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Roland Routier
  • Roland Routier
Sep 2017 – Sep 2025

Roland Routier

An open-ended adventure by Roland Routier Read more
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  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Family hospitality

    March 27, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Time to leave Otura and my hosts.
    David deFreis, the celebrated jazz trumpeter, (seen here making war on stubborn vines,) has gone on a gig somewhere after we finished pruning the trees and garden. We found that our ideas were surprisingly similar and so established an immediate rapport.
    His partner Monica Lopez is a viola player with the Granada Orchestra and relaxes by learning the intricate rhythms of Flamenco. She always wanted to be a dancer but was convinced by well-meaning adults that a career in music was a better option.
    They have 2 daughters, Muriel, who coaches Acro gymnastics whilst she takes a year off after school to decide what she wants to do, and Rayen, who suffers from a developmental condition and although functional, (she studies percussion and plays in a brass band,) is not likely to live independently. Regularly she breaks out in laughter which warms the whole house and makes you smile.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Córdoba - Long Bridge of Volantis

    March 30, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    I was all excited at the prospect of actually standing on the Long Bridge of Volantis, where Tyrion Lannister and Varys were seen travelling incognito, (for Tyrion was a wanted man,) from Pentos to Meereen. After travelling inside a carriage for days Tyrion insisted on getting out. As the two men walked across the bridge crammed with ramshackle buildings, they passed houses, shops, a preaching priestess and a brothel.
    Alas, they faked it as you can see in the photos. According to the Arab geographer, Al-drisi the Roman bridge 'surpasses all other bridges in beauty and solidity', but since it has been reconstructed frequently only the 1st C foundations are really Roman. The present structure is medieval, though the 19th-century cobbled paving does give a Roman feel. There is an irregular pattern to the 16 arches in size and abutment protections.
    I took a couple of leisurely days driving from Granada to Cordova. The countryside is repetitive and the grids of olive plantation give the land the look of an old lady in a hairnet.
    At one spot I found a lay-by concealed from the road with a nice olive farm extending from it. There were a couple of drivers having their siesta in their cars and otherwise plenty of free space. It was a lovely spot for a campsite and so I stopped even though it was early, taking the opportunity to sit and read in the sun for a while.
    I watched a lorry pull up for a break and two men wander over for a chat in the typical, familiar way I saw Spaniards conversing with strangers in bars. They sauntered past my van taking a good look at the 'giri', (ie non-Andalusian,) as they did. Then one of them came over and asked me if I was alone and how had I found the place. I did my best in broken Spanish to explain my presence, wondering whether he was 'casing the joint' for anything of value.
    In my innocence I had missed the warning signs of naked paunch and belt undone, but the penny dropped when he asked whether I was 'active' or 'passive'. It may have been a 'lay' by but clearly it was also a cruising ground not mentioned in the Nautical Almanac, so in order not to give offense I up anchored and bore away for another port.
    My first view of Cordova was this old bridge.
    In the centre of the eastern side's stone handrails there is a little shrine to St Raphael, at whose feet the devout burn candles.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Semana Santa

    March 30, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    Throughout Spain, the main feature of this week is the procession of floats from each parish through the streets into the main church or cathedral and back to their home base.
    In Cordova alone I counted 55, although I certainly didn't see all of them. The
    Parroqui de Santiago Apostol carried a 1975 work by Luis Alvarez Duarte of Mary at the foot of the cross for the shortest time of 4 hours. At the other extreme the Parroquia San Antonio Maria Claret carried their float, a 19th C anonymous work of Christ on the cross with Mary at the foot, for 10 1/2 hours starting at 17:30 and finishing at 04:00 the next morning. The Iglesia Conventual de San Augustin claims to have commenced their processions in 1558. Although there are a few who claim to have been founded in that century and re-constituted in the early 20th C, the majority have origins in the latter half of the last century, up to the youngest, (Parroquia San Vivente Ferrer,) in 2006.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Floats

