THE PENULTIMATE POST

Over the eight years I have been here I have done many things, but on the whole I achieved my original ambition to retire early and enjoy the sunshine of Southern Spain. The walks with friends, or sometimes just me and my little dog were the stuff of dreams after the dark dismal factories I worked in. The classes to learn Spanish were a perfect way to meet the people of the pueblo and see their lives first hand. We have had some brilliant days out on excursions together and learned about the surrounding countryside and towns.

 The paragliding stopped years ago because of a bad knee.I cannot walk far now because of the same knee, but I have developed other interests. I write articles for two coastal magazines and have begun writing short fiction stories.  Two of them have been published and I am now working on a longer writing project.

The local secondary school asked some of the students of Spanish to speak English to their students and a group of us are giving our time to help them with their pronunciation. We also have a group of adult professionals who are keen to improve their English and enhance their career prospects. Below is a fairly recent photo of some of the other classmates. The bar with no name was my favorite place to walk my dog in the evenings. It was run by Paco, a huge man with a great sense of humor. Behind us are the Hills of Lijar and Zaframagon, which is just below the setting sun.  Seville and the bird sactuary of Doñana are about a hundred kilometers behind us. Mybest memories are of sitting on the wall in summer dangling my legs over the wall watching the sun set with a glass of the local wine at 50 centimos a time. (30p)

     However, the years began to take their toll and the bad knee became worse until I could barely walk to the local shop. Before Christmas 2014 I had a knee replacement operation. I have other arthritic problems with my legs and the implications are clear.  My future life will be of limited mobility.

My house is a typical old Spanish white pueblo house. It has a lounge, kitchen, two bedrooms, a spare room, where I paint, and a bathroom.  The trouble is that it´s on three floors. The views from the roof terrace are beautiful, but in the years to come I will not be able to climb up there to see them.

Here are some of the different views from my roof terrace, showing different aspects of  the ever changing seasons that I have seen here over the eight years that I have lived here.

School trip to Sevilla

            One of the school trips was to Seville to look at  the Fundación Tres Culturas del Mediterráneo.  The Foundation of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean. The king of Morocco and the Junta de Andalucía in came together 1998 to create a forum based on the principles of peace, tolerance and dialog, aimed at finding common grounds for stability around the Mediterranean.
         This initiative was subsequently endorsed the Peres Center for Peace, the Palestinian National Authority and other individuals and institutions in Israel committed to promote understanding and peace.
The are few organizations in the world that represent the Mediterranean cultures of Islam, Catholicism and Judaism and are trying to bring stability and progress with such dedication and openness.
The European Union is a supporter of the foundation and its aims, which are more important then ever now. But, clearly, this is an enormous task.
We all know that the lands around the Mediterranean  have been a source of warfare, slaughter, slavery and ambition, with empires rising and falling over the last ten thousand years. To bring understanding or even tolerance seems an impossible dream.
        One thing is certain. All these civilizations around the Mediterranean brought a common unifying theme. Art, architecture and the skillful creation of beauty in every form imaginable. The center is built in the Expo '92 grounds on La Isla de La Cartuja (Cartuja Island.) It is designed to recreate the Islamic influence evident all over Spain, but to modern standards. There is no thousand years of wear and tear here. Its all brand new.

                                                        The building from outside

          We had a rainy day for the trip, which made the gardens look a little sad, but the rain did not dampen the spirits of the group.

         We waited to enter the center and thankfully the rain stopped while we waited.

                 The first view of the interior is very impressive. The building is on three levels with the fountain and running water as central theme. The dome is composed of beautifully painted timbers and highly polished panels.

                 The women´s gallery is an illustration of the finest carpentry and painting I have ever seen.

By comparison the Alhambra and The Mosque in Cordoba are undeniably impressive, but dulled by 700 years of use, the paint and carving bearing the patina of smokey candles and oil lamps. The colors here are clear and vibrant.

             The women were not allowed on the ground floor, where they may distract the prayers of the devout. They could join the prayers from above, suitably veiled and away from the men. I have a limited experience of working in wood, but I am without ability and so my appreciation of the craftsmanship is derived from my own experience.  The carvings and paneling are beautiful and a delight to see.

