4/2011 Spain

Talk about “The Rain in Spain.” All a bit of a surprise really after 2 months of mostly wonderful weather. The Alaska jackets are still putting in the odd appearance, although the temperatures are going up. Hoping to retire them to the “Winter bag” soon. Made our way inland to Madrid via Cuenca, a charming medieval hill town with houses hanging out over the cliff, the ubiquitous cathedral and a variety of museums. Enjoyed a museum sponsoring contemporary Spanish art, set in a converted Carmelite Convent. Chalk and cheese really. Was a wonderful building, beautifully restored, with a labyrinth of passageways and an interesting art collection. Of course we most enjoyed sitting in the Plaza Major watching the crowds and learning the names of the tapas.  

  On to Madrid and 2 exhausting days of tourist stuff. Did a ‘free’ walking tour (run by students in several big cities on a ‘tips’ only basis) on the first day.  A great way of getting your bearings. We were blown away. What a wonderful city – elegant buildings, some old, some not so old, winding old alleyways, and such an interesting history, some of it so recent. It was a public holiday so the place awash with locals out wandering, shopping etc. We are really impressed with the subdued signage in the city (everywhere we have been in Spain in fact), however has the downside of making it hard to identify the shops, and the Post Offices that we had to hunt for even with directions. We covered a lot of ground – art galleries, palaces, tapas bars, even a bit of shopping for Joanna – a rare event. David’s hip/knee is still causing some trouble. He is very stoical – but we need to learn to sit down a bit more often. One evening a ‘tapas’ tour with a bunch of much younger folk. Love the bars with their tiled facades and old world interiors (with all the tapas lined up on the bar.)

Toledo next, again on a hill, with the massive Alcazar building as the summit. This town once a thriving, and rare home to a mixture of Christians, Muslims and Jews, each with their quarter of town. Jews expelled in 1492 (same year as you know who, sailed the ocean blue).

South to Almagro, what a lucky break, a quiet campsite amongst trees, only a short FLAT (fed up with towns on a hilltop)bike ride into the town.  The town, what we have always imagined all Spanish to be,relaxxxed. Beautifully preserved town square with a 1628 theatre. At last we have settled to the local timetable, lunch after 2pm, drinks at 7pm and dinner even later.(Never before 9pm)  Here David was poorly with temperature etc  and this provided the excuse to stay on with Joanna catching upon the washing, Stan cleaning etc etc.  

Left Almalgro in the pouring rain – again! Heading for Granada – rain cleared leaving the air crisp and clear. Drove through miles of olive groves. You can smell them. Settled into a great campsite close in to Granada and on an easy bus route. Into town for the evening. Wandered the town, getting our bearings – delighted to see a couple of weddings, the bride dancing on the church steps and then a large religious procession. All very slow and elaborate. Less than delighted to discover that the SLOW procession meant that the roads were closed, therefore buses stopped until 10pm. All this had to be discovered in our less than perfect Spanish. Walked home – poor David’s hip - dinner at 10.30.

Spent next day touring the town. Great – an easy place to walk around , with a long lunch in a pretty plaza with good buskers. It is a beautiful city with the Sierra Nevada as a dramatic backdrop. It seems so close – you can see the lifts on the skifield – still plenty of snow as up over 3500 metres. Hard to get a good booking time for the Alhambra. Decided to leave for a couple of days to tour the nearby olive region (10% of the world’s olives.) It is OK, but we are sick of looking at olives as far as the eye can see -up hills, down valleys, and now we don’t really fancy olive oil tasting. However a good chance to rest and to wander  around small towns getting a glimpse of real Spanish life – as opposed to the tourist stuff. Just to sit in a town square with a drink (or two) and see all the local families come sit and chat (with dogs of course) while girls play and boys have their football to kick around.

Back to Granada (easily done, it is a wonderful city), to visit the Alhambra. The Big Day Out! Well as you would expect it was mind blowing. The Palicio Nazaries being the piece de resistance, fairy-tale stuff, although the Patio de los Leones was in reconstruction mode which was disappointing. Too hard to describe – you will have to visit.  The gardens were also magnificent – all enhanced by the history and stories that accompany them.

Our supermarket tourism has taken a beating lately as we haunt the tapas bars and don’t do enough eating at home. However we really enjoy a couple of hours exploring the aisles of the giant hypermarkets here, seeking out all the local delicacies. Have also been disappointed at the lack of local markets this trip. We think that it is just bad luck and bad timing. However- never mind. Nothing stops us in our quest to find the best and the most interesting of the local cuisine.  Joanna quickly learnt the name for black pudding here – morcilla, very common as a tapas. The pronunciation was a challenge – mortheeya. The next challenge was the myriad of varieties of morcilla – and that is still being discovered. 

From Granada to Seville via the Pueblos Blancos ( White Villages), of Grazalema, Arcos and Ronda. All precipitous gorges and white-washed villages tumbling down hillsides. Great central plazas to while away an hour or two watching the world pass by. Would love to do some walking here.We love Southern Spain – everywhere you go is brilliant.

Seville is just so Spanish. Orange trees everywhere spilling oranges – what else. Little  winding alleyways, we enjoyed the cathedral - the biggest in Europe (and we are fussy these days, but it does have Christopher Columbus’s tomb, and an extravagant gold altar piece.) Then the extraordinary Alcazar – which is a serious rival to the Alhambra in our opinion, with it’s ornate tile work and intricately carved plaster and woodwork.  It covers a very large area complete with gardens etc, and less crowded.  Superb! Even if though the temperature went over 35 degrees C that day.

We decided to go to a bullfight here- Seville being one of the more important Bullfight centres. Joanna struggled with the idea a bit and thought it might be a bit like going to a horror movie – a waste of money because I don’t watch it. However it was an interesting experience. We had excellent shaded, ringside seats. I was able to watch most of it, and was able to appreciate the skill and bravery and skill required by the matador and his team – however it is all stacked against the bull and I was sort of pleased that one of the matadors was injured, and another had to vault over the railing.

We wondered why the campsite there suddenly filled up with all these oddbods – mostly single men and only realised later that there a major football match- when our bus got diverted yet again. At least it wasn’t cancelled this time.

Headed south to Gibraltar. Joanna really wanted to visit and we had some poste restante – insurance papers needed before going to Morocco, which the insurance company won’t issue ahead of time.   A bit tricky really. Thank goodness for Maureen(David’s sister in England who is forever helping us out of these tricky situations.) Never mind- it worked – good old Royal Mail. What a strange place Gibraltar is. Very British – sort of. Lots of pubs (with North Sea fish and chips), all the British High Street shops (bought a dress and M & S), a Morrisons (Brit supermarket where David got pork pies and bacon), bobbies on the beat with helmets, red phone boxes etc and not a tapas bar in sight. Actually a bit grubby and run down we  thought. Getting in and out was exciting on our bikes in amongst hundreds of motorbikes and cycles – racing across the airport runway is a fairly unusual access way to a country. And of course we went up the slightly antique looking cable car to the top of the rock. Great view but lots of WW2 buildings in disrepair - really enjoyed the Apes more.

Next morning the weather lousy again. Couldn’t see the Rock – completely shrouded in mist right down to the sea. Set off round the coast to Algeciras to enquire about ferries to Morocco. A very efficient company had us on the next ferry. Morocco here we come.