5. Spain: Sevilla, Granada to Algeciras

                                                                                              Sevilla, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 14, 1982

(DAN) Helena and I were the picture of camping efficiency, fed, washed and ready for the 0815 bus into town.  An employee at the “camping” was waiting for the bus too so we felt confident.  After two of the buses had passed us by we decided we might exercise our thumbs a while.  We still had not gotten a ride when Paul and Ana came out at 0915; finally a bus stopped for us at 0930.

We made the usual run of the tourist information office and post office before we headed for the Giralda and Catedral.  The Giralda is another converted minaret l00+ meters high.  We went up to the level with the bells 70+ meters and got a very good view of the roof of the cathedral, the orange tree court from Muslim days, the Archivo de las Indias, the Alcázar, and of the entire city with the Guadalquivir running through it.  A majority of the houses in Sevilla are also white, but not as uniform and clean as Córdoba.

Giralda:  A minaret converted to Christian use.

The cathedral is third largest in Europe after St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s of London.   Columbus’ remains (supposedly) are here and there is an incredible treasure of gold and silver objects small and large dating from the days that Sevilla was the only Spanish city that could trade with America.  Aside from the irony of creating images of Christ in silver and gold won with the sacrifice of Indian lives, the most ironic were the tremendously rich capes for bishops and cardinals that were just crawling with gold thread.  The idea that a religious, Christian person should wear such presumptuous, impractical, paid-with-blood objects is unbelievable. I commented to Paul how much of the inequality was reflected in the stone and wood carving.  Almost all of it depicted suffering working people; all of the pillars were artistically on the backs of peasants.  It reminded me of that famous pulpit in Cuzco, Peru, where the whole world is supported from hell on the backs of protestant reformers.

What has been bothering us the past few weeks are the herds of tourists.  Those that wander in twos or threes, whispering, are harmless; it is the groups of 20 - 40 with a shouting guide that ruin the entire effect.  The cathedral had 2 - 4 groups of these, and this is the off-season.

There were two herds clattering through the Alcázar but it was big enough and beautiful enough that it did not matter. What was unusual here is the work in carved plaster and the combination with multi­colored tiles.  The older tiles were not square, but pieces of single colors joined like a pieced quilt.  We are sorry that Grandmother was not here to see these because there were endless and varied designs that she might have been able to copy for quilting. The gardens were so large that after an hour we had only seen the perimeter. 

We ate lunch again along the Guadalquivir.  They have made several layers of parks along the east bank that made a contrast with the closed and twisted streets. 

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Sevilla-Granada, Oct 15, Friday, 1982

(HELENA) We travelled from Sevilla to Bobadilla  on a beaten up train, but the rest of the way on a brand new train that I think must have been inaugurated for the ‘82 World Cup (which happened this past summer). Dan and I can’t imagine why Spain is only third in olive oil production (so we hear) because once again we rode through endless olive groves or fields.

Toward the end of the day we started climbing a little and saw some beautiful green valleys with white-washed villages tucked into the folds of the mountains.  It reminded us of the Joan Manuel Serrat lyrics "Colgado de un barranco, duerme mi pueblo blanco" (Hanging from a cliff sleeps my white village)

White village and eroded land between olive trees

We arrived in Granada in good time to find lodging before darkness fell. Dan got directions for getting to the “Camping Sierra Nevada,” but we almost didn’t make it due to our being accosted by several people offering us cheap hostels.  But we persevered what seemed like more than the promised 2 Km, and were fortunate to find it.

After we got the tent set up and supper eaten, Dan had the VERY brilliant idea of our taking our correspondence stuff over to the bar-restaurant where we had a good  cup of café con leche while writing in comfort.  We’ve found that to be the disadvantage with camping:  once daylight is gone, reading and writing are out.

Granada, Saturday, Oct 16, 1982

(DAN) Today had a different rhythm. We changed a little money and visited the market before we headed up the hill to the Alhambra.  There were various herds of tourists again but they could not hide the beauty.   Most people have an idea about the Alhambra, so I’ll just say that it is really four different “castles”.  One, the Alcázar, the palace, with the infinitely carved walls and the Court of the Lions.  The Generalife, the summer palace with infinite tame and wild gardens with a maze of fountains, pools, and even a stairway where the banister is an open channel.  Third is a stone castle for Charles V, and finally the Alcazaba which is a tenth century castle-fort that is mostly in ruins.   All this atop a steep hill, completely surrounded by forest, overlooking Granada, a wide grain plain and 3 different mountain ranges - well worth the trip.

Granada and the Alhambra

The walk back to the campground is over an hour and we got back awfully tired.  I went straight to the showers.   Providence, I guess, because as I was going in a “chap” asked me in English to watch his stuff.   Later he came over to the tent to talk.  Turned out Martin and his female companion Cecily (currently traveling in a VW bug) are from South Africa, have been traveling for the past year in South America, U.S. and Europe.   Apparently their favorite part was Bolivia and especially their 2-day hike over “our” Inca trail.  They recorded our entire conversation to send to his parents back home. They are political outcasts, and are immigrating to Australia when they get back.   They are extremely anti-apartheid and his parents are the equivalent for their generation. So far we are the only brother—sister team in sight.  Martin and Cecily  have been all over SA, SWA (Namibia), and Botswana but are not allowed into countries farther north. Tomorrow they will mark our maps with interesting places and names.

