San Sebastian

This elegant city in the Basque region must be one of Spain’s most attractive cities to visit. Queen Christina made it her summer residence, free from the suffocating heat of Madrid. Surrounded by mountains and bordered by two splendid beaches, the sea is often rough enough for surfing. There is now a new craze of riding the waves in little coracle-like boats.

On a quick visit it would be easy to assume that this is primarily a holiday resort, but in fact the wealth of the city and its region derives from ship building, heavy industry and iron. It is a fascinating part of Spain and full of contrasts. Walking along the promenade you will find local people and visitors mingling and becoming part of a relaxed community enjoying the outlook and watching the other passers-by.

Behind the shopping area between tall graceful buildings are the famous bars where you can call in and buy a glass of wine to go with whatever you chose from the selection of pinchos on sale. Pinchos are the equivalent of tapas in other parts of Spain but are works of art, beautifully presented to tempt the eye as well as the appetite. The custom is to go from bar to bar so that by the end of your journey you are not only well wined but also full of delicious food. Every September the hotels are crowded with visitors for the annual Film Festival.

A lot of the history of the people is on show at the excellent Museum which includes a replica of a typical Basque country home, but the history comes to life wherever you walk in the old town and see the evidence of its strong sea-faring tradition. There is also of course a passionate political element to the city with general approval from local people that the Eta cease-fire may mark the beginning of a peaceful move toward regional independency.

A lovely place to visit, and for my wife and I there is the added advantage that our daughter and partner have their home there.

Bryan

Frankfurt

This is one of the great historic cities of Europe. Kings and emperors were elected in Frankfurt from 855, and from 1562 until 1792 were crowned here as well, in St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral. The city was badly damaged by bombs in the 39-45 war but rebuilt extensively, its spectacular skyline alongside the River Main notable for the height of its buildings. A section of the rebuilding however includes a replica of the old medieval city. A very wealthy city, Frankfurt's Stock Exchange is only second to London, and a close second at that. Similarly the main airport is almost as busy as London Heathrow, and is the largest employer in the Federal Republic.

Almost one in three of the 666,000 people living in Frankfurt are without a German passport which reflects the trading and cosmopolitan tradition of the city as well as the practice – now under revision – that only a child with a German parent can be given nationality. There is a large Turkish population for example. More money is invested in the cultural life of the city than most other cities in Europe and the annual Book Fair every October draws many visitors to the city. Most people live in flats – when I visited in 1994 I was told there were as many apartments as 300,000 – a very different picture to the ‘home-owning democracy’ in the U.K. -and that 80,000 of these were financed by the State for social purposes.

I visited at the time when the film ‘Schindler’s List’ was being shown and causing considerable controversy. I had the pleasure of eating a meal with a group of friends of my host, one of whom, a previous Provost of Frankfurt, had been a friend of Schindler during the last eight years of his life, and told us that in the last few days he had given 40 interviews on the TV and in the media which indicated the interest the film had aroused. I look forward to a return visit to Frankfurt next October.

Goethe was born at Frankfurt-on-the-Main in August 28, 1749, although he lived much of his life in Weimar where he died in March 22, 1832. His eventful life is in keeping with his lively questing mind and his reputation as a distinguished poet, dramatist and philosopher. His name is the most famous in German literature. His admirers claim that the author of Faust and of many poems, which inspired some of Schubert’s finest songs, was a man of genius and ranks with Shakespeare and Dante. Certainly he was the greatest German of his age.

Frankfurt honours him by naming its University after him.

Bryan

Bradford

This northern English city in the West Riding of Yorkshire has an Italianate style Town Hall, a long industrial history and a native pride in itself that brooks no criticism. Its wealth (and grime) was built on wool, and many of the huge mills that once deafened their workers with the sound of ceaseless machinery, are now empty or have been redeveloped as housing or warehouses.

Like several of the West Riding mill towns, the city is built in a valley beneath the hills that surround it. On one of those hills is the village of Haworth. The parsonage there was the home of Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte who wrote some of the finest English novels of all time. ‘Bronte’ country has become a place of pilgrimage for many enthusiasts and the rugged country around is a wonderful walking area and a gateway to the Yorkshire Dales.

Bradford has a varied cultural life and is the birthplace of several famous people including the composer Frederick Delius (who didn’t like it!), David Hockney the artist, many of whose works are housed in the converted Saltaire Mill not far from the city and whose brother has been a prominent local politician, and the novelist and dramatist J.B. Priestley, who for many people was the voice of sanity on BBC radio during the difficult war years of 1939-46. There’s a splendid statue erected in his memory in the town centre.

One of the developments of recent years has been the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television, which has gained international recognition since it opened in 1983 and is visited by as many as 700,000 people annually. Bradford University is also notable for its Peace Studies, established in 1973 at the initiative of the Society of Friends; my daughter was a student there. The department is often consulted on contemporary conflicts and their possible resolution.

We lived in Bradford in the early 1960’s and for me – a soft southerner –to live in a community with such a strong regional base was a learning experience I have valued ever since. It was at time when new laws enforced the introduction of smokeless fuel. One day fifty tall chimneys belched out their dense smoke above the city; we could see them from our house. The next day they were still, and you could smell the fresh air. It was J.B. Priestley who said that when you woke up in the morning in Bradford and opened your windows, you could hear the sparrows, coughing. Not any more!

Bryan

Budapest

I visited Budapest, in the winter of 1994, travelling by night train from Amsterdam, changing trains in Vienna in the early hours of the morning, and then on through the great plains of Hungary until finally arriving in the city’s cavernous Railway Station. At the time of my five day visit the two cities of Bud and Pest, now one, and united by the River Danube broadly flowing between them, was still recovering from its years within the Soviet bloc.

It was interesting talking to people about the changes. I spoke to a young man who worked in a rehabilitation centre for Bosnian refugees. He said ‘some people are suddenly getting a lot of money but many people are sinking’. In the communist era everyone had work, he said, and a modest income, now there was poverty and homelessness. A Methodist pastor I spoke to considered that it was at least debatable that living under the ‘shadow of the Kremlin’ might be no worse than being at the mercy of the capitalism and commercialism of the West and the U.S.A. But this was twelve years ago of course, and there will have been many changes since then.

I was staying in an unfashionable part of the city- 65 stairs to my bedroom! And the building was propped up by scaffolding, part of a street lined with tall buildings, grey and grave and in need of repair. But around the beautiful river there were many fashionable hotels and shops. It was sunny during my stay, but fiercely cold. A lake near the Museum of Fine Arts was frozen and covered by people skating and wearing bright clothes and bobble hats. Food is good in the city, I found, and in the time I was there, reasonably priced. One evening a gypsy band played as we ate, though that isn’t guaranteed. Excellent coffee is.

I had a wonderful visit to the State Opera House. It isn’t huge – room for 1,300 people - but very elegant, stalls on the ground floor and then three tiers of boxes with a gallery at the top. I was in a box in the third tier next to two dear old ladies who said ‘we will be partners’. The ballet was based on Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’ to music from various works by Tchaikovsky – wonderfully danced and sumptuously played. My seat cost me a little less than £5.

Bryan