Back to the coast (warmth) 18-20 February

SAT 18/2

Pack up, empty out, fill up, big grocery shop and headed for a sticky beak around the white villages nestled high up on foothills of Sierra Nervada. 

Spain quite active with sustainable energy technology.

Contradictions continue to abound as we traverse elevated superhighways past large wind turbines, solar farms and hydroelectric dams alongside large scale erosion. Crops terraced everywhere, sustained by old aqueduct technology.

Jeff had crash up yesterday on Segway whilst driving one-handed & attempting to get that great photo. He clipped the edge of a small post making the Segway whizz about, the more he corrected balance the more it spun, ultimately slamming him into a sharp cornered building. The result - building fine, camera fine, Segway fine, Jeff fractured rib + ego buggered. 

Possible skiiing adventure into Sierra Nervada now not possible. Driving into the  mountains painful turning the wheel on windy roads & so we stopped in only one town, Orjiva - now largely Bohemian - and came back down to coast. Hippies the same the world over - funny, multi-coloured scruffy pants & scarves, dreadlocks, decked out combies, a few missing teeth, guitars, funny hats, aromatherapy shops.

Patchwork of visions as we weaved past white lego town completely covering the hill of Solebrano. Crowned with obligatory Phoenician/Roman ruins - quite similar to a dilapidated Alhambra. Tiny bumpy roads through fields of sugar cane+salads crops toward a mass of fancy motorhomes parked up close in a cleared field only 5 mins from the quiet ocean.  Beach of black pebbly “sand”  & still, crystal clear, green water with innumerable smart dining teterias half way down the beach.  Clearly, the tides don’t change much.  Here is the obvious start of the crowded time shares & European, especially British, sun-seeker holiday-makers.

Mediterranean!

Cook up and eat OUTDOORS!!  Jeff put on some shorts!  Wrinkly brown grey nomads playing boche,....mas perros (Kel is thankfully well & truly over her dog phobia - she be-friends & brings home all the strays - having to educate her about rabies now)

Perro applying for adoption

Inspired by fellow travellers, Liz and Morris who come down from the UK for 1 month every year to ski the difficult runs.....aged 77 & 80!

SUN 19/2

up at 0900. Will need to start modifying this nearing the year’s end....

Exercise along a promenade - woo-hoo.  Jeff’s rib grounding him.  Kids came for play on beach. Home for brekkie & school. Lie on beach, adults dip in Mediterrean ocean whilst kids float cork-boats in mountain stream. Home for  chicken pasta before Get Smart tonight.....ahh.

Kel's boat

Wil (human construction) my little boat made from milk cartons & corks because it works well. I blew it about in a small crop aqueduct.

Kel (worst part) falling off scooter and bashing up my knee. I only cried when I got into Eddie.

Jeff (fave taste) - Spain’s natural, slightly sweetened yoghurt with creamy milk & strawberries on cereal mix.

Jen(best part) chill out day by the beach, slow school, time to cook up and eat in the sun.

MON 20/2

run through bean crops, up hill to Castillo Araba & back through Solebrena’s beautiful, cobbled, well kept and very lived in serpiginous streets - quite the prettiest white village yet - and not in the tourist books.

Burriena playground

Burriena sunset

Kids school, lengthy exchange of generous information about what’s coming up from Liz & Morris. Off to Marco and the Cueva Nerja where the archaeologically significant cave drawings and findings date human inhabitants back to neolithic 25,000 BC (possibly even before!) It also houses the world’s largest stalagmite cave column. Delicious lunch in Eddie and then down to the cove of Burriana for a beach walk before turning in, having summoned up the courage to park Eddie right in the lane behind the restaurants on the beach.

Prince Abdullah's ancient letters ( AKA Wilsen !?)

Diary of Prince Abdullah , Summer, 1365 

Letter from Prince Abdullah to his cousin ,Muhammad in Morocco.

Dear Muhammad,

Life is truly wonderful here in our palaces of Alhambra in Granada, a big red tower with pools and gardens everywhere. I wish you were here to play & learn with. Sometimes, the adults can be very boring because mostly they seem to lie on their backs, smoke, imagine their greatness, watch people dance and receive visitors.

