FANTASTIC FLAMENCO

21/3 FRENZIED FANTASTIC FLAMENCO

Rainy day at home doing school work and trying to organize some business around fitting out the garage,bike racks and  motorhome registration papers ( required before we go to France).

No luck.

BUT.... have booked 1900 show at Tablao Cordoba for Spanish seafood buffet extravaganza & gypsy flamenco song and dance.

Oh what a night! The food was OUT OF THIS WORLD and the performance was mesmerizing. We ate first and then were seated in an intimate,theatre den with a low ceiling and warm lighting. Our front row seats had us fanned by the dancer’s gorgeous dresses & rocked by the men’s explosive tap rhythms. One male dancer pronked with such power that Wil corrected my description of him as the bullfighter to The Bull. 

Wil remarked that the deafening addictive sound of their heeled shoes was like gunfire.

And the ladies.... Kel and I were in heaven. An usher obviously noted Kel literally on the edge of her seat despite the hour and arranged for a special photo & cuddle with her favourite performers at the show’s close.

We swanned home at 2300 and slept blissfully under a dark, rainy sky. 

BARCELONA!!!

20/3

No Eddie school today.  Free 45 minute shuttle at 0915 to Barcelona (said ‘Barthelona’) in morning traffic.  Kids read.  Business only opens at 1030 and not at all on Mondays.

Chased down some Gaudi architecture studiously, appreciating only from the outside  - very imaginative, creative. 

City studded with mixed and unusual designs.  Much more appealing than the capital, Madrid.  Intense rivalry between the two cities is ongoing.

La Sagrada Familia in sight. Loads of scaffolding & construction on all it’s sides.  Not very attractive initially - a bit disappointing actually......but up close!!

Gaudi’s drawings still less than 50 % realised having been started in 1883.

white bits not done yet!!

Wil immediately enthralled as we buy tickets and edge closer ($26 for family).  Modern, angular adorning religious sculptures. Intriguing copper doors, busily inviting, like a ‘Where’s Wally” book.  Bits rubbed shiny gold, a heart, a small face, the words JESUS, as people have reached out to touch their delicate beauty over decades.  Inside eventually. WOW!!  Words cannot describe the magnificence of the now completed World Heritage listed Basilica (not open when Jeff first here with Uni mates in 1990). It is impossibly enormous yet in perfect quiet balance.  Beautiful flower shaped leadlight windows gently & evenly illuminate the grand cathedral, evoking feelings of immeasurable awe & uplifting serenity.  An artist’s superiority unparalleled.  What an extra-ordinary genius creating with incredible technical skill art that is so beautiful....AND over 100 years old! 

Almost all the designs & shapes richly & pleasingly reflect Nature. Somehow he reveals an obvious familiar connection to things we know. For me (Jen), despite it’s grandeur and stone, it is all so warm, graceful and soft.  A strong Christian, Gaudi talks about Nature being a “Book that is always open and one [he] invites us to read.”  The Sagrada’s crosses are modeled on the 4-star shape of the cypress (Tree of Life) fruit and the gargantuan columns spiral upward like old tree trunks. Having scoffed at the gift shop line up on the way in, we found ourselves lined up afterward and then once inside, unable to make a choice on what NOT to purchase. Jeff & I could easily have spent double the time - kids getting toey.  Get this....we even plan to return for a look when construction in finalised in 2040 (we’ll be 72).  Wonder if we’ll be too old to do the infamous Santiago de Compostela bike ride across Spain’s northern coast beforehand!

Wandered the best produce markets at La Rambla, buying lunch. 

Weather closing in  - getting cold, dark and threatening rain.  Home earlier than planned at 1800. Our first seaside storm rocked Eddie and thus us, cosy and warm, to sleep.

dice roll

Wil (best human construction)  Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. I liked the entrance with it’s awning of crooked, knocked kneed baby ‘legs’ & the internal helical columns opening onto the roof of glittering mosaics. 

Kel (worst part) when it got cold and rainy we made for home. We were planning on dinner out but I’d prefer to get back to Eddy anyway because I’m just not built for walking (!)

Jeff (best word) ‘Gaudy’ in our popular language usage describes something that’s showy, eccentric and in poor taste. This was not our experience of his architecture today.

Jen (best taste) piquant dusted macadamia nuts bought at the markets.

Tremp to Barcelona

19/3 Tremp to Barcelona

Woken by the 0900 school bell over the road!  