    March 30, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    Small floats are carried in rotation by 24 men, whilst most of them are up to 50 bods. Each man carries 50kg, meaning that many weigh as much as a large car. If that wasn't enough, the centre of gravity is usual found about a metre higher than the bearers heads, which is what poses the challenge. Swaying more than minimally is a big no-no. As the float wobbles, the outer people can have their load increased substantially, so the trick is to move slowly. At full speed ahead they place their feet one foot in front of the other, slower than a funeral march. To turn, frequently in a space barely larger than the entire float, they shuffle sideways, half the width of their feet at a time.
    Groups of lusty young men in Egyptian headgear can be encountered strategically along the route, ready to jump in and takeover when the cortege halts every 100m or so for a rest. When they stop, they collapse to their knees.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Change of direction

    March 30, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    In places the clearances on either side are down to a cm on either side. Of course, the load carriers cannot see anything except the arse of the guy in front so they rely on the dark suited chaps around the outside to instruct them. I wish I understood the dialect for it must be hilarious to listen without the responsibility.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Routes

    March 30, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    The parades approach the cathedral converging on the Puerto del Puente, completed in the days of Philip II.
    The present triumphal arch is the work of Hernán Ruiz III and replaces what was first a Roman gate mentioned at the time of Julius Cesar and later a Moorish gate. A documented restoration took place in 720 AD.
    Nowadays it is a traffic island, but today the floats cram themselves through it.
    Then it is round the side of the Mezique and into the Orange Garden in front of the building. They then squeeze into the building, pass through the colonnades and exit through another tight doorway.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Ornery folk

    March 30, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    All ages of parishioners take part in the parade. The youngest was chewing on a pacifier and the oldest who couldn't chew was in a wheelchair.
    Even the officials range in age, and they even have female thurifers!
    The point of this exercise is really an exercise in community and, especially for the carriers, in teamwork. Like the Carnivale in Rio, it takes a whole year of organisation and practice to carry through.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Self-effacement

    March 31, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Each parish has its own colour scheme for tunic, cloak, sash, belt etc.
    The witches hats may stem from pagan times for all I know. Nobody could tell me the significance beyond the act of self-effacement.Each parish has its own colour scheme for tunic, cloak, sash, belt etc.
    The witches hats may stem from pagan times for all I know. Nobody could tell me the significance beyond the act of self-effacement.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Hunting

    March 31, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    No Easter Egg hunts here. Instead the young spectators accost certain participants like this one, who have Holy Pictures to give out. Or maybe football cards - I tried to have a look at one but received menacing glances at my feeble attempts at Spanish.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Penitent

    March 31, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Now the Spanish have always been strict about non-conformism so it is no surprise to see someone who obviously didn't carry the float appropriately being made to pay by completing the course barefoot.

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    When its over

    March 31, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    After the excitement, when the stimulation of squeezing through narrow openings has abated and all the grunting and groaning has died down, we should not be surprised to find some of the marchers' cones a little limp.

    Members of the band relieved of duties resort to modern technology for their light relief.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Easter Eggs

    April 1, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Not a Bunny in sight and not even much chocolate around.
    The benevolent tourist office clerk informed me that the local Easter specialty is called 'Torrijas' so I bought myself one for 1.65 Euros. Maybe it was a "Poisson d' avril" or perhaps she just took pity on me and steered me towards a nice sweet. It is like a soft shelled custard tart with honey. Yum!Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Bleak House

    April 2, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos

    Built by Alfonso XI in 1328 on the site of a Moorish predecessor, this Mudejar style palace is really a pretty stark fortress but the Catholic Monarchs Fernando and Isabel held court here in the 15th century before going for Granada. One of their guests here was Christopher Columbus in 1486.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    On the tiles

    April 2, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    By 152 BCE a strategic provisioning point for Roman troops had been estab­lished in Córdoba. By the 1st C it had become Emperor Augustus' capital in Baetica, one of the three Roman provinces on the Iberian Peninsula. By the 3rd C, after Christianisation, it declined and fell to Islamic invaders in AD 711.
    The old Roman town lies a couple of metres below the modern town and very little can be seen or remembered beyond the outstanding legacy of citizens such as Seneca and Lucan.
    Some mosaics were dug up from the Plaza de la Corredera in the 1950s, but they must have shattered into many small pieces.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Springing into life

