Dispatches from Spain 10: Italy & France Edition

by Rich Gilbert

Italy and a Bit of France

[European wanderers Rich and Sallie are on the move, this time into Italy and “a bit of France.”  You’ll have to pardon the delay in posting this dispatch, which Rich sent by e-mail from Valladolid, Spain, where he and Sallie stopped after the jaunt described here, but ROT scheduling prohibited me from getting it on the blog before now.  They’ll be traveling much farther afield than this next before returning to the States.  Check back for Dispatches 1-9 (30 November, 10 December, and 20 December 2014, and 14 January, 8 March, 20 April, and 23 July 2015) to catch up with the odyssey so far.  As usual, Rich’s account of his and Sallie’s travels is interesting and full of fascinating little details above the usual travelogue (which, in fact, he’s deliberately skipped).  I recommend that you all also check in at Sallie’s blog, Rambling Solo, at http://ramblingsolo.blogspot.com.es.]

Valladolid, Spain – August 2, 2015

The Trip in General

On June 3, Sallie and I left Malaga and flew to Rome. We had a trip planned with Sallie’s son, David, his wife, Heidi, and their daughter, Emily (Sallie’s oldest granddaughter); Heidi’s mother, Jacqueline, and her husband, Bill, were also along on the trip. Heidi had lived in Florence for several years before meeting David, and had brushed up on her Italian, which was to come in very helpful.  She also made contact with several old friends with whom we were to spend some time. For the most part we were all able to stay in single apartments which Heidi had rented on line. They were usually three bedrooms, with Emily sleeping on the living room couch. Heidi had also arranged most of the transportation.

Our first three cities were Rome, Venice and Florence. Since almost anyone who has been to Italy has been to one or more of these cities, I will not try to describe them in much detail, except to give general impressions and specific experiences. Our last two stops were in the Cinqueterra region and the island of Elba. After the others left we stayed a few extra days on Elba then made our way to Madrid via Genoa, Marseilles and Avignon. (Hence the “bit of France.”)

Rome

The rest of the group was already at the apartment when we flew into Rome and took a cab, for which we were overcharged, into the city. The apartment was a reasonably short walk to the Vatican, but a longer walk (30 minutes or more) to the ancient sights like the Forum and Coliseum. It had been over 30 years since I was in Rome and my major impression was that things were much more organized. For example, when I was at the Forum before, you could just wander on your own over the Capitoline Hill, but without any idea what you were seeing. Things are better marked now.  Rome has a subway now. (More about that later.) The Coliseum had been closed when I was in Rome before, so it was fun to see it, but even then there was a regular path to follow, and you needed a special tour to get down into the tunnels and rooms beneath what had been the floor of the arena.

The Vatican, in particular, really has the tourist thing down.  You must take a tour, either prearranged on line, or by signing up after waiting in line. There is much more to see than just the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s, although they are the highlights. In fact, I wondered how one ever gets to really see all of the art and artifacts hanging in all of the rooms we just whisked by, including a significant modern art collection.

David and Heidi made extensive use of their smart phones to locate good restaurants.  I am not sure that is the only way to do it.  Sallie and I have found some great restaurants just ambling until we saw something we liked, but after seven months in Spain, Sallie and I were eager for a change in cuisines. By and large we found the Italian cooking to be very good, even the pizzas.

Our only real misadventure occurred one day when we had walked to the Forum then spent several hours touring it.  Everyone was kind of tired so we decided to take the subway at rush hour. I had my wallet picked in a packed subway car.  They also took my Italian English dictionary from my rear pocket. To my good fortune they did not realize I had my passport by itself it my other rear pocket, probably because it was not noticeable. The wallet contained a fair amount of money and a couple of credit cards and a debit card, but no other identification. I got the cards promptly canceled without their being used and had new ones sent to Madrid, so I was basically “lucky.” I did have to rely on Sallie for money for the rest of that trip, however.

Venice

The rest of the group left for Milan after four days to see the Expo and they scored some tickets to see the Opera at La Scala.  Neither Sallie nor I wanted to go, so we headed to Venice, for a few days before the rest of the group joined us. I have always loved Venice, and Sallie had never been. We found an apartment in a part of town that was less touristy.  I watched Barcelona play Juventus, an Italian team from Turin, for the Champions League title at a funky bar downstairs that had set up a sheet and a projector outside.  Big crowd, and to my relief, not everyone was for Juventus. Barcelona won, but it was a decent match and no fights broke out, so a great evening.

There are some places, industrial areas and working class housing projects, which I found during my roaming that actually had almost no tourists, but that is only because there was nothing to see for the average tourist. Otherwise, Venice can be divided into zones where there are tourists intermixed with the locals and zones where the tourists simply inundate the city. In our three days alone, Sallie and I tried to see the first type of places, figuring that we would save the more high-profile tourist sites for when the rest of the group joined us. We had a good time, even though it was challenging to get around.

When the rest of the group joined us, we had to move across the city to meet them at the apartment they had rented for all of us. It was a lovely apartment near St Mark’s Square with two floors and a deck where we could hang out. As a group we went to see the Doges Palace, which included a trip over the “Bridge of Sighs” to the prison.  I had to laugh when the tour description said they rebuilt the prison during the Renaissance to make it lighter and more healthy.  I saw absolutely no evidence of this.

One of the things which surprised me was that the rest of the group had bought no vaporetto tickets. Since no vehicles are allowed in Venice, everything moves over the water by barge, water taxi, the established vaporetto routes (like bus routes), or the expensive gondolas. (To cover distances on land, there is an army of porters.) Right after arriving at the train station, Sallie and I bought passes good for a week on the vaporetti. The rest of the group arrived by water taxi and then did not get on the water until we left.

For me, much of the charm of Venice lies with its canals and waterways. So the last day, I decided to go off on my own and just ride around on the vaporetti.  That’s how I found the industrial area, the naval base and working class housing districts, but lots of other charms as well.  I took a vaporetto out to the Lido, which is a long island that lies at the head of the lagoon. Unlike Venice, vehicles are allowed on the Lido; there are even buses. It is kind of an upscale suburb and beach resort combined. I found a lovely restaurant on the Adriatic and had a terrific tuna dish. Then I headed back to Venice, stopping on some other islands that make up the city.  To tell the truth, I loved that day most of all.

Florence

After three days as a group, we took the train to Florence. Florence is where Heidi had spent most of her time in Italy and near where some of her old friends lived, so this was going to be her part of the trip. We had a large spacious apartment near the center of town. We saw the usual sites, the cathedral, the Accademia (where Michelangelo’s David stands), and the Uffizi gallery (with Boticelli’s Birth of Venus.) We met Heidi’s friends.  This is also where the worst misfortune occurred.  Heidi’s mother broke her foot when she awkwardly stepped off an uneven curb. Heidi had to take her to an emergency room; Heidi’s Italian was invaluable then. Eventually a cast was placed on the foot and she had to get around on crutches and wheelchairs, and even had to miss portions of the trip. It made things worse that her husband was coming down with bronchitis during this time.  I am sure they both have had much better vacations.

It turned out to be a particularly bad night to have to go to the emergency room because the “calcio historico” tournament was going on. “Calcio” is an Italian word used to describe football or if you prefer, soccer, but that is not what “calcio historico” is.  The old part of the city is divided into four districts, that each wear a different color – red, yellow, blue or green.  In the midafternoon, in a plaza just around the corner from our hotel, a parade forms up with numerous bands, and groups of men in historic dress carrying ancient weapons.  Very impressive.  The teams and their supporters join in the parade.  Wisely, the teams are separated from each other by the groups of men marching with their weapons and the bands.  That evening a match is played between two teams in a stadium set up near the cathedral.  (We watched part of game on TV.) “Calcio historico” is described as cross between soccer, rugby and American football – do not believe it.  They left out wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts, with a bit of that old schoolyard standard, “kill the man with the ball” thrown in. In theory, one team is supposed to get the ball into a goal at the other end, but mostly what I saw was chaos.  Guys were squaring off fighting each other with no apparent tactical purpose. There were referees I think, but I do not recall them doing anything. Well, they were always carrying guys off the field injured or unconscious. The emergency room Heidi, Jacqueline and Bill went to was also apparently the emergency room for the red team’s district. Ambulances were arriving all night. I do not know who won the match, but I imagine the emergency room for the blue team was similar. (The next night was the turn for the yellow and green teams.) It is probably good that no one in the United States really knows about “calcio historico;” otherwise I could see groups of testosterone-crazed young men saying “well, that looks like fun!”

One day in Florence, we took a day trip to Siena which was much smaller than Florence but still had a medieval cathedral of great size and a circular plaza in the middle of the town. The plaza is where the famous horse races in Siena take place, although not while we were there. (The riders, representing their neighborhoods, ride bareback.  They often fall, sometimes with serious injuries, but it is the first horse over the line that wins, with or without its rider.) On the way back we decided to visit an even smaller town, San Gimignano, which I would recommend over Sienna as more compact, but still lovely.  We had a great meal there. Unfortunately, Jacqueline and Bill could not accompany us.

