Alicante

For many visitors to Spain, Alicante is little more than a very busy and ever expanding airport where you land on the way to Benidorm or one of the other tourist centres on the Cost Blanca. But in fact here is a bustling modern city of more than 300,000 citizens with ancient Bronze, Iberian and Roman origins, and a fascinating Muslim history, celebrated annually by loud fiestas, where the `Christians` unfortunately have all the victories. (Which of course - eventually- they did!)

Though greatly extended during the reign of Philip ll, the mighty Santa Barbara Castle,set on Mount Benacantil, is Muslim in origin. It`s a wonderful place to visit: huge, with ramparts that go down to the foot of the hill. Scattered throughout the buildings there are as many as 700 modern sculptures, the most important Spanish collection in the world.There you can look down on the sea and beaches, the two marinas, and the city´s busy port to the south, and to the north the main city, and beyond it to the east, the majestic mountains.

There are several excellent museums in Alicante, the latest of them telling the story of local bullfighting, should that interest you. Of those we have seen, by far the most impressive is the superb MARQ, an archeological museum of the area with many interactive exhibits. It deservedly won a European award in 2004.One of the most rewarding musuems we have ever visited.

The Old Quarter ( or the `Barrio´) is a muddled-up mixture of medieval walls updated with more modern streets and alleyways. It enjoys a lively night scene from which next day the young stagger home, as others come to work and help create the usual daunting traffic chaos, where drivers fight for parking space, or, doubling up, give up trying.

A boat trip to the offshore island of Tabarca is well worthwhile, though you would be wise to pick a less rough crossing than we had on our last visit. Only 11 nautical miles away, it is surrounded by a Mediterranean marine life nature reserve, and has old settlements of interest and cafe´s serving local food. Though a tourist attraction with an economy reliant on its visitors, it has proved resitant to developers and has a very strong sense of itself.

Unusually, I write this posting from the Euroresidentes office, just outside Alicante in Cabo de Huertes, the unspoilt end of a huge bay that extends through El Campello and onto Benidorm. A lovely place to be. As Alicante is a fine city to visit.

Bryan

Leeds,Capital of the West Riding

Leeds is everything a major regional city should be. It has a rich history. Mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, it became an agricultural town in the medieval period and then a merchant town manufacturing woollen cloths in Tudor times, and eventually growing to become a major industrial city, facilitated by a transport system involving first the River Aire, then the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and finally the railway.

Now a city of almost half a million, it has two Universities and a University College, major hospitals; one of them - St. James – known as ‘Jimmy’s’, has featured in several TV programmes. It boasts a large development of riverside properties, has a vibrant night life, and was recently designated as Britain’s Best City for Business. It has an amazing mix of architectural styles and the richly decorated arcades in the city centre are amongst the reasons why Leeds can be a rare paradise for keen shoppers. Typical of our larger cities, it enjoys a rich multi-ethnic and racial mix, which brings an added dimension to its community life.

It has a plethora of festivals and a vivid cultural life. Its massive Town Hall is a monument to Victorian triumphal architecture. English National Orchestra is based here and plays for its resident opera Company, Opera North. I have often seen the superbe productions by its resident company. It is about to reclaim its Opera House, The Grand Theatre, now near to the end of its £31M re-development. Re-opening is scheduled for 7th October, with a production of Verdi’s Rigoletto. The City has its own Theatre Company playing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and an exceptional Art Gallery. Since 1963 the Leeds International Piano Festival has been held here every three years, and the Film Festival is the largest in England outside London. It also has a re-developed railway station, now completed after a long period of gestation, and which I find almost impossible to make sense of. Doubtless the locals do better.

But Leeds is really about the locals. This is, they would say, the centre of West Yorkshire, and the bravest of them might say, of Yorkshire itself. Despite its new gleaming image, the city and its outskirts retain much of its traditional northern pride and produces some of the best fish and chips in the country! It also has the distinction of being the place where my wife was born and where her father played for Leeds United F.C. in its earlier glory days, to which hopefully it will soon return.

Bryan

Strasburg

To get lost in the same city in a period of only three days is some achievement and that’s how it was on my brief visit to this wonderful city in March 1994. The first was the worst. I had been traveling by overnight train from Budapest, had found the Ciarus International Centre, the excellent hostel where I was to stay, went out to get some of my clothes cleaned, and then got totally lost. A violent hail storm added to my confusion and as I looked around helplessly, taking refuge in a bank, people took pity on me and helped me to find my way back to base.

That unfortunate beginning was very soon forgotten (until I got lost the second time). A city with a long tradition of independence and humanist scholarship, Strasburg embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther at a very early stage, his adherents establishing one of the first Protestant universities. When completed in 1439 Strasburg’s Cathedral built in a lovely plum coloured stone, was the world’s tallest building. I was overwhelmed by it. A great sense of space and light, it has none of the medieval menace of some of Europe’s famous cathedrals. Next door there is a splendid museum with many artifacts and relics associated with the Cathedral. I also visited St.Thomas’ Church which traces its history back to the 6th. Century when a group of Scottish monks (Celts?) worshipped there, the present church being built in 1280. The Reformer Martin Bucer was minister from 1524 to 1540, and it has been a protestant church ever since. I found it an open and restful place.

In 1949 the city was chosen to be the site of the Council of Europe, and since 1979, Strasbourg has been a seat of the European Parliament, although sessions are held there for only four days each month. The French demand it, although everyone else agrees that there is no logic or economic sense in the arrangement, with other business being conducted in Brussels. I was able to meet the Anglican Chaplain to the Assembly. I asked him why he was so committed to Europe. ‘The day of the nation state is finished’, he said. ‘But the days of flags and national anthems are not. Gradually the old loyalties are weakening’. That was twelve years ago. And a lot has happened since. I believe the principle remains true but the problems of European unity become more and more complex. Urgent, as well.

I would exchange many pleasures for another visit to Strasburg. For me, it is a wonderful city, full of historical challenge and political relevance. And irony too, perhaps, for here Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise" in 1792. Strasbourg's status as a free city however, was later revoked by the French Revolution, the leaders of which had made his song their anthem of freedom!

Bryan