A Legendary Rivalry: F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
A rivalry without rival
The United States has its fair share of sports rivalries: college football’s Alabama and Auburn, NBA’s the Celtics and Lakers, and baseball’s Red Sox and Yankees. Whether it’s the fact that they are only separated by 125 miles or the Curse of the Bambino, each of these teams has specific reasons for despising each other. However, none of these American rivalries reach the intensity or the importance of the rivalry between the Spanish futbol (soccer) teams, Real Madrid C.F. and F.C. Barcelona - a battle so intense that it becomes a way of life, burning hatred in their souls, tearing people apart.
In his book, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, Phil Ball, a British writer based in Spain, uses the Spanish word “morbo,” meaning “disease,” to describe the enmity between the two clubs.
“There is so much morbo festering between these two sides that they would have to employ a very powerful priest to exorcise the phenomenon,” says Ball in his book. “It’s not merely that they hate each other with an intensity that can truly shock an outsider, but that each encounter between them always has a new ingredient.”
F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the best soccer teams in the world, with arguably the two best players in the world, in Lionel Messi, who plays as a forward for Barcelona, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays as a forward for Madrid. Many believe Messi to be the best player to ever play the game. Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona are two of only three teams to have never been relegated to the lower divisions of Spanish soccer, as well as being the two richest teams in the world respectively, in terms of revenue generated. Real Madrid has won 32 Spanish La Liga titles, 18 Copa del Rey titles, nine Supercopas de Espana titles, and a record nine European Championships. F.C. Barcelona has won 21 Spanish La Liga titles, 26 Copa del Rey titles, 10 Supercopas de Espana, and four European championships.
In 2009 Barca, as the club is known by its supporters, became the only team in Spanish soccer history to win the treble, which consists of winning the La Liga title, the Copa del Rey title, and the European Championship all in the same season. The current F.C. Barcelona team cemented itself in the discussions of being the best team of all time by winning 14 out of a possible 19 trophies in a span of four years.
Although these prizes add to their fame, the success of these clubs is not what makes the rivalry so heated. The reason El Classico, the name of the rivalry, is so much more intense than any other rivalry, is the deep underlying political differences of the clubs.
F.C. Barcelona: More than a club
On March 17, 2013 a buzz went through the crowd in F.C. Barcelona’s stadium, Camp Nou as they watched the game against Rayo Vallecano. Barca was making a break on the counter attack, when Messi received the ball and broke free of a crowd of players. He cut past the last defender and calmly placed the ball just over the goalkeeper’s right shoulder and into the back of the net. A surge of energy ran through Camp Nou as the crowd of approximately 70,000 fervent Barca fans erupted. With a goal and an assist already to his name, Messi led the Blaugrana (another nickname for F.C. Barcelona) to a comfortable 3-1 victory. Just another day in the office for Messi and company who are in first place in Spain’s La Liga with a 13 point lead over the second place team and bitter rivals Real Madrid.
F.C. Barcelona is seen as a symbol of what it means to be from the region in Spain known as Catalonia. The motto of the club is “Mes que un club,” or “More than a club.” Sandro Rosell, Barca’s current president and a member of the club since the age of 6, explained what the motto means in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“It’s a feeling,” Rosell said on the show. “It’s part of our lives; it’s within our hearts. It’s something that is part of our culture. It’s not only 11 players against 11 players and winning or losing; it’s much more. It’s something that is in our blood.”
Dani Martinez, the founder of the Penya Barcelonista Chicago, an official supporters’ club of F.C. Barcelona, grew up in Barcelona and moved to Chicago in 2001.
“If you are born in Barcelona, you watch the team all the time,” Martinez said. “I am very happy when Barca wins, and I am equally happy when Madrid loses.”
Martinez said he doesn’t know that anything compares to the rivalry.
“When you go to a Barcelona-Real Madrid game, its the best game ever,” he said. “Everyone is singing. It’s really loud, and you are super nervous because they are usually very close. When Madrid scores the stadium goes silent, but when Barca scores it’s like having an orgasm.”
Adam Anschultz, a student at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., had a similar experience while studying abroad in Germany. He travelled to Barcelona to attend a Barca game in February of 2012.
“It was way different from anything I had ever seen,” Anschultz said of the friendly game against a lower division Spanish team. “You can tell that the whole city revolves around the team. They didn’t even put Messi in. Barca got a red card early in the game, and the stadium just erupted.”
Every time that Barcelona scored it was like a party in the stands, he said.
“Everybody in the stadium would just start singing and chanting,” Anschultz said. “It felt like the Super Bowl, just with way more passion.”
Ulric Gordenne, a Belgian immigrant who owns a design shop in Barcelona, said that since moving to the city from Paris, he is becoming a Barca fanatic.
“They are a really beautiful team, that play in a really beautiful fashion,” Gordenne said.
The Barcelona club has recently become more and more a symbol of Catalan independence. On January 23, the parliament of Catalonia approved a declaration that states the region is a sovereign entity. The declaration was mainly symbolic but opened the way for a referendum on independence from Spain. During Barca games fans have begun to wave Catalan flags and chant for independence.
“The rivalry is more than just a sport; it’s political,” Maritnez said. “We are Catalans. We speak a different language, we have our own government, and we represent Catalonia.”
Martinez said that when Barcelona fans go to Madrid, the locals know they are Catalans and automatically do not like them.
“Even if I love Spain, if I have a Catalan accent, they don’t like me,” he said.
He said that at recent Barca games, the fans held up countless cards to create a mosaic that turned the whole stadium into a Catalan flag.
“Barcelona is the face of Catalonia for the world,” Martinez said. “It’s not just a sport; it’s how we live our lives.”
Real Madrid: Nationalism personified
If F.C. Barcelona is the symbol of Catalan identity and independence, Real Madrid is the polar opposite. Los Blanco, or the Whites, as the team is called, is seen as a symbol for Spanish nationalism and a unified Spain. Real Madrid was the favorite team of Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975. This, along with the fact that they are the most successful team in Europe, has caused Madrid to be vilified by many soccer fans, not only in Spain but also around the world.
However, Phil Ball sees Los Blancos in a different light. In his book, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, Ball says that when he was a kid, it seemed like Real Madrid won the European Championship every year for half a century. He says he still feels uncomfortable when Real Madrid loses, as if the apocalypse was right around the corner.
“Spain’s most successful club is almost neurotically fixated on winning, on hammering home the idea that nothing else matters,” Ball wrote in his book. “For those who adopt this attitude, teams like Barcelona, who insist that their team represents ‘more than a club,, are merely rummaging about in the rubble of their own defeatism, looking for extra-mural scraps to cover up the truth of their (relative) non-achievement.”
Cesar Alcazar, who came to Miami from Madrid in 1975, is the president of the Penya Real Madrid Miami, the official supporters’ club in the area. A United States citizen since 1994, Alcazar formed the Penya in 2005.
