Towards the middle of September it became very clear that Spain was experiencing the second wave of Covid-19. Although mask wearing had been mandatory in public since the middle of July, Spain really began to see an uptick in cases by early August and politicians and news outlets across the country readied the citizens for an inevitable second confinement. This quarantine, thankfully, would not be as harsh as the first quarantine from March to the end of May, but it would still impact the movements of individuals from Communidad to Communidad. The 17 Communities of Spain are very similar to our states in the US and each Community has a government with autonomous powers separate from the Federal government. One of the earliest Communities to decide to close its borders was the Community of Madrid. Because it had the highest rate of cases in the country, the decision was made to not let anyone travel in or out of the Community except for business reasons or for health reasons and the date was set for late September to close its borders. Having read this in the newspaper, I made a quick decision to get an AirBnb for the month of October in Valencia where the case count was one of the lowest in Spain and where also the weather would be pleasant enough to spend days at the beach.
I got out of Madrid days before the borders closed and settled into my flat right in the heart of the Old Quarter in Valencia, just steps from the bull ring and the Ayuntamiento or city hall building. Throughout the month of October, daytime temperatures hovered around the mid-70’s and dropped to the mid-50’s in the late evening, a perfect climate to tour around the Comunidad de Valencia! During the month, I discovered a number of beautiful towns to the south and to the north of Valencia. I was lucky to have my good friend Carlos, who lives in Valencia with his daughter, as my weekend guide. The first weekend, we took a quick trip north up the coast to the town of Sagunto. While the little town has a small and quaint old quarter, what is most famous about the town is the ruin of the ancient castle and Roman theater that overlook the Mediterranean. In this part of Spain, you find layers of history easily going back to the Phoenicians. It is also the area of Spain where many battles between the Carthaginians and Romans took place trying to take command of the Mediterranean sea routes in the Punic Wars. Centuries later it would be the site of the Golden Age of early Muslim expansion into Spain. All of these cultures have left their mark and the castles that sit above these towns such as Sagunto reflect the different cultures who helped to build and expand the fortresses that have always held strategic importance to the ruling empire at the time. Even Napoleonic troops during the Peninsular Campaign held the castle of Sagunto keeping tradition with the empires of prior centuries.
The other memorable excursion we made was to the interior village of Xativa. Xativa has arguably one of the most beautiful castles in all of Spain and it is divided, really, into two castles along a steep ridgeline about forty miles from the coast. In ancient times, it sat right on Roman silver trading routes that expanded throughout the Iberian peninsula and later would become an important site for the Muslims. The infamous family of The Borgias who eventually would claim the Papacy during the Renaissance came from Xativa which was a major seat of power in the kingdom of Valencia. The picture accompanying this post is a picture of the castle of Xativa.
One common thread throughout all of my adventures in Valencia traveling with Carlos was his insistence that wherever we went, we had to eat a rice dish. Valencia is known as the home of paella. In a culture where food is often shared at the table, a paella may be the best example of this wonderful rite. Leaving the city and heading south along the coast, the land is filled with rice fields. In Sagunto, we shared a paella. In Xátiva, we had an arroz caldoso, a wet rice dish served in a terra cotta clay pot. Twice we traveled to Cullera to see its castle but more importantly to drive through the rice fields and to eventually get to a famous restaurant and eat arroz meloso de mariscos which was a medium wet paella with shellfish in a traditional restaurant along the banks of the freshwater lake that empties into the Mediterranean. This area called the Albuferra is the heart of the rice region where a large freshwater lake provides water for the fields of rice first cultivated by the Muslims who conquered these lands in the 800’s.
One aside. In my prior blog post, I detailed the process of my residence renewal while I was in Madrid. I was successful in getting an online appointment and submitted my papers and fingerprints in late September. But now that I was in Valencia for the month of October, I was in a bit of a difficult spot. I had a window of 15 days to go back to the police station and pick up my new ID card in person. Thankfully, the area where I did my renewal twelve miles outside of the city of Madrid was one of a few areas that had not been shut during the closure of Madrid! So, on October 20, I rented a car and drove the three and a half hours to the station, got the ID and turned around and drove back to Valencia in the same day. My four month ordeal finally came to a close! It was a bit eerie crossing into the Community of Madrid because at most exit ramps, there were police blockades checking every car coming in and out of the neighborhoods. But as dumb luck would happen, my police station just happened to be one of a handful of neighborhoods that still had not been closed. Of course, this would all change by November where every community in Spain decided to close its borders and effectively shut down travel across the country. We are currently living under that regime as I type this in early December.
By the end of October, apart from closing the borders of all Comunidades, the federal government imposed a “toque de queda” or curfew, across Spain. The curfew was set from 12:00 am to 6:00 am but each Comunidad could move the curfew one hour in either direction, say, from 1:00 am to 7:00 am or 11:00 pm to 5:00 am. Having spoken with my friends in Madrid about this new development, they advised me to stay on the coast where it was warmer and where I could at least enjoy the beach instead of sitting around Madrid with cold weather and a strict curfew. So, I heeded their advice and went back to Javea where I had spent the month of February right before Covid emerged and changed the world. My time in Javea during November was very relaxed and subdued. Because of limitations on other Europeans from flying to Spain, hundreds of vacation homes of French, English, German and Dutch citizens sat eerily empty across town. The multi-cultural Javea that I had experienced had reverted to a town composed mainly of Spanish and a few international people who were full-time residents. In some ways it was refreshing but sadly, the restaurant owners all were struggling to make ends meet with many shuttering their establishments until travel restrictions will be lifted in the future. Nevertheless, I had the sea and warm weather with a beautiful two and a half mile seaside boardwalk which became my daily exercise. I cannot report much beyond this because aside from reading, going to the gym, having a few nice meals with friends and walking 13,000 steps a day, I did very little travel and had very little social time because everyone had to be headed home by 11:30 pm which in Spain on the weekends is usually the end of dinner!
Now that I am back in Madrid typing this entry where it is 30 degrees outside, I really miss those long walks along the sea. But the reason why I have returned to Madrid is because I will be going back to the USA after having been here for a full year since I last returned to the States for Christmas in 2019. I had planned to return for a month in June but had to cancel those plans. Now a year has passed, perhaps one of the strangest and most challenging years of our lives. I recall the dark early months of Covid in Spain where I lived alone for 90 days in March, April and May and was only permitted to leave the house once a day. I really had no in-person, face to face conversations for those difficult ninety days. Those months tested me. I even had to turn 50 alone in my apartment. Still, we push on and now as we close out 2020, it appears there may be hope on the horizon with a few vaccines that could steer us down a much brighter path towards renewal. I have many friends in the US who have lost loved ones to Covid and I have not been there to give a hug or lend a hand. I have missed my friends and family and even though the situation both here and the US is still challenging, for me, the time seemed right to come home. Now, with my new residence visa from Spain in hand, I will be able to get back into Spain even though Americans are not allowed to travel here right now. Getting that residence card was the deciding factor for me and I feel like I can travel with much more peace of mind. I hope everyone has a safe Holiday season and may the New Year bring us hope for a brighter future!