December 14, 2023 · 1:00 pm

Madrid and the Prado Museum

Madrid is the third largest city in ‘traditional’ Europe behind London and Berlin, larger than Paris and Rome. I liked the feel of Madrid. It has wide boulevards and expansive plazas, while largely avoiding ugly high rises. It also doesn’t have the cramped historic medieval areas of other Iberian cities…because Madrid never was a city in medieval times. Its population was barely four thousand in 1530. Its growth only took off when King Philip II adopted it as a primary residence around 1562.

We didn’t see enough of Madrid to do it justice…just an hour-long bus tour of the city with a walking tour around the National Palace.

The Prado was the highlight of our time. An excellent tour guide helped us make the most of our visit there, although there is so much more that we could have seen. I have no art training, although I understand something of composition and the evolution of artistic styles over the years.

My main interest in art is using it to get a glimpse into the people, places, and ideas of the past. There were four paintings that I especially wanted to see. The oldest of these was Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights from around 1500.

It is as weird to see in person as it was in books. Yes, it’s theme is something about Adam and Eve, earthly delights, and Hell. But what is Bosch trying to tell us? I don’t know. What I didn’t realized until researching the picture for this blog is that the triptych actually folds up. There is another picture on the wood of a world without people when the painting is closed.

The second painting I sought out was Titian’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles V from around 1548.

Commissioned by Charles’s sister, it depicts him at the Battle of Mühlberg, where his markedly larger army utterly defeated the hated Protestants. Charles looks every bit the majestic emperor. The pose is purely propaganda. Charles was a more effective ruler than most of the inbred nobility of his, and our, day. But in actuality he was carried into the battle on a litter due to gout plaguing him. Nonetheless, Titian’s work captures the essence of the ruler who ruled one of the greatest empires in mankind’s history.

The third painting that has always intrigued me is Velázquez’s Las Meninas from 1656.

At first glance it is a portrait of little Infanta Margaret Theresa, the daughter of King Philip IV and his wife Mariana of Austria. These people are largely footnotes in history. But look at the painting more closely. In the background we can see the artist Velázquez at work at his easel, and reflected in a mirror Philip and Mariana are visible. There is so much going on here.

Finally, in less than two hundred years we go from the majesty and competence of Charles V to The Family of Charles IV as depicted by Goya in around 1800.

Like in Las Meninas, Goya paints himself in the background. There the similarity stops. The royal family presents themselves as buffoons, which subsequent history would show to be the fact. Ironically, the subjects don’t see that themselves. Other of Goya’s works in the Prado are more visceral, especially those dealing with the atrocities of the war against France.

I’ve barely touched on the masterpieces of the Prado. Other masters with their work there are Dürer, El Greco, and Rubens. I would like to go back and spend a day there as well as to see what else Madrid has to offer.

And so ended our journey through Portugal and Spain. I learned and experienced so much, but it was time to go home, especially because on the plane flight back I began to realize I likely had Covid. Fortunately, it turned out to be a mild case.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

December 13, 2023 · 1:00 pm

Toledo: A City Frozen in Time

Five-hundred-year-old buildings abound in Europe despite the destruction of wars and the natural tests of time. Some cities, like Porto and Seville, have entire districts of Renaissance and older buildings. Toledo is one of the few cities almost entirely of such edifices.

There are two reasons for this. First the Tagus River clings to three of Toledo’s sides, literally leaving no room for new construction. The Tagus here is a long way from when we first met it at Lisbon, but it is still a wide, fast-moving river.

Spanish King Philip II also indirectly bears responsibility for Toledo’s preservation. Philip’s father, Charles V, didn’t have a capital city, but rather traveled throughout Spain, the Low Countries, and the rest of his empire. Nonetheless, he ruled from Toledo no less than fifteen times, making it a primary residence. Toledo also was the seat of one of the oldest archdioceses in Spain, dating back to 313 A.D.

Philip II moved his main residence from Toledo to Madrid in 1562, six years after his father abdicated and Philip became king. (Madrid at this time had perhaps twenty thousand inhabitants and was a fraction of Toledo’s size.) Philip’s reasons for doing so are still debated. He was probably motivated in part by a desire to distance himself from the church’s influence. Also, Madrid’s weather is more moderate than that of Toledo.

Toledo remained largely unchanged after the court’s departure, and Toledo’s buildings and art gives us a glimpse into the past.

Toledo’s natural defenses led to its being founded centuries before Christ. Its strategic location in Iberian led to it being one of the first Moslem cities to fall in 1085 during the Reconquista.

