Storied History on the Golden River of Wine
PORTO AND THE DOURO VALLEY
Porto, Portugal
There’s magic in the air—or the rocks—in the upper Douro River Valley, where vintners conjure wine from the stony riverbanks. The vineyards that cling to towering cliffs above the golden river that snakes along a deep gorge are tended by hand because tractors can’t negotiate the steep incline. Yet out of this unlikely landscape comes one of the world’s sweetest and richest wines—port. The area’s 350-year-old tradition of making port is portrayed at Sandeman’s modern Quinta do Seixo Wine Center in the upper Douro. At the Aquapura Douro Valley, a graceful 19th-century port-producer’s manor transformed into a high-design hotel and spa, guests relax on the terraces above the river, sipping local vintages and musing on the Douro’s journey to the sea. In nearby Folgosa, homegrown chef Rui Paula’s D.O.C. restaurant offers modern twists on the Douro’s rich traditional cuisine.
The port wine grown in the upper Douro comes downriver to Porto, the country’s second largest city, to mature. The port lodges—where the wines are blended, fortified, stored, and aged—have lined the banks of Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the river from Porto, since the 1700s. Today, Cruzeiros Via d’Ouro offers river tours with panoramic views of the Douro bridge—designed by Gustave Eiffel in 1877—and of the old houses with red-tiled roofs rising like terraced vineyards up the city slopes.
The same striking view can be enjoyed with a glass of wine from the terraces at Taylor Fladgate Port Lodge, where tours and tastings are offered. The venerable company is also behind the Yeatman, a sumptuous 82-room hotel and wine-lover’s refuge whose cellar boasts the largest collection of Portuguese wines in the world. Across the river, in central Porto, the luxurious Teatro Hotel, located on the site of a gilded 1859 theater, exudes opulence and originality, in a distinctive theatrical mode. For dining, chef/owner Marco Gomes, of the esteemed Foz Velha restaurant, wins international plaudits for his contemporary reinterpretations of classical Portuguese cuisine.
The landscape surrounding the river Douro is filled with vineyards famous for producing port wine.
WHERE: 197 miles/317 km north of Lisbon. QUINTA DO SEIXO WINE CENTER: Tel 351/254-732-800; www.sandeman.eu. AQUAPURA DOURO VALLEY: Tel 351/254-660-600; www.aquapurahotels.com. Cost: from $325 (off-peak), from $450 (peak). D.O.C.: Tel 351/254-858-123; www.ruipaula.com. Cost: dinner $40. CRUZEIROS VIA D’OURO: Tel 351/222-081-935; www.viadouro-cruzeiros.com. TAYLOR FLADGATE PORT LODGE: Tel: 351/223-742-800; www.taylorsportwinelodges.wordpress.com. THE YEATMAN: Tel 351/220-133-100; www.the-yeatman-hotel.com. Cost: from $260 (off-peak), from $345 (peak). HOTEL TEATRO: Tel 351/220-409-620; http://hotelteatro.pt. Cost: from $150. FOZ VELHA: Tel 351/226-154-178; www.fozvelha.com. Cost: tasting menu $55. BEST TIMES: Jun 24 for Festa do São João; late Sep–early Oct for grape harvest.
The Flower of al-Andalus
LA MEZQUITA
Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain
Of the Mezquita’s original 1,293 columns, 856 still stand today, creating a forest of onyx, jasper, marble, and granite, topped by horseshoe arches of candy-striped red-and-white marble. Add decorative mosaics and plasterwork and you have one of Europe’s—and the world’s—most breathtaking examples of Muslim architecture.
Constructed between 784 and 987 on the site of a razed Visigoth church (itself originally a Roman temple), La Mezquita, the Great Mosque of Córdoba, has managed to transcend numerous Roman Catholic modifications made in the 5 centuries after Córdoba fell to Christian forces in 1236—including the ill-conceived Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin erected in the middle of the structure. After exploring the interior of the Mezquita, step outside and enjoy the cool sounds of running water in the Courtyard of the Oranges, where the faithful once performed the ritual of washing before prayer.
The Omayyad rulers of Damascus (see p. 469) established themselves in Córdoba in 716. By the 10th and 11th centuries, Córdoba had become the bright light in Europe’s Dark Ages and the most important city west of Constantinople. Muslims, Jews, and Christians jointly created the most cultured and learned city on the continent, and with nearly 500,000 inhabitants, it was also the largest.
Remnants of this culture can be explored just steps from the Mezquita in the Barrio de la Judería, a twisting warren of cobbled thousand-year-old streets that was the old Jewish and Arabic quarter (a small synagogue dating to 1315 still stands on Calle de los Judíos) until the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492. Distinctive for their flower-bedecked patios, private homes are open to visitors during the annual Courtyard Festival in early to mid-May. A charming complex of five homes reopened in 2010 as the stylish Casas de la Judería hotel, with 64 guest rooms around an open courtyard.
