Several people really enjoyed the descriptions of the House of Good Fortune, ruins of a typical street and two houses in Cartagena. My first reaction was, if we like old or ancient things, we should look in our own mirrors. Yikes.  All kidding aside, that's what we are doing when we step into the memories of older cultures.  When David and I lived in Bryan,Texas the house was built in 1939 and it was in the historic district of the town. It was a small cape cod built by high school students in a building program.  Perspective shifts.  

When we moved to Pennsylvania there were usable buildings from the 1700's and Native American sites that were light years older.  The irony is that, "aqui in Espana" old things are often old hat.  They have been surrounded by Roman ruins, Iberian ruins, the Visigoths destroyed many of the ruins and the Moors built beautiful buildings that Ferdinand and Isabella,better known as Reyes Catolicos, "transformed" from mosques into cathedrals. The last time we were here one of David's fellow matematicos was driving us to Madrid from Valencia he was only pointing out the tv towers and radio towers not the ancient cathedrals or windmills or... that captivated us.  

Ironically, we chose a house north of Valencia that is "older".  When potential renters came by to look for a summer house in La Canyada I overheard them saying to the real estate agent that it's a nice house but it's so old.  It was built around 1950.

Casa de Buena Fortuna

Here's the Roman house where they found FORTUNA written at the entryway to one of the houses.  Not a bad sentiment to offer for those who enter. 

The piecing together of tiles found in the rubble suggest interesting senses of color. I always thought that the Romans were all about white, monumental marble, but apparently not so.  In the large view the spaces that haven't filled in create a different reality.  Almost as interesting as what they have pieced together.  For the artists- negative space.

In the photo of the design, up close you see the actual size of the pieces.  Those of you who love jigsaw puzzles eat  your hearts out.

Museo Arqueologico Cartagena

And from the Archeological Museum in Cartagena we saw this sign.  Some of the tablets are funeral markers, but lots of them are just signs about laws, rules, and locations.  So for those of us who complain about the email we write or deal with.  Think how carefully you would consider writing if you had to use a chisel and stone.  No whiteout or backspacing to delete.  If you read Latin please tell me what this is about.

The funeral monuments are pretty cool but imagine the time that went into them.  Todays granite or concrete monuments are a little cheesy.  I just wonder if this is really a likeness of the person who died, or if like in US obituaries you see photos of people when they were 20 in a sailor suit.

Plaza de Toros, Cartagena

The Plaza de Toros in Cartagena looks a lot like a Roman amphitheatre, this one also demonstrates the Moorish influence in the area which was considerable. the key like openings.  Of course under neath this they have found ruins of a "roman theatre".

This quirky building below is an ode to all of us when we feel like we are standing alone.  This facade is typical of Spanish urban renewal.  They save the front and build behind it.  Of particular interest though is the knot of wires that are  hanging from the house.  Code inspectors in the US would have a conniption fit as my grandmother Myrtle used to say.  

But just to remind us that we are not in charge at all, here is one of the trees we have found all over Spain, and no one we have asked knows their names.  They remind me of the trees we saw in Joshua Tree National Monument in California. You too can play, "Name that tree."

This tree has to be really old, that's how it made into the antiguo category.The next episode will take in a little Murcia and the 25th anniversary that David and I shared in Murcia.  We know some of you have 50th anniversaries coming up, like my brother Floyd and his wife Fran. But, hey we started much later. So happy trails and looking in the mirror is not such a bad idea.

Cartagena & Murcia   May 2-9 2008

Embarking on our second rental car adventure in Spain was a wholly different experience than the first.  We rented the cheapest car Sol-Mar had.  It was listed on British “car hire” sites.  We were picked up at the airport and taken to their shop, where they immediately upgraded us to a more comfortable car at no extra charge.  We found our way with good directions onto the auto route then took the beach route south through Valencia, Benidorm, Alicante, and south near Torrevieja, along La Manga del Menor (a huge salt sea) and on to Cartagena.  David drove to break the car in, I had not driven a car since January….. 