        

 Looking down from the woman's gallery you can see the intricate and beautiful design of the ground floor mosaic and the glass panels designed to give the impression of still water. Below the glass is the basement level.

           

         Here, in corners off from the the woman's gallery, are carved ceilings with delicate painting in astounding detail. Below is a panel in one corner showing the mastery of Islamic art.  

  

 
          This is the basement floor below the central fountain. The crystal stalactite hanging down over the marble bowl and the fountains (Not running on the day.) are designed to bring a sense of peace. The tiling and arches are beautiful examples of Islamic architecture at it´s best.    

After the tour and a speech about the aims and hopes of the foundation we all went outside into the gardens.
It was not raining so we all had a look at the bedraggled plants and flowers, which in sunshine would have been pretty.

 Before we climbed on the bus we had time for one group photo.

Cádiz air display

        The history of Cádiz as a seaport goes back to before the Phoenicians. After the bay of Gibraltar it was the next stopping off place for traders hugging the coast on the perilous Atlantic side of Spain and Portugal. The winds change dramatically at Tarifa and the full force of the Atlantic storms frequently hammer the west coast.  Cádiz was, and still is, a heaven for shipping of all kinds.
Modern Cádiz is a bustling port for commercial trade and also for the cruise liners that frequently dock in the harbour. With over a thousand tourists per liner that is quite an influx of money.
         The huge cranes in the Navantia shipyards have been silent now for quite some time. The workers there frequently block traffic using the  bridge into Cádiz with protests against closures in the shipyards and factories. The riot police have been called to dispel them on a few occasions.
The sad truth is that thousands of shipyards have disappeared all over the world during last fifty years. Though the Navantia workers might protest, they are fighting a world turndown of enormous proportions, where the work for shipbuilders has simply disappeared.
          Having said that they have won a contract to refurbish a string of  Cruise Liners in the San Fernando shipyards. Here are two of them under the 200 ton lift Navantia cranes.

           On the bright side, the Airbus factory in Cádiz is gaining orders and is currently making the tail fairing for the huge double decker A380 airliner and parts for the A400M military transport.
Just across the bay from Cádiz is Rota, a base for the Spanish navy. They usually have their LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock.) The Juan Carlos 1st  tied up there along with three of four frigates and support ships.

(When I posted this blog on the 15th Sept.  I was unaware that the Juan Carlos 1st was due to receive the Queen of Spain on the 17th Sept 2013 to inspect troops leaving on an exercise. I visited Cadiz today (16 Sept 2013) and was amazed to see the Juan Carlos tied up at the wharf in Cadiz with a regimental band playing on the quayside.
Unless you live in Portsmouth this is a pretty unusual sight.)

                       More important to Cádiz are the Cruise liners. Four Cruise liners were docked on the same day (5th Sept 2013) which meant that 9,000 tourists and ship's crew were in Cádiz at the same time. The development of Cádiz as a tourist port has been a long steady struggle, which is beginning to pay off. Around the stern of the Juan Carlos 1st is another visiting Cruise Liner, the The Queen Victoria. Also tied up alongside the Juan Carlos were two tall ships.

             As well as hosting the Carnaval, Cádiz has an annual air display over the Victoria beach, which is on the western side of the city. The one in 2011 was very good, probably one of the best.
It began with a parachute display team (Patulla Pepea.)who free fell from about ten thousand feet. One by one as they opened their parachutes they steered themselves onto the beach trailing colored smoke and landing within five meters of a fabric cross on the beach.

           A team of helicopters from the Spanish coastguard gave a display of synchronized hovering to music, playing from the loudspeakers along the beach. As the helicopters left the area of the beach they were followed by a display by one of the Spanish air force’s Mirage fighters. These are, by modern standards, old machines but the Mirage gave a good show of aerobatics with high speed passes in front of the beach which shook the ground.

          Then the star showed up in attendance with a SH60-B Blackhawk helicopter of the Spanish Armada. Only the Harrier, or AV8 as it is now known, can formate with a helicopter.

Even when they were two spots at the far end of the beach everybody knew from the roar of the Pegasus engine what was coming.

The Blackhawk gave a display of turns, hovers and passes over the water and whilst the Harrier orbited out at sea. When the Blackhawk cleared the beach after its display there was clear sky above the beach and silence.