Just outside the district, Arabic-influenced classic Córdoban cuisine is the specialty of the historic Restaurante Almudaina, fronting the Guadalquivir River and adjacent to the Alcázar, the 14th-century fortress-cum-royal-residence where statues in the beautiful gardens commemorate the fateful meeting between Columbus and Ferdinand and Isabel. Enjoy a luxurious stay in the exquisitely restored Hospes Palacio del Bailío. It’s housed within a number of Renaissance/Baroque mansions that date to the 16th–18th centuries, but the ancient Roman ruins that support the hotel’s foundations are also on display through the glass floor in its noted Senzone Restaurant.
WHERE: 86 miles/138 km northeast of Seville. LA MEZQUITA: Tel 34/95-747-0512. LAS CASAS DE LA JUDERÍA HOTEL: Tel 34/95-720-2095; www.casasypalacios.com. Cost: from $250 (off-peak), from $360 (peak). RESTAURANTE ALMUDAINA: Tel 34/95-747-4342; www.restaurantealmudaina.com. Cost: dinner $60. HOSPES PALACIO DEL BAILÍO: Tel 34/95-749-8993; www.hospes.com. Cost: from $215. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and Sep–Oct for nicest weather; Semana Santa (week before Easter) and Easter Week; May for lots of festivals, including the Courtyard Festival; mid-Jul for Guitar Festival.
What Wonders Lie Within
THE ALHAMBRA
Granada, Andalusia, Spain
With the white peaks of the Sierra Nevada rising behind it, the breathtaking complex of the Alhambra represents the final flowering of European Islamic art and architecture when Granada flourished as Spain’s last Muslim state. Although austere and unassuming on the outside, nearly every surface of its interior is covered with ornate geometric and flowing arabesque patterns.
For almost 250 years this “Red Fortress” served the Moorish rulers of Granada as palace, harem, and residence for court officials. As one city after another of the kingdom of al-Andalus fell to Christian Spain, the Moors of Granada struck a deal with the kings of Castile and became a refuge for Muslim artists, scholars, and intellectuals, effectively concentrating Spanish Muslim high art and culture to a degree not seen since 10th-century Córdoba (see p. 245).
With the Christians’ ultimate victory on January 2, 1492, the “boy-king” Boabdil (Mohammed XII) surrendered the Alhambra and left Spain forever. Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel moved into the palace and, tradition holds, signed the final exploration papers with Christopher Columbus on April 17 in its Hall of Ambassadors. Separated from the Alhambra by a patch of woodlands, the smaller but equally sumptuous Generalife summer palace is set among fountains and tiered gardens.
The most famous of Spain’s government-run inns, the Parador de Granada San Francisco lodges guests within the Alhambra’s enchanted walls where they enjoy the thrill of meandering the patios and grounds after closing hours. Rooms in the richly appointed original building are most notable for the privileged views of the complex and of Granada below. A contemporary option is the boutique Gar-Anat Hotel, in the historic city center; each of its 15 imaginative rooms showcases a famous poet, philosopher, or literary luminary associated with Granada.
After the Reconquest, the Moors lived in the medieval Albaicín quarter that rises on the slope facing the Alhambra. Follow the warren of narrow, cobbled streets past flower-draped walls enclosing ancient houses and their gardens to the Mir
ador de San Nicolás for the finest views of this enchanting city. Enjoy dinner at San Nicolás Restaurante, where it’s worth the splurge for their contemporary Andalusian cuisine. Also in the Albaicín, the well-known Peña de Arte Flamenco “La Platería” hosts rising stars of flamenco in an authentic, no-frills setting. To enjoy some of Spain’s best and most generous tapas, head to the adjoining plazas of Pescadería and Bib-Rambla.
One of Alhambra’s most impressive sites is its Court of the Lions, whose centerpiece is a fountain held up by 12 marble lions.
WHERE: 160 miles/256 km east of Seville. ALHAMBRA: Tel 34/902-888001; www.alhambra-tickets.es. PARADOR DE GRANADA SAN FRANCISCO: Tel 34/958-221440; www.parador.es; in the U.S., Marketing Ahead, 800-223-1356; www.marketingahead.com. Cost: from $460. GAR-ANAT HOTEL: Tel 34/958-225528; www.gar-anat.es. Cost: from $125 (off-peak), from $175 (peak). SAN NICOLÁS RESTAURANTE: Tel 34/958-804262. Cost: dinner $45. PEÑA DE ARTE FLAMENCO “LA PLATERÍA”: Tel 34/958-210650. When: Thurs, Feb–Jul. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and Sep–Oct for nicest weather; Semana Santa (week before Easter); late Jun–mid-Jul for 17-day International Music and Dance Festival; early Nov for International Jazz Festival.
