Murcia: we liked very much!

Wikipedia: Murcia is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country, with a population of 442,573 inhabitants in 2009. It is located on the Segura River, in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, noted by a climate with hot summers, mild winters, and relatively low precipitation.

Murcia was founded by the emir of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman II in 825 with the name Mursiyah. Nowadays, it is mainly a services city and a university town. Highlights for visitors include the Cathedral of Murcia and a number of baroque buildings, renowned local cuisine, Holy Week procession works of art by the famous Murcian sculptor Francisco Salzillo, and the Spring Festival.

The city, as the capital of the comarca Huerta de Murcia is called Europe's orchard due to its long agricultural tradition and its fruit, vegetable, and flower production and exports.

Murcia is located near the center of a low-lying fertile plain known as the huerta (orchard or vineyard) of Murcia. The Segura River and its right-hand tributary, the Guadalentín, run through the area. The best known and most dominant aspect of the municipal area's landscape is the orchard. In addition to the orchard and urban zones, the great expanse of the municipal area is made up of different landscapes: badlands, groves of Carrasco pine trees in the precoastal mountain ranges and, towards the south, a semi-steppe region.

Allen chose this stop because of the great cathedral and strong influence of Moors in the area's history. 

Wikipedia again: The Cathedral of Murcia was built between 1394 and 1465 in the Castilian Gothic style. Its tower was completed in 1792 and shows a blend of architectural styles. The first two stories were built in the Renaissance style (1521–1546), while the third is Baroque. The bell pavilion exhibits both Rococo and Neoclassical influences. The main façade (1736–1754) is considered a masterpiece of the Spanish Baroque style.

Other noteworthy buildings in the square shared by the Cathedral (Plaza Cardinal Belluga) are the colorful Bishop's Palace (18th century) and a controversial extension to the town hall by Rafael Moneo (built in 1999).

The cathedral dominates the town and is so cool in every way inside too.

The cathedral shares a plaza lined with restaurants and seems to be the place to see and be seen at all hours. I just loved it there! Folks of all ages coming and going constantly, even late into the evening. Favorite happy hour spot of the trip for me.

We saw this couple both evenings. He'd had a stroke, I'm guessing, but both were very dressed up and taking a very slow walk back and forth across the plaza, deliberate and elegant.

During happy hour we laughed a lot at this statue of some rich guy looking offended at the pigeon invading his meringue. (I guess you had to be there.)

One of my favorite stories of the trip came when I wandered into Murcia's historic theater because I saw someone else walk in. Figured I'd get a look at the lobby.

But a cute guy came by and asked what I wanted, and when I asked just to look around for a moment, he took me on a tour of the theater itself!!

The ceiling was stunning!

And my guide insisted on taking my photo "for my friends." I asked his position, and I think he might have said he was the maestro. Dumb lucky me!

I still can't get over the predominance of Serrano ham everywhere we go. This was in the deli of the La Cortes Ingles, Spain's largest department store that have everything, like a Stockmann in Finland.

Another kick for me was visiting the historic Murcia Casino. Begun in the 1800's as a gentleman's hang-out in various rich guys' homes, a proper club building was built in the 1880's and underwent an extensive everything restoration completed in 2010.

Tourists take a self-guided audio tour, can take as long as we want. This is the fantastic Moorish reception room.

Reception hallway

Just another statue of another gorgeous guy.

During the restoration, the story is that this beautiful ballroom parquet floor is the only thing besides a few lampshades that is original.

Throughout the building were many sculptures and other pieces of art featuring this guy or his cousins.

The Main Entrance features a "fish tank" on both sides of the door, so called because everyone inside can be seen mingling and mixing by passersby.

Yup, buncho old guys sitting in there, reading the morning papers.

Billiards on the main floor, chess and cards upstairs, we were told.

Whimsy in the Segura River.

And the cathedral and plaza at night are even more stunning thanks to clever lighting!

TTFN, Murcia!

From Barcelona to Murcia

So on Sunday we bugged out of Barcelona, eventually headed for Lisbon. We caught a cab to the main train station, where we rented a car for the duration.

We were both worried about driving in Spain, but it's a quick learning curve, then easy to manage.

We followed a mostly coastal road today to Canet d'en Berenguer, a tiny resort town.  Lots of mountain tunnels in the first 100 miles south of BCN.

Pulled over into an interesting-sounding town for a driving break and lunch, no other rationale for stopping here.

Because it's Sunday in Spain, almost everything is closed. We were befriended by an Argentinian family living in Tortosa who directed us to one of the few cafes open in town.

After a good lunch, we stumbled onto this, an interpretive center at one of the air raid shelters built during the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway had been here during that time and wrote about Tortosa somewhere along the line.

Back on the road again, first lemon tree sighting!

And first sightings of the bazillion olive groves we would see in the week to come.

Although these stone terraces we saw primarily only along the East Coast.

First fortress sighting!!

Spent the night in the resort town of Canet d'en Berenguer, north of Valencia, primarily because it was cheap and on the Mediterranean.

First time these toes have been in the Mediterranean Sea!!

Beach flowers

Our trusty steed, a Skoda, large enough to be roomy and comfy, small enough to fit into some incredibly small Spanish underground garages!

Monday morning we headed to Murcia, and spent a good part of the day on a small road in orchard country. The area around Murcia is called "Spain's Orchard." These are lo-quats, I think.

We waved and blew a kiss to Valencia as we drove through that city. This odd thing is the city's new performance venue.

And just south of Valencia...

From Wikipedia: The Albufera, or L'Albufera de València, meaning "lagoon" in Catalan (from Arabic البحيرة al-buhayra, "small sea"), is a freshwater lagoon and estuary on the Gulf of Valencia coast of the Valencian Community in eastern Spain. It is the main portion of the Parc Natural de l'Albufera de València ("Valencian Albufera Natural Park"), with a surface area of 21,120 hectares (52,200 acres). The natural biodiversity of the nature reserve allows a great variety of flora and fauna to thrive and be observed year-round. Though once a saltwater lagoon, dilution due to irrigation and canals draining into the estuary and the sand bars increasing in size had converted it to freshwater by the seventeenth century.

We were sorely tempted to take one of these cool historic lake fishing boats for a short birdwatching tour, but time didn't permit.

The area around is lagoon is nothing but rice fields, a major crop in this area. You have to trust me...this is a rice field during fallow season.

Miles of agriculture under sunshades.

We've been hungry to see animals, I guess, saw these moorhens (?) and mules when we made a pit stop for Allen on some back road behind a small town.

And tens of miles of hoop houses. I never knew Spain was such a food producer.

One must trust me when I write this is a fleeting glimpse of scenic Mediterranean coast!

We also experienced seeing what we assumed were wild dogs, three of them, in the median on the highway in the middle of nowhere. That was after we watched a military Huey-like helicopter descending, descending right in front of us at one point. I thought for sure it was going to land on the highway, but instead it descended even lower into some sort of military complex.  No pix; each event happened too quickly.