Figueres, Cordoba, and Cuenca - taking the long way to Barcelona

When I went to sleep for our final night in Marseille, it was also my final day of active duty in the Navy. I woke up on October 1st and felt pretty much the same, but a lot of things had changed at the stroke of midnight. In addition to now being an official "Navy retiree", I was no longer getting paid a salary and, perhaps most importantly, I was no longer covered by TRICARE for medical insurance. I am eligible to apply for TRICARE coverage as a retiree and they pretty much have to accept me if I apply within 90 days of retirement, BUT getting my retirement status in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Status (DEERS) database is a pre-requisite. This does not happen automatically and basically is linked to the process for getting a Retiree ID card. In an ideal scenario, the last day of active duty is NOT on a Friday or Saturday and the retiree can set up an appointment for the next working day to get a new ID card for themselves and their dependents. In our case, it wasn't quite that simple. I told the boys to stay off of bikes and skateboards until they get their new ID card because we don't want to test the system on what happens if someone needs medical attention during this window of vulnerability.

The urgent issue for a person retiring outside a military concentration area is how to get a new ID card and get updated in DEERS. To be clear, this was not a surprise when I woke up on October 1st. In fact, I lost considerable sleep over this question while we were planning our trip.

Since we were heading to Spain, our only two options were Moron Air Force Base or Naval Air Station Rota, both of which are in the southwest corner of the country.

In our structured-but-unstrucutured travel planning, our next 'commitment' is to meet friends in Barcelona on October 6th, so adding in a roundtrip to the opposite corner of the country was a necessary inconvenience in our scheme of maneuver. We debated about transportation options and decided to use a hybrid solution of train and rental car.

We took a train from Marseille on October 1st and made a one-day stop (18 hours, really) in Figueres, Spain which is which is just across the border from France. Our main purpose for stopping in Figueres was to visit the Salvador Dali Museum. Figueres is Dali's hometown and his museum is a lasting monument to Dali's success as an artist and Figueres' success as a tourist destination. We were quite happy we made the stop.

The next morning, OCT 2nd, we got up early, caught a 0745 bus, and rode for three hours to get to the Barcelona airport where we rented a car. We were on the road at noon for an 850 km (520 mile) drive to Cordoba. The first part of our drive followed the Mediterranean coast until Valencia and then turned inland. We stopped for lunch in a seaside resort town called Torreblanca and enjoyed a nice meal on the beachfront boardwalk amid palm trees and sunny weather. We arrived in Cordoba around 9 pm and stayed at the Hotel Oasis just over the river from the historic center of town.

Sightseeing in Cordoba was the secondary purpose for stopping there. Our main mission was to make the final 125km (75 mile) drive to Moron Air Force Base the next morning for a 0930 appointment in the Base Headquarter building to get new ID cards. We left at 0700 because we didn't know how difficult getting access onto the base would be. To our pleasant surprise, it was very simple. Moron is a joint use base between the Spanish Air Force (primary residents) and the U.S. Air Force. The base security, as far as we could tell, is administered entirely by the Spanish Air Force. The nearby Naval Air Station at Rota has a reputation for being inhospitable to retirees trying to get on base and we knew from our time in Naples, Italy that access is more controlled at overseas installations than it is in the U.S. where we wouldn't think twice about trying to drive on any kind of base with a valid ID card.

The Spanish Air Force sergeant (not sure exactly what his rank was) who helped us could not have been friendlier or more accommodating. I explained in my very broken Spanish that I needed a new ID card and he responded with a "oh, you are one of those" looks as if this is a common circumstance he has to deal with for letting unfamiliar Americans onto the base. He took our rental car info and ID cards, made a temporary car pass for us, gave us directions to "Edificio 101" where the Base HQ and ID card office were, and we were on our way. The only flaw in our plan is that we were 40 minutes early, but we sat on a comfy couch and watched the Base HQ people coming and going for the start of another work week. In short order, we walked out with Retiree ID cards and the paperwork was all set up (with my required signature) for the boys to go get their ID cards renewed at the Coast Guard station in Boston, MA for Edward and the National Guard office, in Madison, WI for Henry. 5 stars to the U.S. Air Force.

We had made a backup appointment at Naval Air Station Rota the following day in case our worst fears about Moron Air Force Base security or Air Force personnel processes had come true. Thankfully, those fears were entirely misplaced so now we had a day and half to explore Cordoba, which is rich in history, culture, and sightseeing wonder.