Raise a Glass to the Dancing Horses
JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA
Andalusia, Spain
You only have to watch the Andalusian horses rear back and dance in perfect synchronicity to fully understand the Spanish love affair with all things equine. The compact, muscular breed known locally as the pura raza española (pure Spanish breed) was bred by Carthusian monks in the late Middle Ages and became the darling of the sherry aristocracy in and around Jerez in the 19th century. Horse mania arrives every year during the Feria de Caballo in early May, but weekly year-round performances go on at the Fundación Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre (Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art).
Jerez is best known as the world headquarters of sherry, an English corruption of the city’s name. Winemaking began in the region under the Phoenicians around 1000 B.C., but the current system of making oak-aged, oxidized wine fortified with brandy didn’t begin until the 19th century, when a collaboration of Spanish and English companies led to sherry’s becoming one of the world’s most famous wines. Twenty sherry bodegas are still located in the city, and González Byass (makers of Tio Pepe)—in the shade of the 12th-century Alcazar Castle—provides the best tour. To appreciate a more intimate and deluxe operation, make an appointment to visit Bodegas Tradición.
Despite Franco’s attempt to exterminate the gypsies of Jerez, the city’s heritage as the birthplace of a distinctive flamenco style has been preserved. Visit the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco for suggestions on where to see a number of performances on any given night in venues that are generally less touristy than those in nearby Seville (see p. 250).
Stay as a guest of the local Garvey family in their grand Neoclassical home that has been transformed into the contemporary 16-room Palacio Garvey hotel. The tapas bars around Plaza Arenal are world famous for Jerez specialties—the good bars each stick loyally to a single sherry brand.
Summers in southernmost Spain can be brutal. Escape to the country retreat of Casa la Siesta, an hour’s drive from town in Vejer de la Frontera, and enjoy the keen style and amiable attention of the young British owners. From there, day trips into Jerez are easy, or spend your stay exploring Andalusia’s stunning Pueblos Blancos (see next page).
At the School of Equestrian Art you can take in a show as well as visit the school’s stables, tack room, and museums.
WHERE: 49 miles/79 km south of Seville. FUNDACIÓN REAL ESCUELA ANDALUZA DEL ARTE ECUESTRE: Tel 34/956-318015; www.realescuela.org. When: performances Tues and Thurs. GONZÁLEZ BYASS: Tel 34/956-357046; www.bodegastiopepe.com. BODEGAS TRADICIÓN: Tel 34/956-168628; www.bodegastradicion.es. CENTRO ANDALUZ DE FLAMENCO: Tel 34/956-814132; www.centroandaluzdeflamenco.es. HOTEL PALACIO GARVEY: Tel 34/956-326700; www.sferahoteles.com. Cost: from $215 (off-peak), from $430 (peak). CASA LA SIESTA: Tel 34/699-619430; www.casalasiesta.com. Cost: from $260. BEST TIMES: late Feb-early Mar for Flamenco Festival; Semana Santa (week before Easter); May for Feria de Caballo; Sep for grape harvest festival.
A Scenic Drive Through History
RUTA DE LOS PUEBLOS BLANCOS
Andalusia, Spain
The beauty of the Sierra de Grazalema region is unmatched in Spain. Its combination of dramatic mountain scenery and splendid, whitewashed villages makes you half expect to see medieval Berber farmers and Christian knights. Follow the scenic Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos (Route of the White Towns) connecting Arcos de la Frontera on the west to the high redoubt of Ronda on the east.
Arcos rises steeply on the wedge of a sandstone ridge crowned by a ruined Moorish castle and the spectacular Parador Arcos de la Frontera, the 18th-century palace of the king’s magistrate (corregidor) and now an atmospheric inn. Historic rooms overlook the town square, but many guests prefer the suites with cliff-hanging terraces overlooking the Guadalete River. The town’s narrow streets are lined with buildings that date to the 18th-century Enlightenment, built after an earlier earthquake left the town in shambles.
The land east of Arcos rises swiftly into mountains contested by Arab and Christian armies for 700 years, leaving “de la Frontera,” or “on the border,” as an appendage to the names of many towns. The villages wear history on their sleeves—from the distinctly North African Berber look of Grazalema, gateway to mountain hikes and Europe’s southernmost trout streams, to the mountaintop Moorish-then-Christian fortress at Zahara de la Sierra that commands three strategic mountain passes. In between, don’t miss high-flying Algodonales, Spain’s hang-gliding capital, and Ubrique, long famed for its leather crafts.