            The Harrier flew in from the north and made a high speed pass over the beach that rattled windows before climbing into a roll which took it out to sea again. After loosing speed and altitude it turned back to the beach and slowed down to hover over the water. The noise from a Harrier hovering close is deafening and everybody on the beach was impressed. At the end of the hover the pilot increased power and the Harrier climbed away again and performed several climbs and rolls to finish its display with a final high speed pass.

        The Harrier was designed by Hawker, a British aircraft company more famous for the wartime Hurricane and later the Hawker Hunter. Even though the AV8 is a revamp, with more carbon composite parts, they have retained the same tail fin profile, which was the hallmark of Sir Sidney Camm, the chief designer at Hawker. It appears on nearly all the Hawker aircraft. 

         The second star of the show came in from the north and did its low level pass. It was just as noisy as the Mirage and Harrier, but it showed, to a discerning eye, the difference between old designs and modern. The Mirage gave a display that required maybe a box two miles on a side. The Harrier did better, but the Eurofighter pulled turns, loops, rolls and climbs within a box with sides a mile long. The maneuverability of this aircraft is astounding. It was designed as a counter to the Su27 and Mig29, both formidable aircraft.
        At the end of the cold war. When the threat of Soviet attack disappeared, the project was nearly cancelled. Then both Russian jets began to appear as export versions. Anybody could buy one. So the Eurofighter continued to production.

         Next over the beach were four Yak 52´s, which I think might have been a private club of Yak owners. Yaks were, and I think still are, the standard the Soviet military and civilian training aircraft. First production began in 1979 and Yaks are now made by Aerostar a subsidiary of Yakovlev.  Of the 1800 so far produced, most fly under private ownership outside Russia. They gave a first class display of aerobatics both as a group and singly. They are popular with private owners because they are easy to maintain, easy to fly and fully aerobatic up to five G´s positive.

         Andalucia in August is a very dry country. Two months under the burning sun and the grass is withered straw. The land is parched and a single spark or dropped cigarette will start a conflagration which would spread like wildfire. There are the land firefighters, (bomberos) trained and ready at all times to tackle the summer fires that inevitably occur.  They also have a second line of defense when things get out of hand. Southern Spain has a fleet of helicopters and seaplanes that are equipped to scoop water from the sea or reservoirs and drop it on the fires. One of these seaplanes gave a display of  its talents in front of the crowd.

       
          The Spanish are very serious about preventing fires. When I first came out here there was a major fire and five bomberos were cornered by the flames . They took shelter in a parked car whilst the forest burned out of control around them. They all died. The man who was responsible for all this, by starting a small fire at the roadside, was brought to trial for manslaughter, found guilty and sent to prison. 

          Finally the Spanish Air force aerobatic team Patrulla Aguilla (Eagle patrol.) arrived to round off the display. Formed in 1985 it has been giving displays ever since. They fly the CASA C-101EB Aviojet. The silver/red/yellow color scheme was adopted by the team for the 1992 for the Barcelona Olympics and they continue to fly in these colors today.

 They performed rolls and loops in tight formation with starbursts over the beach. Their high speed near passes from opposite directions were very good and very close!  The display lasted from midday to four in the afternoon and it was well worth seeing. It was also entirely free.  

Trip to Osuna

          In 2011 the Spanish classes took us on a trip to Osuna. The Name Osuna is from the Spanish name for Bear.... Oso. Centuries ago, there was a great forest around Osuna. Bears were common and it became famous as a place to hunt them. Hence, "Osuna"
        The first place we visited was the Iglesia Universidad high up on the hill above Osuna. This was one of only three Universities in Andalucia at this time. Jaen, Seville and Osuna. This particular one was is copied from the iglesia of Carlos 15th  in Granada.
The Iglesia de Universidad is built in three styles: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. It was part of a plan to counterattack the heretic reforms in the church caused by Henry VIII in England. Its purpose was to educate the people and teach them writing and reading so that they would know the truth and understand justice.
In 1548 Pope Paul III authorized the erection of a "Estudia General". He gave the instructions to build the University to Don Juan Tellez de Giron, the IV Conde (Duke) de Urena and the father of the first Duke of Osuna.

        They were one of the richest families in Spain.

