Final Post from Spain

Probably our final post from Spain as we leave for the Malaga airport early tomorrow morning. Then overnight in London and back home. Norah and I saw Kaila off at the train station here in Antequera this morning. She´s taking a different route to London and then Geneva. It was great having her with us. She laughed at me the whole time for worrying about her over these 2 weeks while she´s been on her own here for months.

Antequera is a Truro or so sized town 40 kms or so inland from Malaga. Stone age, Roman, Muslim and Spanish settlement going back over 5,000 years. We also visited the El Torcal national Park in the sierra outside of town. Beautiful and strange limestone rock formations and views out across the plain and also to the sea.

Catching up since the last post. Salobreña was a wonderful old beach town, and warm and sunny as well. Probably my favorite place. We then took the bus along the cost back to Malaga. Large seaside developments tucked between the hills, cliffs and shore for 100 km or so. Malaga was in it´s pre christmas holiday. Streets all lit up and thousands promenading.

I´ll leave it there for now. CT

Monachil, Capileira, Orgiva, and Salobreña

We´ve been a number of places the last few days. From Granada we took a day trip up to the Sierra Nevada Mountains the nearest town, called Monachil. It is a beautiful farming village less than an hour´s bus ride from the big city. Full of olive orchards, vegetable gardens, dogs, a few cows, and a few nice restaurants. The best part was a walk to the archeological site of a paleolithic habitation. It was one of the sites from which artifacts had been displayed at the archeological museum in Granada. Very beautiful and surrounded by undeveloped land and walking paths.

Then two days ago we got on another bus, this time to Capiliera, another mountain town a couple of hours by bus at about 1500 meters above sea level. This one looks just like an old farming village but is situated within the Sierra Nevada National Park so also has tourism, even on a December week day. The hiking up there is spectacular Chris took lots of shots :) And its easy to see why people like it up in the montains so much. The air is clear and there is little traffic noise. We stayed in a great hotel up at the top of the village. Wonderful room, hospitality, breakfast, and Kaila even got a rose from the gardener.

Orgiva was our midway stop coming back down the mountain. All the information we were able to gather regarding the buses told us that there was one leaving Orgiva early in the morning headed south to Salobreña. But it turns out you can´t do that. We had to head back to Granada first. It turned out not to too bad though. We still got here by 2:00 in time to have a walk on the beach and rocks. it was a beautiful day, kind of like Indian Summer in Nova Scotia. It was our first chance to wear sandals which felt great after the hiking boots.

Tomorow another museum and fortification and then back on the bus to Malaga.

Impressive Granada

So to continue the story from where we left off yesterday, we got up early on Thursday and had a quick breakfast at a little cafe across the road in the Plaza Nueva, which is the main square in the middle of the old town. Chris immediately found the tourist office and by their suggestion, caught the next bus up to the Alhambra. Apparently it gets a lot busier in the afternoon.

The Alhambra is an ancient town built on top of a mountain just above where we are staying ans is spectacular. We started with the Palazio Nazarios which was built by Mohammed I when the muslims were in power, so is mostly done in islamic architecture and decorations (except the parts that were re-done later). The walls were decorated with intricate designs made of plaster, wood and ceramic mosaics and were absolutely incredible. All the archways were decorated with stalactite-like plaster. Each window framed a spectacular view of the old town or the Sierra Nevada Mountains. After leaving the Palace, we headed to the Alcazaba, which was the military part of the Alhambra with many towers for defense, and which also housed people. Underneath the fortifications, they had three things: the water system, grain storage, and dungeons. Much of what´s left is in ruins, but you can still see a lot of what used to be there. Even though the area was built by the muslims originally, it was overtaken by the Catholics (Ferdinand and Isabella) when they took over the land, so a lot of the time it gets confusing whether you are looking at the old parts or something built by them. After the Alcazaba, we went to the Generalife, a.k.a the summer palace and botanical gardens. The summer palace appeared to be a completely outdoor builing and the gardens, despite not being in season were still very beautiful. Water was very important in their society and religion, so there were beautiful fountains and pools throughout.

After a long morning at the Alhambra, we were pretty pooped, so we had nice meal and then a pretty relaxing afternoon and evening.

Today was another early start. Even though it´s been raining, it is quite a bit warmer than yesterday (when there was ice on the puddles) so not too bad. We started our day walking through the old city where we found the archeological museum, which is housed in an old villa and was georgeous. We didn´t understand much of the explanations, since it was all in spanish, but we enjoyed seeing all the artifacts (especially Chris and the Neanderthals since they have so much in common). The old, muslim, part of town is full of small streets and alleys. We couldn´t believe the size of the buses fitting through streets that looked to us to be just for walking. The views of the Alhambra from underneath were incredible.

We chose to do a shorter tour of the area than we could have because of the rain, and then made our way to the cathedral and Capilla Real. The Capilla Real is where the king and queen of Spain (Ferdinand and Isabella) are buried. The decorum was amazing with extremely intricate ironwork, gold alters, a marble cenotaphs of the people buried there (and their bodies underneath in lead caskets). An impressive place, but not being catholic made it all a little creepy. After that, we chose not to go to the cathedral, grabbed some lunch and are now having a relaxing afternoon of internet, laundry and shopping.

Talk to you soon!
Norah and mostly Kaila

Malaga to Granada

OK. We have been in Spain now for three days so we should be starting to know our way around, right? We´ve been getting up relatively early every day - about 8:00 so as not to miss the daylight. The weather has been great but there is just so much to see! Yesterday we got up and out for a quick breakfast - cafe au lait and crescents. Chris had something else, we are not sure what, but he ate most of it - toast with some sort of pate - it looked like jam when pointing from a distance. The coffee is always good - whether cappacino or otherwise. Our main event in Malaga was a walk around the public park and gardens below the fortifications that we had seen the day before. Of course they were outstanding! Even though it´s winter, there are still quite a few flowers in bloom and Chris does a great job capturing on photos. Then it was a quick dash to the Post Office, bakery and market to mail postcards and stock up for the trip to Granada.

Getting the tickets for the train to Granada was interesting. Chris had done his research and had the print-outs from the internet so he managed to get what we wanted. A short hop to Bobbadillo and then transfer onto the eastbound train to Granada. The seats ended up being in first class which meant we practically had the car to ourselves with big windows on either side and spectacular views to make it well worth the investment. The train raced past a number of smaller stations and after about only 45 minutes of breathtaking scenery (mountains, hillsides, orange groves, and rock faces into which the train went several times), it pulled quietly into Bobbadillo station. We had our knapsacks on and bags at the ready but were waiting for some sort of announcement or someone to open the door. After about 20 seconds, the train started to move gently again and we just thought it was pulling more fully into the station for disembarking. After another 20 seconds as the train started to go faster and we saw Bobbadillo disappear behind us, we had to accept that we had missed our stop! That ticket agent who reluctantly sold the tickets we wanted must have put a hex on us or something. This was an express train and wasn´t to stop again for another 1.5 hours. Miguel, the train master, was wonderful. He took good care of us in Cordoba - a place we had planned to visit, but not until next week :). And he just happened to be going back to Malaga himself on the 4:30 train so helped us find our way from there.

That brings us to Granada. Kaila was at the Hostel before us. Had to wake her up - guess it was a week-long goodbye party back in Holland. Went out for a lovely evening meal. More later...