“Here in Florida, there are many people from Spain and many people from Madrid, and we are all very good friends,” Alcazar said.
Alcazar, who grew up in Madrid, remembers when Real Madrid was the Real Madrid of old.
“When I was a young boy I lived very close to the Santiago Bernabeu, so I used to go very, very often,” he said. “They had children’s tickets so it was very cheap. I saw us win five European Cups. I was young enough to see Real Madrid when they were Real Madrid.”
Alcazar said that Real Madrid focuses on the game alone. He does not understand why F. C. Barcelona attempts to represent Catalan independence through soccer or why the so-called Catalonians want independence from Spain.
“The Catalonians want to leave Spain,” he said. “They can speak Spanish, but they don’t want to speak Spanish. It’s foolish. Why do they want to leave?”
Differences aside, players from Barca, Madrid come together
The most amazing part of the rivalry is that all of the Real Madrid players and all of the Barcelona players can come together to play for the Spanish national team, Alcazar said.
“There are seven players on the Spanish team from Catalonia. They come together with the other players, and they are very good friends,” Alcazar said. “They want independence but there is no fight; they don’t care about that when they play.”
The Spanish national team is the defending World Cup champions and the two time defending European Champions.
These differences in politics, identity, and psychology, but also the ability to put those things aside, are what makes the El Classico one of, if not the most intense, sporting rivalry in the world.
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
A rivalry without rival
The United States has its fair share of sports rivalries: college football’s Alabama and Auburn, NBA’s the Celtics and Lakers, and baseball’s Red Sox and Yankees. Whether it’s the fact that they are only separated by 125 miles or the Curse of the Bambino, each of these teams has specific reasons for despising each other. However, none of these American rivalries reach the intensity or the importance of the rivalry between the Spanish futbol (soccer) teams, Real Madrid C.F. and F.C. Barcelona - a battle so intense that it becomes a way of life, burning hatred in their souls, tearing people apart.
In his book, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, Phil Ball, a British writer based in Spain, uses the Spanish word “morbo,” meaning “disease,” to describe the enmity between the two clubs.
“There is so much morbo festering between these two sides that they would have to employ a very powerful priest to exorcise the phenomenon,” says Ball in his book. “It’s not merely that they hate each other with an intensity that can truly shock an outsider, but that each encounter between them always has a new ingredient.”
F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the best soccer teams in the world, with arguably the two best players in the world, in Lionel Messi, who plays as a forward for Barcelona, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays as a forward for Madrid. Many believe Messi to be the best player to ever play the game. Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona are two of only three teams to have never been relegated to the lower divisions of Spanish soccer, as well as being the two richest teams in the world respectively, in terms of revenue generated. Real Madrid has won 32 Spanish La Liga titles, 18 Copa del Rey titles, nine Supercopas de Espana titles, and a record nine European Championships. F.C. Barcelona has won 21 Spanish La Liga titles, 26 Copa del Rey titles, 10 Supercopas de Espana, and four European championships.
In 2009 Barca, as the club is known by its supporters, became the only team in Spanish soccer history to win the treble, which consists of winning the La Liga title, the Copa del Rey title, and the European Championship all in the same season. The current F.C. Barcelona team cemented itself in the discussions of being the best team of all time by winning 14 out of a possible 19 trophies in a span of four years.
Although these prizes add to their fame, the success of these clubs is not what makes the rivalry so heated. The reason El Classico, the name of the rivalry, is so much more intense than any other rivalry, is the deep underlying political differences of the clubs.
F.C. Barcelona: More than a club
On March 17, 2013 a buzz went through the crowd in F.C. Barcelona’s stadium, Camp Nou as they watched the game against Rayo Vallecano. Barca was making a break on the counter attack, when Messi received the ball and broke free of a crowd of players. He cut past the last defender and calmly placed the ball just over the goalkeeper’s right shoulder and into the back of the net. A surge of energy ran through Camp Nou as the crowd of approximately 70,000 fervent Barca fans erupted. With a goal and an assist already to his name, Messi led the Blaugrana (another nickname for F.C. Barcelona) to a comfortable 3-1 victory. Just another day in the office for Messi and company who are in first place in Spain’s La Liga with a 13 point lead over the second place team and bitter rivals Real Madrid.
F.C. Barcelona is seen as a symbol of what it means to be from the region in Spain known as Catalonia. The motto of the club is “Mes que un club,” or “More than a club.” Sandro Rosell, Barca’s current president and a member of the club since the age of 6, explained what the motto means in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“It’s a feeling,” Rosell said on the show. “It’s part of our lives; it’s within our hearts. It’s something that is part of our culture. It’s not only 11 players against 11 players and winning or losing; it’s much more. It’s something that is in our blood.”
Dani Martinez, the founder of the Penya Barcelonista Chicago, an official supporters’ club of F.C. Barcelona, grew up in Barcelona and moved to Chicago in 2001.
“If you are born in Barcelona, you watch the team all the time,” Martinez said. “I am very happy when Barca wins, and I am equally happy when Madrid loses.”
Martinez said he doesn’t know that anything compares to the rivalry.
“When you go to a Barcelona-Real Madrid game, its the best game ever,” he said. “Everyone is singing. It’s really loud, and you are super nervous because they are usually very close. When Madrid scores the stadium goes silent, but when Barca scores it’s like having an orgasm.”
Adam Anschultz, a student at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., had a similar experience while studying abroad in Germany. He travelled to Barcelona to attend a Barca game in February of 2012.
“It was way different from anything I had ever seen,” Anschultz said of the friendly game against a lower division Spanish team. “You can tell that the whole city revolves around the team. They didn’t even put Messi in. Barca got a red card early in the game, and the stadium just erupted.”
Every time that Barcelona scored it was like a party in the stands, he said.
“Everybody in the stadium would just start singing and chanting,” Anschultz said. “It felt like the Super Bowl, just with way more passion.”
Ulric Gordenne, a Belgian immigrant who owns a design shop in Barcelona, said that since moving to the city from Paris, he is becoming a Barca fanatic.
“They are a really beautiful team, that play in a really beautiful fashion,” Gordenne said.
The Barcelona club has recently become more and more a symbol of Catalan independence. On January 23, the parliament of Catalonia approved a declaration that states the region is a sovereign entity. The declaration was mainly symbolic but opened the way for a referendum on independence from Spain. During Barca games fans have begun to wave Catalan flags and chant for independence.
“The rivalry is more than just a sport; it’s political,” Maritnez said. “We are Catalans. We speak a different language, we have our own government, and we represent Catalonia.”
Martinez said that when Barcelona fans go to Madrid, the locals know they are Catalans and automatically do not like them.
“Even if I love Spain, if I have a Catalan accent, they don’t like me,” he said.
He said that at recent Barca games, the fans held up countless cards to create a mosaic that turned the whole stadium into a Catalan flag.