Toledo Cathedral was worth the visit. Yes, another church. I was getting a bit tired of churches. This cathedral, however, was different than those visited before. It was built on the site of a mosque, but unlike in Seville and Cordoba, no evidence of the former mosque remains, although the cloister exhibits a Moorish influence. Also, it is one of the few cathedrals in Spain in the Gothic style. I could write for pages about the church, but this blog is not meant to be a travelogue. What best captured my attention were two things.

First, a unique aspect of the church is its stained-glass windows, which range from four hundred to seven hundred years old. These are magnificent to see, and we are blessed that they have survived all these years. Years ago, I did some stained-glass work, which makes me appreciate the effort put into the windows.

Second is a Baroque altarpiece call El Transparente. Cathedral altarpieces by their nature are over-the-top, each seemingly attempting to outdo one another. What makes this one special is that in the 1700’s a skylight was constructed to illuminate the Italian marble altarpiece. The streaming light seems to explode upon the altarpiece. Evidently two Cardinals must have thought the same, as their tombs are there. Suspended from the ceiling in mid-air above their tombs are their red cardinal hats…which for some reason makes me think of Harry Potter magical hats. The half hour I spent in a chapel of the church of Santo Tomé was some of my best spent time of the trip. This bare room had an alcove at one end with a tomb. Above the tomb is a masterpiece of Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos, best known as El Greco. The huge nearly sixteen-foot-high by twelve-foot-wide painting The Burial of Count Orgaz captivates me. There is so much happening in the painting with heaven above and earth below. Its style seems thoroughly modern to me.

Picture is of Teresa and I at an overlook of Toledo.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

December 12, 2023 · 1:00 pm

Cordoba and Olive Trees. Lots of Olive Trees

The morning after the flamenco performance we set out into the center of Spain with a two-hour drive to Cordoba. Our eventual destination that day would be Madrid. I doubt many non-Spanish people could place Cordoba on the map, or even know of its existence. I didn’t. A thousand years ago it was the second largest city in Europe with up to four hundred thousand inhabitants. Which city was the largest? It was Constantinople at half a million people. The Moors ruled Cordoba then. Previously, like most Iberian cities, it had been Roman and then Visigoth.

Today it is a largely forgotten city on the Guadalquivir River, the same river that later flows through Seville. Its most apparent attraction is the over thousand-year-old Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba. The original mosque is huge with a comparatively small church planted in its middle upon the order of Charles V. Exposed under a portion of its floor is a Visigoth church that preceded both mosque and cathedral.

What I found particularly interesting is that the mosque was expanded three times over a period of two centuries. The initial construction extensively used recycled Roman or Visigoth stone columns and capitals. Once these were exhausted new columns were fashioned. By the time of the third expansion the quality of the columns and painting on the arches had decisively deteriorated in quality.

The historic Jewish quarter of Cordoba dates to Medieval times. It was fun to walk its narrow streets. Some of our group were Sephardic Jews, and welcomed a chance to have a sense of their origins before their ancestors were exiled from Spain. Of particular interest was one of the few synagogues in Spain surviving from the Medieval period. It had at one time been converted to a church, likely explaining its avoiding destruction. Interestingly, its decorations included Moslem ones in addition to the Jewish and Christian ones, reflecting the onetime coexistence of all three religions in at least a semblance of peace.

Once our morning in Cordoba was done, we boarded a train for Madrid. The train trip fascinated me for two reasons.

The first was olive trees. Lots of olive trees. Thousands and millions of olive trees out to the horizon. Spain produces more olive oil than the next three countries, Italy, Morocco, and Turkey, combined…although this past summer’s searing heat produced a poor harvest.

Secondly, I found the absence of small towns and villages striking. Our director once commented that the people of Spain are city people. Over eighty percent of the population lives in urban areas. Six hundred years ago this wasn’t true. That changed with the inflow of silver and riches from the New World. All this wealth flowed into Seville and then onto Madrid. Why do back breaking working a farm when you can get rich in the city? Literally the countryside was depopulated over the next hundred years as people migrated to the cities. And they never went back. We reached Madrid that night. The next day we backtracked to Spain’s spiritual center, Toledo.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

December 11, 2023 · 1:00 pm

The Magnificent Alhambra in Granada and Washington Irving

We left Marbella for Granada, but went there by a round-about-route. The road climbed into the foothills through a Spanish national park until finally the picturesque city of Ronda came into view. It’s an ancient town inconveniently split by an over hundred-yard-deep river canyon. Looking into the canyon, I would swear it is deeper. See the picture above. Conveniently, three bridges span the canyon, connecting the two sides of Ronda. One, the Roman Bridge, was first built in Roman times. I would like to have been there to see how they did it.

