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In Which I Sing 'On The Ball City'

March 23, 2008 by Mike

Tarifa

I made it back to Trafalgar just three days after saying I probably wouldn't. Can you believe a word I say from now on? Can I?

For example - if I were to tell you that Horatio, Lord Nelson, England's finest, the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, went to the same school as my brother -- could you believe me?

And if I went on to say that the most famous old boy of my old school is Bernard Matthews -- a point I make here both for comic effect and a certain self-depracation -- do you shake your head in disbelief?

Well, it's all true -- Nelson, Bernie and my ride up to Cabo de Trafalgar.

I sang 'On The Ball City' in honour of Norfolk's favourite son.

I'd post a photo here to prove it but here's the thing: there's next to nothing to see at Trafalgar. Nothing to indicate one of the seminal moments of British.. European.. *world* history.. took place just off this corner of the costa.

There are no signs on the main road, no signs on the minor road down to the small town of Conil, just an arrow marked 'Faro de Trafalgar' nailed into a tree which indicates where to turn down a sand-strewn lane past a couple of pizza parlours, a hippy jewellery stall and a shuttered bar. (I should point out that the weather's turned gorgeous again: plenty of cars are parked up and down the lane. Families are sunning and playing on the beach.)

There are three information boards from the local tourist board. The first details the type of sand on the beach; the second explains why the spit of land leading out to the lighthouse gets silted up; the third tells the history of the lighthouse (built in 1860, by the way) and only, as an afterthought, in the last paragraph, mentions "the famous Battle of 1,805."

I discussed this lack of Trafalgarness with a Spanish couple who'd come to see.. the lighthouse. Yes, the Battle is taught in schools here, it's even quite well-known. But.. and by this stage I was nodding and smiling but unable to understand a word they said, so this may be my theory more than theirs.. it wasn't really a *Spanish* battle. They formed just under half of the Allied force beaten by Nelson, but in reality the fight was between England and France. Spain was there by default. And, secondly but maybe more importantly, Spain (or rather France) *lost*.

And so, there's precious little to see in Trafalgar. I'd venture that more Spaniards know Trafalgar Square -- and know where it is, will probably have visited it -- than know where the Cabo de Trafalgar is.

War, a wise man once asked, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

True, and at the risk of getting political, never more so than today. But the *history* of war provides some convenient pegs for this trip of mine. The clash between the Soviets and Nazis in northern Norway, the Normandy Landings, World War One cemeteries, and yes, bits and pieces of the Spanish Civil War. And now Trafalgar. War is stupid.. but that stupidity is compounded when we forget or fail to learn the lessons of history.

Here endeth the lesson.

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