“Barcelona is the face of Catalonia for the world,” Martinez said. “It’s not just a sport; it’s how we live our lives.”
Real Madrid: Nationalism personified
If F.C. Barcelona is the symbol of Catalan identity and independence, Real Madrid is the polar opposite. Los Blanco, or the Whites, as the team is called, is seen as a symbol for Spanish nationalism and a unified Spain. Real Madrid was the favorite team of Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975. This, along with the fact that they are the most successful team in Europe, has caused Madrid to be vilified by many soccer fans, not only in Spain but also around the world.
However, Phil Ball sees Los Blancos in a different light. In his book, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, Ball says that when he was a kid, it seemed like Real Madrid won the European Championship every year for half a century. He says he still feels uncomfortable when Real Madrid loses, as if the apocalypse was right around the corner.
“Spain’s most successful club is almost neurotically fixated on winning, on hammering home the idea that nothing else matters,” Ball wrote in his book. “For those who adopt this attitude, teams like Barcelona, who insist that their team represents ‘more than a club,, are merely rummaging about in the rubble of their own defeatism, looking for extra-mural scraps to cover up the truth of their (relative) non-achievement.”
Cesar Alcazar, who came to Miami from Madrid in 1975, is the president of the Penya Real Madrid Miami, the official supporters’ club in the area. A United States citizen since 1994, Alcazar formed the Penya in 2005.
“Here in Florida, there are many people from Spain and many people from Madrid, and we are all very good friends,” Alcazar said.
Alcazar, who grew up in Madrid, remembers when Real Madrid was the Real Madrid of old.
“When I was a young boy I lived very close to the Santiago Bernabeu, so I used to go very, very often,” he said. “They had children’s tickets so it was very cheap. I saw us win five European Cups. I was young enough to see Real Madrid when they were Real Madrid.”
Alcazar said that Real Madrid focuses on the game alone. He does not understand why F. C. Barcelona attempts to represent Catalan independence through soccer or why the so-called Catalonians want independence from Spain.
“The Catalonians want to leave Spain,” he said. “They can speak Spanish, but they don’t want to speak Spanish. It’s foolish. Why do they want to leave?”
Differences aside, players from Barca, Madrid come together
The most amazing part of the rivalry is that all of the Real Madrid players and all of the Barcelona players can come together to play for the Spanish national team, Alcazar said.
“There are seven players on the Spanish team from Catalonia. They come together with the other players, and they are very good friends,” Alcazar said. “They want independence but there is no fight; they don’t care about that when they play.”
The Spanish national team is the defending World Cup champions and the two time defending European Champions.
These differences in politics, identity, and psychology, but also the ability to put those things aside, are what makes the El Classico one of, if not the most intense, sporting rivalry in the world.
Montserrat: Climbing into Mystery
By Collin Curry & Katie Thurber
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
Rising up from the grassy slopes of farmland and vineyards, its jagged peaks carve the sky in two like the serrated edge for which it was named. Montserrat, literally meaning “saw mountain” in Catalan, is twenty minutes from the Spanish town Collbató and less than an hour from Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain. But to visitors, it seems worlds away.
The Virgin Mary is said to have visited Montserrat, and the magic still lingers in the Benedictine monastery nestled in the crags and around La Moreneta, the statue of the “Black Madonna.”
While the traditional holy places on the mountain and the many scenic views draw the most crowds, some people find their religion simply in the mountain itself.
Chris Sharma, a professional rock climber, said that this area is currently the international epicenter of climbing. Even though he has spent most of his career establishing new routes, Sharma said that the region surrounding Montserrat has some of the best climbing he has seen.
“Some of my favorite places to climb are Oliana, Margalef, and Santa Linya, all in that Catalonia region,” Sharma said. “I’ve only climbed Montserrat once, but I remember, it was something.”
In recent years Montserrat has become the premier site for Spanish rock climbing, offering thousands of opportunities for the climber willing to attempt its towering spires.
Dr. Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes, a professor of architecture at the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura del Valles, said that this has not always been the case.
“The rock climbing culture in Montserrat is not so old,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “It is something that started around the mid-20th century, and it’s like a kind of logical consequence of the touristic culture that started in the late 19th century, with the popularization of the walking tours of the mountain.”
Garcia-Fuentes decided to write his dissertation on Montserrat because of its monastery. He said that he was working out of his own architecture business in Madrid when he was asked to do some professional work there.
“We found archives showing different drawings of the monastery,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “They were different architectural projects from the 18th and 19th centuries that no one knew existed.”
He found out that there had been no previous architectural studies of Montserrat, and this became the origin of his dissertation.
“If you look at the architecture in Montserrat, it is a little strange because it is not actually an old monastery,” Garcia-Fuentes said.
After the old monastery was destroyed by Napoleonic troops during the Spanish Independence War, it was rebuilt to look ancient. He also explained how the monastery as well as the surrounding land was expropriated to the state. Many sites, including the monastery, were abandoned.
“Similar things happened throughout Spain,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “But not as significantly as Montserrat. Everyone forgot about the monastery.”
Everyone except for a liberal Catalan politician named Victor Balauger, who started the reconstruction of the Monastery at Montserrat.
Garcia-Fuentes explained that Balaguer dreamed of creating an Iberian federation through the unification of the people of Spain and Portugal.
The Iberian Federation that Balaguer was trying to create was to be based off of a symbolic universe in which the monasteries of Spain, and especially Montserrat, were to be the keystones.
Garcia-Fuentes said that Balaguer first wanted to create a symbolic universe in Catalonia that was based on four monasteries in the area: Santa Maria de Poblet, Sant Cugat Ripall, Santes Creus, and Montserrat, but that the Catholic Church was trying to gain control of this symbolic universe.
He emphasized that this tension between the church and those who wanted the mountain to be enjoyed by all is what popularized the mountain.
There were thousands of people coming to visit the mountain. The precursors to tourists, called excursionists, came to the mountain only to enjoy the nature. Simultaneously, religious pilgrims travelled to Montserrat to visit the monastery and the Madonna.
“This tension between the pilgrims and the tourists was very fruitful,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “It took a long time to reach the top of the mountain and the view points, so there were restaurants that were built near these viewpoints.”
The mountain gained more and more popularity over the years and was even featured in an exhibit of the World Fair that was hosted by Barcelona in 1888.
The growing popularity of the Monastery and the mountain as tourist destinations is what led to the birth of the climbing culture on Montserrat.
“There are some really amazing climbing spots all over Montserrat and especially by the monastery,” Sharma said.
According to Rocktopo, a Montserrat mountaineering organization, the established routes are compiled by thousands of people who climb hundreds of the various rock formations to give visitors the best experience of the mountain. The routes include more basic climbs along with expert-level free climbs, recommended at the climber’s own risk. Rocktopo has its own rating system from one to five stars, telling which of the climbs are the “nicest” in terms of ease and beauty.