Pisa

We rented a van in Florence on our fourth day there and set off for the coast, but first with a planned stop in Pisa. Like Rome, the visiting experience in Pisa is much more organized than when I was there in 1974. Still, the Tower is open now after apparently being closed for a number of years.  I understand that they think they have stabilized the Tower. Of course, it would have been impossible for Jacqueline to make the climb, but she, David and Heidi ended up spending several hours trying to get a wheelchair they could rent for the rest of the trip. They succeeded, and finally we were off to Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is a region on the northeastern coast of Italy which consists primarily of five fishing villages surrounding by high hills that for generations left them cut off from each other and the rest of the world except by boat or by arduous footpaths through the hills and along the cliffs. Now there are some narrow roads that connect them and, more importantly, a railroad line with magnificent views, when they are not going through endless tunnels. We parked our van at La Spezia, the first large town outside the five towns, where there was parking, and took the train to Vernazza, the fourth town going from east to west.

Vernazza is a pretty small town, that obviously thrives today on the tourist industry. It has its own charm and some stunning views.  We stayed in two apartments. Because of Jacqueline’s foot, we put them, and Emily, in the lowest apartment, but still a long flight of stairs up.  David, Heidi, Sallie and I shared a two bedroom apartment numerous flights up, but with a deck that had a spectacular view of the coast. I am afraid that Cinque Terre was not the ideal place for Jacqueline and Bill as there was very little they could do there. (Bill’s bronchitis had gotten worse as well.) The rest of us hiked each day to the next village over, one day in one direction and one day in the next. David, Heidi and Emily are very fit, so had no problems. Although Sallie and I were reasonably fit, we still found the hikes arduous because they consisted entirely of stone stairs, of uneven heights.  We made it, but not as quickly as the others. We took the train back to Vernazza one day and the ferry the other.  One episode we all recalled was encountering an English-speaking family with a small girl and young boy. Although they had only gone a relatively short distance, the young boy was sitting and crying, stating “I hate steps!” Although we could all sympathize somewhat, it became an inside joke among our group.

Elba

After a couple of days in Cinque Terre, we took the train back to La Spezia and picked up our van and drove south to the port of Piombino where we took a ferry to the island of Elba. Most people only know of Elba as the first place Napoleon was exiled, and from where he escaped. (St Helena, where he was exiled after Waterloo, is isolated well down in the South Atlantic.) Elba is the third largest island of Italy, although much smaller than Sicily or Sardinia. It is still much larger than we thought. It is a beautiful island with numerous beaches, and high hills. Heidi had arranged for us to stay at a complex of apartments well outside of any town.  We had two apartments.  Sallie and I got our own apartment down the hill somewhat from the others with our own patio. The others were in an apartment adjacent to one occupied by one of Heidi’s old friends, Rafaele, and his family. This how we ended up in Elba in the first place. One of Heidi’s other friends, Paulo, had his own vacation place on the island and was able to spend a few days with us also.

Each day was primarily spent at one of the many beaches on the island. We might drive 20 or thirty minutes to get to the different beaches. They were usually developed with bar / restaurants and rentals for chairs, umbrellas, beach toys, etc. We might grab a light lunch, but dinners were cooked at our apartment complex.  Heidi is an excellent cook, as was her friend, Rafaele and his wife, so we ate fresh seafood or steaks, pasta, and salads every night, with plenty of good wine. No need going out.

One day the group, including Jacqueline and Bill, went to visit the house where Napoleon had stayed in the main port city.  It was interesting, situated between fortifications, but what we had not known was that on Elba, Napoleon is still viewed with affection. Apparently, when exiled, he was allowed to essentially run the island. His fertile mind, besides undoubtedly plotting his escape, also made numerous improvements to the island and its management.

After five days, the rest of the group had to return to Rome for the long flight back to Colorado. There were two more days on the apartment rentals, so with Rafaele’s help Sallie and I rented a car so we could stay two more days. We visited beaches and did some hikes on each end of the island. We did have to eat out, however.  The food was good, but not like what the group cooked.

Leaving the island was easy.  The rental car company was right down at the docks and ferries leave every 30 minutes or so. Getting to Genoa was much more of a hassle, as it turns out that the train station in Piombino was closed for repairs.  There was supposed to be regular buses to the next station, but we never did figure out where that was. We ended up taking a taxi. We got there, had an hour’s wait, then boarded a train to Genoa.

Genoa

Genoa is the main port city on the north coast of Italy, in the direction of France, which among other claims is the birthplace of Columbus. I had booked a hotel on-line.  It turns out it was the only hotel that did not feel the need to have a big sign, so we walked by several times, before discovering it. It was evening when we got in, so we walked down to the port area looking for a place to eat.  We were unimpressed and finally found a café on plaza nearby. We had some time the next morning before our train to Marseilles, so we walked around some more, this time up the hills.  In Genoa, like so many Italian port cities, there is very little flat land by the sea. The city quickly goes up. 

For much of its existence Genoa was a major port and at its height rivaled Venice for influence and wealth. Above the harbor level are numerous Renaissance “palazzos” or mansions of great size and design. One street containing nothing but such palazzos has been named a World Heritage Site.   Even the regular working class housing was clearly a cut above the harbor area.  It was almost like two different cities. After finishing our walk, we took the train to Marseilles.

Marseilles

We had booked a room near the train station on line and it was a disaster. Very small, no elevator to the first floor, no air conditioning, no screen on the window, no view and no internet. It was late when we arrived and while we were unpacking we heard what sounded like gunshots. Since it was late, we decided to take a cab down to the port for dinner.  As we were leaving, we saw a number of police cars down the street from  the hotel. We got to the restaurant I had picked out and had a lovely meal; the majority, if not all, of customers were French, but everyone accepted our broken French. No Parisian snobbery. They called a cab for us, but as we returned to the hotel, we noticed big flood lights down the street from the hotel.  It looked like a crime scene, and indeed that’s what it was.  The clerk told us someone had been murdered by the gunshots we had heard earlier. We got up after a fitful night, got breakfast (not in the hotel) and fled for the next train to Avignon.

Avignon

Avignon, one of the principal cities of Provence, was a short train ride away from Marseilles, but it seemed as if we were a world away. We were staying at a hotel some distance out of town; it was a lovely, bucolic place with a pool in which I could swim laps, more or less. We took a bus into the city, walked around, then, by happenstance found a charming corner restaurant, away from the tourist crowds.  The food was exceptionally good. Unfortunately, we did not understand that the bus back to the village where the hotel was located had stopped for the night.  Finally, a cab driver who was waiting for another fare took pity on us, called a colleague to take that fare, and drove us back.

The next day we went back to the city and wandered about the city walls, then crossed over to a large island in the middle of the river.  There is a free ferry which dropped us near a restaurant where we could sit outside and look back at the city. After a nice afternoon, we went back to the hotel.  Mindful of not staying out too late, we had dinner outside on the terrace at the restaurant attached to the hotel, which was operated by an apparently well-renowned chef and had a another great meal. Despite all of our wonderful meals in Italy and Spain, I continue to have a soft spot for French cooking. Alas, our current plans will not bring us back to France.

The next morning we took the high-speed train back to Madrid.  After a few days to rest up and do laundry at the apartment we had rented from our friend Mary C*****, on July 4, we rented a car and headed north to Pamplona and northern Spain. We are just finishing that trip, so it will be the next email.

Current Plans

As I write this, we are in Valladolid in the Castille y Leon region of Spain.  We will arrive in Madrid tomorrow and return the rental car.  We plan to spend four days there, again staying with our friend, doing laundry, refilling prescriptions, hopefully seeing some other friends and preparing to send everything home, except that which we take for the next two and half months. Having seen the value a smart phone can have, I may look into buying one that I can use in Europe and then take home.

We will head out by train on a long ride to Belgium on August 7, spend a few days there, then a few days in Amsterdam.  We will then travel to Copenhagen, where on the 16th we will see our friends Joan and Stan A**** who will be embarking on a Baltic cruise the next day. We will stay a few more days in Copenhagen, then our plans get vague.

Jumping to the end of the trip, we will probably arrive in Greece the middle of September. During the next, and final, month we will tour the Greek mainland, and try to visit a couple of islands.  We are also going to find a few days to visit our friends Sue R******** and Fred S****** who will be living in Israel then. That was not part of our original plan, but it is a pretty short flight from Athens, so we thought we would take advantage of their hospitality, as we might not get the opportunity again.

I have not booked the flight yet, but would expect to be back in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, October 15, 2015, a year to the date after we left on our adventure. We have made no plans for what we will do on our return yet, but hope to see the D.C. crowd at Tunnicliff’s on Friday, October 16.