Like Granada, where we would finish the day, Ronda has strong literary connections. It, and its bullfighting ring, was a favorite place for Ernest Hemingway to summer, as well as later Orson Welles and earlier the renowned German poet Rainier Maria Rilke. Our tour guide hopes, if she hits the lottery, to live in Ronda someday. We toured the bullfighting museum and followed that with a walking tour of town and a visit to a residence perched on the canyon’s edge. It was spectacular.

By late afternoon we descended into the southern Spanish city of Granada. It sits in a fertile basin in the foothills of Spain’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Like most cities in Iberia, it was settled in Roman times, if not before. Granada fell to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the last Moorish kingdom to do so. The emir surrendered peacefully. His terms included that Moslems in Granada could continue to their faith. This promise was broken eight years later, contributing to the bitter Christian versus Moslem strife that is a backdrop to The King’s Galley.

The night of our arrival in Granada was my only bad meal in Spain, an oversalted mush of a paella. I know paella. I can make a decent one and I’ve eaten a paella made by a native Spaniard. This paella was a travesty.

Today Granada is a modern city, albeit with historic districts. I believe lush, verdant farms once filled the landscape instead of the present apartment buildings. However, as it has for over five hundred years, the Alhambra sits on a hilltop dominating the city.

Isabella and Ferdinand were taken in by the beauty of Granada and the Alhambra. Previously they’d prepared their final resting place in the holy town of Toledo, but having seen the grandeur and magnificence of Alhambra they determined to be interred there. Which is where their remains rest today in the Royal Chapel of Granada next to the Cathedral of Granada in the center of the old town.

What is the Alhambra? It’s one of the most visited sites in Spain. Walls surround thirty-five acres that include a Moorish fortress, the Palace of King Charles V, extensive gardens, and, in my opinion, the crown jewels, the three Nasrid Palaces built by the Moors. I won’t detail these as I don’t have enough room to do them justice. I urge you to read about it elsewhere.

The Alhambra’s more recent past, that is to say the last two-hundred and fifty years, is interesting. The French occupied the Alhambra during the Napoleonic wars in Spain. Like elsewhere in Spain and Portugal, they looted everything that was moveable and, in the case of the Alhambra, blew up part of it when forced to retreat back to France. The Duke of Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Vitoria, the battle that finally booted the French out of Spain, was due in part by the French being slowed by an immense wagon train of pilfered loot. Then followed sad times for the Alhambra, with it falling into disrepair.

Its resurrection is due in part to writers and poets of the Romantic Movement. Lord Byron wrote a poem about it. Washington Irving wrote a popular book, Tales of Granada, after a three-month residence in the Alhambra. (We saw what is now called the Washington Irving room.) This book, along with his other books about Spain, did much to publicize this treasure.

Today Washington Irving is mostly known for his short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and its headless horseman. However, Irving was one of the most prolific and famous American authors of his day as well as a diplomat, including ambassador to Spain.

It was about this time that the Spanish began a multi-decade effort to preserve and restore the Alhambra. I thank them for their efforts. Having done a morning tour of the Alhambra, we had a delightful lunch on the balcony of the Alhambra Palace Hotel. Our table gave us a panoramic view of the city. For entertainment that evening we enjoyed a rousing flamenco dance and music display.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 10, 2023 · 1:00 pm

Marbella and the Costa del Sol

I looked forward to seeing the famous sunny Costa del Sol even though it didn’t have any of the historic buildings of Lisbon, Seville, or any of the other cities we visited in Spain and Portugal.

No historic buildings? Well, there are some at Málaga, but in general this was a dangerous place to live.

One theme of my book The King’s Galley is about why that is so. In the early 1500’s the Mediterranean shore wasn’t a safe place unless you were in a substantial fortified port like Cádiz or Cartagena. The galleys of Moslem corsairs ranged the western Mediterranean robbing, pillaging, and enslaving people wholesale. Some corsairs, like Barbarossa, had large fleets, while there were many small operators as well. Many, probably most, of the Moslems evicted by Spain after the Reconquista ended up in Northern Africa. They didn’t harbor warm and fuzzy feelings about the Christians who had kicked them out. North Africa is only a day or two sail from the Costa del Sol, making the latter easy pickings. Hence this coastline was essentially uninhabitable.