Climb Cataluña also has recommended routes, saying that most climbers begin on one of the many sport sectors on the south side of the mountain, which include easier routes where first-time visitors can get used to the rock and style of climbing before going to more challenging areas. According to the site, Montserrat offers safer, more modern sport routes that are well-bolted, as well as more difficult multi-pitch routes that are moderately-to-fully-equipped allowing for an intense trad climbing experience.
Sharma suggested a route guide for climbers who want to experience Montserrat for the first time.
“Definitely get the guidebook,” Sharma said. “Some of those routes are tough, especially for a beginner, and you don’t want to overestimate yourself in a place like that.”
He also advised to appreciate the scenery.
“There’s just so much rock in that area,” Sharma said. “River rocks, granite and limestone are all combined, and it’s kind of a bizarrely beautiful climbing experience.”
Rocktopo and Climb Cataluña have route guides available for both the first-time climber and the expert, with routes that range all over the mountain. However, the less adventurous visitor can still experience Montserrat’s beauty, whether at the summit looking down on the vast expanse of the Catalonian countryside or in Santa Maria de Montserrat.
By Collin Curry & Katie Thurber
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
Rising up from the grassy slopes of farmland and vineyards, its jagged peaks carve the sky in two like the serrated edge for which it was named. Montserrat, literally meaning “saw mountain” in Catalan, is twenty minutes from the Spanish town Collbató and less than an hour from Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain. But to visitors, it seems worlds away.
The Virgin Mary is said to have visited Montserrat, and the magic still lingers in the Benedictine monastery nestled in the crags and around La Moreneta, the statue of the “Black Madonna.”
While the traditional holy places on the mountain and the many scenic views draw the most crowds, some people find their religion simply in the mountain itself.
Chris Sharma, a professional rock climber, said that this area is currently the international epicenter of climbing. Even though he has spent most of his career establishing new routes, Sharma said that the region surrounding Montserrat has some of the best climbing he has seen.
“Some of my favorite places to climb are Oliana, Margalef, and Santa Linya, all in that Catalonia region,” Sharma said. “I’ve only climbed Montserrat once, but I remember, it was something.”
In recent years Montserrat has become the premier site for Spanish rock climbing, offering thousands of opportunities for the climber willing to attempt its towering spires.
Dr. Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes, a professor of architecture at the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura del Valles, said that this has not always been the case.
“The rock climbing culture in Montserrat is not so old,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “It is something that started around the mid-20th century, and it’s like a kind of logical consequence of the touristic culture that started in the late 19th century, with the popularization of the walking tours of the mountain.”
Garcia-Fuentes decided to write his dissertation on Montserrat because of its monastery. He said that he was working out of his own architecture business in Madrid when he was asked to do some professional work there.
“We found archives showing different drawings of the monastery,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “They were different architectural projects from the 18th and 19th centuries that no one knew existed.”
He found out that there had been no previous architectural studies of Montserrat, and this became the origin of his dissertation.
“If you look at the architecture in Montserrat, it is a little strange because it is not actually an old monastery,” Garcia-Fuentes said.
After the old monastery was destroyed by Napoleonic troops during the Spanish Independence War, it was rebuilt to look ancient. He also explained how the monastery as well as the surrounding land was expropriated to the state. Many sites, including the monastery, were abandoned.
“Similar things happened throughout Spain,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “But not as significantly as Montserrat. Everyone forgot about the monastery.”
Everyone except for a liberal Catalan politician named Victor Balauger, who started the reconstruction of the Monastery at Montserrat.
Garcia-Fuentes explained that Balaguer dreamed of creating an Iberian federation through the unification of the people of Spain and Portugal.
The Iberian Federation that Balaguer was trying to create was to be based off of a symbolic universe in which the monasteries of Spain, and especially Montserrat, were to be the keystones.
Garcia-Fuentes said that Balaguer first wanted to create a symbolic universe in Catalonia that was based on four monasteries in the area: Santa Maria de Poblet, Sant Cugat Ripall, Santes Creus, and Montserrat, but that the Catholic Church was trying to gain control of this symbolic universe.
He emphasized that this tension between the church and those who wanted the mountain to be enjoyed by all is what popularized the mountain.
There were thousands of people coming to visit the mountain. The precursors to tourists, called excursionists, came to the mountain only to enjoy the nature. Simultaneously, religious pilgrims travelled to Montserrat to visit the monastery and the Madonna.
“This tension between the pilgrims and the tourists was very fruitful,” Garcia-Fuentes said. “It took a long time to reach the top of the mountain and the view points, so there were restaurants that were built near these viewpoints.”
The mountain gained more and more popularity over the years and was even featured in an exhibit of the World Fair that was hosted by Barcelona in 1888.
The growing popularity of the Monastery and the mountain as tourist destinations is what led to the birth of the climbing culture on Montserrat.
“There are some really amazing climbing spots all over Montserrat and especially by the monastery,” Sharma said.
According to Rocktopo, a Montserrat mountaineering organization, the established routes are compiled by thousands of people who climb hundreds of the various rock formations to give visitors the best experience of the mountain. The routes include more basic climbs along with expert-level free climbs, recommended at the climber’s own risk. Rocktopo has its own rating system from one to five stars, telling which of the climbs are the “nicest” in terms of ease and beauty.
Climb Cataluña also has recommended routes, saying that most climbers begin on one of the many sport sectors on the south side of the mountain, which include easier routes where first-time visitors can get used to the rock and style of climbing before going to more challenging areas. According to the site, Montserrat offers safer, more modern sport routes that are well-bolted, as well as more difficult multi-pitch routes that are moderately-to-fully-equipped allowing for an intense trad climbing experience.
Sharma suggested a route guide for climbers who want to experience Montserrat for the first time.
“Definitely get the guidebook,” Sharma said. “Some of those routes are tough, especially for a beginner, and you don’t want to overestimate yourself in a place like that.”
He also advised to appreciate the scenery.
“There’s just so much rock in that area,” Sharma said. “River rocks, granite and limestone are all combined, and it’s kind of a bizarrely beautiful climbing experience.”
Rocktopo and Climb Cataluña have route guides available for both the first-time climber and the expert, with routes that range all over the mountain. However, the less adventurous visitor can still experience Montserrat’s beauty, whether at the summit looking down on the vast expanse of the Catalonian countryside or in Santa Maria de Montserrat.
AR.NO: Focus on Design
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
At a glance, nothing seems special about the white desk lamp. With its long neck bent at a forty-five degree angle, circular base and bulbous head, the lamp looks like it came straight from the opening credits of a Pixar movie. To Ulric Gordenne, it is more than just a reminder of a playful animated lamp; it is his business.
The lamp is actually a self-balancing table lamp produced by a Spanish manufacturer called FASE Madrid in 1965 and is only one facet of Gordenne’s design shop, AR.NO.
His shop carries chairs, tables and lamps that span from 1950 to 2000, from many different designers.