Cartagena and our relation to it were complicated.  It is a small seaport, but more than that it was a major defensive port.  The best port west of Italy with easy access to Carthage in North Africa.  I think it was named Carta Nova after the Phoencian and Carthaginian influences in North Africa.  Archaeologists have found parts of the Roman city in sites all over the downtown center.  You can find these underground archeological sites all over subterranean Cartagena.  In the most unsuspecting places, there are these subtle entrances.  Above ground there was a café and gaming club, underneath, “The House of Good Fortune”  or Buena Fortuna.  In this darkened museum was the remains of a wealthy Roman home complete with cooking areas, painted walls- precursors to wallpaper, the entrance into the street and the street itself.  We also saw two other museums that you could easily have missed, one that was the rediscovered remains of the Forum and the Tribunal where Roman holy men prayed for the Emperor.  Everywhere there were Moorish walls, Punic War walls- all a testament to the strategic importance of this site.

I can’t help but draw the comparison to the human experience of having the rich relics and ruins of ourselves, old remains, underneath the modern, quirky exteriors that we are.  In the US the ruins or points of archeological interest are usually Native American.

We waited on Saturday morning to see the Museo Archeologico of Cartagena.  David was literally hanging on the fence wanting to get in. 

Outside of the museum, which was built on a necropolis, complete with burial grounds, there were thousands of pounds of Roman and Carthage columns and buildings just laying around, next to  modernist murals.  See if you can see the little people, who look like Martians in precarious positions in this photo.  Juxtaposition of ancient and pop.

We were amazed at the items in the museum.  ( For pictures from here out, go to the Photos section on the left  side and click on Cartagena).  All sorts of pre Roman tools used for sewing, rocks trimmed for instruments and farming tools.  Kind of makes you wonder what they will find under your house after you are gone.  There were almost intact amphoras, pottery containers used to carry water. Marble sculptures, a little weather worn, my favorite is the headless woman.  The heads were carved separately, as were the arms and were attached with metal rods into the base.  That’s why so many of the statues lost their heads and arms. 

Clearly, when building projects are underway, they bring in the team of archeologists to check the site before they are allowed to excavate.  All these finds were in the last half of the 20h century.  The Teatro  Romano is being restored as are the many walls of the city.

Modern Civil War buildings, the Refugio de las Bombas ( Bomb Shelter) point to the life of being a target of Franco’s friends, the Italians and the German air forces.  This museum is on the actual site of the bomb shelters designed to hold 5,000 people.  It’s built into the side of the tallest hill in Cartagena that has an old castle on top.  Great view from there.  But you have to take an elevator from the shelter to the top.   I was really taken by the Refugio because it challenged my knee-jerk sense of Peace at any Cost.  The Republican (anti-Franco forces) starved, families were divided, children sent away to family outside of Cartagena to protect them.  But the shelter made the experience real, not abstract.  The base of the shelter, is a site to exhibit children’s posters for La Paz.

In the harbor are incredible, Star Wars-like  structures camouflaged in rock and stone  to hide canons and guns and submarines. 

There has been a haunting almost dreamlike aspect to our entire trip—an undertone of the Spanish Civil War throughout, beginning with our reading of “The Ghosts of Spain  by Giles Tremlett.   This book details, from a British point of view how much of modern Spain is anchored in the Civil War.  Though nobody wants to talk about it. 

In Cartagena we met the reality of the war site.  It happened.  I realized that this is as close as I have come to being in or near a war battleground.  In the US there are battle sites, Antietam, First Battle of Bull Run, but those were mostly fields where soldiers died.  Here, the civilian toll was horrific.  And on both sides. Like so many other areas rife with killing and disputes.  Maybe the children’s posters are an afterthought, perhaps a  plea that no other families have to suffer.  Even after Franco’s death people were reticent to talk about where their family was in the struggle.  Socialists would punish those who even obliquely had anything to do with the war.