For the drive back to Barcelona, we decided to break up the 850 km road trip with a stop in the hill city of Cuenca. In absolute terms, Cuenca is a must-see place filled with old world charm and jaw-dropping scenery of a city built at the top of a hill with nearly vertical cliffs on two sides. In relative terms, Spain has so many amazing places to visit that Cuenca becomes a B-list attraction. Lyn discovered Cuenca looking through some internet travel sites and it lived up to the promise of a great place to spend a day and an evening.

We arrived back to Barcelona on October 6th and braved rush hour traffic to drop Lyn and our bags at our Air BnB in the heart of the city before returning the rental car to the airport, from which I took the train and metro to get back to the Air BnB.

In a straight shot on the high speed train, the journey from Marseille to Barcelona should only take 4.5 hours. Lyn and I took the long way and ended up enjoying the road trip, ID card adventure, and sightseeing that came with it. The shortest line between two points is seldom the most interesting.

FIGUERES

Figueres has the low energy and mix of old and new architecture common to many Spanish cities. We stayed at the Hotel Duran in the hear of the centro and just down the hill from the Salvador Dali Museum. The red and yellow flag of Catalonia (gold background with four bright red vertical stripes) was flying prominently in several places. The Catalonian spirit was running strong. Among the other flags was a 'prohibited' symbol with a crown in the center. Whether this is a statement of anti-monarchy protest or pro-Catalonian independence was not entirely clear to the lay person (me).

Outside the Salvador Dali museum. Eggs are a common motif in much of his artwork.

Since this was an early wakeup and a travel day, Lyn was wearing her glasses to conserve her four month supply of contact lenses. Plus I think she looks great in glasses.

The focal point of the museum is a courtyard and a large enclosed space capped by a geodesic dome. They almost feel like one space but are separated by the large glass window, making one an outdoor space and the other an indoor space. Both are loaded with surreal works of art in all directions.

The museum guide provided a recommended route but also emphasized that in the spirit of Dali's art, visitors are welcome to roam the museum's exhibits in any order that makes the most sense to them. Salvador Dali is buried in a simple gently lit crypt immediately beneath the enclosed "glass dome" room.

Panorama shot

We had fun playing with the reflection in the glass window looking up.

Salvador Dali portrayed Mae West in 1934

One interesting exhibit in the museum is a room of furniture arranged by an artist who was not Salvador Dali but it is an homage to a painting by Salvador Dali called "Mae West's Face Which May Be Used As a Surrealist Apartment". The painting itself if in Chicago.

Here's where you can see the original painting.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/65819/mae-west-s-face-which-may-be-used-as-a-surrealist-apartment

Here's some details about the famous surrealist sofa mimicking Mae West's lips.

https://www.thedaliuniverse.com/en/news-dali-and-his-mae-west-sofa

Here's some deep artsy analysis linking Sigmund Freud, Salvador Dali, and Mae West

https://www.minniemuse.com/articles/musings/mae-west-room

Here's the photos we took while standing in line for our turn to look through the magnifying glass at the furniture.

We spent over two hours in the museum and enjoyed seeing a wide range of artwork. Salvador Dali was anything but boring.

I had to get a photo of this one for all my amphibious 'Gator Sailor' friends.

This was a full room and it's hard to tell what is artwork and what is plain old furniture. I found the skeleton of what looks like some kind of ape (orangutan maybe?) quite striking. The melting watches are a common theme in Dali's work. His famous "Persistence of Memory" is at the MoMA in New York.

This was a rather small painting (7" x 9") that was less surreal than much of Dali's other work. It is called Study for the "Battle of Tetuan". Sounds a lot like Tatooine and the riders don't look all that different than sand people.

One of my personal favorites of the day.

These next two images show Salvador Dali's creativity with and playfulness. See the image formed on the curved shiny surface.

This might be a little hard to see but it's a man on a horse holding a flag.

A skull.

After the museum, we took a walk around town, rested a bit, then went out for tapas around 9 pm which is the peak of the Spanish supper time.

La Rambla main plaza lined with people on benches out enjoying the evening.

At the far end of La Rambla we found an homage to Dali and his experimentation with the curved surface.

In the background is a statue dedicated to Figueres native Narcis Monturiol which the associated plaque credited him as the "inventor of the submarine". While that's a bit of a stretch, Wikipedia confirmed he was the inventor of the first air-independent and combustion-engine-driven submarine. You find naval history in the strangest places, although his first submarine was not intended for military purposes and was built to help harvest coral reefs and reduce the danger to divers.