“The category of design we focus on is called Mid-Century modern or modernist, in the international sense of the word,” Gordenne said.
In Barcelona, the word modernist refers to the Catalan Art Nouveau period led by Antoni Gaudi, he said. The international style in architecture and interior design started in the United States in the 1940’s by multi-talented architects like Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen and Oscar Niemeyer.
“We are fans of the pure minimalistic, sometimes futuristic, lines of that era,” Gordenne said.
Gordenne said that this style of design has dominated the content of the most important decoration magazines for more than 20 years.
“We don’t focus on big names only, though,” he said. “An anonymous seat with nice lines can be of interest to us, too.”
Gordenne, who was born in Liege, Belgium, attended Liege University where he studied law and the arts and sciences of communication. When he graduated, he moved to Paris, France, to work as a copywriter for advertising agencies in the area. This work in advertising made Gordenne a fan of old advertisements in the 1960’s. He has a collection of old Phillip Morris cigarette and Jaguar advertisements for sale in his shop.
“I am and old advertisement fan,” said Gordenne. “When Jaguar entered the American market, they had a lot of good advertisements.”
It was in one of these advertising agencies where he met his Spanish wife, Marissa.
Marrisa Gordenne was born in Paris to a family of Spanish immigrants. Her father was part of the resistance movement during the Spanish civil war.
“Her family left Spain to escape the Franco regime, and started a new life in Paris,” Gordenne said.
“After 10 years in the hectic world of marketing and publicity, we left Paris and moved to Barcelona,” Gordenne said.
The ‘Formento de las Artes’ declared 2003 the ‘Año del Diseño,’ or the year of design. Founded by a group of artists and craftsmen in 1903, FAD, as it is known, is a Spanish organization that promotes the decorative arts. The Ano del Diseño (the year of design) was held to celebrate the organization’s 100th year in operation. According to an article in the design magazine Domus, there were more than a hundred festivals, street events, awards, competitions, conferences, workshops for children and city initiatives that were held as a part of the Ano del Diseño. It was because of the Ano del Diseño that Gordenne and his wife moved to Spain.
“We settled in Barcelona with the idea of taking advantage of the design boom that was occurring in Spain,” he said. “The economic climate looked very positive, and the city was fantastic, with only a few Mid-Century furniture shops.”
Gordenne said that running a Mid-Century furniture shop in Spain is different from running one in Germany or France.
“With 40 years of Franco’s dictatorship, an immense majority of the population still has no idea who some designers are, for example Le Corbusier,” Gordenne said. “So we have to work from the beginning, like a teacher or a preacher, to communicate our enthusiasm.”
He said that the cultural gap and the limited design creation in Spain from 1930 to 1975 led them to the relatively unknown FASE Madrid. They wanted to promote this Spanish lamp design manufacturer.
“From the beginning, we decided to make room for that very particular range of lamps that were unknown both globally and locally,” he said.
Now the FASE Madrid lamps are featured in a lot of Hollywood productions like the TV show Mad Men and the latest Indiana Jones film.
“We are proud to have contributed to popularizing that unknown brand,” Gordenne said.
Even though they will buy unknown brands, a large part of the AR.NO design shop is making sure each piece is real and authentic. Gordenne said that, recently, there has been an invasion of cheap copies overflowing the market. Copies make for hard competition in the basic furniture market but not for AR.NO., he said.
“It is not real competition, as a collector could recognize them at first sight,” he said. “They are very easy to recognize. If you have a good eye or can get a detailed picture of the piece, you won’t get into trouble.”
Located at 71 Av. de Roma, AR.NO design shop is set up like a contemporary art gallery. Gordenne is in the process of moving his shop to a location closer to the city center of Barcelona.
“The shop is supposed to emphasize the design quality of the pieces,” said Gordenne. “We wanted open spaces with lots of lights and an industrial aspect.”
Gordenne said that the name AR.NO could mean “No Art”.
“We don’t think that design is art, “ he said. “But as an applied art, it deserves a good showcase to underline its qualities.”
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
At a glance, nothing seems special about the white desk lamp. With its long neck bent at a forty-five degree angle, circular base and bulbous head, the lamp looks like it came straight from the opening credits of a Pixar movie. To Ulric Gordenne, it is more than just a reminder of a playful animated lamp; it is his business.
The lamp is actually a self-balancing table lamp produced by a Spanish manufacturer called FASE Madrid in 1965 and is only one facet of Gordenne’s design shop, AR.NO.
His shop carries chairs, tables and lamps that span from 1950 to 2000, from many different designers.
“The category of design we focus on is called Mid-Century modern or modernist, in the international sense of the word,” Gordenne said.
In Barcelona, the word modernist refers to the Catalan Art Nouveau period led by Antoni Gaudi, he said. The international style in architecture and interior design started in the United States in the 1940’s by multi-talented architects like Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen and Oscar Niemeyer.
“We are fans of the pure minimalistic, sometimes futuristic, lines of that era,” Gordenne said.
Gordenne said that this style of design has dominated the content of the most important decoration magazines for more than 20 years.
“We don’t focus on big names only, though,” he said. “An anonymous seat with nice lines can be of interest to us, too.”
Gordenne, who was born in Liege, Belgium, attended Liege University where he studied law and the arts and sciences of communication. When he graduated, he moved to Paris, France, to work as a copywriter for advertising agencies in the area. This work in advertising made Gordenne a fan of old advertisements in the 1960’s. He has a collection of old Phillip Morris cigarette and Jaguar advertisements for sale in his shop.
“I am and old advertisement fan,” said Gordenne. “When Jaguar entered the American market, they had a lot of good advertisements.”
It was in one of these advertising agencies where he met his Spanish wife, Marissa.
Marrisa Gordenne was born in Paris to a family of Spanish immigrants. Her father was part of the resistance movement during the Spanish civil war.
“Her family left Spain to escape the Franco regime, and started a new life in Paris,” Gordenne said.
“After 10 years in the hectic world of marketing and publicity, we left Paris and moved to Barcelona,” Gordenne said.
The ‘Formento de las Artes’ declared 2003 the ‘Año del Diseño,’ or the year of design. Founded by a group of artists and craftsmen in 1903, FAD, as it is known, is a Spanish organization that promotes the decorative arts. The Ano del Diseño (the year of design) was held to celebrate the organization’s 100th year in operation. According to an article in the design magazine Domus, there were more than a hundred festivals, street events, awards, competitions, conferences, workshops for children and city initiatives that were held as a part of the Ano del Diseño. It was because of the Ano del Diseño that Gordenne and his wife moved to Spain.
“We settled in Barcelona with the idea of taking advantage of the design boom that was occurring in Spain,” he said. “The economic climate looked very positive, and the city was fantastic, with only a few Mid-Century furniture shops.”
Gordenne said that running a Mid-Century furniture shop in Spain is different from running one in Germany or France.