Times are different now. Condos and hotels line the coast for miles as Europeans flock to the area in season to enjoy the sun. We were there in mid-late October and there were still a generous number of tourists even though there was only a bit of sun.

European temperatures in early October had been unseasonably high in the hundreds. Fortunately, they fell just before we arrived in Porto, but with the lower temperatures came rain. Lots of rain. And wind. Most our sightseeing was indoors so the rain didn’t impact us too much, although our poor driver had to penetrate a deluge on the drive from Lisbon to Seville. While in Marbella our hotel room gave us a front seat to a few storms that moved along the coast.

We had one full day and two nights in Marbella to…do nothing. It was a day to decompress and give our bus driver a day off. We needed it. For a week most days we were on the bus by seven or seven thirty and busy for much of the day. The Gran Melia don Pepe Hotel in Marbella was the perfect place to relax. Every room fronted the ocean! The food, like for all the trip, was excellent. Our dinner the first night was room service on our balcony looking out to the sea. Dinner the second night was in the hotel restaurant. See the picture of my delicious “apple” dessert. I took advantage of a sun break to take a relaxing stroll down the boardwalk to “old’ Marbella.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

December 9, 2023 · 1:00 pm

Seville and the Nao Victoria

Seville was my one ‘must see’ city when planning our Portugal and Spain trip. Early in both Magellan’s Navigator and The King’s Galley are several scenes in Seville. I spent hours studying Renaissance maps of the city before drafting these. Much has changed in the city since then, but importantly the Cathedral and Royal Alcázar still remain and the Guadalquivir River still bisects Triana and Seville while making its way to the sea.

Today a grassy lawn and busy street border the east side of the Guadalquivir, but I found it easy to imagine Magellan’s five ships being outfitted along the shore with warehouses and work sheds where there is now grass and pavement. Workers would have bustled about, the clanging of the blacksmiths at work filled the air, while the smell of hot tar assaulted the nose.

The Nao Victoria Museum along the river was of particular interest to me. The museum is small, but its exhibits do a superb job of illustrating the circumnavigation of the globe from the preparation of Magellan’s fleet through to the return of the Nao Victoria to Seville. Tied up at the river’s edge is a static display of the Victoria. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go aboard as high winds the previous day caused parks and other outside exhibits throughout the city to be closed. There is also a seaworthy Victoria, which on the day we were in Seville was enroute to Sardinia.

Spain’s Casa de Contratación, House of Trade, was based in Seville from its founding by Queen Isabella in 1503 until in moved in 1717. The Casa oversaw ALL activities of Spain’s colonies throughout the world. No ship sailed without its approval. It assessed all taxes on imports to Spain. In Magellan’s time literally nothing happened in the colonies or upon the sea without the Casa’s approval. The Spanish were voluminous documenters of everything. The records of the Casa are in the Archive of the Indies in Seville which was near our hotel. These were a key source for my friend Tim Joyner’s book, Magellan.

Sevilla Cathedral dominates the old part of Seville. It is huge. Only St. Peters at the Vatican and St. Paul’s in London are larger. It’s so large that its disorientating. If you visit get a good guide or audio. Don’t miss the half-ton silver monstrance carried on the select holy days, Columbus’s tomb, or the high altar. These are only the highlights of a host of chapels, paintings, and altarpieces.

Another can’t miss building is the Royal Alcazar, the former Moorish palace that has been a Spanish Royal palace since 1248. Well, actually, we did miss seeing it. There is only so much a person can do in a day. I’ll see it next time in Seville.

The Barrio Santa Cruz directly east of the cathedral is a survivor from the Renaissance. It’s twisted, narrow alleys give an excellent feel for how in Magellan’s time the entire city must have looked and felt, although I suspect it smells much better now than when the streets weren’t as clean. I would visit Seville again to see the Alcazar and visit the Nao Victoria. However, beware, as it was overrun with tourists like ourselves even in October. I don’t think I could stand it during the height of tourist season. People must then be shoulder-to-shoulder with temperatures flirting with a hundred degrees.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

December 8, 2023 · 1:00 pm

Lisbon and Earthquakes, Ships, and Carriages

What do earthquakes have to do with Lisbon you ask?