[What a wonderful journey Rich describes!  It sounds a little bit like the three-weeker my family took back in the ’60s when we lived in Germany.  We put our car on a train in Frankfurt and unloaded it in Milan and then drove down the boot to Venice (with many stops along the way) and back.  

[I also took a school trip from Geneva to Provence one spring—it must have been 1964, but I’m no longer sure—and one stop was in Avignon.  Since we were all just kids, and half of us were French-speaking, as soon as we came to the famous Pont d’Avignon, we all ran out and danced on it. 

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

L’on y danse, l’on y danse.

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

L’on y danse tous comme ça!

[We’d discovered soon after arriving in Europe back then, by the way, that we could pretty much always get a great meal in Italy and France just by picking a restaurant, café, or roadside inn by the look of the place.  If we stuck to the local dishes, the simple meals on the menu, we had wonderful food.  This was less true in Germany, Switzerland, and, we found out later, England, where we needed to be more choosy.

[We went to the Palio in Siena.  It’s an amazing sight, to say the least, but not one I’d like to repeat.  First, it’s immensely crowded; people are packed into the square’s perimeter.  The usual weather is hot and bright sun, and there’s no shelter or shade, so we stood in a crowded-subway sort of mass (from which it was difficult even to see the “track”), in the blazing heat.  Many people fainted even before the race started and had to be passed out of the crowd over the heads of the rest of the spectators!  (Ambulances and medical assistants were, of course, out on the periphery of the crowd.)  

[Then the race itself has its problems.  I recall that the “track” in the middle of the square was, in fact, square, not circular.  The racing horses had to make sharp turns at high speeds and several were injured (and, I presumed, later destroyed) in the mêlée.  We saw at least one horse with a broken leg limping around the track until the attendants could maneuver him off the field.  The whole event, as I recall it, was very short—a coupe of minutes at most—but that could just be my memory.  (I was a teenager, probably 16 or 17, at the time; my brother would have been 14 or 15.)  The Renaissance pageantry, of course, which precedes the race itself—lots of colorful flag-twirling in Renaissance costumes, drumming and fanfares—was spectacular and, for a couple of kids, delightful.  The race, though, was disturbing in the end.

[Of course, I don’t run with the bulls—so maybe Rich’s perspective would be different.]

Dispatches from Spain 8

by Rich Gilbert

[Once again, my friend Rich Gilbert has sent me an e-mail from Madrid, keeping me up to date on his and Sallie’s continuing adventure.  Check back for Dispatches 1-7 (30 November, 10 December, and 20 December 2014, and 14 January and 8 March 2015) to catch up with the story.  Rich and Sallie are about halfway through their sojourn in Madrid, and they haven’t decided where they’ll go next, but they’re still learning about life in Madrid in the meantime.  There have been some interesting and potentially significant developments in Spanish politics Rich explains, and some perhaps less portentous ones in football/soccer, too.  As usual, Rich’s relation of the details of his experiences make them come alive for those of us not so familiar with Spanish culture and lifestyle.  I hope you are all also following the blog Sallie maintains on her own, Rambling Solo, at http://ramblingsolo.blogspot.com.es.]

Madrid at six months‏

Madrid – April 12, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

This coming week will bring Sallie and me to the halfway point in our year abroad.  It is hard to believe that it has gone by so quickly.  Perhaps equally important, it means that we will have a little over a month left on our lease in Madrid.  We have been comfortable here and, even though traveling will be exciting, we will miss having a “home” to come back to. (After I got out of the Army in 1982, I travelled around Europe for over three months, so I know both the fun and hardships of extended travel.) 

Daily Life

We have had rain and some colder weather recently.  A bit of a shock coming after so many clear, sunny days. A couple of weeks ago it was in the 70’s and people were sitting outside at the sidewalk cafes.  I expect that we will again soon, but I was glad I had not sent our winter clothes back just yet.

Both Sallie and I have had some disappointment in how our Spanish is coming. To be sure, we are both getting better, but it has not been as easy as we hoped / expected. Sallie is still going to class every weekday morning for 4 hours and diligently doing several hours of homework each night. Her grammar is getting much better although she still has trouble figuring out which of the many possible verb tenses and moods to use in a given case. My reading comprehension is pretty good now, although I still need a dictionary to fully understand the political pieces, and the sports stories about soccer. (The sports writers seemed determined to outdo James Joyce in describing a simple game and its players.)

Our real problems remain in hearing and speaking, in other words conversational Spanish. I get a little more practice, and am a bit less shy than Sallie.  I try to banter with the shopkeepers and bartenders / barristas I see regularly, but it is not the same as sitting down and having a real conversation.  Although they have different names, Spanish bars can serve alcohol whenever they are open, but also will always have coffee available.  For example, each morning after the gym and shopping, I drop into Cerverceria (which means a place that serves beer) Chispa to have a cafe solo (which is an expresso) and chat with the owner and glance at the paper. Her beer tap does not even work.  In addition, Spanish bars always have non-alcoholic beer available, sometimes even on tap.

We have made some friends here, although we do not see them as regularly as friends back in DC, but even then we usually speak English. We have decided to try some private lessons at Sallie’s school, just a teacher and us, to see if that helps.  We are also trying to make an effort to watch a bit more Spanish TV. We are also able to see movies out, but have usually opted to watch the same films you probably see in English although with Spanish subtitles.  We do ask for menus in Spanish, even when offered ones in English, although the English menus can be helpful with guests.

I can usually get by in simple situations, although my Spanish sometimes betrays me. I still do most of the shopping and have my favorite small merchants for the different products I buy. For convenience, Sallie prefers the supermarket around the corner; I regularly walk three blocks out of my way just to buy the bread I like best. I know that once our time here in Madrid is up, we will miss having the occasional home cooked meals; I cook a big meal for lunch two to three times a week and we often have light meals in the evening and for breakfast.

One interesting experience recently was that I had run out of some medicine which I need to take.  I had ordered more and had it sent to my post office box where a friend picked it up and mailed it to me here in Madrid.  Well, it has not gotten here yet, so I went into a pharmacy to see what it would take for them to refill the prescription.  To my surprise, I found that they could sell me the medicine over the counter. It was a larger size pill, but could be easily broken in half. She handed me a box of 50 pills, which would be equal to 100 of the pills I was getting, and said it would be two fifty. I grimaced a little and reached into my wallet to pull out five 50 Euro bills. The clerk laughed and explained that she meant two Euros and 50 centavos, less than three dollars! I was astounded, but obviously pleased.  I will have to see whether some of my other prescriptions can be filled so easily and cheaply. Does make you wonder why even with Medicare and Medicare supplement assistance, medicines in the United States are so much more expensive.

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Easter is a considerably bigger deal in Spain than in the United States. Although there are activities throughout the week before Easter, things start off in a big way on Thursday.  The stores and business often close for Thursday through the weekend, and the ones that are open on Thursday close at lunch. Thus, it is often a four day weekend and many Spaniards travel over the holiday.  It is comparable to our Thanksgiving holiday weekend as far as travel is concerned (without the Black Friday pre-Christmas sales).

One notable aspect of Semana Santa are the religious processions.  The major churches in a town or city (always Catholic) have very elaborate “floats,” usually two, one showing Jesus carrying the cross and one showing the Madonna grieving over Jesus’ body (called the Dolorosa). These are traditional, sometimes many years old, usually covered with gold and other ornamentation. The difference is that they are carried by a team of men carrying the floats on their shoulders.  Their ability to march in lockstep through narrow streets and around tight corners puts my old ROTC drill team to shame. It is grueling work and the procession often stops for a break.  As the procession proceeds through the town, there will be spontaneous cries and cheers, and also planned activities at given places, including the town hall. There is no concern about mixing Church and State here in Spain.  The floats are accompanied by many other members of the congregation who carry candles, icons, other articles. The disconcerting thing is that these people are all wearing robes and tall pointed headpieces that look exactly like what the Ku Klux Klan used to wear.  You have to remind yourself that these costumes predate the discovery of the New World and have nothing whatsoever to do with the Klan.  (Whether the Klan borrowed the idea, I do not know, but it seems likely.)

We caught up with one in Madrid on the Thursday evening.  We never got very close because of the crowds, and like many others would try to move ahead of the procession to see it at different places. The crowd was basically respectful, but there was still a bit of a holiday atmosphere.  (Nothing like Mardi Gras however.)  In other places. such as Seville, we understand the crowds are more reverential.

To further experience the Spanish experience, we then rented a car Friday morning and left town.  I think we must have gotten one of the last rental cars in Madrid, probably because it was a stick shift.  I did not think that they even used manual transmission in rental cars, but at any rate our growing up in the 60’s helped. It had a push-button starter though, which was harder to get used to.