“With 40 years of Franco’s dictatorship, an immense majority of the population still has no idea who some designers are, for example Le Corbusier,” Gordenne said. “So we have to work from the beginning, like a teacher or a preacher, to communicate our enthusiasm.”
He said that the cultural gap and the limited design creation in Spain from 1930 to 1975 led them to the relatively unknown FASE Madrid. They wanted to promote this Spanish lamp design manufacturer.
“From the beginning, we decided to make room for that very particular range of lamps that were unknown both globally and locally,” he said.
Now the FASE Madrid lamps are featured in a lot of Hollywood productions like the TV show Mad Men and the latest Indiana Jones film.
“We are proud to have contributed to popularizing that unknown brand,” Gordenne said.
Even though they will buy unknown brands, a large part of the AR.NO design shop is making sure each piece is real and authentic. Gordenne said that, recently, there has been an invasion of cheap copies overflowing the market. Copies make for hard competition in the basic furniture market but not for AR.NO., he said.
“It is not real competition, as a collector could recognize them at first sight,” he said. “They are very easy to recognize. If you have a good eye or can get a detailed picture of the piece, you won’t get into trouble.”
Located at 71 Av. de Roma, AR.NO design shop is set up like a contemporary art gallery. Gordenne is in the process of moving his shop to a location closer to the city center of Barcelona.
“The shop is supposed to emphasize the design quality of the pieces,” said Gordenne. “We wanted open spaces with lots of lights and an industrial aspect.”
Gordenne said that the name AR.NO could mean “No Art”.
“We don’t think that design is art, “ he said. “But as an applied art, it deserves a good showcase to underline its qualities.”
Anchovies Maisor: Keeping Local Traditions Alive
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
In Getaria the smell of fish is strong. It is not an overwhelming smell, but it is constantly in the back of the nose. The smell gets stronger the closer you get to the port of the tiny fishing village on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea.
The port of Getaria is dominated by the large fishing boats and the Salinort fish factory. It is easy to miss the tiny gourmet fish shop off to the side.
Anchovies Maisor was started 15 years ago by Sorkunde Iribar to keep the Getarian tradition of preparing anchovies by hand alive. Michael Bazaes, the store manager at Anchovies Maisor, explained that in the early 20th century, Sicilian fisherman were looking for the best quality anchovies, and their search brought them to Getaria and the Cantabrian Sea.
“They came here and to other small towns along the coast, and they brought this way to everyone,” Bazaes said.
He said that all of the houses in Getaria used to have rooms for the sole purpose of salting and preparing anchovies. He explained that over the years the process has become more industrialized, and that people were leaving the tradition behind.
“We make the anchovies like the people use to make them at home,” Bazaes said.
The fleet of red and green fishing boats set out once a year to fish for anchovies. They only fish in the Cantabrian Sea, and only in the spring.
“The anchovies in this season are the best because they have just laid their eggs,” Bazaes said.
He said that this is when the anchovy meat is softest and most tender.
“They bring the anchovies in the morning and they put them in salt,” Bazaes said.
The anchovies are put into barrels and separated by layers of salt. Every layer is pressed by 70-kilogram weights, drying the anchovies. Then they wait. They wait for as long as seven months while the fish curate in the salt.
“When the anchovy is mature it has that characteristic smell and a red brown color,” Bazaes said. “This happens usually between November and December.
After the anchovies have matured they are brought to the tiny shop where they are cleaned and filleted
“We clean every inch of them, one by one, by hand, the salt, the scales, everything,” Bazaes said. “This is the main characteristic of our process.”
After the fish are cleaned they are dried and put in a spin machine. This is one of only two parts of the process not done by hand.
“In a traditional Getarian home the anchovies would be hand pressed in cloth and left to dry for two or three hours,” Bazaes said.
After the anchovies have dried they are filleted and hand placed into bottles. Bazaes said that every part of the process is done by hand except for the drying of the fish and placing the lids on the bottles.
“It is a very simple process, but a very hard process,” said Bazaes. “There are usually only four or five people working in the shop, and they have to clean the anchovies one by one, and then fillet each anchovy one by one.”
Bazaes explained that they sell some of their products over the Internet to other countries in Europe, including three restaurants in Paris, but that most of their products go to restaurants in Getaria.
“All of the best restaurants in town use our anchovies,” he said. “They know our quality and our know how.”
Bazaes also said that they are beginning to export their anchovies and other products to Basque and Spanish restaurants in the United States as well, under the name Anvidelis Anchovies.
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
In Getaria the smell of fish is strong. It is not an overwhelming smell, but it is constantly in the back of the nose. The smell gets stronger the closer you get to the port of the tiny fishing village on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea.
The port of Getaria is dominated by the large fishing boats and the Salinort fish factory. It is easy to miss the tiny gourmet fish shop off to the side.
Anchovies Maisor was started 15 years ago by Sorkunde Iribar to keep the Getarian tradition of preparing anchovies by hand alive. Michael Bazaes, the store manager at Anchovies Maisor, explained that in the early 20th century, Sicilian fisherman were looking for the best quality anchovies, and their search brought them to Getaria and the Cantabrian Sea.
“They came here and to other small towns along the coast, and they brought this way to everyone,” Bazaes said.
He said that all of the houses in Getaria used to have rooms for the sole purpose of salting and preparing anchovies. He explained that over the years the process has become more industrialized, and that people were leaving the tradition behind.
“We make the anchovies like the people use to make them at home,” Bazaes said.
The fleet of red and green fishing boats set out once a year to fish for anchovies. They only fish in the Cantabrian Sea, and only in the spring.
“The anchovies in this season are the best because they have just laid their eggs,” Bazaes said.
He said that this is when the anchovy meat is softest and most tender.
“They bring the anchovies in the morning and they put them in salt,” Bazaes said.
The anchovies are put into barrels and separated by layers of salt. Every layer is pressed by 70-kilogram weights, drying the anchovies. Then they wait. They wait for as long as seven months while the fish curate in the salt.
“When the anchovy is mature it has that characteristic smell and a red brown color,” Bazaes said. “This happens usually between November and December.
After the anchovies have matured they are brought to the tiny shop where they are cleaned and filleted
“We clean every inch of them, one by one, by hand, the salt, the scales, everything,” Bazaes said. “This is the main characteristic of our process.”
After the fish are cleaned they are dried and put in a spin machine. This is one of only two parts of the process not done by hand.
“In a traditional Getarian home the anchovies would be hand pressed in cloth and left to dry for two or three hours,” Bazaes said.
After the anchovies have dried they are filleted and hand placed into bottles. Bazaes said that every part of the process is done by hand except for the drying of the fish and placing the lids on the bottles.
“It is a very simple process, but a very hard process,” said Bazaes. “There are usually only four or five people working in the shop, and they have to clean the anchovies one by one, and then fillet each anchovy one by one.”