    April 2, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The Alcázar’s ter­raced gardens.
    A few days into Spring so the plants have not yet blossomed fully.
    I could not discover the significance of the shaped trench in the middle of one cistern - it has no entry or exit point and is filled by overflow.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Church parade

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Córdoba in 756 was the biggest city in Western Europe, with a population somewhere around 250,000.
    This was the famed ‘city of the three cultures’, where Muslims, Jews and Christians coexisted peaceably and Abd ar-Rahman III’s court was frequented by scholars from all three communities.
    Towards the end of the 10th century, Al-Mansur (Almanzor), a ruthless general whose northward raids terrified Christian Spain, took over. But after Al-Mansur’s son Abd al-Malik died in 1008 Berber troops looted the city and by 1031 the Umayyad was over. Córdoba became a minor part of the Seville taifa (small king­dom) in 1069, and after Castilla’s Fernando III muscled in it became just another pro­vincial city.
    Mosque
    The Mezquita or mosque is one of the world’s greatest examples of Islamic ar­chitecture.
    Abd ar-Rahman I purchased half of the Visigothic church of San Vicente for the Muslim community’s Friday prayers, and then, in AD 784, bought the other half on which to erect a new mosque. Three later extensions nearly quintupled the size of Abd ar-Rahman I’s mosque.
    These are the entrance doors:
    The Puerta de San Sebastian has the oldest remains of Muslim decoration in Spain and the first Arabic inscription on the building (855 AD).
    The Puerta del Sabat has a raised passage allowing the Caliph to pass unseen from his palace to the maqsurah (place of prayer.)
    Under the Umayyad Caliphate Cordova overtook Damascus in importance.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Orange grove

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Patio de los Naranjos
    This classic Islamic ablutions courtyard, with its orange, palm and cypress trees and fountains, forms the entrance to the Mezquita.
    Its most impressive entrance is the Puerta del Perdón, a 14th-century Mudé­jar archway in the base of the bell tower.
    When the mosque was used for Moslem prayer, all the naves were open to this courtyard allowing the rows of interior columns to appear like an extension of the trees with shafts of brilliant sunlight filtering through. However, it was Bishop Francisco Reinoso who added the orange trees as a continuation of the columns in the hall.

    Torre del Alminar
    The 54m-high bell tower was originally built by Abd ar-Rahman III in 951–52 as the Mezquita’s minaret. It was strengthened with an outer shell and heightened to contain a belfry by the Christians in the 16th and 17th cen­turies.
    The original minaret would have looked something like it's copy, the Giralda in Seville. Córdoba’s minaret influenced all minarets built thereafter throughout the western Islamic world.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    A Columny

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    In order to cover 14,400 sq metres of floor space, the builders borrowed the double arches from Roman aquaducts to create a lightweight and airy structure.
    A flat roof, decorated with gold and multicoloured motifs, was support­ed by striped arches suggestive of a forest of date palms. The arches rested on, even­tually, 1293 columns (of which 856 remain today) forming 39 naves standing perpendicular to the qibla wall.

    MezquitaTIMELINE
    600 Foundation of a Christian church, the Basilica of San Vicente, on the site of the present Mezquita.
    785 Salvaging Visigothic and Roman ruins, Emir Abd ar-Rahman I replaces the church with a mezquita (mosque).
    833–56 Mosque enlarged by Abd ar-Rahman II.
    951–2 A new minaret is built by Abd ar-Rahman III.
    962–71 Mosque enlarged, and superb new mihrab 1􀀀 added, by Al-Hakim II.
    978–9 Mosque enlarged for the last time by Al-Mansur, who also enlarged the courtyard (now the Patio de los Naranjos 2), bringing the whole complex to its current dimensions.
    1236 Mosque converted into a Christian church after Córdoba is recaptured by Fernando III of Castilla.1271 Instead of destroying the mosque, the Christians modify it, creating the Capilla de Villaviciosa 3 and Capilla Real 4.
    1523 Work on a Gothic/Renaissance-style cathedral inside the Mezquita begins, with permission of Carlos I.
    1593–1664 The 10th-century minaret is reinforced and rebuilt as a Renaissance-baroque belltower 5.
    2004 Spanish Muslims petition to be able to worship in the Mezquita again. The Vatican doesn’t consent.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Arch triumph