We spent two nights in a Parador in the Gredos Mountains (Sierra del Gredos), a beautiful mountain range about three hours to the west and north of Madrid.  Most people do not realize that Spain is actually a pretty mountainous country.  I read it was second only to Switzerland, but am not sure how Norway figures into that.  The difference is that there are numerous ranges all over the country, not just one or two chains.  We have not seen the Picos de Europa in Asturias in the north of Spain, which are the highest.  From pictures they look much like the Rockies.  (We will let you know this summer.) The mountains we saw were older, more like the Appalachians. Still, it was good to get out the hiking boots and poles for a day. 

Paradores are national hotels, usually located in historic old buildings like monasteries, palaces, castles, etc. They are nice, but not five star luxurious, and the kitchens specialize in food from the region. The one in Gredos, was the first Parador, founded in 1926 in what had been a mountain monastery.  We were surprised how many families with small children there were.

On Easter Sunday, we left and drove to Caceres, an old city in the southwest of Spain, closer to Portugal than Madrid.  The Parador there is in the center of the old town and very hard to drive to.  This was made more difficult by several street closures due to a procession, about which, of course, our GPS knew nothing.  While not as old as Barcelona’s old town, Caceres dates back to before the Roman conquest of Spain. Like other cities in Spain, it was later fought over by the Moors and Christians, in the centuries before Columbus left Spain.  

The procession was still going on when we got settled.  As we walked around the old town, we could hear the drums and flutes, but could never find it.  The narrow streets and high stone buildings created confusing echoes. Later, however, we heard a racket outside our hotel room with several men moving metal poles and lumber.  It turns out they were putting away one of the floats, which we realized when we saw the statue of the Virgin Mary lying in the back seat of one of the cars.

I gather it is the beginning of cherry blossom time in Washington, D.C.  On our way to Caceres, we came through a mountain pass in the Sierra del Gredos and into a beautiful, steep valley that had cherry trees in full bloom on the hills on both sides.  This went on for miles. It was quite spectacular and cars were stopped wherever they could on the narrow roads. So we were thinking of those of you back in D.C.

Spanish Politics

On March 22, elections were held for the regional government of Andalucia, which is the largest region in Spain, encompassing Sevilla, Cordoba, Grenada, Malaga, Cadiz, and other towns and rural areas.  The Socialist party had a surprising victory, gaining almost twice as many seats in the legislature, which in turn elects the regional president.  The incumbent president, Susannah Diaz, a Socialist, was pretty popular and the party actually focused on her in the campaign.  The election was a huge defeat for the Popular Party which is the governing party at the national level. As expected the two populist parties, Podemos and Cuidadanos, both gained seats.  (A left wing party barely got five seats, and another national party from the center was shut out, causing all sorts of upheaval at their national level.)

Diaz did not get an absolute majority, however, and the last several weeks have been about maneuvering.  Either Podemos or Cuidadanos could give the Socialists a majority if they joined the government. Both are holding out for certain concessions, the foremost of which is the dismissal of a regional senator, who was an ex-president of the region, and of another deputy as both are implicated in a corruption scandal.  Neither has been formally charged, much less convicted, so the Socialists are resisting. Such horse-trading appears to be the future of Spanish politics for the foreseeable future as none of the four major parties appears likely to win any election outright.  

The loss threw the conservative Popular Party into disarray.  They were hoping to run on the genuine improvement in the economic situation in Spain, but I think the corruption scandals, more of which involve the Popular Party, are just taking their toll.  Mariano Rajoy, the President of the Government, who is also the head of the Popular Party, called a major national meeting of the party’s leadership. One interesting thing that came out of the meeting was that local candidates were encouraged not to criticize too harshly candidates from Cuidadanos, which is the more center based of the two populist parties.  To me, this signals that Rajoy realizes that any hope of continuing to govern nationally will depend on finding a partner, and that Cuidadanos represents the most plausible alternative.

Spain has elections for some other regions and for municipalities all over Spain in May. Andalucia was a Socialist bastion, so the results from other regions will be interesting.  In September, there will be a regional election in Cataluña.  As I have mentioned before, the plan of the separatists is to run a single slate with representatives from all of the parties favoring Catalan independence.  If they win an absolute majority, they will declare that to be a binding referendum with an intention of declaring independence 18 months later, after a period of negotiation with the national government.  It is not certain that the separatists will win, but it will be close.  See Scotland. Stay tuned. National elections will be at the end of the year, after Sallie and I are back.  

Spanish Football

As expected, Real Madrid, Barcelona and to a lesser degree Atletico Madrid continue to dominate.  Barcelona won the rematch with Real Madrid in league play and now leads by two points with eight games to go. (A team gets 3 points for a win, one point for a tie and nothing for a loss.)  Barcelona and Real Madrid do not play again, so Real Madrid needs help, and must avoid losses or ties themselves. For example, Real Madrid won Saturday while Barcelona was tied by Sevilla, which narrowed the gap which had been four points. (Atletico also tied, thus did not gain ground.)

All three teams remain in the European Champions League tournament, which is down to 8 teams.  The next round is a set of home and away games starting this coming week.  Real Madrid and Atletico drew each other, so the city will be close to shutting down this coming Tuesday night. Meanwhile, Barcelona faces Paris Saint Germain, who knocked out English club Chelsea.  That should be a good set of matches.   Bayern Muenchen lurks in the other bracket, probably as the overall favorite.  France also has Monaco, while Portugal and Italy each have one team remaining.  To their embarrassment, no English club is left in the tournament. So much for Premier League domination!

Of course, this being football (soccer), there are always problems off the field.  The ex-manager of Osunana, a second division club, just went to jail for fraud. The Catalan regional prosecutors are prosecuting the head of the Barcelona club for tax fraud in conjunction with multi-million dollar contract with the Brazilian forward Neymar.  (Barcelona as a team also was barred from signing any new players for the coming year for violating the rules in conjunction with Neymar’s signing. )  Of course, none of this is as bad as Turkey, where someone opened up with a shotgun at the team bus carrying the players for one club.  Meanwhile FIFA had to face reality and recognize that the 2022 World Cup, which they had awarded to Qatar, could not possibly be played in the summer there, so it will be played in December of that year.  This will wreak havoc with the European leagues who normally play then.  It will not affect Major League Soccer which plays in the spring, summer and fall, but I seem to recall that there is another form of “football” played in the United States during that time of year which draws some mild interest. We will see how a World Cup quarterfinal matches up to, say, Packers – Patriots. That is in 7 years though. Time for other scandals to bubble up.

Rich

 *  *  *  *

Two nights after I sent my email, we were having a plate of fried baby squid at the bar of a seafood / paella restaurant when the owner came in. He knows us a little and has taken a shine to us.  He is from Asturias in the north of Spain where we plan to visit in July, so he gave us some tips. Shortly afterwards another customer came in with a present – several large pieces of salted tuna which she had gotten in Murcia (a city in the southeast of Spain, near Valencia) where it is a specialty.  The owner cut some up for us; with tomatoes and olive oil it was delicious.  (These things almost always taste better than they sound.) So I settled my bill, left a big tip and asked him to give the other customer a drink on us.  Well, the Spanish may be reticent on the street, but once the ice is broken, they are quite friendly. So the other customer started talking to us, then the other couple at the bar joined in. (The owner had given them a sample of the tuna also.)  Turns out he was a lawyer, so we started talking.  Ended up discussing the role of Spain, and its navy, in the formation of the United States. Meanwhile Sallie continued to talk to the female customer.  Several rounds of drinks later, some of them on the house, we had to leave., with assurances that we would be back.

Key fact – all of the conversations were in Spanish.  It was my longest Spanish conversation, and most interesting, to date, and it was Sallie’s first one of substance. So we not only had a great time, but got some renewed confidence in our Spanish.

Dispatches from Spain 7

by Rich Gilbert

[The continuing adventure of Rich and Sallie in Madrid, Spain, proceeds below.  Check back for Dispatches 1-6 (30 November 2014, 10 December 2014, 20 December 2014, and 14 January 2015) to catch up with the story.  As Rich mentions below, he was in the Washington, D.C., area for a few weeks in January and I got to see him briefly while we were both in the area.  We caught up a little, but most of my news from him and Sallie comes from his e-mails and the blog Sallie maintains on her own, Rambling Solo, at http://ramblingsolo.blogspot.com.es.]

Madrid at 4 months - mas o menos‏

Madrid – February 27, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been over four months since we left Washington, D.C.  Of course, I spent nearly three weeks back for work in January, so four months more or less in Spain (over four for Sallie, a bit less for me). I thought I would catch you up.