An earthquake came in many ways to define Lisbon. The Great Earthquake of 1755 utterly destroyed most of historic Lisbon. After the quake, three tsunamis and a huge fire completed the job. So, central Lisbon is quite unlike other historic European cities with broad, logically laid-out streets lined by utilitarian, almost military buildings. Unfortunately, the earthquake erased much of the city’s charm…at least for me. Keep in mind, though, that when I look at a city, I’m always trying to imagine how it looked five hundred years ago in the Renaissance. As a sidenote, the fire also destroyed most written records of Portugal’s Age of Discovery, including Magellan’s records confiscated when the Portuguese captured his flagship in the East Indies.

Fortunately, twenty minutes away is Belém, the port on the Tagus River from whence most of Portugal’s maritime adventures were launched. Belém’s buildings largely escaped the 1755 earthquake. Sights we saw here were the 1960 Monument to the Discoveries, Belém Tower, the Monastery of Jerónimos, the Maritime Museum, and the National Coach Museum.

Wait. Did I say a National Coach Museum? Sounds boring. It wasn’t. The oldest coach belonged to King Philip II, Queen Elizabeth’s antagonist, Queen Mary’s husband, and the man who launched the Spanish Armada in 1588. This carriage had wheels with metal rims and basically no suspension. Riding in it must have been like going through the Inquisition. At the museum you can see the evolution of coaches through to modern times.

Belém Tower is a rustic stone fort built in Magellan’s time to protect the harbor. The Monastery of Jerónimos is a huge sixteenth century building inland a bit from the river. Its church, and its predecessor on the same site, is where Vasco da Gama and other explorers would have worshiped before setting out. Da Gama’s tomb is inside. Unfortunately, an event prevented us from seeing it, leaving it as a ‘must do’ for my next trip to Lisbon. The Maritime Museum fills the west wing of the monastery. It has excellent exhibits treating navigation and ships during the Age of Discovery as well as more modern ships. Finally, the Monument to the Discoveries on the river’s edge is a huge sculpture built in 1960 honoring Prince Henry the Navigator and the other men, and one woman, of Portugal’s maritime past.

Nestled into the hills fifteen miles to the northwest of Lisbon is the little town of Sintra. Portuguese royalty traditionally spent their summers there to escape the heat in Lisbon. Three castles dot the hills above Sintra: the remains of an ancient Moorish castle, the Pena Castle, a ‘modern’ idealistic palace built roughly two hundred years ago, and finally the National Palace.

We had limited time in Sintra. While I would like to have seen all three castles, we focused on the National Castle. An early draft of Magellan’s Navigator had several scenes in this castle with Vasco da Gama giving advice to King Manuel I as to how to handle the upstart Magellan.

Originally a Moorish castle was on the site. In Portugal the Reconquista, the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, generally preceded that in Spain. Sintra was captured by a Christian king in the twelfth century, who converted the castle to his own use. The castle we see today was constructed mainly in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Despite its age, it is in excellent condition, due in part to restorations. It illustrates a common theme that I saw time and again in Portugal and Spain, which is that an originally Moslem Moorish structure was taken over by Christian regents and then modified to their wants. However, the architects and craftsmen that made these changes were by necessity the local ones, who were Moslem Moors. Hence, the enhancements made by the new Christian tenants inevitably had a Moorish character to them. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising, as by many accounts for the first few hundred years of the Reconquista Christians and Moslems, and to a lesser extent Jews, lived together in relative harmony. This gradually changed, culminating with the onset of the Spanish Inquisition under Queen Isabella, and the eventual expulsion or conversion of the Jews and Moslems.

The Sintra palace is actually a castle, with defendable walls and a small inner courtyard. One thing I found fascinating was the tilework on the inner walls. Portugal is known for its tiles, mostly blue tiles. (When in Porto be sure to check out the tile mosaics in the train station foyer.) Sintra’s National Palace exhibits some of the earliest examples of this delightful decoration. What I found interesting was that the tiles in one room were set in decorative squares of four, with all four making up a pattern, with each tile having a separate, but related design. A close examination reveals the four separate patterns were painted by different people, with each type having a distinctive style.

The most impressive room, in my opinion, was the Blazons Hall, which I believe was used as a reception hall. The usual blue tiles adorn the lower walls. The ceiling is a tall dome with King Manuel’s coat of arms at its peak. Around the king’s coat of arms are those of his children. Lower yet on the dome are the over sixty coats of arms of the main Portuguese noble families of the time. Finally, between these and the wall tiles, are different tiles depicting hunting scenes.

Another interesting room is the large kitchen. This has two large conical chimneys, which gives the outside of the castle its distinctive look.