Here is a day of my life. Will you write me & tell me of a typical day in your home?? l am sending my letter and homing pigeon with Uncle Yusuf. Tie your reply to Ismail's (my pigeon) back leg and toss him out your window. He will fly back to me.

6:30 I wake up to go and have a breakfast of bread (from the wheat fields on the plain on top of the mountain), orange marmalade (from the green bushy orange trees, also on the top of the mountain) and eggs (from the chickens that roam around in the courtyard) in the sumptuous meal room my father really loves. We sat on big puffy satin coated pillows.

7:30 I head to the Alcazaba (military part of the castle) for warrior training, where I practice swordsmanship, bow shooting and unarmed combat in my tunic with metal plates underneath. The teachers are very grouchy and pushy, but they treat my brother and I exceptionally well. The Alcazaba consists of towers, living quarters and courtyards. We practiced bow shooting from the top of the tower, we also did cannon handling there.Swordsmanship was done in a big padded room so we wouldn't hurt ourselves. So was unarmed combat.

10:30 We wrap up warrior training for the day, time for a rest. I head back to my chambers (the top of the highest tower in the castle) exhausted and worn out. I read my book for a while, overlooking the city below and the rest of the castle. I then go to the baths for a swim, the cool water soothes my skin. I get dressed and go stone skimming on the ponds and enjoy floating sticks down the aqueducts.

11:30 Most of my energy has returned now, time for some play. I get my friends and head to the courtyard for a game of hide and seek all around the castle. We hide in underground chambers, lost corners of the gardens and every other unusual place you could  imagine.

1:30 Time for lessons. I get taught arithmetic, Grammar, English, Art and creative writing. We also get taught some Islam religion, learning the principles that hold it together. We then have to repeat verses of the Koran, my least favourite part. 

6:30 Time for another bath before we enter the mosque for our evening prayers. We bath in big round tubs heated with a fire. When we clamber out ,we get dressed and remove our shoes. We walk into the beautiful domed roof room, where we kneel on big cushions to pray.

7:30 I head again to fathers favorite meal room for a dinner of lamb (they graze on the plains on the hill), date (from the fruit trees in the hill), plum (also from these trees) and cous-cous (from the wheat on the hill) tajin.

We then watch some traditional Moroccan dancing and singing, (it is fun to join in sometimes as well)! We played some very old board games and jacks, a game with little metal things and 2 balls which you throw into the air, catch & sort. It is a very simple game but extremely challenging. After this I make my way to my sleeping quarters in the tallest tower. I read my book for 1 hour before I lie down to sleep, on my huge, soft bed.

Well, dear Muhammad, that was a day of my life. Maybe some day the two of us can rule over the castle, two kings working side by side.

I can't wait to see you some time soon, 

Best wishes,

Abdullah

Granada & the Alhambra

16/2/12 A Day at The Alhambra

cozy sleep in, coldest am yet, frost all round, Jeff out for a run+10BX. Jen too chicken in cold. Onto Bus 4 to the centre of Granada.

Alighted at a beautiful intersection of about 5 cobbled streets, lots of pedestrian going about their business, oodles of scooters buzzing by, set off down 1 of those 5 streets towards the Catedral, lots of plush shoes shops, an Apple Store, funnyfood vendors, bought a bag of dried cumquats - what! 

Neared the Catedral and the tourist vendors thickened, selling T shirts and all sorts of Granada nicknacks including flamenco dresses for little girls, lots of Alhambra pics books and boomerangs with Granada written in them. $euro to enter the Catedral.....the outside was nice enough.

Up towards The Alhambra, coffee and a soupy hot choc in a ritzy little cafe.Then met Bianca, young chick from Geelong who guides Segway tours thru Sacramonte and Albaycin.  She gave us a go - Kib’s a natural, might do it tomorrow (bit exy, 30euro each for 2 hours exploring).

Further up the hill through more tourist vendors and guitar shops and onto the garden path to the great fortress/palace/prison/garden/church/museum that this city is founded around.

