Figueres - Spain

Twenty years after my two sons visited the Salvador Dali museum, I went to Figueres in Spain and entered the world of one of the most original, interesting and famous artists of the 20^th Century.  My youngest son Paul accompanied me this time.  For him, it was like returning to the home of a man he has admired ever since, when, as a young teenager, we had a family outing to a Dali exhibition in Brisbane.  In his company, this visit was made even more special.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours  - Approaching the Dali Museum; Figueres, Spain

The name Figueres derives from that of Ficaris, of Visigoth origin.  During the Spanish Civil War, the town suffered heavy bombing as it was the last Republican outpost to stand against Franco.  

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Dali Museum building; Figueres, Spain

Figueres recovered during the 1950s, consolidating its economy around the tourism industry.  Close to the border with France, but not as touristy and much smaller than Barcelona, the city offers a relaxing atmosphere, quiet cafés, great food, wine, beaches an historic Old Town and  picture-perfect squares.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The quiet streets of Figueres, Spain



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - An interesting and cute stairway

Figueres, is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dali.  It houses the “Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dali”, a large museum designed by Dali himself.  Right where the Museum now stands, there was a 19^th century theatre which was badly damaged during the Franco bombings.  The building remained in ruins for several decades until Dali bought it and converted it into the museum that we see today.


Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Just before entering the Museum; Figueres, Spain



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Kiosk and the Sculpture near the Museum 

The Salvador Dali Museum is the largest surrealist object in the world.  It is the second most visited museum in all of Spain, after the Prado Museum in Madrid, thus attracts many visitors.  It is, in its entirety, Dali's greatest work, and it was created by Dali specifically to offer its visitors a unique visual experience.  The artist moved back to Figueres late in life.  He is buried in a crypt in the museum.  Figueres is also the birthplace of Narcis Monturiol, inventor of the first successful machine-powered submarine.  Also born here was Monica Naranjo, one of the best-selling Spanish singers of the 1990s and 2000s.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Dali Sleeping



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The many faces of Dali

On entering the museum the first area to visit is the courtyard and immediately you are struck by Salvador Dali's incredible imagination and surreal view on the world.  In the courtyard, a statue of a well-endowed female figure stands on a black Cadillac whilst the walls of this inner courtyard are decorated by golden mannequins.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours  - The Black Cadillac

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Golden Mannequins

The next room from here is known as the stage and is a huge room lit by the large glass sphere that you can see from the outside of the building.  One wall is a huge window onto the courtyard and the other has a huge painting from the very high ceiling to the floor.


Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Glass Sphere in the Stage Room

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours  - The Wall to Wall Painting in the Stage Room

The rest of the museum contains many rooms with different collections of works.  These cover a great range of his works from some of his earliest to some he created in the last years of his life.  The museum also contains exhibits made specifically for the museum such as the Mae West room.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - One of Dali's earlier works



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Mae West Room

Whatever your feelings about this complex, egocentric man, this museum is worth every cent and minute you can spare.  I could have stayed there for hours on end and let my mind wander with the amazing vision of the man that was Dali.

Lanzarote - Spanish Island

My plane landed at Arrecife in Lanzarote island late at night.  After a long wait at the airport due to a misunderstanding with the hotel owner who was to pick me up on arrival, I eventually made it to Cortijo Eco Finca, a 30-minute drive from the airport.  The accommodation facility rather than a hotel is situated at the Northern tip of the island and approximately three kilometres from the seaside village of Orzola.  The owner, a man called Emilio runs the place and caters mainly for nature lovers who go there to enjoy the raw, isolated beauty of the area and the countless walks in the wild.  

