Visit to Spain.
Salvo Almeleh
My wife and I spent a most delightful and memorable week on a "conducted tour" of Spain, towards the end of June last year. We visited Alicante, Valencia, Toledo, Madrid, Avila and Segovia; although the temperatures sometimes soared into the 40° C. we still enjoyed cool and balmy days.
We flew in from an Airport some distance from Pindon to Alicante staying overnight there. Our tour started the following day, were we drove to Valencia through La Mancha, arriving in Toledo that afternoon.
Toledo was going to be our springboard, making daily excursions to all the other cities mentioned. We used to be let loose at all places of interest, letting us find our way back to the bus. In Avila we suc¬ceeded getting ourselves lost, trying to find our way back to the bus. A very kind gentleman drove us all the way to Segovia, where we managed to wave the bus down as it sailed past us.
This part of Spain, on the eastern and central side is similar to our countryside here in Zimbabwe, except of course, that it is all cultivated with orchards, citrus groves, grape-vines, wheat fields and other crops.
Walking around in the open square in Valencia, I felt very much at home, as I listened to and watched the people, with whom I had so much in common. Then there were those very quaint windmills of Don Quixote fame, going through La Mancha. We actually went up one of those windmills. They are about a thousand years old. Some were used to grind corn; Avila is very much a walled city, similar to Rhodes Island. I was very impressed with the Roman aqueduct running high above one of the main roads in Segovia. Madrid of course, is a beautiful city, with its stately buildings, its statuary and its history. At the railway station we saw two bullet trains. They travel at over 120 miles an hour. I had no problem with the language, making myself understood with my Ladino and of-course understanding the Castellano spoken to me.
It was Toledo of all the cities 1 had been to that stole my heart, with its minarets and spire, its ancient walls, castles and gates - all breathing history. A relic of the past, as it was looking at you through the centuries, as in a time warp. This was the meeting point of three, real religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The name Toledo it self is Hebrew. The Romans invaded it in 192 CE, leaving behind their own brand of civilization their language -Latin - their laws, their dam's aqueducts etc.
Then came the Visigoths, a group of German tribes. They brought with them their own religion, which was Christianity, and their own type of archi¬tecture, as evidenced in some of their surviving cathedrals. This was about 570 CE.
The moors followed in 711AD until 1492, when the Spanish forces crushed their last stronghold. They brought with them the Arts, Sciences and learning and not a few agricultural products, such as grapes, olives citrus and others. For many hundreds of years, these three peoples fared well, under the beneficent rule of the Moors.
During that time the Spanish were still fighting with the Moors, recapturing many of the strongholds taken by the Moors, until the final capitulation in 1492. Synagogues in Toledo I visited the two synagogues in Toledo, both bearing Christian names, namely Santa Maria la Blanca and Il Transito. As the Spanish conquered these places, so they changed the names of all mosques and synagogues, adapting them for Christian Worship. The former synagogue was built about 1200 CE and the latter in 1357• Il Transito, of course meaning Christ's transition after resurrection.
When I entered la Synagoga - “II Transito”, there was a conducted tour about to start and I decided to join it. The guide was Spanish, and his groups of tourists were American university academics, with knowledge of Spanish. He started off by telling them of the various persecutions and expulsions suffered during the different periods of time. Under the Persians, then the Romans, followed by the Arabs towards the end of their rule in Spain and finally under Spain. The Jews before that time had risen to great heights in every sphere of government, commanding high positions. They also excelled in all the sciences and Arts, as well as medicine and philosophy. Sadly these Jews, known as Sepharadim were forced to leave, to return no more.
At that point, I decided I had better introduce myself, since I was the odd man out in that group. In my best broken Ladino. I said, after giving my name "Yo vengo de una rama de ostos Sepharadim". There was a hushed silence, you could have heard a pin drop.
They were all taken aback. The guide stretched his hand out and with a very warm handshake, said "Encantado" and how delighted he was to meet me and make my acquaintance. The group also came around me, unable to believe such a strange coincidence. It was a good finale to my visit to Toledo and Spain.
Salvo Almeleh
|