Alhambra: 

 there is just so much to say about this museum castle - best to google it. We spent 6 hours here, imagining,learning,being awestruck,taking 250 photos whilst walking more than 10 kms effortlessly as if all under a spell - even Kel!

In a nutshell it tells stories of a military fortress as early as the 9th century & goes on to thoroughly overwhelm & beguile lovers of fine art & architecture with Islamic decorative perfection .We were lucky to see 2 excellent exhibitions - Owen Jones { an architect  in the 1800s who was totally mesmerised by the mathematical perfection of the designs and made models & drawings that were critical in restoring parts that were destroyed/bombed/left to decay} & M.C Escher{ a Dutchie artist  - famously drew the Crossing Worlds sketch -   who took most of the inspiration for his works from the Alhambra} atmospherically displayed within the grand Palacio Carlos V.

 LIke a wise grand entity, it soothes & calms with exquisitely designed innumerable pools,fountains & aqueducts and invites one to frequently draw breath in astonishment as it silently,proudly sprawls across La Sabika. All majestically framed by the heavily snowed peaks of the Sierra Nervada, the highest in Spain.

Dinner at a Moroccon restaurant to finish off a great day, then home in a cab blissfully allowing someone else to weave through the streets and deliver us home to Eddie.

FRIDAY 17/2

 woke to another blue sky, freezing day & initially reluctant exercise.

Kids put on & creatively hang out washing on Maria's roof top....

School work - maths & creative writing.

Off to meet Bianca, our Aussie Segway tour guide.

 Off on the Segways to explore the open-air, living museum of the old Muslim quarter , the Albaysin. 

White-washed villages, some dug in like caves,  cling precariously to the incredibly steep slopes across the Darro river valley from the Alhambra. We had possibly the most fun 2+ hours of our trip so far ( $120 todos!)

Reluctant farewells to Bianca & the Segways. Tapas with our beers before heading home. In Granada, tapas is served by law with any drink to "lid" one's alcohol.

Like Boadil the Moor as he left his beloved city to the Christians, I won't be the last departing traveller to shed a tear for Granada.

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Inland to Murcia & Fortuna - the history lessons begin in ernest.

SUN 12/2

more skating/scootering before breakfast. Steve not well enough for a catch up so heading off for Murcia & Fortuna to explore some Romany stuff & indulge in hot baths.

Landscape very unattractive - signs of rapid development without environmental or aesthetic consideration.  Big piles of chalky earth pushed about to create large warehouse spaces/housing and then just built open in chaotic fashion.  Litter everywhere.  Apparently the Mediterranean mindset has one clean one’s own house & simply dump the rest.  Arrived in Fortuna to witness the release of racing pigeon’s in the town square - WOW - jewels in the sky!

Drove around (& around) to finally land at groovy campsite near thermal springs.  Bars on all houses windows - seems standard. The Spanish seem to often have a cigarette hanging from the corner of the mouth - where are the women & children?  Older men often loitering on plaza outside iglesia benches in small groups (+ cigarette & potbelly), younger men loitering on street corners watching tourists & motorhomes (+ cigarette & long hair) ugly, large mismatched rubbish bins all over the footpaths as no private household bins; every sierra scratched, mined, quarried, defaced,denuded ; haphazard town planning with large warehouses on top of crammed housing developments with no yards ; more ‘bitsa’ dogs than kids ; dog-do as plentiful as scrappy, thorny curb-side bushes..........mmmm not pretty but we'll find the good stuff!

MONDAY 13/2

we’ll stay here today & explore the old Roman baths & enjoy soaking in the new ones!

Honking horns woke us at 0830 as the Bread Man drove into the campground this am, van loaded with fresh bread loaves for $1.50 ish. European breakfast - bread,jam,cheese & coffee. Might not do this everyday - not good for the poo-shoot.

Roman Bath or sheep dip???

That's not a sheep dip!!!  That's a Roman Bath

Wil (best thing) banos (hot baths) at Los Palmeros because the contrast of 35 º C to  -3 º C. It was soo warm.  There were also cold pools (10deg). I jumped from one to the other.  I was fascinated by the feeling on my skin, where one moment I felt like I was in a really cold, prickly shower of rain and then in a burning, tingling soup!