Weather

I know the northeast of the United States is getting hammered this winter.  My friend Ron L*** had record high temperatures in Salt Lake City, but 11 inches of snow at his cabin in Nevada. Spain is a little like that.  Madrid is not Malaga on the Costa del Sol (southern coast) or Ibiza (the resort island in the Mediterranean), so it has been cold (sometimes below freezing at night, but usually not during the day). Still, we have had very little precipitation of any kind, and have at least some sun most days.  So it has been much easier than it has been back for you on the East Coast.  In northern Spain however, there are heavy snowfalls, sometimes isolating small villages, and in lower elevations very heavy rains with serious flooding.  We even had an earthquake in south central Spain this week.  (We did not feel it, but I was taking a siesta, so I might have missed it.)

Daily Life

We had a visit from Sallie’s younger son last week.  With four kids ranging from 9 to 17, it was hectic.  We made it down to Toledo for the day, but otherwise stayed in Madrid.  Sallie took that week off from her Spanish class, but has been back in class this week.  She goes to class for four hours each weekday, and usually has several hours of homework each night.  She is working very hard and is making progress, but we both still need practice speaking and listening.  With her in class, I do the laundry (no dryer, have to hang on lines on the roof) and the shopping and much of the cooking.  I also have time to go to the gym and stop by a local place for coffee every day. The proprietor there always takes her time to talk to me.  So do the guys at our favorite place, where I go to watch futbol three or four nights a week while Sallie does her homework.

Spanish Politics

This is an election year in Spain, so things are starting to heat up, much the way things are gathering steam in the United States about the 2016 election.  There are major elections in Andalucia and several other important provinces this Spring.  In September, the Catalans are holding an election.  The plan of the “independistas” who want to secede from Spain is to run a single slate in which all the parties favoring independence will be represented.  That way if they gain an absolute majority, they will view that as, in effect, a referendum.  The leader of Cataluna, Arturo Mas, would then set a date of 18 months in which to negotiate a peaceful exit from Spain.  Other parties wanted to push things more aggressively.  It is not a foregone conclusion that the separatists will win; perhaps the most popular option is to have Cataluna be a fairly autonomous state within a decentralized federal Spain, but there is no guarantee that the government would offer that.

National elections are likely to be held in October.  Right now the Popular Party, which is conservative and which heads the government now, is in deep trouble.  The corruption scandals have taken a serious toll.  The President, Mariano Rajoy, and the head of the Socialist party, which holds the second largest group of seats, exchanged very harsh words in the House of Deputies this week.  There seems little chance of a coalition government between the two parties, although they did agree on a joint antiterrorism bill recently.  The Popular Party is going to run on the improving economy in Spain, which is finally showing some sustained growth, while the Socialists are going to run on the continuing high unemployment and, more pointedly, the corruption angle despite having several members here in Madrid recently charged for corruption as well.

Of course, the wild cards here are Podemos [“We can”], the populist left wing party, and, to a lesser degree Ciudadanos [“Citizens”], a populist center party.  Both are new, and thus currently have no deputies in the legislature, but that will certainly change.  In fact, Podemos, polls well ahead of the other parties, and Pablo Iglesias, its leader could well form the next government.  Podemos has been hurt a little by the revelation that one of its co-founders, not Iglesias, took a lot of money from the Venezuelan government for some as yet unspecified work.  Ciudadanos has in the space of little more than year climbed to the fourth place in the polls.  If I were to bet, and there are betting parlors everywhere for sports, I would predict a coalition government with Podemos and the Socialists, with the leader of the party with the most votes given the chance to form the government.  But egos involved are big, and that could fall apart.  Moreover, if Ciudadanos makes a lot of progress, they could join with Podemos instead.

The corruption stories just keep on coming.  Part of this is that the investigations take a long time, so the stories linger, but there are new ones all the time.  Interestingly , the latest controversy has been that a private company with a contract from the Madrid government to update the information system for the courts has been paying judges and prosecutors for work on the project in addition to their regular salaries.  The money involved is small potatoes compared to the normal corruption case here, and no one seems to be alleging they did not do any work, but one would have expected them to work on a project to improve the courts as part of their duties, which would be the case here in the United States.  I do not think that anyone is going to jail, but it is embarrassing for the judicial branch and prosecutor, many of whom investigate corruption cases.

European Politics

As Spain is part of the European Union and the Eurozone, one cannot completely divorce the politics in Spain from what is going on in Europe.  The three major crises are, in no particular order, the Greek debt, Ukraine, and terrorism in Europe.

As you may know, a populist left-wing party, Syriza, won the national election in Greece earlier this year.  It ran on a promise to end the austerity policies imposed on Greece as part of the “rescue” from a debt crisis that exploded about the time of the worldwide recession, five years ago.  After winning the election, the new Greek government sought to renegotiate the terms of the bailout.  It was pretty flatly rejected, although the Europeans agreed to give it a six-month extension in return for more concessions.  The Germans, who have the greatest economic clout in Europe, were the force behind rejecting the Greeks, but the other European countries, including Spain, joined forces with Germany.  Part of this was Spain’s view that having worked their way out of an economic crisis, they thought Greece should have to earn its way out also.

But, here’s my take on the backstory.  Podemos is very similar to Syriza, they are both populist left wing parties, and Pablo Iglesias travelled to Greece to lend support both before and after the elections.  I am willing to bet that [President] Rajoy, who is definitely looking over his shoulder at Podemos, wanted to create a narrative that populist parties really cannot significantly change circumstances within the pervasive influence of the European economic system, and thus it would be better to trust to parties, like the Popular Party, with experience in governing and working with other European countries and institutions.  We will see how this plays out as many other European countries have rising populist parties on both the right and left, many of whom reject the assumptions which have bound the European Union to date.

El Pais, the paper I read each day, gives a fair amount of coverage to Ukraine, especially the battles and casualties, even a shocking (to me anyway) front page picture with the corpse of a Ukrainian soldier.  I sense that it is skeptical of economic sanctions stopping Russian aggression.  So far, the Europeans have been unwilling to provide arms to Ukraine government, and have persuaded the United States to hold off.  This issue is not being discussed by Spanish politicians very much, maybe because the European efforts at negotiation are being spearheaded by Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande.

Again, this is my personal take on how it may affect internal politics in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.  The annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the de facto autonomy of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine have been accomplished by Russian military force, but, as always, by competing legal claims.  For many European countries, the legal principle that internal regions cannot simply declare their independence unilaterally, with or without a referendum not sanctioned by the national government is a very real issue, with the Catalan situation in Spain likely to come to a head in the next year or two.  There have been competing economic studies, but I think it is fair to say that the economic viability of an independent Cataluna will be very affected by whether it is permitted to join the European Union and continue to use the Euro.  (I think it is precisely this set of difficulties which have dissuaded, at least for now, the new Greek government from simply defaulting on its debts and leaving the Eurozone.)  So, it is very possible that, to avoid providing Russia with a legal example of a unilateral secession with which to justify its influence in functionally separate regions in Ukraine, but also Moldova and Georgia, other European governments may decline to support an independent Cataluna, to include recognizing it and offering it membership in the European Union.  Indeed, Spain might encourage them to make their feelings known in advance of the Catalan election.  I want to be clear; I am no expert on European politics and none of these things may come about in the way I speculate, but I am learning how interrelated things are in Europe.

Terrorism, the “homegrown” variety, is an important concern throughout Europe, especially after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris and the subsequent shootings in Copenhagen.  The Popular Party and Socialist party are in basic agreement, having just passed a new bipartisan anti-terrorism bill, which includes some new terrorism crimes and the possibility of life with the possibility of parole. (Spain still has no life without parole, and no country in Europe has a death penalty.)  However, the Popular Party initially tried to move its own version of the legislation without Socialist support.  After much criticism, especially about various expansions of surveillance capabilities, some without judicial authorization, the law was scaled back somewhat.  Privacy remains an important tissue in Spain and in Europe.  Just the other day, a Spanish court threw out the results of a listening device placed in the car of a major drug dealer because the police did not get prior judicial approval.  I expect these issues to continue to be matters about which the Spanish parties disagree, much as we have these debates in the United States concerning security and the right to privacy.  

Spanish Futbol

Real Madrid continues to have a comfortable, but not insurmountable, lead in the Spanish league, with main rivals, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, having lost league matches to lower-ranked clubs in the past few weeks.  Both Barcelona and Atletico will need help to overtake Real Madrid.

All three clubs are still in the hunt for the European Champions League title.  Unlike American football, once you reach the head-to-head stage, the matches are all in a home-and-away format, with total goals the deciding factor.  The exception is the final match which is a single game played on a neutral, predetermined site.  (In the United States, Major League Soccer uses the same format.)  There are four German clubs left in the tournament, out of sixteen, 3 English clubs, and 2 French clubs, but only 1 from Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and Ukraine.  (Ironically, the Ukraine club is from the Donetsk region, but because of the war there, has to play its home games elsewhere in Ukraine.)  Real Madrid and Barcelona both won their initial matches, but Atletico lost.  Each team has another match against the same clubs.