Two milestones have been reached in past days: Helena cut my hair in Córdoba.  First time for her and good job, I must say. My sideburns have a new “layered” look, but the Spanish women love it, so I guess I’ll keep it.  Secondly, Helena has been using sugar in coffee and milk, she claims it’s because the coffee is more bitter here. (HELENA) (AND I need the extra energy. Good excuse, no?)

Granada, Sunday, 17 Oct., 1982

(HELENA) It was time once again to wash our clothes, so we took a little trip over to the wash room.  We’re finishing up the first bar of Grandmother’s homemade soap, so I have a feeling we’ll soon have to ask for some in French.   For a clothes line we tied together our four boot strings plus a length of white nylon cord and attached them to a couple of trees and a post.

Dan took our maps over to Martin and Cecily^’s van and they gave him a lot of good ideas. I went a little later and they invited us to share one of those delicious melons we’ve mentioned before.  This time it was chilled.  They left soon after and Dan and I spent a little time arranging things and dusting off our “Africa on the Cheap”.

After lunch we headed toward the Albaicín in a general sort of way by wandering through more narrow streets. We got into more whitewashed houses (whereas the Granada we’d seen so far was quite dingy) and the neighborhood seemed to improve.  Still, it makes me so mad to see all the trash lying around, simply destroying otherwise beautiful scenery.  By some miracle we reached our destination. What a beautiful view of the Alhambra and the town!  Yesterday I commented to Dan that the builders of the palace definitely didn’t care about how the exterior looked, but now I could see more sense to the exterior.

Alhambra from the opposite side

We started back, felt a little rain, and decided to take a bus. It only brought us part way, so when it really started to rain as we neared “home,” Dan ran ahead to take in the clothes. Grrr.  Naturally he ended up wetter than the clothes. We leave tomorrow, so we’ll probably have packs full of nice damp clothes.

 

(DAN) Somehow we haven’t commented before that we are here right before national elections. Posters everywhere, loudspeakers blaring through the streets.  It is interesting to observe the similarities to Bolivian politics. There is the Socialist Party that is predicted to win; it is composed of most intellectuals, students, etc. The current administration which is Cristiano Demócrata, preaches “centrismo” and “no al catastrofismo.” The far-right with “order, work and progress.”,and the small ultra-right and ultra-left groups. I guess that the Communist Party is fairly large. Hugo says that for the first time the “environmentalists and no—nukes” are playing a role, mainly allied with the SocialistsThe only Franquista we have met, says that all of Spain’s “boom” is due to the years of discipline under Franco.

Granada-Algeciras, Oct 18, 1982

Today was our last full day in Europe, tomorrow we cross to Tangiers.  We had trouble breaking camp as it was raining intermittently. Got to the train station just before it really poured. They were fixing a bridge along the way, so we had to disembark and ride a bus for half an hour.  On the train into Algeciras we sat across from a railroad employee (61) who was both talkative and informed. He knew the names of the trees, rivers, and he showed us sights that we might easily miss. The last four hours we rode through the approach to, and through the Serranía de Ronda, which were once again pretty high and rugged mountains. I guess because of the remoteness the hills have not been deforested nearly as badly as the rest of Spain. Before the divide there was an open forest of encinas (evergreen oak) and after the divide cork and oak trees. The former are rather easy to spot as they have been stripped of their bark within a certain distance of the ground.

I have been meaning to mention the pretty severe erosion that we have found in the cultivated part of Andalucía; the two staples are olives and wheat. The olives are planted about 15 ft apart on the square, and there is extensive cultivation to keep weeds down. This leaves a grid of strips about 7-10 ft wide of completely exposed soil.  In other areas they are preparing to plant wheat and the ground is plowed as far one can see in every direction, also completely exposed. No windbreaks or terracing at all. Both crops are planted up and down slopes easily 25% and more. The majority of the hilltops and tops of curved ground appear to have eroded to the subsoil — completely white as compared to very dark brown lower slopes.  The trees that are planted in the eroded areas are visibly stunted and most have a very poor stand.

One last comment: the fields have been getting larger as one goes south, until this afternoon around Ronda there were well fenced areas several miles long.  It is cattle country, and probably very good because where plowed the soil was black and deep.  There were virtually no “peasant” houses, instead scattered large estancia-type establishments. The railroad man said that all the land around here is in the hands of very large landowners, something I never associated with Europe.

Estancias or large farms rather than villages

We got quite a jolt in the Algeciras train station: about half the people there were Arabic-Muslim types in various degrees of traditional dress. Algeciras itself appears very touristy.  Apparently we are not the first to think about crossing the straits of Gibraltar. We went down to the waterfront; there were at least four agencies with flashing marquees ready to sell passage on the one enormous ferry. We are staying in a “hostel” after 8 straight nights in campgrounds.