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Our Quarters for a Few Days

Emilio is a local from way back.  He has inherited the hacienda-looking building from his ancestors.  Sadly, he has let the place run down and the facility is in bad need of repair and maintenance.  Despite it all, the basic comforts are available if one is not too choosy.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - A Volcano Near El Cortijo

After a short but peaceful night, I took a first look at my new home for the next few days.  I had purposely chosen a quiet location away from the main cities to fully appreciate the wild and untamed beauty of the island.  I wasn’t disappointed.  No further than one kilometre from my room, rose a majestic volcano.  All around, vestiges of the tumultuous and fiery past of the island.  Black volcanic rock everywhere with some tough, sparse vegetation desperately clinging to Life.  Black gritty sand and petrified lava flows from past eruptions on the ground.  The harsh and unforgiving environment and the feeling of being on a foreign planet were simply overwhelming.  I knew I was in for the trip of a lifetime.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - A View From One of the Sides of the Inn

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - I've Never Been So Close to a Volcano

Lanzarote is a Spanish island, from the autonomous Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.  It is located approximately 125 kilometres off the coast of Africa and 1,000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula.   Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago.  It is the third-most populous Canary Island, after Tenerife and Gran Canaria.  In the centre-west of the island is Timanfaya National Park.  The capital is Arrecife.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Arrecife



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The walkway along the beach



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Fortified castle at Arrecife



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Pavers Made out of Volcano Lava

From 1730 to 1736, the island was hit by a series of volcanic eruptions, producing 32 new volcanoes in a stretch of 18 kilometres.  Lava covered a quarter of the island's surface, including the most fertile soil and 11 villages.  100 smaller volcanoes were located in the area called Montañas De Fuego, the "Mountains of Fire".   In 1768, drought affected the deforested island, and winter rains did not fall.  Much of the population was forced to emigrate to Cuba and the Americas.  Another volcanic eruption occurred in 1824, which was less violent than the major eruptions of 1700s.  The island has a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve protected site status.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Volcanoes everywhere around you

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - A house at the foot of a volcano

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Volcanoes and Volcanic rock on both sides of the road

The Timanfaya National Park is a natural landscape that would be difficult to find anywhere else in the world.  It is a mineral museum in full activity: volcanic cones, craters, seas of lava, ash and temperatures that in certain places reach 400 degrees centigrade just a couple of metres below the ground.  There is a restaurant in the area that serves a variety of meals using subterranean volcanic heat.  I had roast chicken for lunch that day and it was delicious.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours -  Montanas del Fuego at the Timanfaya National Park

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Volcanoes Every where you Look

The Tunnel of Atlantis", the largest underwater volcanic tunnel in the world, is part of the Cueva de los Verdes lava tube.  The beauty of the place left me speechless.  Its formation is the result of the eruptive activity of La Corona volcano some three to five thousand years ago, giving rise to an extensive underground volcanic tunnel over six kilometres long, running from the cone of the volcano down to the sea. Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua are located inside that tunnel. 

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Inside the Cave



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Coming out of the Cave

Jameos del Agua is the name given to the lower part of the tube where there is a small underground lake joined below its surface to the sea.  The fauna from this lake has been cut off from the sun for some three thousand years.  There, one can find the blind albino langoustine.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Going Down in the Cave of Jameos del Agua

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Coming out of the Cave of Jameos del Agua

A section of Jameos del Agua has been converted into a concert hall without spoiling the natural beauty of the place.  It provides the visitor with an opportunity to attend musical events in an incomparable setting.  I was lucky enough to be there at one of the rehearsals for an upcoming opera.  It was a magic moment and I felt truly lucky and thankful to be there and at the right time to witness the forces of Nature in unison with Art.

The vineyards of La Geria wine region captivated me.  Single vines are planted in pits 4–5 metres wide and 1-2 metres deep, with small stone walls around each pit.  This agricultural technique is designed to harvest rainfall and overnight dew and to protect the Malvasia grapevines from the winds.  I found it hard to believe that grapes could actually grow in such harsh surroundings.  I sampled some of the local wines at the Bodega and I was pleasantly surprised.  I especially enjoyed their Moscatel a sweet wine with a light colour, elegant flavour not too sweet and with noticeable mineral tones I visited Lanzarote late autumn and unfortunately didn’t see the vines at their best.