Spain also has the King’s Cup tournament open to all clubs in Spain.  Barcelona is in the semi-finals and won its first match.  (For reasons I do not understand Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico were all placed in the same quadrant of the brackets, guaranteeing only one would make it to the semi-finals.)

Of course, soccer being soccer, what would news be like without problems off the field?  One second division club is accused of bribing rival players to win against a third club. It does not really make sense unless there were going to be further bribes to take a loss, but who knows.  More disturbingly, fans in Betis, which is in Andalucia, started an offensive chant against the former domestic partner of one of its star players accused of abusing her; they were calling her a whore and saying she deserved it.  The leagues is contemplating some punishment such as closing part of the stadium for subsequent games, but it just shows how ugly things can get.  Not just in Spain, of course, as Chelsea fans demonstrated by taunting black Metro riders in Paris and claiming they were racists and proud of it.  In Greece they have simply suspended the top two leagues altogether for fan violence.  I really love the sport, but you can see why I have avoided going to the live matches.  (We may go to see a Real Madrid match against one of the lower ranked teams from a distant location, figuring there will be few problems in a match of presumed little importance, but we will see.)

Future Plans

Our lease runs out here in Madrid in May.  We will certainly miss our neighborhood, which we have grown to love.  We will probably spend a lot of June traveling in Italy with Sallie’s oldest son, David, his wife, Heidi, who lived in Italy for many years and speaks Italian, their daughter Emily, and Heidi’s mother and her husband.  Right now, our plans are to rent a place in northern Spain for the month of July.  We are not sure where.  San Sebastien would make it easy to go to Pamplona and to visit France.  Galicia or Asturias have more striking scenery and it would be easier to visit Portugal [from Galicia or Asturias than from San Sebastien].  We are currently thinking of going north to Germany, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Brussels after that.  Greece would be later in the trip, perhaps even at the end.

It was good to see so many of you while I was in Washington, but I am trying to arrange not to have to come back for work or medical appointments until October.  I hope some of you can still arrange to visit us.  Do not forget to check out Sallie’s blog, Rambling Solo, http://ramblingsolo.blogspot.com.es, for a different take on our adventures, plus pictures!

Rich

Dispatches from Spain 6

by Rich Gilbert

[The continuing adventure of Rich and Sallie in Madrid, Spain, proceeds below.  Check back for installments 1 & 2 (30 November 2014), 3 & 4 (10 December 2014), and 5 (20 December 2014) to catch up with the story.]

Visiting DC – Madrid at 3 months

Madrid – January 10, 2015

Dear friends and family,

“Un otra buen día en Madrid” – another good day in Madrid.  It has been our mantra for weeks.  The weather has been cold, below freezing at night, maybe into the 50’s during the day, but bright sun every day.  Some have said this is mild winter for Madrid; if so, let’s hope it lasts.

We hope your holidays were happy ones. Sallie’s oldest son, David, his wife Heidi, and granddaughter Emily were here for a couple of weeks. We spent the holidays in Madrid, but got in some travelling also. But first . . .

Visiting D.C.

I will be in Washington from Thursday, January 15, 2015, through Tuesday, February 3, for a pair of oral arguments in the United States Court of Appeals. I hope to see many of you while I am in town. I will definitely be in Tunnicliff’s Tavern, our old Capitol Hill hangout, on Friday night, 1/17/15, with dinner later at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and probably Friday, 1/30/15, as well. Other plans are still up in the air. (I probably will watch the Super Bowl, even if Real Madrid is not playing.)  I have a hotel room for each weekend before the oral arguments, so I can spread the papers out, and friends with guest rooms have got me covered for the interim, which I greatly appreciate.  Back to Spain . . .

Holidays in Madrid

Christmas here is, of course, a big deal, like every Western country, but the actual celebration of the day tends to be quiet and spent at home. Most of the shops and restaurants which are open on the day, close by the end of the afternoon, and many do not open at all.  Our favorite bar was closed, but it is attached to a nice restaurant which was open for the afternoon meal. They were completely booked, but they agreed to prepare a roasted sucking pig for us to take home, so we had a big dinner at home.

The next day, December 26, is Boxing Day in Britain, and one of my friends with whom I have reconnected is from Bermuda and married to a Spaniard.  They have an annual Boxing Day party at their ranch about 40 miles outside the city. They invited Sallie and me and her family. It was a blast, with a very diverse group of friends. We have connected with some new folks and will likely get together with them soon. Oddly, I spent as much time speaking in German as Spanish, although many guests and the family all spoke English.

On New Year’s Eve, the tradition is to quickly consume 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Many folks try to do so down at the Puerta del Sol, the heart of Madrid.  Think Times Square.  We tried to go down, but like Times Square, we could not get within several blocks, so we saw in the new year in the street. Oddly, however, a lot of bars began to close shortly after midnight, so we ended going back home by 1:00.  New Year’s day is quiet like Christmas, but without the Rose Bowl Parade or any football games. The Spanish League does not play over the holidays.  I gather the English Premier League does, but I could not get away to watch them.

Madrid differs from the US is one important way.  The holidays are not over on New Year’s Day.  Instead a really big holiday is on January 6, the Day of the Three Kings, which celebrates the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child. This is the day when children get most of their presents. The city has a really big parade on the night before – think a combination of the Rose Bowl Parade and Mardi Gras parade.  They throw candy from the floats.  Sallie was feeling a little under the weather and her family had left that day, so we did not go down to watch. However, we did get to see the much smaller parade two days earlier in our local barrio, which was, frankly, a lot more fun. Interestingly, even our “big” supermarket was closed on Three Kings Day, when they were open part of the day on Christmas and New Year’s. Now everything is back to normal.  I made it back to the gym and Sallie made it to her Spanish class.

Traveling In Spain

We took a couple of trips while Sallie’s family was here. We took a two day trip, with a rental car, to Segovia, Avila, and Salamanca.  We were avoiding the toll roads and ended up driving over a beautiful mountain pass into Segovia, which I would recommend. The three cities all date back over a thousand years. Segovia had the most impressive castle and also has a huge preserved Roman aqueduct.  Avila has the best preserved city walls. Salamanca has the prettiest Plaza Mayor or city square. It is home to an ancient university of renown. It also has the most interesting cathedral, which is actually two cathedrals joined like Siamese twins, one Romanesque (12th Century) and one built between the 1500’s and 1700’s and thus a combination of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we took a four day trip to Barcelona. Although I had been to Barcelona before, at Sallie’s insistence this trip was different. First of all, through airbnb, we stayed in an apartment in the old city. With its narrow winding streets, it took us a few days to get around just in our neighborhood, but it was fascinating. We went to the Picasso museum; as my artist friends will tell you, I do not really understand modern art and I joke that Picasso kind of left me at the turn of the last century, but when you see his earlier works, portraits, landscapes, etc., you realize what a gifted artist he was.  Then we went to the Barcelona History Museum. Barcelona is much older than Madrid; it was a major city during the Roman occupation of Spain. The museum is built over some ancient Roman ruins and to its credit, the architects found a way to display the ruins, by digging under the museum and constructing a labyrinth below through which you can walk on several levels. It was pretty remarkable looking at ruins going back thousands of years.

The last full day was Gaudi day.  We looked at some his buildings downtown with their fanciful architecture and design elements, but did not go inside. Then we made our way to Park Guell, the large park which he designed.  Finally, we walked down to Sagrada Familia, the cathedral which he started.  A lot of people do not realize that the building of the cathedral did not stop with Gaudi’s death.  It is still being carried out, with an expected finishing date in 2016. Inside the cathedral was not at all what I expected after seeing the much older cathedrals on our earlier trip. Gaudi and subsequent architects made strong use of light and space.  The walls down the length of the cathedral, are being built with lots of stained glass.  The walls are on the east and west sides, so the sun comes in.  Sallie got tickets online before we went, so the wait was short. We entered in the late afternoon and the setting sun through the primarily yellow, orange and red stained glass was spectacular. (The eastern wall is mostly green and blue, probably a whole different effect in the morning.) You can also take a tour of some of the towers which give a view of the city and of the ongoing construction.

I have explained to some people that Barcelona is more of a world city, while Madrid is the quintessential modern Spanish city. We found that to be true with tourists from all over the world everywhere we went in Barcelona.  We are still happy in Madrid, but I would give Barcelona plenty of time were I visiting Spain.

Spanish Politics

Speaking of Barcelona, the Cataluña independence story keeps going.  Lots of Catalan flags hanging from balconies throughout Barcelona.  The Catalan high court has recently approved charges against Artur Mas, the president of Cataluña, his vice-president and the secretary of Education for “disobedience” by having held the vote on November 9, 2014, despite being ordered to suspend it by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, Mas is having trouble getting some of the other Catalan independence party to go along with his idea of holding elections with one slate, composed of members from each of those parties, who will support independence. The idea is that if they get an absolute majority, that will be the effective equivalent of a referendum.