The National Palace in Sintra is a must see if you are visiting Portugal and are interested in its historic buildings. I’ve focused on the buildings of Portugal, but it has so much more to offer. If you are a seafood lover like me, you’ll enjoy the many dishes featuring the fruit of the sea. At the other extreme is pastel de nata, a tasty egg custard tart pastry. Each town seems to have its own version of this, with the Pastel de Belém being arguably the king of the breed.

The first photo is of the Sintra National Palace courtesy of WikiCommons. The second photo is of the Blazons Hall dome.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

December 7, 2023 · 3:07 pm

Magellan, Harry Potter, and Port Wine?

What’s the connection between Magellan, Harry Potter, and port wine? Why, of course, Porto, Portugal. Ferdinand Magellan and J.K. Rowling lived there and port wine is matured there.

This last October my wife and I toured Portugal and Spain. Porto was our first stop after an eighteen-hour odyssey from Seattle.

I like Porto. Its historic core is well-preserved, the people are friendly, and its food both excellent and reasonably priced. While port wine grapes are grown on the terraced slopes of the Douro River to the east, port is aged in one of many port wine ‘lodges’ along the southern bank of the Douro River across from Porto. We had an enjoyable tasting at the Taylor wine lodge followed by a luncheon and entertainment by a Fado singer.

Ferdinand Magellan was one of the marquee players of the Age of Discovery and a tragic major character in my novel Magellan’s Navigator. He was born into minor nobility in a town north of Porto. At some time in his life, he was registered as a citizen of Porto. It gave me a minor thrill knowing that I was walking the same streets and entering the same churches as Magellan had over five hundred years ago.

I’m no expert on J.K. Rowling, but she apparently moved to Porto in late 1991 to teach English classes. While her inspiration for Harry Potter came earlier, she wrote a first draft of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone while in Portowith the first three chapters in near final form. Influences from Porto on her novels are obvious. Porto is a university town, and its students, like those at Hogwarts, wear capes!

Also, Lello & Irmao Bookstore a block from the university has unique spiral staircases and an Art Nouveau interior. I can imagine it being on Diagon Alley. I’ve read Rowling’s claim that she was unaware of the bookstore. This I think unlikely, as downtown Porto is really a small place. Nonetheless, whether or not the bookstore was an inspiration for her is irrelevant for Potter fans. Long lines of them are willing to pay a fee to enter.

My wife and I haven’t specifically sought out Rowling experiences in our travels, but it was a treat on a walking tour of Edinburgh to see the coffee houses where she wrote and, especially, to see the headstones in the Greyfriar’s Kirkyard cemetery. One bears the name of Thomas Riddell, better known as Lord Voldemort in her books. Etched on other headstones are the names of familiar Potter characters.

Portugal relishes its role in the Age of Discovery. Prince Henry the Navigator played a seminal role early during this period. Near the university is Prince Henry Plaza with a statue of the prince. He is believed to have been born in the royal mint and customs house nearby.

We had a fun visit to Porto. Would I go again? YES. Maybe for a five-day cruise of the Douro River and two full days to explore the historic district more completely. I would schedule the visit to avoid the often brutally hot summer months. Also, be aware that the central historic district is currently torn up for construction of a new metro, which made getting anywhere take twice as long as need be. That isn’t as bad as it sounds at it simply means a six block walk instead of three blocks. We like to sleep each night with the window open for fresh air. We fell asleep early the first night only to be awoken by singing or music around 11 P.M. It wasn’t close enough to hear it distinctly, but it was surprisingly loud. It continued past midnight to one or two in the morning. This reoccurred each night! Can anyone in Porto tell me what this was?

(Picture is of the port wine my wife gave me for my birthday before our trip.)

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

January 9, 2023 · 9:00 am

Drake Sees the White Cliffs of California?!

Having failed to find a western entrance to the fabled Northwest Passage, in the summer of 1579 Drake searched the west coast of North America for a suitable place to cleanse his hull and ready his ship for the long sail across the Pacific Ocean and his return to England. His ship’s hold cradled a fortune in silver and gold. He’d be a wealthy man if he could return it to England.

