Matt's Blog: Castilla y León (part 2)

Have you ever been to an old war battlefield? Actually being there is about the closest you can reasonably get to understanding that particular battle and time period on a personal level. But in reality, there’s only so much you do there. You can only hope for an interesting and informative museum to help you experience it more fully.

When I read the short history about Valladolid in my Lonely Planet Travel pdf that I purchased online (I forgot the actual book back home – grrr), I was intrigued. It was the place where Fernando of Aragón and Isabel of Castilla formed the super-marriage that would later unite Spain under internal rule following 700 or so years of Muslim conquest and domination. Valladolid was also expected to be Spain’s capital but was moved to Madrid in the mid 16^th century. Fray Tomás de Torquemada, Spain’s most famous inquisitor who symbolically put Jesus himself on trial was from here. Cervantes wrote part of Don Quijote while living here. Columbus died here…Ok, bored yet? Well not me. I felt like this was in many ways where Spain’s golden century started, and I wanted to experience part of that history firsthand.

But when I started to look for things to do there, there weren’t many museums or historical sites that reflected the things I was interested in. There was nothing to see involving the inquisition. It’s understandable I guess. It wasn’t exactly the brightest moment in Spanish history. There was a museum dedicated to the history of Valladolid but it was unfortunately closed the day I was there. I wasn't all that interested in seeing Cervantes's house...So for me, on this particular day, Valladolid was starting to resemble an old battlefield. I knew the history was there, I just didn't have a tangible way to really experience it. Finally, after doing some research, I came across a highly recommended Christopher Columbus museum that I hoped would satisfy at least part of my intellectual thirst for this city.

However, I still had a whole day to burn. Fortunately, when you travel you almost always run into cool things you weren't expecting. One of these was an art museum that I was told was the most important museum in the city. I can do art museums for a short time but I find that I end up spending around 75% of the time reading and contemplating the descriptions of the art as it relates to its particular historical period and only the remaining quarter actually looking at the art itself. I can only image what many of these artists would think of this. “Hey, it’s not like I spent years of my life on this sculpture or anything. Go ahead and spend all your time pondering that description someone copied from Wikipedia.”

Another surprise was the city’s Plaza Mayor. The Plaza Mayor in Valladolid at night stood in stark contrast to that of Salamanca’s arresting golden glow. The dimly lit shades of orange were warm and welcoming yet cool and laid back. It was a no-pressure date. I spent an hour just sitting and enjoying the pleasant tone of the night.

The Columbus Museum was both informative and visually appealing. I was pleased to see that a lot of effort had been put into making it above average. Unfortunately no pictures were permitted in the museum. However, I did snap a few good shots of the city throughout the day.