I recently had lunch with a respected Spanish attorney who explained some things about the Spanish criminal justice system.  There are official prosecutors, of course, but one level of Spanish judges are actually investigators, like our grand jury.  They can entertain charges from the official prosecutors, but also from groups who want to press charges.  There are such groups in Spain who are like watchdogs.  Imagine the ACLU being able to ask a judge to indict someone. If the judge finds these allegations have merit, he or she can refer the case to trial. Trial is not before the investigating judge. Spain has a modified jury system, in large part thanks to the work over many years of the attorney with whom I had lunch.

This independence of the investigating judge explains the case of the Infanta, the sister to the King, who is charged with money laundering in a case involving her husband.  The official prosecutor recommended that she pay a huge civil fine, sort of restitution, but did not seek criminal charges.  The investigating judge overruled him based on the complaints by these citizen groups, and she is currently facing a trial. (My attorney friend thinks that eventually those charges will be dismissed, but not right away.)

Investigating judges are very much in the news because the corruption stories just keep coming.  The ruling party tried to limit the amount of time that a judge can spend on investigating a case, sort of like a speedy trial limit, but the courts have said that is unconstitutional, pointing out, correctly, the complexity of some of these corruption schemes.  The ruling party is trying to run on the improving economic climate in Spain, while the main opponents, the Socialists, are going to run on an anti-corruption platform.  Al the parties have been tainted somewhat, but the ruling party is getting buffeted the most.  The big gainers are Podemos [which translates as “We can,” as Rich noted in the last report], the rising populist party, who would get the largest number of votes if the elections were today.  It seems likely that the Socialists and Podemos, which has a leftist bent, may form the next government, but that will be after we are gone, unless elections are called early.

Spain does not really have a large anti-immigrant, anti-Europe party like France, Germany, and other northern countries, but the terrorist attacks in Paris are front page news here as well as the rest of the continent.  We shall see.

Spanish Football

The police finished their investigation of the riot that resulted in the death of a football fan from A Coruna a month ago with some thirty arrests, and violence in football seems to have receded from the sports pages.  I hope that is because the new measures are working.  We will see.

Meanwhile Real Madrid and Barcelona both lost league matches two weeks ago, but still lead the league.  Spain also has a tournament open to all the clubs in Spain, called the Copa del Reyes, (the Kings Cup), much like the U S Open Cup in the United States. Of course, in the end the big clubs are the ones left standing. The clubs play a home and away series. I saw Real Madrid tied by a third division club, but Real won on a combined score from both matches.  Real and Atletico Madrid played each other last weekend and Atletico won at their stadium, setting up a pressure game in a few weeks. Meanwhile at Barcelona, there is apparently a rift between the coach and Leo Messi, the team’s best player (one of the best in the world actually). This is like the Coach Gruden and RG III rift with the Washington football club – fills up the sports page with predictions of catastrophe, until the team wins.  Barcelona won its Cup match 5 to 0, so everybody is happy - until the next time.  Barcelona and Real Madrid have their league rematch in March; it is my on calendar.

Hope everything is well with you all, and hope to see at least some of you soon.

Rich

Dispatches from Spain 5

by Rich Gilbert

[Rich Gilbert is back now with his latest installment of the e-mail reports on his and Sallie’s six-month sojourn in Madrid.  They’re now about one-third of the way through the adventure—their apartment lease is up in May—and they haven’t decided what to do then, but they made a visit to Nuremberg, Germany, where Rich served in the army (after I got to know him in Berlin some years earlier).  This message arrived in my inbox on 15 December and as I promised, I’m posting it as soon as I can.  (I’ll endeavor to keep Rich’s reports as current as I can from now on, as long as he keeps sending them.)

[As previously, I’ve lightly edited Rich’s e-mail to delete personal information on him and his friends and family, and I’ve inserted bracketed side remarks where I think they’ll be helpful.  (Comments in parentheses are Rich’s own.)  If you are intrigued with my friend’s reports on this experience, be sure to follow up with visits to Sallie’s blog, Rambling Solo, which Rich mentions and to which he provides a link below.]

Madrid – December 15, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

Sallie and I have now been in Madrid almost two months. She continues to produce her blog, Rambling Solo, http://ramblingsolo.blogspot.com.es, which describes some of our experiences from her perspective. As before, I will separate my comments into sections, so you need only read what interests you.

Daily Life

We have settled into a general routine. Monday through Friday, Sallie goes to a Spanish class from 9:00 to 1:00, and has a fair amount of homework, which she is diligent about.  As a consequence, I have become the “homemaker” doing most of the laundry, shopping and preparing the meals. We have each arranged to get decent haircuts from people who did not speak English.  Maybe three times a week, I fix a big lunch and we have light dinner.  Other times, I go downtown to meet her after class, and we get lunch and do something.  We have year passes to the national museums, which includes the Prado [Madrid’s world-class art museum].

I also joined a nearby gym a 5 minute walk and in the direction of our favorite bakery and mercado [market].  There is no pool, but if I get there between 10:00 and 11:00, I have no problem getting on an elliptical machine and most of the weight machines.  Still, I was initially surprised to see a number of well developed young men and women working out at that time.  Then I remembered that the unemployment rate in Spain for young adults is close to 50%! Of course, some of those young people may have night jobs, but it is a sobering reminder that Spain still has its economic problems. (Despite the fact the President [of the Government, what we call the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy] recently announced the crisis was over.)

I still read portions of El Pais [the national daily] every day, so my reading vocabulary is growing, but the speaking/listening needs work. We are both still having trouble hearing the Madrilenos when they talk. We need the practice.  We have some local bars and restaurants where the staff will talk with us, and but we probably have to put more work into it.  I will say that is some places when they figure out we are foreigners, especially  Americans, who are trying to learn Spanish, they are often pleased and will try to work with us.

I have reconnected with friends from 25 years ago who live outside town, but Pamela is from Bermuda and Juan speaks good English, so that is what we speak when together. It is the same for a local ex-pat that I sometimes watch futbol with at one of the bars.

Legal Troubles

We had a scare which we just resolved this past week.  Both Sallie and I recall that when we got our visas, the staff at the Spanish Embassy said we had to report to the police within 90 days to “register.”  There were no other directions.  Well, that proved to be a confusing endeavor, and no one was really able to give us advice I could understand.  I finally found out that we had to get national ID cards from the national police; the first step was to have our fingerprints taken.  I was supposed to get an appointment on line, but when I did so, it said there were no dates available.  The 90 day visa expires while I am back in the States, so it was important to get this fixed.  I finally reached out to an attorney with whom I had a mutual acquaintance and he put us in touch with a local firm.  It turns out we were supposed to get the ID card within 30 days, not 90 days! We were definitely not told that. So with the lawyer we went out to a station (in the far outskirts of Madrid).  We were prepared to show that we had at least started our way through the bureaucratic thicket before the 30 days were up.  However, thanks to the attorney having all the documents together (and possibly because we were elderly, middle class Americans), they processed us without an argument.  We should get the ID cards in 30 days – hopefully just before I return to the States. It was a necessary expense, but we are both angry that no one at the Spanish Embassy ever told us clearly what we needed to do.

Negative Aspects

We are having a great time, but it occurred to me that I should tell you some of the negative aspects of living in Madrid and Spain just to give our experiences some perspective:

1.   The bureaucracy.  (See above!) (I suppose our immigration bureaucracy is even worse, though.)

2.  The Spaniards are not consistent about cleaning up after their dogs (and there are a lot of dogs.)

3.  It is sometimes awkward to walk on the street or in the Metro as the Spaniards do not automatically move to pass on the left; but instead keep walking where they are. Also they often have their eyes on their phones. (Apparently mobile phone theft is not a big problem on the street or in the Metro or buses, which I suppose is a good thing.) So you have to keep your eyes wide open when walking around.

4.  The beer.  We found a brewpub in Madrid on Plaza Santa Ana, and the beer was awful.  The beer from the tap in most bars is almost always a lager, from different Spanish brewers. It is cold with a clean taste, so I am not actually complaining about it. I have found a place that serves Pilsner Urquell on tap; you can also sometimes find Guinness and German beers.  My expat friend has introduced me to a pretty good dark Spanish beer which our local bar sometimes has in bottles. Still, the wide variety of good beers we can get from American bars, and especially the brewpubs, is lacking. Sometimes you just want a good IPA! (We did find a good authentic Mexican restaurant though; not enough to make us forget La Plaza [a Mexican-Salvadoran restaurant on Capital Hill, where Rich and Sallie lived in D.C.], but good.)

5.  The food wrappings, both plastic wrap and aluminum foil, do not come with a nice metal cutting edge.  You have to try and tear them by hand or stop and use a pair of scissors.

So with the exception of the immigration bureaucracy, I admit these are minor points really, but they are also part of life here.