Bazaes explained that they sell some of their products over the Internet to other countries in Europe, including three restaurants in Paris, but that most of their products go to restaurants in Getaria.
“All of the best restaurants in town use our anchovies,” he said. “They know our quality and our know how.”
Bazaes also said that they are beginning to export their anchovies and other products to Basque and Spanish restaurants in the United States as well, under the name Anvidelis Anchovies.
Basque's Best Pinxtos
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
There are only a handful of restaurants in the tiny basque fishing village of Getaria. Only one has had the honor of being awarded for having the best pinxtos three years in a row.
Bar Giroa was opened in 1995 by two friends who worked together as waitresses at another restaurant. What originally started out as a joke about owning a restaurant, ended with the opening of Bar Giroa.
Owned and operated by Chef Eukene Echegoyen and her son Axut, Bar Giroa is a small establishment with two dining rooms and a bar. The name Giroa means “good ambience” in Basque, and the name could not be more fitting. The restaurant has an elegant, but comfortable atmosphere and excellent food. The lighting is warm and inviting, and there are paintings of fishing boats and the surrounding environment lining the walls. Echegoyen cooks and prepares the food, while her son is the bartender.
Echegoyen serves entrées as well as pinxtos, a Basque form of Spanish tapas. Her entrées are mainly traditional Basque dishes like baked monkfish or pork with a mushroom sauce.
The pinxtos are the pride of the restaurant though. Mireia Ondarra, one of Echegoyen’s waitresses, explained that every year, on January 17, the Getaria city council holds a contest to celebrate the Day of San Anton. The contest determines which restaurant has the best pinxtos in Getaria.
“We have won three years in a row,” Ondarra said. “We pick a different one each year, and we always enter our best.”
This past year Echegoyen entered Filipino, which is like a cookie with squid ink filling.
“The pinxtos is made to honor the fisherman,” Echegoyen said through a translator. “They go out at 5 a.m. every morning and catch each squid by hand.”
She said that her father, Agustin Echegoyen, was one of these fisherman, and that she is very proud of that fact. Echegoyen said that it is this pride in her father and in her heritage that makes her pinxtos taste just a little bit better than the competitors.
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
There are only a handful of restaurants in the tiny basque fishing village of Getaria. Only one has had the honor of being awarded for having the best pinxtos three years in a row.
Bar Giroa was opened in 1995 by two friends who worked together as waitresses at another restaurant. What originally started out as a joke about owning a restaurant, ended with the opening of Bar Giroa.
Owned and operated by Chef Eukene Echegoyen and her son Axut, Bar Giroa is a small establishment with two dining rooms and a bar. The name Giroa means “good ambience” in Basque, and the name could not be more fitting. The restaurant has an elegant, but comfortable atmosphere and excellent food. The lighting is warm and inviting, and there are paintings of fishing boats and the surrounding environment lining the walls. Echegoyen cooks and prepares the food, while her son is the bartender.
Echegoyen serves entrées as well as pinxtos, a Basque form of Spanish tapas. Her entrées are mainly traditional Basque dishes like baked monkfish or pork with a mushroom sauce.
The pinxtos are the pride of the restaurant though. Mireia Ondarra, one of Echegoyen’s waitresses, explained that every year, on January 17, the Getaria city council holds a contest to celebrate the Day of San Anton. The contest determines which restaurant has the best pinxtos in Getaria.
“We have won three years in a row,” Ondarra said. “We pick a different one each year, and we always enter our best.”
This past year Echegoyen entered Filipino, which is like a cookie with squid ink filling.
“The pinxtos is made to honor the fisherman,” Echegoyen said through a translator. “They go out at 5 a.m. every morning and catch each squid by hand.”
She said that her father, Agustin Echegoyen, was one of these fisherman, and that she is very proud of that fact. Echegoyen said that it is this pride in her father and in her heritage that makes her pinxtos taste just a little bit better than the competitors.
Explore Portugal on Two Wheels
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
Lisbon Bike Tour and Outdoors is a small company that offers tours of Portugal’s capitol as well as two national parks which are both within one our of the city. The company was started by Filipe Palma and has been producing travel guides for the Alentejo region of Portugal since 1994. They started organizing cycling holidays in 2003.
Palma started in adventure sports at the age of 12 and in 1999 he participated in the Round the World cycling adventure. This was a one-year trip in which he rode 10,000 kilometers on his mountain bike across Asia, Oceana, and North and South America.
Palma’s company offers nine different tours including the Lisbon bike tour, as well as mountain biking, sea kayaking and hiking tours in Sintra-Cascais NaturalPark and Arrabida Natural Park.
On the tours the guides take their customers to secret spots, suggest the best places to eat, explain the history of the locations, and share facts about Portugal.
Miguel Doria has worked at Lisbon Bike since 2011 and is now Palma’s partner in the company.
“My favorite trip is the Arrabida mountain bike and kayak tours,” Doria said. “The natural park and the Luis Saldahna marine park are so unique and so close to Lisbon.”
Doria worked as an architect for 20 years, but he said it was an easy transition to working in Palma’s company because of his outdoor experience.
“I have always been a big fan of the outdoors,” Doria said. “Lisbon Bike Tour and Outdoors is a small company with great service, and I have known Filipe for 20 plus years, so it was a natural shift for me.”
Doria said that he leads four to five trips a week but they leave some time open to explore and find new experiences to share with their customers.
One of the trips offered by Palma’s company is the Sintra mountain bike tour, which takes customers to the small town of Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and into the Sintra Mountains and the Sintra-Cascais National Park.
Catherine Neary and Liz Conway, who are from Dublin, Ireland and Rome, Italy respectively, took four of the tours offered by Palma’s company while on vacation in Lisbon.
“My favorite day was the day we spent in Sintra,” Neary said. “We got to bike in the morning and the afternoon and the physical activity was really good.”
The Sintra tour starts when Doria picks up the customers from their hotels and takes them on the half hour drive to the town of Sintra.
The first stop is Sintra itself where customers can walk around, enjoy the sites and get a pastry for breakfast.
Then it is back in the van and up the mountain to where the biking will begin. Once the van is parked and Doria passes out helmets, gloves, bottles of water, and bikes (sized to each individual), the cycling begins.
The trip winds up and down through the lush forest of eucalyptus, acacia, and cork trees with Doria stopping every once in a while to point out an interesting fact, like Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork and also produces the best quality cork.
Once the tour reaches the top of the Mountain, Doria stops the group to enjoy a pastry and a small glass of Porto. From this point it is possible to see the Cape of Roca, the western most point of continental Europe.
After the breather it is all down hill from there. The rest of the trip is down the mountain to the coast below where guests can enjoy a lunch on the beach and explore while Doria bikes back up the mountain to retrieve the van.
Then Doria drives everyone back to their hotels, pointing out monuments and sharing interesting facts about Portugal along the way.
“I have only very positive things to say about Filipe and Miguel,” Neary said. “They were easy to get on with and eager to share their knowledge about Portugal.”
