Visiting Portbou, Spain/ Carlos Pueblo
Portbou is
on the northeast border of Spain with France. I have purchased
a nine days
train ticket and planned to take a high speed train AVE to
Figueres to check how fast it is. Actually, I
took a regular train and boarded
at a wrong station.
Once the train arrived at Figueres, I changed my mind to
go to Portbou, the final stop. There is
another Portbou, France and I think
that I can
just walk across to the border; however, on the Eurail map, the
border town on French part is Cebere. This is
the first time when I see
Spanish field
which is dry in compare with Taiwan, and the crops are olive
, grape, almond,
and may have some wheat. I am surprised that Spain should
Be an
agricultural country.
Portbou is a
hill town of 1,214 residents. From the train station, you can have
look down to
hill to view the town which is facing the Mediterranean. Most of
the
residence are on the half way of the mountain. I walked down the stairs to
the town
center near the beach. The lady in the information center suggested
me visit
Walter Benjamin Memorial. He was a German philosopher who
committed
suicide at this town during World War II by overdose heroin. He was
buried in
the town cemetery. He was under Nazi’s oppression due to his Jewish
religion and
his thought against Hitler’s. He escaped from Germany to Paris, then
to Portbou
and was waiting for the visa to Lisbon, Portugal to immigrate to U.S.
Franco’s
police got him and he had no other way to go. Recently an Israeli built
this memorial
in honor of his work. In the memorial, there is a narrow stairway
between two wall
towards the sea symbolizing a light of hope after darkness.
Many bikers
choose Portbou’s hilly road for their trip. After checking the internet,
I learned
that Portbou played a major role during Spanish Civil War. It served as
a main
station for the Republican army to receive supply from France while the
Nationalist,
Franco’s army, received theirs from Nazi Germany and Facis Italy.
The
Republican lost and Spain had been under Franco’s dictatorship until 1975,
the same
year for the death of Chiang Kai-sek. Spain has become a democratic
nation yet
Taiwan had been under Chiang’s son.
I read an
article about a nightly train from Paris to Barcelona starting at 9:30 pm
Passing through
Portbou and arriving at 8:00 am in Barcelona. It is at daybreak
between Portbou
and Barcelona, you still can enjoy the beautiful Mediterranean.
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