Back To Germany

Sallie and I flew up to Nuremburg for four days to meet our friends John and Nancy Y*****, whom some of you may know from the T-shirt party [an annual event Rich used to host], who were finishing a river cruise of Christmas markets in Germany. It was rainy some of the time, and cold all the time. Still, the food, the drink, the architecture, and the atmosphere were quite different from Madrid. It felt a little like I was coming back to familiar place after having lived in Germany many years ago.  [Rich did a second gig in the army after becoming a lawyer and was a JAG officer in Nuremberg.]  The most amazing thing to me was that my German came back almost immediately.  My Spanish reading vocabulary is much greater than my German, but I did not struggle in casual conversation there the way I do sometimes in Spanish. I found myself thinking in German, even for the first few days back in Madrid. (Kind of embarrassing to say “Danke Schoen” when I meant to say  “Gracias.”)

The Allies bombed Nuremburg to rubble during the end of WWII and there were pictures of it in a number of places. The Germans rebuilt the Altstadt (old city) with a combination of old buildings, including the castle, numerous churches, and the city wall, with modern buildings. It works and it was fun to walk around. Outside the Altstadt, it is all pretty modern.  We stayed in a nice, clean, convenient apartment we got through AirBnB. We would do that again.

News Of The United States

I try to look at the Washington Post online every day to stay roughly current with news in the United States, but it is interesting to see what is covered in El Pais and how it is covered. Given the importance of the United States in the world, we get a fair amount of coverage of major US news. The election was news of course, but so also was Obama’s immigration pronouncement. The coverage of the latter was relatively favorable here. Of course, the protests resulting from the failure of the grand juries to indict the police officers in Ferguson and then the Staten Island made the front page, although the pictures of the burning and looting got the most coverage, as is often the case.

The release of the Senate “torture report” was the lead story when it come out.  That will continue to reverberate for a while I suspect.  Interestingly though, the next day the President of Brazil [Dilma Rousseff] released a similar report about human rights abuses during the military dictatorship.  She was a torture survivor herself and cried during the press conference. Of course, the Mexican story of the murder of the students in Guererro is not going away either; there is much more continuing coverage here than in the Post.  This does not make our national embarrassment any less, but, hopefully, we can say this was aberration at a specific traumatic point in our history. I think it is unlikely to be repeated in such a horrifying degree regardless of future events and future administrations.

There is no coverage here of United States sports whatsoever, so I need to go online to follow the surprising Wizards, as well as that train wreck surrounding the Washington Football Team [i.e., the Redskins, whose name is controversial these days].

Spanish Politics

Spanish politics are a mess.  (Of course, our system seems pretty dysfunctional too, but in different ways.)  The corruption stories just keep coming. The sister of the King [Infanta, or Princess, Cristina , whose brother was crowned King Felipe VI just five months ago], for heaven’s sake, was charged with corruption stemming from her husband’s activities [Iñaki Urdangarín, Olympic medalist  for handball in 1996 and 2000].  The prosecutor eventually dropped the criminal charges, but is asking for a 600,000-Euro [nearly $750,000] civil fine as restitution.  He is asking for 19 years for the husband!   The amount of money floating around in dozens of these cases is in the millions.  Bob McDonnell [former Virginia governor convicted of corruption in September] clearly was not thinking big enough. Also, for those of you who have asked – I still have not been offered one of the “tarjeta oscura” credit cards which key figures in the government received from a bank, and which one does not have to pay back; I will let you know if that changes. [See Rich’s comments on this “dark card” in “Dispatches from Spain 3 & 4,” 10 December on ROT.]

Of course, this drumbeat of corruption charges is eroding the faith in the political system for many Spaniards.  The party in power, the Popular Party (PP), is taking the biggest hit.  If elections were held today, Podemos (“We can”), would win the most seats, but not enough to form a government on its own, so some sort of coalition is likely going to have to be put together.  Podemos is a populist party, with a charismatic leader [Pablo Iglesias], most of his circle of advisors are academics.  They have been vague about their specific policies, but are basically left wing.  They are talking about renegotiating or defaulting on the national debt, which has the Germans in a tizzy.

Meanwhile, in the Northeast, the Catalan separatist story keeps humming along.  The latest is that Artur Mas, head of the Catalan government, wants to call new elections and run a single slate with all of the separatist parties represented.  His thinking is that if they win a clear majority, this would be the effective equivalent of a referendum, as the whole slate would be committed to independence.  If they win, Mas wants to declare independence in 18 months after negotiating a separation from Spain. Mas is having trouble lining up all of the separatist parties, some of whom do not want to wait the 18 months. No guarantee that the Spanish government will go along with it.  Vamos a ver! (we shall see).

One aspect of the story which I found interesting as a criminal defense attorney, concerned the response of the government to the “consulta,” the informal referendum held last month [on 9 November]. The national Constitutional Court ruled that it, like an earlier formal referendum was unauthorized, but the Catalans held it anyway. At the time, the Constitutional Court, while saying that the vote was not authorized, ignored the national government’s request to issue a specific court order to Mas and his government not to hold it.  Well after the vote, the national chief prosecutor and his counterpart from Cataluña [Spanish for Catalonia] met to discuss whether to pursue criminal charges. The Catalan chief prosecutor decided to call a meeting of his subordinates to seek their advice – an interesting step which has no counterpart in the U.S. legal system.  The Catalan prosecutors decided that there was not enough evidence that Mas had violated a specific order and recommended that he not be charged with “disobedience.” While not binding, the Catalan chief prosecutor accepted the recommendation.  That left the national chief prosecutor out on a limb, so he called his own meeting.  Not surprisingly, his prosecutors voted to charge Mas and some subordinates. 

Of course, this is just what Mas wanted as it threatens to make him a martyr for Catalan independence, thereby enhancing his stature going into the elections. Although the chief prosecutor is not officially part of the Justice Ministry, clearly there are politics at work.  In the end, there has to be a political resolution of this, not a criminal one. For what it is worth, given my imperfect grasp of legal Spanish, I also think that the Catalan prosecutors had it right.  Even at the time, I noted the significance of the refusal of the Constitutional Court to issue any orders to Mas or the Catalan government. I think you have to have an unambiguous order to be convicted of failing to obey it. (Ironically, we have a strikingly similar issue in one of the cases I will argue when I come back to the States next month.

Spanish Futbol

The “big three,” Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid are 1-2-3 in the Spanish league, and all won their groups in the European Champions League tournament. Unfortunately, that is not the lead story any longer. While we were in Germany, a brawl broke out between fans of Atletico Madrid and A Coruna (in the far northwest of the country) and an A Coruna fan was killed. This has put violence in futbol squarely in the sports pages for weeks now. It turns out most of the clubs have fans that purport to support violence, like the “hooligans” of British soccer. They are called “ultras” here.  In some cases, they make up only a segment of the fan club, which is true of Atletico Madrid.  El Pais described some as “ultra left” and “ultra right.”  I guess the “ultra right” are like skinheads and often express racist, xenophobic, and homophobic views; a group of Atletico Madrid fans were caught on camera this past week giving the fascist salute at their match in Italy. I am not sure what the “ultra left” groups stand for; they are apparently equally prepared to take up violence, so I am not so sure they are any better than the “ultra right.” (No one has made this clear, but I think much of the distinction may date back to the Spanish Civil War.)

After the death, the Spanish futbol association announced that clubs who cannot control their fans would be held responsible, which can result in a loss of standing points, and even possible demotion to the next lower level.  This would be a huge deal, so maybe the clubs will take more action.  There are things which can be done to reduce, if not eliminate, the risk of violence. There are plans to install facial recognition and fingerprint technology to keep out known trouble makers. Since apparently being in these groups is considered a “point of honor,” many of the leaders are not shy about making themselves known.  The clubs can also close down sections where the groups have seats, or disperse the fans. It would be like breaking up the Barra Brava fan club of DC United (who are not violent; I’m just giving an example). The synergy of having all the fans in one place would be dissipated. In addition, the leagues wants to cut down on the racist, xenophobic, and homophobic chants and songs, which add to the potential for violence.  Both Real Madrid and Barcelona have already taken this step for some time; their international advertising revenue is too valuable to allow a group of hooligans get caught on camera being fools.

So now that people are talking about the problem, maybe it will get better, at least in and around the stadiums. (By comparison, 15 people have been killed in soccer violence in Argentina this year; they even had a gun battle between rival gangs!)

Plans

Sallie’s son David, daughter-in-law Heidi, and granddaughter Emily, will all be here for the holidays.  We may make a trip to Avila, Segovia and Salamanca, and another trip to Barcelona for a few days, but Sallie still wants to spend Christmas and New Year’s here in Madrid. We have still not decided what to do in May when our lease is up, but we will be staying in Europe, and probably Spain (although Sallie has a yearn for Italy too.)

I will be back in D.C. for work from January 15 through February 3; hope to see a number of you then. In the meantime, we both wish you all happy holidays.

Rich