does architecture shape culture?

The cathedral in Toledo is an amazing example of Gothic architecture. One of the major features of the cathedral is the huge altarpiece at the back of the chancel (the Capilla Mayor). Created of gilded and painted wood, the stunning detail of the carvings depict scenes from the gospels. But standing in front of this sight several weeks ago, I was struck by something else.

Notice the iron gate in front of the chancel? This is an architectural feature common to many of the old cathedrals and churches I saw in Spain. While European cathedrals frequently have low marble railings in front of the chancel (the part of the church where the altar is located and where the priests celebrate the Mass), I had never before seen so many churches whose design so emphatically separates the priests from the worshipping congregation. The non-verbal message is clear: This chancel is holy space. You are not allowed in here. Clergy only. Architecturally, the building emphasizes the authority of the priesthood.

I wonder about the effect this architecture had on a population who lived with gated-chancel churches for centuries and took them for granted. What part did it play in shaping Spanish culture? Did it encourage the ecclesial authoritarianism that led to the Spanish Inquisition? Under the control of the Spanish monarchy, the Inquisition lasted over 350 years, coercing Muslims and Jews to adopt Christianity under pain of death and monitoring the orthodoxy of converts. The Inquisition is surely one of the most disturbing chapters in the history of Christendom.

Did ecclesiastical architecture also lead to an overly compliant population? Why did the Spanish people accept a succession of French and Austrian monarchs? Why did they tolerate the 40 year dictatorship of Franco? Did the consistent visual separation between the people and the clergy affect the Spanish psyche to such an extent that it did not question authority? I have no answers, but I think that's an important question to ponder.

But let's conclude with a sign of hope. Pictured at the left is a picture taken inside the Sagrada Família, an unfinished church being built in Barcelona. Designed by art deco architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), the church is still under construction. If the old cathedrals of Spain embody an authoritarian aesthetic, Gaudí's church is whimsical and organic in design. The columns take the form of trees, leading upwards to vaults designed to look like a forest canopy. This is a very different vision of what religious community should be like and of what worship is about. I wonder how Gaudi's church is shaping the culture of Barcelona.

This is why foreign travel fascinates me. Church buildings are more than ecclesiastical artifacts. Created by architects and artisans who expressed the vision of their age and culture in the buildings they constructed, old churches are windows into the history of our civilization. By experiencing the artifacts of past centuries, perhaps we can gain a better understanding of the present and glimpse a vision of how we need to shape our future.

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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10 days in Spain? an itinerary

So you're going to Spain? Here's a 10 day itinerary for Spain. Designed by an outstanding destination management company based in Madrid, you are welcome to use this itinerary as the basis of your own vacation. Or, for a totally customized tour put together for you with transfers, hotels, trains, guided sightseeing — even restaurant recommendations — drop me an email...

Day one — Madrid. Take a walking tour of the Old Quarter, including the Plaza Mayor. Visit the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum.

Day two — excursion to Toledo. Visit the Cathedral. See El Greco's famous painting The Burial of Count Orgaz at the Church of Santo Tomé. Visit the Synagogues of El Transito or Santa Maria La Blanca.

Day three — Segovia and Escorial.

On this day trip, visit the Royal Palace in Escorial, housing the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the Basilica, the Royal Pantheon, an elaborate Library, and the Habsburg apartments.

Walk through the old walled city of Segovia. See the cathedral, the 14th century Alcazar (palace), and the Roman aqueduct (pictured above).

Day four — high speed train to Seville.

Rest of day at leisure to wander through this beautiful town. The fountain in the central square is beautiful when lit up at night; see the picture at the top of this article.

Day five — walking tour of Seville. Visit Seville's cathedral (third largest in Europe containing the disputed tomb of Christopher Columbus), the Reales Alcázares (Royal Palace), and the Santa Cruz district.

Day six — visit Cordoba en route to Granada. See the Mosque-turned-Cathedral and the Jewish Quarter with its tiny synagogue.

Day seven — Granada. Visit the Alhambra, an UNESCO World Heritage site and Spain's biggest attraction (pictured at left). This hilltop fortress and palace is a remarkable monument to Moorish art in Spain. In the afternoon, visit the tomb of Isabel and Ferdinand.

Day eight — fly to Barcelona. Visit the Boqueria Market, Las Ramblas, Gothic Quarter, and Picasso Museum.

Day nine — the architectural highlights of Barcelona. Visit the Church of the Sagrada Familia by Gaudí, his Park Güell, and the Pedrera, an apartment building he designed. In the afternoon, tour the Palau de la Musica Cantalana.

