Courtesans and Saints along the River Tormes

Salamanca in Spain has not one, but two cathedrals. In addition, in the nearby town of Alba de Tormes there is a monastery that is the final resting place of the Spanish saint Santa Teresa de Jesús or, rather, just parts of her, since other parts of her body can also be found in other Spanish churches as well as in Rome, Paris and Lisbon - it is even said that the dictator Franco had her right hand tucked away in his bedside table. Salamanca was also the city that had been chosen for the wedding in 1543 between a very pious Phillip II and Maria Manuela of Portugal. You would think that all these facts would make 16th Century Salamanca one of the most somber cities in the world, however, the city was also, and continues to be, a university town. At the time there were around 8.000 students in Salamanca and to give you an idea of the magnitude, the capital city of Madrid had a population of 11.000. All these students were attended by an army of courtesans (and I use the more polite term) that made some observers compare the city to Sodom and Gomorrah. Amongst those that held this view was Phillip II himself, who passed a law forcing all the courtesans to be taken to the other side of the River Tormes before Lent and not to allow them to return until a week after Easter Monday. This imposed period of "fasting" meant that the return of the courtesans was celebrated raucously by the students who came out to the river to welcome them back with wine and food. The parties that ensued are part of the legend of the city but nowadays the festivity, which is called "lunes de aguas" ("Monday of waters"), is still celebrated by students and families alike by having a picnic with friends and eating Hornazo, a pie which the students shared with the courtesans.

Monastery in Alba de Tormes

Monastery in Alba de Tormes

Bridge where students waited with Cathedral in background

The River Tormes

Fiddler on the Roof

If you happen to be in Madrid, you only have two days left to catch the Marc Chagall exhibition at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. The exhibition is in two venues, the other being at the Caja Madrid Foundation and ends on the 20th of May.

Photomontage in Cuenca

An exhibition at the Fundación March in Cuenca exploring the beginnings of the photomontage.

Cuenca revisited

In a recent post entitled Babylon in Spain,  I wrote about the town of Cuenca. We recently drove by the town and decided to stay at the Parador for the night and revisit the town. Some pictures of our visit.

Astrid y Gastón - The World´s 35th Best Restaurant

The 2012 winners from The World´s 50 Best Restaurants awards have been announced.
At number 35 the Peruvian restaurant Astrid y Gastón mentioned by us in our post Cebiche and Pisco Sour.
Our congratulations to Astrid and Gastón!

Concorde to Venice

I was looking through some old tapes and found some footage of a trip I made to Venice on Concorde back in 1989, which I thought I would share with you. The trip was a private charter of Concorde and was quite an experience. The video is taken from the original VHS tape, which I have then edited so the quality is not great. At the end of the film, I have included the boat ride from Marco Polo airport to the Hotel Cipriani. 
I should point out that the flight to Venice was longer in Concorde than in a conventional plane! But that was only because we flew over the Atlantic first so that we could experience Mach 2 and then turned to fly to Venice at "normal" speed.


(All the footage inside Concorde and the boat trip was taken on the day. Additional footage by British Airways).

Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes

In a previous post writing about the Art Triangle in Madrid, I also mentioned the exhibition centre  CaixaForum. The current exhibit that runs until the 3rd of June is dedicated to Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th Century. The collaboration of composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Manuel de Falla and Stravinsky; painters such as Picasso, Braque, and de Chirico; choreographers such as Léonide Massine; and dancers such as Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky created such masterpieces as The Firebird, and The Three-cornered Hat.

From the Web of CaixaForum

The lost land of Lyonesse

You may not have heard about Lyonesse but you probably have heard of Land's End, which is the most extreme western point of England. You may even have heard of the Isles of Scilly, which lie about 45 Kms from the coast. Well, the mythical lost land of Lyonesse was thought to have been located between the Isles and the mainland. Lyonesse was also the homeland of Tristan whose tragic romance with Isolde has been told many times and in many languages, we have seen it depicted in paintings and we have heard it sung in Wagner's opera. Legend has it that Lyonesse sunk beneath the waves some time after Tristan's story. The pictures below were taken from Land's End and I cannot help thinking that somewhere out there, at the bottom of the sea, lays a magical land and untold stories of knights and adventures.