If there’s anything that can make Monday difficult, it’s a video like this. It practically forces you see what airfare to Bangkok is looking like right now. Have a good week!
a journey through asia from ivan vania on Vimeo H/T Andrew Sullivan.
Inside the Great Mosque of Cordoba
On the advice of a couple of other travellers, we wound our way over to Cordoba to see the old town and the Great Mosque - one of the greatest Islamic buildings in Spain, and one of the largest mosques ever built. It was indeed a pretty splendid building, a sea of columns with some fantastic treasures including a wall that was a mosaic of gold. It was a rough place to get a picture that really captured a sense of the space though, but it was very magnificent inside.
Unfortunately, the whole place left a bad flavour in my mouth because of the information pamphlet they gave out at the door. The whole thing had a condescending tone towards Islam, first off calling what everyone calls the Grand Mosque is called the the Grand Cathedral, and then diminishing the splendour of the mosque by saying:
Thus the beauty of the Cathedral of Cordoba does not reside in its architectural grandeur, but in the apostolic succession of the Bishop as a symbol of his pastoral service and the unity of the Church, founded upon the Word of the Lord, the sacraments, and the community of believers.
I just don’t understand why they have felt the need to diminish the grandeur of the building or the contribution of the culture that built most of it. Another choice line was:
It is a historical fact that the basilica of San Vincente was expropriated and destroyed in order to build what would later be the Mosque, a reality that questions the theme of tolerance that was supposedly cultivated in the Cordobra of the moment.
So here they are bashing the Islamic empire for a lack of tolerance in a pamphlet that is itself contains. It also condemns the destruction of the historical building, yet the Catholics plunked a massive cathedral right in the middle of the mosque. In any case, if you are in Andalucia, it is well worth seeing the building but I’d avoid the pamphlet.
This massive castle/palace complex claims to be the most visited site in Spain. Though Sagrada Familia in Barcelona also makes the same claim, the Alhambra is undoubtedly the best camera candy in the country. There has been some sort of palace/fortification on the site since at least the 11th century, with major construction taking place in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was the last hold out of the Islamic empire in Iberia, eventually captured by the Christians in 1492. In the 16th century Carlos V built a whole new palace on the grounds. But after that attention shifted away and the whole complex started a slow slide into disrepair until it started to attract tourists in the 19th century.
We spent a solid day wandering around the grounds, starting before sunrise as we had to queue up early in the morning to get some of the limited number of tickets to the Palacios Nazaries - the old Islamic palace. You can see one of the stunning ceilings from Nazaries above and a view out some of the windows looking over the city of Grenada below.
Starting up a new segment here, Dale is writing up book reviews of the books of some of the greatest adventurers throughout history. This is the first installment.
By Ernest Shackleton
Endurance trapped in pack ice. Photo by Frank Hurley
This is an epic story, a story of exploration and desperate survival in the harshest environment imaginable. If it were fiction you would toss it aside as unbelievable. Ernest Shackleton’s quest was to cross Antarctica on foot from sea to sea via the South Pole. In 1914 he set out in the wooden sailing ship Endurance with 27 men, including the great photographer Frank Hurley.
Their ship was trapped in pack ice and slowly crushed, leaving them stranded on the ice far from land. For several months they lived on ice floes, until at last they drifted near enough an island to launch their lifeboats and cross to solid ground. They were far from any shipping lanes, and the probability of rescue very slight.
Shackleton set out with 5 men in an open boat to sail more than 1200 miles across the stormy Antarctic Ocean to South Georgia Island, where there was a whaling station. They weathered hurricane force winds that sank a ship nearby, but the weather forced them to land on the wrong side of the island. They had to cross the mountains and glaciers with no equipment over an unexplored route. They succeeded, and the entire party was rescued without the loss of a single man.
When they returned World War I had broken out and after a brief moment of honor their achievement was overshadowed by the war news. Robert Falcon Scott, who died in the Antarctic along with his crew, became celebrated as a hero. Shackleton, who had saved his crew, was almost forgotten until 1959 when Alfred Lansing’s Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage was published. In 2002, Nova broadcast the documentary Endurance on Shackleton’s voyage on PBS. About the same time Margaret Morrell and Stephanie Capparell published Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer.