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - La Geria Winery



Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - Grape Vines Are Planted Almost Half Way to the Top of the Volcano

A visit to Lanzarote would not be complete without seeing the House of the World-famous artist Cesar Manrique (1917–1992).

Born in Arrecife, Cesar rapidly gained a reputation among the major contemporary artists.  His work, largely influenced by his childhood experience took him all around the world but he returned to his beloved island in 1966 and built a home which must be seen to fully appreciate the child-like vision of the man.  The Volcano House, now the “Cesar Manrique Fundacion” built in 1968 stands in the middle of a lava coulée formed during the major eruptions that changed the island’s landscape between 1730 and 1736. 

Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - The Entrance of the Fundacion

Manrique interconnected five volcanic bubbles and used them as rooms.  “Huge windows open the home onto the surrounding tongue of hardened lava and invite Nature to flow inward, merging volcano and architecture”. 


Daniel's Food and Wine Tours - A Lava coulee just outside the window of the building.

Truly a Must Visit place if on the island one day. 

 

Toledo - Spain

Ever since my Mum gave me a pair of Toledo cuff links some forty odd years ago, I had always wanted to visit this very special place.  In November 2016, I finally had this opportunity.  I only spent one day in that amazing city on my way to the northern part of Spain but it was a day full of surprises and delight.  I discovered medieval wall, a labyrinth of
winding cobblestone streets and magnificent old stone buildings; all of these, a legacy of the illustrious past of this unique place.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - My Cuff Links

Toledo is located on a mountaintop, surrounded on three sides by a bend in the Tagus River.  Often referred to as the heart and soul of Spain, it is a city located in central Spain and the capital of the province of Toledo.  It is one of the Spanish cities with a wealth of monuments; churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques and synagogues.  Known as the “city of the three cultures”, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage as well as its historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures which lasted for centuries.  This great diversity of artistic styles makes the old quarter of this city - La Mancha a real open-air museum.  It contains many historical sites, including the Alcazar, the cathedral and the Zocodover, a central market place.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Toledo

 

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The River Tagus

 The city of Toledo has its origins in Toletum, the name the Romans gave to this settlement on the banks of the River Tagus after its conquest in 190 BC.  The Roman circus in Toledo was one of the largest in Hispania.  Chariot races were held on special holidays and were also commissioned by private citizens to celebrate special occasions.  The circus could hold up to 15,000 spectators.  Today the historic centre is full of basements, passages, wells, baths and ancient water pipes that have been used in the city since Roman times.  The city maintained its importance for centuries and, during the Visigoth era, it became the capital of Hispania until the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the early years of the 8th century.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The narrow streets of the Old Toledo

With the arrival of the Moors, together with the presence of Christians and Jews, Toledo went through one of its most splendid periods and became a main centre of literacy and writing in the Iberian Peninsula.  Among other important events, the Toledo School of Translators was founded.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - One of the entries to the Old Toledo

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The Moorish Heritage is everywhere

Toledo took a central position in the struggles between the Muslim and Christian rulers of northern Spain.  The conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI of Castille in 1085 marked the first time a major city in Al-Andalus was captured by Christian forces.  After the conquest, Toledo continued to be a major cultural centre; its Arab libraries were not pillaged, and a translation centre was established in which books in Arabic or Hebrew would be translated into Castilian by Muslim and Jewish scholars, and from Castilian into Latin by Castilian scholars, allowing all this vast amount of knowledge to spread throughout Christian Europe.

 

Charles I of Spain's court was set in Toledo, serving as the imperial capital.   However, in 1561, in the first years of his son Philip II of Spain, the Spanish court was moved to Madrid, thus letting the city's importance dwindle until the late 20th century.  The economic decline of the city helped to preserve its cultural and architectural heritage.  Today, because of this rich heritage, Toledo is one of Spain's foremost cities, receiving thousands of visitors every year.