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
Lisbon Bike Tour and Outdoors is a small company that offers tours of Portugal’s capitol as well as two national parks which are both within one our of the city. The company was started by Filipe Palma and has been producing travel guides for the Alentejo region of Portugal since 1994. They started organizing cycling holidays in 2003.
Palma started in adventure sports at the age of 12 and in 1999 he participated in the Round the World cycling adventure. This was a one-year trip in which he rode 10,000 kilometers on his mountain bike across Asia, Oceana, and North and South America.
Palma’s company offers nine different tours including the Lisbon bike tour, as well as mountain biking, sea kayaking and hiking tours in Sintra-Cascais NaturalPark and Arrabida Natural Park.
On the tours the guides take their customers to secret spots, suggest the best places to eat, explain the history of the locations, and share facts about Portugal.
Miguel Doria has worked at Lisbon Bike since 2011 and is now Palma’s partner in the company.
“My favorite trip is the Arrabida mountain bike and kayak tours,” Doria said. “The natural park and the Luis Saldahna marine park are so unique and so close to Lisbon.”
Doria worked as an architect for 20 years, but he said it was an easy transition to working in Palma’s company because of his outdoor experience.
“I have always been a big fan of the outdoors,” Doria said. “Lisbon Bike Tour and Outdoors is a small company with great service, and I have known Filipe for 20 plus years, so it was a natural shift for me.”
Doria said that he leads four to five trips a week but they leave some time open to explore and find new experiences to share with their customers.
One of the trips offered by Palma’s company is the Sintra mountain bike tour, which takes customers to the small town of Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and into the Sintra Mountains and the Sintra-Cascais National Park.
Catherine Neary and Liz Conway, who are from Dublin, Ireland and Rome, Italy respectively, took four of the tours offered by Palma’s company while on vacation in Lisbon.
“My favorite day was the day we spent in Sintra,” Neary said. “We got to bike in the morning and the afternoon and the physical activity was really good.”
The Sintra tour starts when Doria picks up the customers from their hotels and takes them on the half hour drive to the town of Sintra.
The first stop is Sintra itself where customers can walk around, enjoy the sites and get a pastry for breakfast.
Then it is back in the van and up the mountain to where the biking will begin. Once the van is parked and Doria passes out helmets, gloves, bottles of water, and bikes (sized to each individual), the cycling begins.
The trip winds up and down through the lush forest of eucalyptus, acacia, and cork trees with Doria stopping every once in a while to point out an interesting fact, like Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork and also produces the best quality cork.
Once the tour reaches the top of the Mountain, Doria stops the group to enjoy a pastry and a small glass of Porto. From this point it is possible to see the Cape of Roca, the western most point of continental Europe.
After the breather it is all down hill from there. The rest of the trip is down the mountain to the coast below where guests can enjoy a lunch on the beach and explore while Doria bikes back up the mountain to retrieve the van.
Then Doria drives everyone back to their hotels, pointing out monuments and sharing interesting facts about Portugal along the way.
“I have only very positive things to say about Filipe and Miguel,” Neary said. “They were easy to get on with and eager to share their knowledge about Portugal.”
Obidos: A Medieval Town with Everlasting Charm
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
Nestled behind walls that date back to the 12th Century, the medieval town of Obidos sits atop a hill overlooking the Portuguese countryside.
The town is known as the Wedding Present of Portugal. According to Pousadas of Portugal, a state owned company that runs historical hotels, Obidos was the traditional gift that the King of Portugal gave to his wife. The tradition started in 1282 when King Dinis gave the town to Queen Isabel.
From its medieval walls to the ancient aqueduct constructed by Queen Catherine in 1575, Obidos is overflowing with history. The focal point of the town is the castle though.
“Obidos is set up like a house, and the castle is the living room,” said Paula Ribeiro, a representative from the Town Hall of Obidos.
Ribeiro said that the history around the castle, which is now a hotel run by the Pousadas of Portugal, is tangible.
“Kings and Queens were here long ago,” she said. “You can feel it here, in the atmosphere.”
Now days the castle, along with being a hotel, is used as the backdrop for the many festivals that the town holds throughout the year. The economy of Obidos is almost solely based on the tourism that events, like the chocolate festival and the medieval market, bring in.
Started in 2002, Obidos’s annual International Chocolate Festival has become one of the town’s most profitable events.
“Obidos really has no history of chocolate,” Ribeiro said. “The town hall was just looking for ideas for events and an American, named Sandy Lesberg, submitted the idea.”
Every year over 200,000 people come to Obidos for the festival, where they can try different types of chocolate, take cooking classes, and checkout the chocolate sculptures created for the festival. The festival even led to the pairing of Ginja, the local liquor of the region, and chocolate. It has become a staple in Obidos and nearly every shop in town sells the combination of Ginja in chocolate cups.
With the economic crisis that is plaguing Obidos, Ribeiro said that the festival and the other events get people working and allow them to have fun.
“People need something to go to and just smile for a little while,” she said. “The festivals give them that.”
By Collin Curry
Published in Alpine Living Issue No. 5
Nestled behind walls that date back to the 12th Century, the medieval town of Obidos sits atop a hill overlooking the Portuguese countryside.
The town is known as the Wedding Present of Portugal. According to Pousadas of Portugal, a state owned company that runs historical hotels, Obidos was the traditional gift that the King of Portugal gave to his wife. The tradition started in 1282 when King Dinis gave the town to Queen Isabel.
From its medieval walls to the ancient aqueduct constructed by Queen Catherine in 1575, Obidos is overflowing with history. The focal point of the town is the castle though.
“Obidos is set up like a house, and the castle is the living room,” said Paula Ribeiro, a representative from the Town Hall of Obidos.
Ribeiro said that the history around the castle, which is now a hotel run by the Pousadas of Portugal, is tangible.
“Kings and Queens were here long ago,” she said. “You can feel it here, in the atmosphere.”
Now days the castle, along with being a hotel, is used as the backdrop for the many festivals that the town holds throughout the year. The economy of Obidos is almost solely based on the tourism that events, like the chocolate festival and the medieval market, bring in.
Started in 2002, Obidos’s annual International Chocolate Festival has become one of the town’s most profitable events.
“Obidos really has no history of chocolate,” Ribeiro said. “The town hall was just looking for ideas for events and an American, named Sandy Lesberg, submitted the idea.”
Every year over 200,000 people come to Obidos for the festival, where they can try different types of chocolate, take cooking classes, and checkout the chocolate sculptures created for the festival. The festival even led to the pairing of Ginja, the local liquor of the region, and chocolate. It has become a staple in Obidos and nearly every shop in town sells the combination of Ginja in chocolate cups.
With the economic crisis that is plaguing Obidos, Ribeiro said that the festival and the other events get people working and allow them to have fun.
“People need something to go to and just smile for a little while,” she said. “The festivals give them that.”