Acclaimed for 2,000 years by everyone from Pliny the Elder to Hemingway, Ronda (43 miles east of Arcos) is an incredible sight. It stands perched on a dramatic limestone escarpment that is sliced in two by the El Tajo gorge, where the Guadalevín River flows 393 feet below. Streets of the Arabic old city twist like vines around the escarpment; across the gorge, the new city seems to emanate from Spain’s oldest (1785) and most beautiful bullring, where, every September, corridas are held with matadors in full Goyaesque costumes. For a country retreat just 10 minutes outside town, a late-18th-century olive mill has been magically transformed into the Hotel La Fuente de la Higuera, a small, stylish hotel that is luxurious without any pretense.
Standing more than 300 feet above El Tajo gorge, Ronda’s New Bridge is a misnomer for this 18th-century structure.
WHERE: Arcos is 45 miles/73 km south of Seville. PARADOR ARCOS DE LA FRONTERA: Tel 34/95-670-0500; www.parador.es; in the U.S., Marketing Ahead, tel 800-223-1356; www.marketingahead.com. Cost: from $230. HOTEL LA FUENTE DE LA HIGUERA: Tel 34/95-211-4355; www.hotellafuente.com. Cost: from $260. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and Sep–Oct for nicest weather; 1st week of Sep for Ronda’s Feria Goyesca de Pedro Romero.
The City of Don Juan and Carmen
SEVILLE
Andalusia, Spain
Seville is a storied city that has been Andalusia’s seat of power and glory for nearly 1,000 years. The Alcázar (royal residence) and Cathedral, built over the Moorish palace and mosque, lie at its heart. In fact, the Giralda bell tower of the Cathedral (the world’s largest Gothic church) is the old Moorish minaret.
This is a city that celebrates excess, from the encrusted Baroque decoration of its churches to a nightly devotion to flamenco and tapas. Even religious observances can be extreme: During Semana Santa (the week before Easter), members of the city’s 60 cofradías (brotherhoods)—many of them in long, hooded robes, barefoot, and dragging chains—slowly parade through the darkened streets to haunting, deeply devotional music. Two weeks later, the city does an about-face with the exuberant Feria d’Abril (April Fair)—a heady week of drinking, dancing till the small hours, and daily bullfights, topped off by Sunday night’s fireworks.
Andalusia is the birthplace of flamenco, and weekend performances at the new Museo del Baile Flamenco, founded
by legendary dancer Cristina Hoyos in the central neighborhood of Santa Cruz, are some of the purest examples of this authentic music and dance. Also in Santa Cruz, you can find impromptu guitar and dancing on the back patio at La Carbonería. Located nearby is the historic hotel Casas de la Judería; arrayed around a number of leafy patios, it is an oasis in Seville’s former Jewish quarter and most colorful neighborhood.
Seville is the mother church of tapas, and tapeo (tapas-hopping) is a way of life here—just follow the sevillanos from bar to bar. Be sure to visit El Rinconcillo, the city’s oldest (established in 1670) and quintessential bar, with vintage posters of the April Fair on the walls, hams hanging overhead, and tabs chalked up on the massive wooden bar.
No in-town hotel surpasses the grand Alfonso XIII for its history and glamour. Built to accommodate visiting royalty during Seville’s 1929 World’s Fair, its design borrowed freely from the Moorish influence of the palace of the Alcázar, with beautiful tiles and inlaid columns and archways. But also consider the romantic countryside retreat of Hacienda de San Rafael, about an hour south, in Las Cabezas de San Juan. In an 18th-century farmhouse on a 350-acre olive estate, the Anglo-Spanish owners have created a sophisticated getaway where every detail is spot on.
Flamenco dancing originated in this region.
WHERE: 90 miles/144 km southwest of Córdoba. MUSEO DEL BAILE FLAMENCO: Tel 34/954-340311; www.museoflamenco.com. LA CARBONERÍA: Tel 34/954-229945. LAS CASAS DE LA JUDERÍA: Tel 34/954-415150; www.casasypalacios.com. Cost: from $180 (off-peak), from $315 (peak). EL RINCONCILLO: Tel 34/954-223183. Cost: tapas “meal” $12. ALFONSO XIII: Tel 34/954-917000; www.starwoodhotels.com. Cost: from $415 (off-peak), from $920 (peak). HACIENDA DE SAN RAFAEL: Tel 34/954-227116; www.haciendadesanrafael.com. Cost: from $350. BEST TIMES: Mar–May and Sep–Nov for nicest weather; Semana Santa (week before Easter); 2 weeks after Easter for Feria de Abril; Sep–Oct in even years for the Bienal Flamenco.
1,000 Places to See Before You Die Page 41