The price for stopping in Figueres was riding a bus for three hours the next morning to the Barcelona airport where we rented a car and then drove for eight hours. Although Sunday was a bit long and painful, we had no regrets about making the stop in Figueres to learn about this lovely town and the fascinating artist it produced.

CORDOBA

On our way to Cordoba in our cute little Peugot 208 rental car, we stopped south of Tarragona and north of Valencia in a beach resort town called Torreblanca where we had a nice lunch on the boardwalk with a nice breeze coming off the Mediterranean.

$7.80 per gallon for gas.

Driving across La Mancha. Don Quixote would be right at home these days with all the windmills.

We made it to Cordoba and the next morning got up early to finish the trip to Moron Air Force Base where we got our Retiree ID cards taken care of. It went smoothly and we made it back to Cordoba for a celebratory lunch in Plaza de las Tendillas.

Lyn had visited Cordoba when she did her semester studying abroad in Sevilla way back in 1989. Cordoba is the kind of city that ages very slowly so it had all of the charm and rich texture that she remembered so fondly. It was also quite a bit warmer than we had expected for the first week of October. We chose our wardrobe for this trip based mostly on hiking the mountains and being in northwest Spain and Croatia for Fall and early winter. We had not anticipated being in a sun-drenched southern Spanish city for any length of time with daily high temperatures in the low 90s. Thankfully, we each had one pair of shorts along and decided to make use of them even though we stood out quite prominently as tourists. Cordoba gets many visitors, though, so we were barely in the minority most places we went.

Cordoba was the seat of Roman rule in Iberia and later became a focal point of Moorish rule for 800 years and, for a period, the center of the "Caliphate of Cordoba". The legacy they left behind is remarkable. Without doubt, visiting the Mezquita of Cordoba will inspire an appetite for understanding more about the history of this region and the underlying forces which drove the rise and fall of Moorish rule in Spain.

https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/

It was over 32C (90F) so we went back to our hotel on the other wide of the Guadalquivir River and relaxed until closer to sunset. Then we walked back to the Centro historic district by way of the Roman bridge. The sky had a weird overcast and a very warm wind was blowing. It reminded me of being in the Middle East when the dust hangs in the air and gives everything a strange shade. We saw later that the air quality in Cordoba was extremely bad due dust in the atmosphere.

Main bridge into the historic area originally built by the Romans when Cordoba was the center of the Roman rule in Iberia.

The Guadalquivir is the same river that flows through Sevilla. In Roman times (2,000 years ago), the river was navigable up to Cordoba. This is pretty hard to believe looking at the river these days, which is very low and rocky.

Catholic shrine on the outside of the Mezquita. Cordoba, particularly the Mezquita, is an interesting mix of the old Moorish architecture being preserved and re-purposed for Christian worship.

Contrast. Cezanne would have liked this.

On Tuesday, we had a full day to explore Cordoba but it was still pretty hot and we were not dressed for the weather. We did our share of walking though and saw several of the key sites in the city including the Roman ruins discovered during excavation around the city hall.

Look, Dad. Roman Ruins!

Door of the Mezquita (former Moorish mosque). Stone work inside the Mezquita courtyard.

Moorish courtyard with oranges trees and a Catholic Church tower. The outside of the Mezquita shows both Moorish (window) and Christian (cross) symbols.

Mezquita courtyard at night. Photos were not allowed inside the Mezquita when we did the night tour. It was a truly special experience to go into the Mezquita at night. The tour walked us through the massive interior and lit up portions of it in segments to show the growth of the structure over several centuries and then the inclusion of a Catholic church in the middle of the mosque following the defeat of the Moors. I would rate the Mezquita on par with Machu Pichu, St. Peters, and Petra. It was absolutely magnificent.

Montoro, a typical hillside town in Andalusia. We did not visit but stopped to take a picture of it from a distance on the drive to Cuenca.

CUENCA (the pictures say it all)

What a great place to visit. We stayed in an old posada overlooking one of the two rivers that define the old fortress city. When your room key looks like this, you know you came to the right place.

This was the view from our room that greeted us.

See the statue on the hill in the upper right. Let's go climb up and see what's there. Because we haven't done enough climbing in the last couple weeks.

This bridge is a nit nerve rattling, especially because some of the planks a bit squishy when you step on them. We met a woman who was petrified with fear and could barely walk out on the bridge unassisted. Lyn became her best friend for about seven minutes.