In Valencia at the IVAM (Modern Art Museum) we saw a phenomenal exhibit of Luís Ramon Marín (Madrid 1884-1944) and saw what it meant to be an insider photographer in the Franco regime.  Photos of Rivera the founder of the Falangists- Super Right- in battle fatigues and his funeral at El Escorial,Phillip II’s huge monumental city.  Marin had 18,000 glass negatives of his visions of the most famous people in Spain. He documented from airplanes, boats, etc.  His visions were clear and compelling, I don’t know his politics.  To see some of his images go to http://www.ivam.es and look for current exhibicions for Marin.  We have talked to people on either side who lost uncles, grandfathers to the machinations of the Republicans and the Francists.  So there is no winner.

Leaving Cartagena we went to La Playa en La Manga del Menor.  Think the southernmost place in the US, Key West, where you can see Cuba in the Keys.  It’s like that.  We had paella on the beach and it was fabulous.  It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to live on the beach.  We passed high rise, after high rise, before we found- probably an illegal passageway that took us to the Mediterranean.  There, with sun screen in the car, we baked on the beach while eating fabulous paella on Mother’s Day in Spain, the week before US mother’s day.

There are many salt seas in the area.  Big salt producing area.  So for rheumatism treatments this is Mecca.  You can go for a week and receive water treatments.  So Archana, Murcia, and other places have balnearios with hotels.  I was tempted, but we already had a hotel.

We had a wonderful time with our Spanish host, Angel Ferrandez-Izquierdo, his wife Marisol, and their daughter Marta.  We hope they can visit the U.S. with Marta who has special needs.  A family with giant hearts.  See them below.  Angel is wearing Marisol’s glasses so he can read the menu. 

David talked at the University and felt really good about it.  A number of graduate students from University of Granada also came to David’s talk, though they were there for a short course offered by Marco an Italian mathematician from Univ. of Milan.

Yes,  he's out of focus but someone else took this picture.  And here are the rest of the faculty and students from Murcia and Granada.  Quite a crew.  Notice all the women!

After Cartagena, where we saw everything turistico, we just enjoyed Murcia.  Our 25th anniversary was spent in a fabulous restaurant El Rincon de Pepe, in our hotel.  It’s where the rich and famous go.  Since we were neither- we stuck out like sore thumbs.

What we did discover in Cartagena and Murcia were the wines of Murcia, Jumillas, Bullas, and Yeclas.  Angel gifted us with examples of them and we had found a special one we liked in Cartagena- called Casa de Ermita, a Jumilla, that has great powerful burst of flavor.  It’s not for wimps.  But is really good with spicy food.  Now we have to see who imports these delicious beauties.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we are not in control of lives. We came back to a house that was radically transformed. There was about ¼ inch of fine debris from cutting tile on all flat surfaces.  I cleaned the house thoroughly before we left so UGH! The landlady had workers come in and clean the grounds of all the winter plantings, take the skuzzy water out of the swimming pool and paint it.  And, to boot, they had gutted the downstairs bathroom taking out the 1950’s fixtures,tub, toilet, and replaced with tile walls,a new ceiling, vanity and mirror with lots of Ikea type furniture with  glued wood products. Not fabulous for those with chemical sensitivities. Now there is a fancy shower with 8 water jets, a little base, and today they are putting in a circular shower curtain holder so David will not have to  mop up the entire floor after he showers. 

 Needless to say—we moved upstairs to the third floor bedroom  only to find that --today, they were taking the roof off our new bedroom and putting asphalted tin on it.  I am doing well, trying not to breathe it in.  So after this blog, I will go for a walk and try to regroup.

On Wednesday David leaves for Lyons, France for his last mathematical excursion.  He has traveled to Turkey, Granada, Salamanca and Murcia to give talks and now he flies to Lyon for a Geometry conference where he will spend time thinking mathematically with Vincent Borrelli at the University of Lyon.  He will have to restrain himself in Lyon.  It is the gastronomic capital of France.  Hopefully he will come back with a few euros in his pockets.  He finds Borrelli quite a fascinating mathematician, much in common.  Thanks to Olga Gil, Universitiy of Valencia, David was able to spend quality time with Vincent when he came to Valencia in February.

This next week we will welcome visitors from Fountain Hill, our neighbors Kim and Terry Ritter. I am sure it will be a continuation of Spanish aventura.