Edd's Travels: North & central Spain

Another cheap rental car, and another few days of driving around rural Spain. I spent most of it in the Picos de Europa, a spectacular mountain range near the north coast. At this time of year the mountains are shrouded in mist, with snow in the lowlands as well as on the peaks. That doesn't make it any less pretty. It just means things are less crowded and the hotels are cheaper.

Three other places of interest. Firstly, Sad Hill Cemetery. This is where the climactic scene of 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' - with its famous Ennio Morricone soundtrack - was filmed in 1966. The music in question, titled 'Ecstasy of Gold', is used by Metallica to herald their arrival on stage whenever they play live. So this was a little rock pilgrimage for me.

Secondly, the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. A huge 16th-century palace, about 30 miles northwest of Madrid. The history of the Spanish monarchy, like that of all monarchies, is essentially a squalid tale of uninhibited greed, religious intolerance, disastrous inbreeding and loveless marriages of convenience; the interiors of these palaces are at times scarcely less gaudy and self-aggrandising than any shagpiled footballers' mansion in Alderley Edge or Darras Hall. But good architecture is good architecture, and El Escorial is a magnificent spectacle both from miles away and up close.

Finally, the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos). This is Spain's foremost official monument to those killed in the Civil War (1936-38). It contains the world's largest free-standing Christian cross, three times as high as Nelson's Column, atop a huge basilica carved into the side of a mountain. The interior of the basilica, in which photography is not allowed, is dark and silent and cavernous; frankly it's like being in a big-budget film set for Star Wars or Indiana Jones or whatever. Less pleasingly, in its scale and Spartan starkness and over-ambitious neo-classicism, it proclaims its origins rather too loudly: it was built in the 1940s, under a Fascist government. It feels like the kind of thing Albert Speer would have put together if he'd had the chance. Clearly a lot of Spaniards feel the same way about the monument. It was pretty deserted when I was there.

In Spain nowadays there seem to be two main schools of opinion about the Civil War. One that says hey, let bygones be bygones and we can all move on; another that says no, let's not forget that the atrocities were mostly committed by one side, that the bad guys won, and that as a result the Spanish spent 36 years under Fascist rule. I'm inclined to side with the latter perspective. But then, we don't know what Spain would have looked like if the Moscow-backed Spanish Communists had gained power. Perhaps it's better to let such debates simmer without ever being completely resolved.

“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” (attributed to Richard Feynman)