Ibiza
Overnight we traveled south from our port of embarkation at the thriving commercial city of Barcelona, to the island of Ibiza, one of the Balearic islands widely known today as a tourist destination for lovers of sun, sea and sangría. In our contemporary world, island communities are most often associated with vacation time, places of respite from the stresses and strains of urban living - but it was not always thus. The Balearic islands have been a sought after destination since prehistoric times, with wave after wave of colonizers seeking to control islands that were strategically important in times of sea-based communication and trade. Symbolic of the historic importance of the island is the citadel of Eivissa that we visited on foot from the ship this morning. A Unesco World Heritage site, the citadel shows evidence of Phoenician, Roman, Greek and Moorish occupation before the Balearics were finally conquered by the Catalans in 1235. These different phases in the island's history were effectively displayed in the Archaeological Museum, situated next to the cathedral in the heart of the citadel.
Signage in the museum as elsewhere on the island was in both Catalan and Castillian, a reminder that Spain is a centrifugal state. Historically, Castille, the impoverished center of the country, has drawn revenues from the richer provinces, the industrial northwest, occupied by the Basques, or the commercial southeast, occupied by the Catalans. Since the death of Franco and Spain's subsequent membership of the European Union, Spain has been a prime example of what political commentators have termed the "hollowing out of the nation-state". Madrid has ceded powers both upward to Brussels, the executive center of the EU, and downward to its regions, notably the Basque country and Catalunya. Contemporary Catalunya, as our visit to Barcelona (its capital) yesterday and to the Balearics today confirmed, is vibrant and flourishing, openly celebrating its cultural distinctiveness and proud of a rich historical legacy. And there could be no better way to engage with that heritage than to enter the splendid harbor of Eivissa on board Sea Cloud II for our morning visit of the town and then to spend the afternoon under full sail navigating a course between these beautiful Mediterranean islands.
Overnight we traveled south from our port of embarkation at the thriving commercial city of Barcelona, to the island of Ibiza, one of the Balearic islands widely known today as a tourist destination for lovers of sun, sea and sangría. In our contemporary world, island communities are most often associated with vacation time, places of respite from the stresses and strains of urban living - but it was not always thus. The Balearic islands have been a sought after destination since prehistoric times, with wave after wave of colonizers seeking to control islands that were strategically important in times of sea-based communication and trade. Symbolic of the historic importance of the island is the citadel of Eivissa that we visited on foot from the ship this morning. A Unesco World Heritage site, the citadel shows evidence of Phoenician, Roman, Greek and Moorish occupation before the Balearics were finally conquered by the Catalans in 1235. These different phases in the island's history were effectively displayed in the Archaeological Museum, situated next to the cathedral in the heart of the citadel.
Signage in the museum as elsewhere on the island was in both Catalan and Castillian, a reminder that Spain is a centrifugal state. Historically, Castille, the impoverished center of the country, has drawn revenues from the richer provinces, the industrial northwest, occupied by the Basques, or the commercial southeast, occupied by the Catalans. Since the death of Franco and Spain's subsequent membership of the European Union, Spain has been a prime example of what political commentators have termed the "hollowing out of the nation-state". Madrid has ceded powers both upward to Brussels, the executive center of the EU, and downward to its regions, notably the Basque country and Catalunya. Contemporary Catalunya, as our visit to Barcelona (its capital) yesterday and to the Balearics today confirmed, is vibrant and flourishing, openly celebrating its cultural distinctiveness and proud of a rich historical legacy. And there could be no better way to engage with that heritage than to enter the splendid harbor of Eivissa on board Sea Cloud II for our morning visit of the town and then to spend the afternoon under full sail navigating a course between these beautiful Mediterranean islands.