Day ten — excursion to Gerona and Figueras. Walking tour of the medieval city of Gerona including the Cathedral and the Jewish quarter. Continue to Figueras and visit the Dalí Theater Museum and the jewelry exhibition in the annex next door.

Day eleven — fly home.

10 day itinerary for Spain (search here on Google)


copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Dali museum | Figueres, Spain

An hour north of Barcelona is the village of Figueres, Spain. We spent an afternoon there during our trip to Spain (after spending the morning in Gerona). Pictured above is the home of surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, right next door to the Dalí Theatre-Museum.

Built in the former Figueres Theatre, the town asked Dalí to design a museum commemorating his own work. The museum itself has been described as "the world's largest surrealistic object," and indeed it is. You can easily spend two hours in this museum - and be sure to visit the jewelry exhibit next door; a separate ticket is included in the price of admission.

Even if you are not a fan of Dalí or of the surrealist movement, the Dali Museum is worth a visit. I was impressed by his technical skill as well as by the sheer creativity of the artist. Pictured in the inset is a room size piece incorporating several different objects. Only when you climb some stairs and look through the lens at the assemblage of objects can you fully appreciate the artist's subject, actress Mae West.

For a whimsical and fun morning or afternoon, the Dali Museum is a wonderful diversion!


Dali Museum (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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two local restaurants in Barcelona

When visiting a new destination, I look for smaller, lesser-known restaurants that cater to the local population. "Tourist restaurants" are likely to be higher priced with ordinary food. I always ask for recommendations for dinner spots that only the locals know about, restaurants that stay in business because they serve good, authentic food at reasonable prices.

Sometimes a hotel concierge can provide you with this information, sometimes not. In this case, I give the credit to a concierge at Hotel Arts in Barcelona who made two outstanding suggestions.

Can Ravell is an upscale grocery store with a single table at the very back seating eight. They serve good tapas and authentic Catalan cuisine. Not at all fancy, it's all about the food. We shared a salad to start, then each went for the roast kid (goat), not a menu item likely to be found back home in California. The meat was tender, and the skin was crisp and tasty — a great and reasonably priced meal. There's even a NY Times review of Can Ravell here, or check out the restaurant's website. Located at Aragó 313 in Barcelona.

Mas Bacus is an enoteca (wine store and specialty grocer) with a small restaurant at the back. Very small, just a few tables, you'll be warmly greeted by the owner. The chef (his wife) will come to your table and go through her entire menu. She speaks both fluent English and French and serves authentic food with a gourmet touch. Mas Bacus offers the friendliest dining experience you're likely to have anywhere. Check out their website here. The restaurant is located at Enric Granados 68.

These are two great local restaurants in Barcelona that I highly recommend. You won't be disappointed!

local restaurants in Barcelona (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Europa Deco | a great tasting menu

Europa Deco is a contemporary, upscale restaurant located in Hotel Urban in Madrid. During our stay in the city, we were invited to sample the chef's special 8-course tasting menu. In a word, the meal was a real WOW.

Several bits of advice.

(1) Come hungry!

(2) Resist the bread. It's soooooo good, but need I explain?

(3) You don't have to eat all of every course — which is hard to do because everything is so good; just taste a bit of each course and save room for what is to come. Case in point, the marinated clam salad pictured above (which had been preceded by a course of tuna sashimi).

(4) When your incredibly moist and flavorful fish course comes, that's only the first of the two main courses you'll be getting. A major meat course is still to come, so pace yourself.

(5) The venison we were served for the meat course was delicious — wonderful flavor, cooked just enough — but by that point we were too stuffed to eat more than two little bites, which was a shame. We "cried uncle" and requested just one dessert course, not two.

(6) Any dessert with chocolate at Europa Deco is well worth the cholesterol and calories! The chocolate is dark and rich.

The four-course tasting menu is probably the best bet for most human appetites! Restaurant reviewers like to use phrases like "bursts of flavor," and this imaginative chef will surprise your sense of taste with some delightful culinary surprises. In a word, Wow!


Hotel Urban is a luxury boutique hotel, part of the Derby Hotels Collection. With stunning, avant garde architecture, very contemporary furnishings, and a collection of African art throughout the property, this is a luxury hotel to consider within walking distance of the Prado Museum and the Old Quarter of Madrid.


Europa Deco (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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se habla español

Something to be aware of when visiting Spain ... unlike most of the countries I have visited, a large percentage of the population here does not speak any English. I have encountered this repeatedly with waiters at restaurants and with housekeeping staff in hotels.

Example... we ate at a restaurant whose "menu of the day" included a choice of meat or fish. "What kind of meat? What kind of fish?" I tried to ask.

The waiter was uncomprehending (although I thought the gist of my question should have been pretty obvious to a professional waiter, given the context of our conversation).