10deg - rapido rapido!!

ahhhhh!! 36 deg

Kel (best man made thing) also the  modern “termal piscinas” at the fancy hotel because I loved the warmth, the big pool shapes with cute domes & nice curves and feeling so toasty in a really cold place.

Jeff (funniest language experience/saying or word of the day) all the multi-country elderly men (German, French, English, Dutch....) playing boules in the campground collectively sounding like Pingu’s Dad.

Boules Mr Pingu vs Mr Pingu vs Mr Pingu

Jen (best natural thing) lemon trees - they are everywhere in a chalky, barren land with NO visible water or rivers.

Yet somehow crops abound (especially citrus fruits), with trees so full of fruit that passers by are asked to come & take what they want for free, the only condition being, to strip the tree entirely. All the plantations drink mountain water channelled down Roman aqueducts and probably also have their feet in some subterranean lakes.

Julius Caesar by Wilsen

Jules was a courageous, brave, clever and cunning leader of Rome. 

He wasn't the one who created the Roman Empire, he was simply the one everyone knows about (probably because there was a play written about him.)

He was very politically active, and moved through the ranks of Roman leaders very quickly.  It is said that on a trip to Spain, Jules saw a bust of Alexander the Great and realized with dissatisfaction he was at an age when Alexander had the world at his feet, yet he had achieved comparatively little.  You can find the remains of the Roman empire everywhere. We have seen remains of roman baths in Spain, the badlands (well, not quite. In Fortuna.) This goes to show how incredibly amazing this man was. His courage, bravery, intelligence and cunning has certainly left a mark and secured him in history.

TUES 14/2 - Valentines Day

Jen for run. Jobs in town of Fortuna.  Gas in Murcia (only 5 re-fill spots in the WHOLE of southern Hispania - soo much to plan). Headed for Granada. Getting late. Still largely uninspiring surrounds. Pull off into wee mountainous town of Baza highway-side, starting to look a little pretty with snow cap amphitheatre framing town. Wil & I prepared dinner & headed for a short walk into a seemingly deserted town only to find a buzzing, cosy centre encircling churches & plazas several hundred years old. People re-commencing business on dusk as they wake/stir from siesta.  Home for dinner, an episode of Black Adder & bed.

WED 15/2

start the day racing Wil up & down the street we parked on. 

1 of 2 huge churches in little Baza, apparently "everyone in Spain is a Catholic, even the Atheists"
(not sure who said that, Unamuna???) 

Brekkie, homework & off for a coffee in town & few jobs (kitchen sink plug - las tarpon;  and pencil sharpener - sacar punta). Only 1 hour to Granada - beautiful drive through mountains. Houses cut into hillsides , facades painted white; tall, whispy silver-grey trees in striking crops (for timber?); ubiquitous alluring snow peaks; undulous crops of peach trees in blossom & little villages all terracotta and white marked at their centre by ancient, tall, mosaic - lined spires. Pretty at last. Got horribly lost & frightening led up willowy one-way, steep streets as Tom ( AKA the tomtom) navigated us to non-existent campsites & into congested one-way lanes......SH@!!?@T).  Re-assessed and headed out of town for more distant campsite to have dinch (lunch & dinner - resisted a bottle of wine each). Will bus into Granada tomorrow to explore.

Wil (worst part) slipping & falling playing soccer with Kel at Maria Eugenia campsite.

Kel (best taste) my dinner creation. I didn’t know it would be so yummy (fresh salad of broccoli, green beans, carrots,corn, pickles, egg, cheese & tuna on mushroom pasta)

Jen (man-made) the sierra. Snow at the side of the motorway! Woo-hoo. Might look into skiiing here ..

Jeff (best part) backing Eddie into the campsite because the day is over. The stress of navigating the impossibly narrow roads in a foreign country, where Tom gets things wrong, the guide books give incorrect information, streams of crazy motorcyclists weaves around your blindspots and the locals honk & shake fists at you.

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