Although other books and films have been made about this expedition, I prefer this one because it is Shackleton’s own book. He was not a brilliant writer, and he downplayed his own role in saving them, but the story is so compelling that it transcends any literary shortcomings.
Get the book: download the ebook or buy the paperback.
It’s cruel to even call it ‘ice’. While we were in Madrid we encountered what appeared to be a little urban ice rink set up for the holidays. Closer examination revealed that it was, in fact, plastic - like a plastic cutting-board. Kids were slipping and sliding all over the place, unable to stand up well or do anything that even vaguely resembled skating. It was sad watching these poor kids suffer the the joyless indignity of scrambling around wearing ice skates on a giant cutting board. Whoever’s idea it was to ruin these kid’s experience of winter sports should be punished.
Inspired by The Big Picture, I’m changing the layout of Questing for Adventure to have much larger photos, like the one you see above. It’s one of my favourite pictures that I’ve taken, but it just doesn’t look that good small. I hope that you all enjoy them as much as I enjoy sharing them. Also, check out the site as I’ll be going back through some old posts and cranking up the size of the pictures on old posts.
The first place we slowed down during the trip was the little town of Ronda where we bunked up for x-mas. It was a cute little old town in a location that must have been selected by some mad bastard as the town is divided by the giant Tajo gorge. At the end of the 18th century they built a bridge (that you see below), and linked up the sides of the city which previously required a long roundabout trip to a smaller bridge which is practically outside of the town.
The town was naturally photogenic. The gorge was stunning from above and below, and even though it rained a good deal of the time we were there, the weather added to the beauty - a couple of rain induced pictures are after the jump.
If you’re looking to unwind in Andalucia, this is the place to do it. Just settle in, see some views, and enjoy the hearty local eats. It doesn’t pack in all the cultural sights of the major cities, but it a beautiful spot to find yourself for a couple of days.
My travelling buddies in Spain loved pastries, so much so that we were in most every pastry shop that looked half decent. You can see the in the image above scoping out the options at one shop in Sevilla. Not that I’m complaining, I love a good pastry, but there are a very large number of pastry shops in Spain as it turns out. Out of all the shops in all the towns, there is one that you have to visit: Pan y Chocolate in Granada. Try anything they have with dulce de leche, you’ll be glad you did. You can find the place here:
Everywhere we went in southern Spain there were traces of the Islamic empire, even though it was driven from the peninsula 500 years ago. One of the first sites we toured was the Alcazar in Seville (first picture below is from there), a visit that set the tone for all subsequent visits to Islamic sites. The very first sign we read described the many fountains and indoor ponds in all caps bold letters as, “the Islamic penchant for water features.” Inevitably the phrase stuck with us as we wandered around the many water features of the palaces and courtyards of Andalucia.
Most of the fountains and falls were very peaceful and made for great camera fodder, especially when they caught the reflections of the beautiful building surrounding them. My favorite fountain was the water stairs at the Generalife in Gernada. The banisters funneled water down and into pools into landings - surrounding you with gently gurgling water.
I might not have spent as much attention to the fountains if it weren’t for the running joke, and in the end I’m glad we were able to have a laugh and pay attention to the water features. They were beautifully incorporated into the architecture and made me think about how to incorporate water into my home someday in the future.
The first week of our trip in Spain was cold, punctuated with snow at the very end of our stay in Madrid. Our fortunes changes on arrival in Seville, a chance punctuated with orange trees. They were everywhere, lining the streets, in courtyards, and arranged in parks. Every single one was laden with fruit, making me wonder if they were secretly poisoned or just taboo to eat. We refrained from picking them, but picked up sacks of them at markets for a penance. I also took as many pictures of the tress as I could, including the one above, shot from the Seville Cathedral minaret.
As the road trip took us into Valencia province we started seeing large scale orange farming for the first time, and decided that our reluctance to take the delicious looking fruit straight from the trees was a cruel abstinence. Driving through Deltebre (don’t go, it’s a large swamp) we pulled over to the side of road and stocked up on some succulent citrus hanging over the road. I won’t hesitate in the future.