Unfortunately, after a drive along the present-day coast of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California this past Spring, I can confirm the coast is treacherous, with few sheltered bays. Hence, Drake was relieved when on June 17th he sighted a protected bay with white cliffs reminiscent of the Seven Sisters of Dover England. He named the land Nova Albion, New England, and upon further exploration decided to careen his ship, the Golden Hind, there. He would stay for thirty-eight days, during which time he and his crew had fascinating interactions with the natives

Where was Nova Albion? Much ink and even books has been written in attempts to answer this question. For many, including myself, the most likely site for the careening is Drake’s Estero, a small inlet of Drake’s Bay in today’s Point Reyes National Seashore just north of San Francisco Bay. The following picture was taken from the headland southwest of Drake’s Estero, and is similar to what Drake might have seen when approaching the anchorage over four hundred years ago.

It’s easy to see how he might associate this sight with the cliffs of Dover.

The geographical argument for Drake’s Bay for Drake’s stay is strong, but not irrefutable. However, the ethnographic evidence is compelling in my mind. This is found in Robert F. Heizer’s excellent Francis Drake and the California Indians, written in 1947 and published by the University of California Press. Heizer was a professor who specialized in the archaeology and ethnology of the Native Americans of northwest America. He makes a persuasive argument that Drake interacted with the Miwok Tribes of the California coast, which means Drake either careened his ship at Drake’s Bay or Bodega Bay, with the former being more likely. He gives many reasons. For example, the native huts with recessed floors described by those with Drake are not found in Oregon or further north.

Point Reyes National Seashore is a rugged, windswept, but starkly beautiful place. I enjoyed my short stay there, and encourage you to visit it should you have the chance. I only spent part of a day there, and hope to go again and hike the trail to Drake’s Estero to walk the same shore that Drake and his men did.

Leave a comment

Filed under Drake's Botanist

Tagged as , ,

September 8, 2022 · 9:00 am

Strait: Beyond the Myth of Magellan – A Book Review

Having written a historical fiction novel about Magellan’s voyage, I’m always excited to see a new book about Magellan, and I eagerly opened the newest, Strait: Beyond the Myth of Magellan by Felipe Fernández-Armesto. My excitement didn’t last, although the book does have its strengths. Unfortunately, it comes across as an arrogant and self-important professor’s lecture that rambles from topic to topic lurching towards its final confused conclusion.

The first paragraph of the book gives its thesis: ‘Failure is fatal to happiness but can be fruitful for fame…. Magellan is exceptional because his failure was total. Yet his renown seems impregnable.’ I agree that Magellan was in many senses a failure, yet his discovery of the immense size of the Pacific Ocean and the true circumference greatly aided mankind’s understanding of the world. One might think the first circumnavigation of the globe was significant, but in Fernández-Armesto’s opinion, he felt that, like the first landing on the moon, ‘I feel the same about the first circumnavigation of the world. It did not matter.’ The cynical and nihilistic author lost my respect at this point.

I also do not understand his statement of Magellan’s impregnable renown. Perhaps that is true in Spain and Portugal, but I think most familiar with him realize his strengths and flaws. So, I think the author erected an easy goal to meet.

There is also the question of the author’s writing style and approach. Some may like it. I did not. The forty pages of the first chapter were, I suppose, meant to set the stage for the context of Magellan’s expedition. However, they talked about the plague, ocean currents, weather patterns, Portugal in the Indies, but very little about Magellan. This hapahzard style went on through the book. Once, suddenly, there were some five pages about cannibals, which had a minimal degree of relevance. I felt like the author was trying to demonstrate his expansive knowledge of the era. The effect for me was to simply obfuscate the real story. His chronology of events in the Philippines was particularly confusing.

The greatest value of this book is the author’s extensive use of Spanish and Portuguese sources, many of which are primary sources derived from the survivors of the expedition. Now all serious authors have done this before, but it appears the author’s facility with Portuguese and Spanish aided him in teasing out more information. However, a simple reading of the sources without further analysis presents problems with reconstructing what happened. Those people tied to the mutiny against Magellan in Patagonia, like Elcano, had their self-serving version of events. Some other accounts were written years later through the fog of memory. Hence what happens is that the author often gives you a three-handed account of an event based upon different sources: on the one hand Felipe says this, on the other hand Juan says this, and on the third hand Alfonso says this. But what really happened? It takes logic and analysis to figure it out.

Fernández-Armesto acknowledges Magellan’s single-minded determination, which was similar to that of Columbus, da Gama, Cortes, Pizarro, and the others of that era. I do think he assumes Magellan was treacherous, but doesn’t prove why he thinks so.