                                                                  Iglesia de Universidad

      We moved on a little way to the Museo de Arte Sacro. This is a church as well as a museum, and a very imposing one. We met our guide, who told us some of the history of the church.
Built in the 16th century in the renaissance style, it is the home to a magnificent collection of paintings by José Ribera, El Españoleto, and the Cristo de Misericordia by Juan de Mesa.

                 
Museo de Arte Sacro
         The guide took us to a corner of the church which was closed by an ancient iron grille secured by a modern padlock. When we had all been ushered into the enclosure, she locked the grille behind us. I looked around and spotted a security camera high in a corner pointed at the grille. I also noticed an alarm system on a wall by the grille. Clearly we had entered a place of high security. What she showed us next justified the security.

                                                   The coat of arms of the Duke of Osuna

       We were lead through a small door by the side of an imposing gold coat of arms with a figure of the virgin in the center. If you examine the photo, high up at the top of the alter are two rampant bears. This is the coat of arms of the Duke of Osuna. If I remember rightly this was the personal alter for the Duke and his family.  

      Many of us reached for our cameras at this point, but our guide became very stern and forbade us to take photos. The photos that you see here were taken when she wasn’t looking. She was also very strict about silence when she was talking. The Spanish will chatter on amongst themselves, which, in a small space, can be distracting. She silenced everybody with a loud command that left you in no doubt about the protocols of the tour.

       She led us into a small room no bigger than a garage where she opened an old, but beautiful, wooden cabinet with 6 doors. Behind each door were three or four religious works of art in solid gold. 

Lights inside the cupboard illuminated beautiful crosses, figures, or carefully worked icons of the most amazing detail, all glowing brightly behind the glass of the cabinets. One, a cross about a foot wide, with radial rays, the guide explained, was one of the finest examples of gold workmanship in Europe. 

      She told us that the cross was stolen recently from the church and the thieves were to take it to Russia where a collector of religious artifacts was willing to pay a fortune for it. The thieves panicked trying to cross the border into France and buried the cross in a farmyard under rubbish. It was discovered by the farmer and returned to the University. I seem to remember there were three rooms full of intricately crafted golden religious works.

        Her dialogue continued. One of the later Dukes of Osuna was Ambassador to Russia for Spain. He was a lavish entertainer and in an attempt to impress the Russians he gave banquets where the plates were beaten from solid gold. Rather than wash the pates afterwards he had the servants throw them away.

His family was one of the richest in Spain before he became Ambassador.

When he died he had debts of tens of thousands of pesatas, but I think that after his death some of his servants retired as very rich waiters or cooks.

      We were led through rooms hung with the most beautiful paintings of religious scenes. They were in semi darkness to preserve the pigments, so any photographs were very poor, even if you could get a friend to stand in between the camera and the guide.

       Our guide ushered us through a very elaborate doorway, which lead down into the crypt. The doorway had a very scary motif above the lintel, the sight of which made my blood run cold. 

          It is still the family crypt of the Dukes of Osuna and somewhere near where we stood were the bodies of the family of the Dukes. This was a very eerie place and several of our group felt uneasy. Deep within the crypt is a tiny chapel shown in the photo, which on the day, workmen were restoring.

          Just down the steps from the Museo de Arte Sacro across the plaza was our second stop The Monesterio de la Encarnation. This was originally a hospital built in 1549 called Encarnación del Hijo de Dios. (Embodiment of the Son of God.) In 1612 the Jesuits took over the hospital and in 1626 the Duchess of Osuna changed the hospital into a monastery to govern the religious teaching for the Royal Military Order of Mercy.

          We had to wait until the nuns who ran the convent had finished the previous tour before we could enter, but they offered us samples of the biscuits they make and sell in the shop. The tour was well worth the wait. The interior of the church is breath-taking. The golden alter and its ceiling, were the product of thousands of hours of work by the most gifted craftsmen of the time. On each side of the church were alcoves of the most elaborate, beautiful, statues of the Virgin and Christ. 

        But the tour continued into the quadrangle alongside the church, where the four seasons of the year were depicted in hand painted tiles along the inside of the cloister. The arches in the quadrangle were covered in the most detailed carvings. The photos I have do not do justice to the colors and artwork of the tiles. Trust me; they were very impressive close up. We were shown many more artifacts of religious art in many of the small rooms off the quadrangle and I recall that one room was full of candles burning with the prayers of loved ones. This was not a church of relics from the past. It was alive with the hopes of modern people.