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Jan Morris described it as "so near the desert in its tentlike forest of supporting pillars." The architect introduced another, horseshoe-shaped arch above the lower pillars. A second and purely aesthetic innovation was to alternate brick and stone in the arches, creating the red and white striped pattern which gives a unity and distinctive character to the whole design. There are more than 850 coloured granite jasper and marble pillars.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    A question of facing

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    The Mihrab & Maksura
    The Mihrab traditionally has two functions in Islamic worship, first it indicates the direction of Mecca (therefore prayer) and it amplifies the words of the Imam, the prayer leader. Initially Al-Andalus was part of the Caliphate of Damascus, so it is not surprising to find the Cordoba Mosque Mihrab facing south in the same way as the Damascus mosque and not south east in the direction of Mecca. Furthermore, it is an octagonal room rather than the conventional niche.
    The bay immediately in front of the mihrab and the bays to each side form the maksura, the area where the caliphs and courtiers would have prayed.
    Al-Hakim II’s ex­tension in the 960s was the portal of the mihrab – a crescent arch with a rectangular surround known as an alfiz. For the portal’s decora­tion, Al-Hakim asked the emperor of Byz­antium, Nicephoras II Phocas, to send him a mosaicist capable of imitating the superb mosaics of the Great Mosque of Damas­cus, one of the great 8th-century Syrian Omayyad buildings. The Christian emperor sent the Muslim caliph not only a mosai­cist but also a gift of 1600kg of gold mosaic cubes. Shaped into flower motifs and in­scriptions from the Quran, this gold is what gives the mihrab portal its magical glitter.
    Inside the mihrab, a single block of white marble sculpted into the shape of a scallop shell, a symbol of the Quran, forms the dome that amplified the voice of the imam for all to hear.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Surface to requirements

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    The Mezquita’s Interior
    The Mezquita’s architectural uniqueness and importance lies in the fact that it was a revolutionary structure. Earlier Islamic buildings such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque in Damascus placed an emphasis on verticality, but the Mezquita was intended as a democratically horizontal and simple space, where the spirit could be free to roam and communicate easily with God – a kind of glorious refinement of the original simple Islamic prayer space (usually the open yard of a desert home). Men prayed side by side on the argama­sa, a floor made of compact, reddish slaked lime and sand.
    The final Mezquita had 19 doors along its north side, filling it with light and yielding a sense of openness. Nowadays, only one door sheds light into the dim interior. The solid mass of the cathe­dral in the centre and the 50 or so chapels around the fringes, further enclose and im­pose on the airy space whilst adding a vertical dimension to the enclosure.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Killick woz ere

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    One's breast swells with pride to find one's ancestors mark on a World Heritage building.
    Interestingly he must have worked alongside artisans from all backgrounds, for example a Jewish stonemason was evidently involved.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRoland RoutierTraveler

    Crash of civilisations

    April 3, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Following the Christian conquest of Córdo­ba in 1236, the Mezquita was used as a ca­thedral but remained largely unaltered for nearly three centuries. But in the 16th cen­tury King Carlos I gave the cathedral author­ities permission to rip out the centre of the Mezquita in order to construct the Capilla Mayor (the main altar area) and coro (choir).
    Legend has it that when the king saw the result he was horrified, exclaiming that they had destroyed something that was unique in the world.
    The cathedral took nearly 250 years to complete (1523–1766) and exhibits a range of architectural fashions, from plateresque and late Renaissance to extravagant Spanish baroque.    Read more

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