Tip: brush up on your Spanish and/or bring a phrase book along with you when you visit Spain.


visiting Spain (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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the rain in Spain

Though the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, it does occasionally rain in Madrid. Such was the case this evening when a front moved through the city, sprinkling us with light showers. Nothing heavy — we walked all the way back from dinner without an umbrella, stopping to snap this picture in Plaza Mayor. You can see the hint of showers against the black field of the sky, but I found the textures of the wet cobblestones particularly fascinating.

We had dinner at Botin, by the way, a very traditional Spanish restaurant and a fun place to eat. Reservations are a must; we made them the day before to get a 8 p.m. dinner reservation. The concierge at your hotel can take care of reservations for you. Botin is one of the few restaurants in Madrid that opens that early! Highly recommended for meat eaters; we sampled both the Roast Suckling Pig and Roast Baby Lamb. They were hearty dishes, moist and tender with crispy skin.


Botin (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Gulbenkian Museum | a Lisbon must-see

On the advice of one of my clients, we visited the Gulbenkian Museum today during our tour of Lisbon. Clearly one of the most outstanding museums I have ever visited, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Calouste Gulbenkian made his fortune in the petroleum industry, playing a critical role in forming some of the world's most prominent oil companies. Retaining a 5% interest in the companies he put together (he was known as Mr. 5%), he became an incredibly wealthy individual. Spending a lifetime assembling an art collection of over 6,000 pieces, Gulbenkian bequeathed his art to his nation, Portugal, upon his death. One thousand works are in the museum's permanent collection.

While the scope of the Gulbenkian's art collection rivals that of the Louvre, the scale is ever so much more manageable. You can get an overview of the entire museum in just an hour, although longer visits would be well worthwhile. Instead of glazing over the thousands of relics from Egypt you might find at the Louvre or British Museum, visitors can view a few dozen exquisite pieces on display. Persian carpets, Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman artifacts, far eastern art pieces, illuminated manuscripts, Lalique creations, and a representative collection of 15th - 19th century western paintings make for a stunning experience.

Gulbenkian Museum (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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a good neighborhood restaurant in Lisbon

When I first arrive in a city after traveling for 20 hours — through 8 time zones — the last thing I want is haute cuisine. Tired, jet-lagged, and hungry, all I want is to walk into the neighborhood around my hotel and find a neighborhood restaurant with good, typical food that the locals eat.

If you're staying in Lisbon, I highly recommend O Relicário. Literally around the corner from the Ritz Four Seasons at 35-A Rua Joaquim António Aquiar, this family-run restaurant was exactly what we were looking for — good, simple Portuguese food with friendly, charming service. The gazpacho, served with thin slices of prosciutto, was wonderful and would have been a great dinner in itself. For a main course, we each had grilled lamp chops with french fries — nothing fancy, but flavorful and satisfying. With a glass of the house red wine, the entire bill for two came to 30€. This was exactly the meal I was looking for, and I'm happy to recommend this neighborhood restaurant in Lisbon.

Update: Sunday evening's dinner was at a restaurant recommended by the Concierge at the Four Seasons, a seafood restaurant by the marina, just 10 minutes from the Four Seasons by taxi — Restaurante Doca Peixe. Our meal was excellent, a grilled Golden Bream for two. Cost of our meal, about 60€.

neighborhood restaurant in Lisbon (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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hot showers in Heathrow Terminal 3?

It is a wonderful luxury to get off a long flight and take a hot shower. That's one of the perks of flying in Club World on British Airways — beyond the completely horizontal sleeper seats that enabled me to get five good hours of sleep last night. And I was looking forward to the treat of enjoying a hot shower after 10 hours on a plane from SFO to London.

As our connecting flight to Lisbon departs from Heathrow Terminal 3, we caught the bus that takes transiting passengers from T-5 to T-3. Long lines for the bus are a thing of the past, and in five minutes we were on a coach that meandered through Heathrow, taking us directly to the airside entrance to T-3.

And that's where this tale of woe begins.

1. There are no "Fast Track" security lines in T-3. First and Club World passengers stand in the same security line as everyone else.
2. BA's Terrace Lounge in T-3 is in the midst of upgrading. The showers and spa won't open until the end of October.
3. We inquired at the American Admiral's Club to which we enjoyed complimentary entry as Club World passengers on BA. The showers in their business class lounge were under construction — and the showers in the First Class lounge (to which we did not have access) had no hot water.
4. The Servisair Lounge (open to Priority Pass or Diners Club members) has no showers.

The lesson to take away from this adventure? If you're flying into T-5, want a hot shower, and have at least 2 hours between flights, use the BA Arrivals Lounge before transiting to another terminal.

Heathrow Terminal 3 (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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