A salient event of the expedition was the mutiny in Patagonia. King Charles had appointed several Spaniards as captains and officers of the expedition, none of whom had any experience at sea or the Indies, unlike Magellan and some of his Portuguese cohorts. There was a tension between these two cliques. Some believe that the king or his subordinate Bishop Fonseca had ordered the Spanish officers to depose Magellan once they learned what route he intended to take. The Magellan scholar Medina even says that Magellan received a warning precisely to this effect while provisioning in the Canary Islands. Fernández-Armesto doesn’t mention this. This all sets the stage for the mutiny.

On Palm Sunday in Patagonia Magellan invited the Spanish officers to dinner. Here is Fernández-Armesto’s description of this event: ‘…when Magellan invited the leading men of the fleet to dine after mass. Dinner with the Borgias? Or with Titus Andronicus? Or the Godfather? The summons to a deadly meal has been a topos of art from Absalom and Amnon to Agatha Christie and the Mob. A seat at dinner is a convenient place for an assassination: the victim is pinioned behind the table, disarmed save for unmurderous cutlery, easily approachable to a cutthroat from the rear, and vulnerable to poison in what may be set before him or her.’ This passage encapsulates my problem with the book.

First, the author gives no evidence for Magellan’s treachery other than his own imagination. I doubt Magellan would have killed officers appointed by the king unless he had ironclad evidence, which he didn’t have. And if he did, it would have been revealed by the events that followed. Second, the author’s writing is overwrought. Reading the book is much like listening to a professor droning on and on.

Subsequently, the mutineers did strike that night, mortally wounding one Spanish officer loyal to Magellan and shackling Magellan’s cousin. Later one of Magellan’s loyal officers kills one of the mutineers, which Fernández-Armesto calls an assassination. Assassination??? The mutineers had already stabbed an officer of the fleet and forcibly taken three of the ships! The mutineers initiated the use of force. Magellan was entitled to use whatever means necessary to crush the mutiny. Magellan certainly had his faults, as evidenced in the Philippines, but he seems the more innocent party in the event of the mutiny. It is also telling, I believe, that the sailors and working men of the crew heavily sided with Magellan against the Spanish dandies.

I cannot judge the veracity of the author’s interpretation of the Portuguese and Spanish accounts. I can judge the veracity of more common knowledge, like when Fernández-Armesto calls the historian S.E. Morison a ‘battle-scarred and battle-ready admiral.’ I think Morison’s books are superb. I especially appreciate that he actually sailed through the Strait of Magellan and many of the other locales visited by the explorers that he documents. However, Morison was not ‘battle-scarred and battle-ready.’ He was a college professor who during World War II was given at age fifty-five the commission of Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy so that he might document the history of that war. He never commanded a ship. His eventual promotion to Admiral was more honorary rather than due to any military accomplishment. There are many more instances of wrong or mis-stated facts.

The book could have used a good editor. For example, he establishes early on that Pigafetta didn’t become a Knight of Rhodes (St. John) until after completion of the voyage. Nonetheless, when at Cebu he says things like ‘Pigafetta, the knight of St. John, who might have been expected to know about Christian standards of chivalry, ….’ But by his own admission earlier, Pigafetta was not then a knight of St. John, so why call him one?

The author’s understanding of navigation also appears shaky. Francisco Albo was the navigator of the one ship to make it back to Spain. Albo’s log is our best record of the route taken by the ships. Fernández-Armesto for some reason continually, and annoyingly, questions whether the log was actually Albo’s. Well, Albo was the only pilot to make it back to Spain from the Spice Islands, so one should feel certain the log during that period was truly ‘Albo’s log.’ As to before that, Fernández-Armesto should read Rossfelder’s book on the route and navigation of Magellan’s voyage. While Albo was sailing with other ships, the navigators would periodically get together to agree upon their course and position. Hence his log did at that time represent his measurements, but periodically these would be adjusted so that all navigators would literally be on the same page.

For those interested in Magellan, I recommend Tim Joyner’s book Magellan for a straight forward, lucid explanation of the voyage. I might be prejudiced in this matter because the late Mr. Joyner was my friend. I found it surprising that Fernández-Armesto dismissed Joyner’s book because he ‘lacked the conceptual knowledge, historical sensibility, humanistic discipline, and factual command the task demanded.’ Really? Fernández-Armesto also seems to be unaware of Rossfelder’s book which concentrates on the voyage’s navigation and could have cleared up some of his questions about those issues. Of course, Rossfelder wasn’t a history professor so I suppose his work isn’t relevant in the author’s eyes. He also ignores Bergreen’s 2003 book, Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, which despite having been out for nearly twenty years is far out selling Strait.

Leave a comment

Filed under Magellan

Tagged as , , ,