazar, the Cathedral (the largest Gothic church in the world and apparently the largest church of any sort in the world if measured by volume) and the Giralda tower. It was especially interesting for us to see the ancient Moorish tower, now the bell tower of the Cathedral, as only four months ago we saw a virtual copy of it at the Koutoubia mosque in Marrakesh. Our hotel was only a stone’s throw from the Cathedral and we swam in the rooftop pool a few times while looking right at the enormous tower.

Last night we attended a really great Flamenco performance in Sevilla. There are loads of tourist shows that you can book through hotels etc, and I’ve read that these are really ordinary. Actually the other day in Granada we stumbled across a show in a plaza that was similar, I think, to what the tourist shows would be. But last night we trekked out of the centre of Sevilla to a small place in the suburbs and saw a very passionate and emotional performance from a small group that was completely different from what we’d seen in Granada. It was very intimate, in a small and pretty courtyard, and one of the great highlights of the honeymoon.

We also did a pilgrimmage of sorts yesterday to the Roman ruins of Italica, birthplace of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. The mosaics there were quite impressive and the amphitheatre was still cool despite being pretty ruined.

GRANADA

AlhambraWe did something new in Granada and rented a “luxury” apartment for three nights. This was great as it gave us a different experience and we were able to relax a bit more than usual, cook our own food etc. The Alhambra was magnificent but unfortunately we couldn’t see two of the main highlights – the Sala de los Reyes (Room of the Kings), which was closed, and the fountain of the lions, as the lions have been taken away for restoration. Still, the decoration here, and in the Alcazar in Sevilla, was hugely impressive, and it’s fascinating to compare it with the similar plasterwork we saw in the madrassas in Fez and Meknes in Morocco in January.

We also had a sensational four-course feast at a restaurant in the Albaicin district overlooking the Alhambra, including I’d say the best prawns I’ve ever tasted.

CÓRDOBA

MezquitaCórdoba is probably the least visited of the three cities but was ultimately my favourite, owing largely to the tremendous Mezquita, the Moorish mosque built/expanded over a period of several hundred years beginning in the eighth century. Our hotel room was literally just across the (narrow) street, and we could gaze out our window to the beautiful exterior decorations. Though the Alhambra is justifiably the most famous Moorish sight in Spain, the Mezquita was my favourite. The size of the exterior, built of sandstone and with its beautiful arches, was overwhelming and the interior mihrab is stunningly decorated and one of the most brilliant pieces of Islamic art anywhere in the world.

Elsewhere, Córdoba has lots of other old and beautiful sandstone buildings and walls and the Juderia district around the Mezquita was very attractive. Plus the Córdoban style of Gazpacho (a cold sort of tomato soup for summertime) is the best in the region and we had it lots and lots!

So, now we’re back to our usual budget ways, waiting for a night train to take us to Toledo, a small and attractive town close to Madrid. We’ve both been to Madrid so we’ll skip it but as the nerds we are, we want to go to Segovia to see the famous Roman aqueduct. After that we’ll head up through southern France for a week or so before I have something to attend to in Paris at the end of the month.