  

       The third place we visited was the Cilla de Cabilado Cabal, which was the Parish house for the Cathedral of Sevilla. Strangely, the building was commissioned to be built in 1773 as granary to store the tithes which the church receives. But the architect, Juan Ruiz de Florindo and, his son,  Alonso Ruiz de Florindo created a façade which became the most spectacular piece of baroque architecture in Andalucia.
Father and son were working around Seville during the middle of the eighteenth century at a time when there was abundant money and intense construction in the area. If the father and son wanted to impress, then they certainly achieved their aim.

                                                           Cilla de Cabilado Cabal

                                                           
The fourth place we visited was the Palacio Del Marques de la Gomera. (above)
This building was built by architect Juan Antonio Blanco between 1764 and 1765. It is described as the most representative example of Baroque architecture in Osuna. Does this sound familiar?
Eight years after the Palacio Del Marques de la Gomera is built with its Baroque  façade Juan Ruiz and his son build their Cilla de Cabilado Cabal, Which is far more impressive than the Palacio.
I think that either the father and son were out to beat Juan Antonio Blanco by building a façade which was an order of magnitude better than his, or the client of the father and son was out to beat the client of Juan Antonio Blanco.
Either way, we are all left with the legacy of two superb pieces of architecture.     

     At the end of the tour we waited for the bus to take us back to Olvera in a local park, Parque San Arcadia. We had coffee across the road and a chat about the days events and I had someone take this photo of our group of English classmates. 

Cristmas 2010 England and Spain

As the year of 2010 drew to a close there were a riot of parties. The first was the Spanish classes party. This party was in a bar which is within the park itself. All the classes were there and we as Brits, sang our Christmas carols, whilst they sang theirs, which are very different to ours.
The party ended with the male Spanish teacher telling us all jokes. A few, including myself stayed on when all the older end had gone and visited a local nightclub. I don’t remember when I got home, but I remember laughing a lot.

                                          The other Spanish classes.

                                          Los Alumnos Inglés

I went home for Christmas and spent quality time with my daughter and grandson. We also went to a local park for the day feeding ducks and playing on the amusements, then later we spent a lot of time time with friends and family. There are no photos here. This was my private time with the people I missed so much in sunny Spain.
Before I left to visit other friends in a different city the English weather gave us an impromptu display of Christmas spirit in the form of three inches of snow. This is how I left the little village where I had spent so many years whilst my family grew.

                                       My daughters garden.

At that time my son lived in York and I spent a day with him in the Shambles and later at his house before going to my other friends house in a different suburb of York.
(The old streets of the Shambles are famous throughout Yorkshire. Old is a relative term. The streets of the Shambles would be around two or three hundred years old, The walls of the City are Roman and after they left there was a Viking settlement here. In all the history of York spans over two thousand years.)

                                         The Shambles.
Whilst I was at my son's house the Salvation Army came down his street playing carols and singing. They do this every Christmas, but I had to walk to the other side of the street because I did not want anybody to see the tears streaming down my face.
It is always the little things you miss when you are away from home.

For The New Year I stayed with some friends in York. I had not seen them in a year and I  was looking forward  to having time with these old friends again. We had walked miles together in Spain and had shared many good times. We had our first pint together in a local bar with a roaring fire. I had tears in my eyes again. This was a perfect homecoming for an ex pat.

 The next day we had a few beers in a typical English bar called the Bluebell.  After the living in Olvera and it's one beer fits all policy it was a pleasure to see all the guest beers lining the bar in the bluebell.

For Old Years Night  went to a local bar where they had set up a Casino night for adults and children. We played for monopoly money and everybody joined in. Between us we won £400,000, but the winner that night had £1,500,000. After the count up the guy who won first prize took home a big teddy bear. Everybody had a brilliant night.

This was one of my best Christmases.

One of the New Years night revellers left a supermarket trolley in the middle of a frozen lake. We spotted this surreal scene on my last morning walk with my friends and their dog before I returned to Spain.

  
As always, when I was sat waiting to board the plane back to Spain, I was eager to return , but sad to leave.