Standing watch over the city, the Alcázar has a commanding presence on its hilltop location.  This ancient Moorish fortress was built on the site of an earlier Roman fort.  The Alcazar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy.  During the Spanish Civil War, the Alcázar was used as a Nationalist garrison.  At the outbreak of the war in 1936, the garrison was besieged by Republican forces.  It is considered as a monument to the heroism of Franco supporters.  The Alcazar has been restored and now houses an Army Museum with exhibits about the Civil War.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The Alcazar

One of the most outstanding buildings in the city is its Cathedral, considered one of the high points of Gothic art.  The construction of this monumental building, began in 1226, but it was not finished until the 15^th century.   With its soaring tower, the cathedral is one of the most important Christian landmarks in Spain.  It was built on the site of a Muslim mosque next to the Judería (Jewish quarter).  The exterior is somewhat crowded by the tightly packed buildings surrounding it, but the interior is simply breathtaking.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The Toledo Cathedral

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The Statue of Cervantes the Author of Don Quijote de la Mancha

The famous master of Spanish painting, Doménikos Theotokópoulos was born in Crete in 1541, and in 1577, he came to Spain where he was simply called El Greco ("The Greek").  The Casa El Greco in the Jewish quarter near the synagogue is the house where El Greco is known to have lived.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - El Greco's House and Museum Nearby

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The View From El Greco's House

Renovated in 1906, the building is decorated with furniture and sculptures that belonged to El Greco.  In the adjoining building is the Museo El Greco.  On the first floor are three rooms containing more than 20 works by the Master.  There are many more masterpieces by El Greco displayed throughout the city's churches and convents.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Inside El Greco's House

El Greco's style...

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - The Unmistakable Faces of El Greco

Elongated faces and fingers, deep dark shadowing...

Daniel Food and Wine Tours -   El Greco's Hand Technique

The metal-working industry has historically been Toledo's economic base, with a great tradition in the manufacturing of swords and knives and a significant production of razor blades, medical devices and electrical products.  Soap and toothpaste industries, flour milling, glass and ceramics have also been important.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Toledo Swords

Toledo’s steel-working industry goes back to about 500 BC.  It soon became a standard source of weaponry for Roman Legions.  It was however under Moorish rule and during the Reconquista that Toledo and its guild of sword-makers played a key role.  Between the 15th and 17th centuries the industry enjoyed a great boom, to the point where its products came to be regarded as the finest in Europe.  In the late 17th and early 18th century production began to decline, prompting the creation of the Royal Arms Factory in 1761 bringing together all the sword-makers guilds of the city.



Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Toledo Swords

In the 20th century, the production of knives and swords for the army was reduced to cavalry weapons only.  Today, many shops offer all kinds of swords as well as medieval armours to their customers.  They are also exported to other countries.

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Toledo Armour Work

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Other samples of Toledo's Armour work

Toledo's cuisine is, well-set in its traditions and closely linked to hunting and grazing.  A good number of recipes are the result of a combination of Moorish and Christian influences.  This cuisine has various specialties based on game products, like stewed partridge, Toledo-style quail or venison with wild mushrooms.  With the other provinces of La Mancha it shares pisto (based on pepper, tomato and onion), Castilian soup and migas (dish made with breadcrumbs and pork products).  These dishes may be accompanied with the wines of La Mancha.  Two of the city's most famous food productions are Manchego cheese and marzipan (made from ground almonds and sugar).

 Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Lentils and Venison, Delicious!!

Daniel Food and Wine Tours - Ham & Smallgoods galore

Leaving Toledo late that afternoon, I felt a strong sense of having fulfilled a dream.  Was it because I had at last come to visit this city?  Was it the overwhelming sense of History and the glory of the place?  Could it have been the works of El Greco?  Toledo was a place I simply had to come to.   I now have passed on the cuff links to my son and I hope he too will visit Toledo one day and feel the way I did.  Who knows?  We might even visit it together.  That would be nice.