Cold but Jeff off for a hill on the bike, 40min up, 20 min back, great scenery, steady climb, kids schooling, Jen takes the bike and does the same, 

after which good coffee, pack the boot and away towards Barcelona via what seems to be the best Motorhome spare parts retailer around Barcelona (looking for a bike rack so we can get 4 bikes on and boot shelving etc).

More spectacular scenery, then ask Tom to take us to the shop, alas, surprise, it’s not there anymore, nor do they answer the 2 phone numbers given on the net.  Ahhhhh Spain.  

Around and around but definitely not there so reset Tom for a nice van park northern Barcelona suburbs and we found it perfectly, past countless shanties on the motorway and endless high rise unit blocks, via Lidl for groceries to a very well endowed seaside (just have to leap the train tracks) park.

Hecho to Tremp - very scenic drive

18/3 Hecho to Tremp - most scenic day’s drive yet

2 cups of tea, clean up, pack up, water fill, empty the poo, school and away from Hecho by 12, decided to head southeast rather than north as there is bad weather predicted closer up to the mountains, drove......see the pics! 

Torre on every hill

Ended the day in village of Tremp in an open carpark adjacent to a paintball “jungle,” aired the wet stuff in the setting sun while kids played skating games and the adults had a scotch - another great days, kids proven travellers. 

  

Hecho, Spain - foot of the Pyrenees

16/3 a (usual) very slow get up (after 9, breakfast at 10!), 2 cups of tea (kids loving their “ColaCow” which is Moroccan for hot chocolate), then planned for a big day of school, airing blankets, rearranging things and working the playground.  Parents alternated use of the bike to do some hills (great one!) and explore little Hecho (THIS is the prettiest village we’ve seen so far) looking beyond into the northern valley into the mountains and again adjusting the itinerary - we will need to go up there! 

Splendid fish curry (onion, garamasala paste, coconut powder, tomato puree then add brussels sprouts, bean & peas and lastly, white fish. Served on cous-cous with chilli & garlic sprinkles) .To quote Wil - “enough balanced ingredients & flavours for them all to add rather than for any one to take away”, then a movie. Tucked up with a book - soporific background music of softly snoring ‘littlies’.

17/3 another day in Hecho

even slower start, some clouds coming over (snow to come next few days), more school, lots of playground antics and Kib desperate to make friends with a little Spanish girl, despite no language intersection eventually they got it together for a great play.

More hills (30min up) on the bike for mum and dad, another washing load, a late afternoon stroll into the village for a beer/red wine/soupy hot choc and then out at dusk in the rain - the first we’ve really seen here proving that (n=32 days) in Spain the rain does not fall mainly on the plain!  Back to Eddie ...... Ugh! Wet chairs/table/floor mat/clothes, what a hassle, and how spoilt we’ve been so far.

Inside, dried up, cleaned up, PJ’s on, into bed, books out, soft music with rain rapping on the roof .......

  

Covarubias to Sos del Rey Catolica and then Hecho

13/3 glorious kip by the burbling rapids, up at 8, Jen off for a 30 min run, kids slowly up for breakfast, school to be followed by some boat play in the rapids. School dragged out somewhat by disgruntlement so just a short play before we drove Eddie across the splendid Romanesque bridge into the town, parked up and sauntered about the ever so quiet, nearly deserted streets - amazing how the Spanish can make a town look like a ghost town in the middle of a working day, then the occasional varus kneed retiree wanders out with a walking stick, not much interaction eye or verbal, makes you feel a bit like an intruder sometimes.

Took some snaps of the old buildings - local signature seems to be the exposed wooden beam framing in the walls, like old England.  Some buildings bulging, curving, leaning, fancy doors, had a coffee and pastellies and hit the scenic route northeastish.

Rolling hills of trees and rock, some jutting menacingly close to Eddie’s forehead as we wove our way here and there, past (big) churches standing proud but alone in the fields, through more little villages huddled around their grand churches, through vineyards, and then up into the high hills via another scenic route above the snow line (still large dollops remaining scattered about in the creases), over the peaks lined with wind turbines as far as the eye could see and down the other side through dairy country and more quaint villages, lots of trees of the conifer variety (just great to see trees, but are they “native”? do they even care or value “native” after so many years of deforestation and foreign imports, no eucalypts here but they still remain probably the most common tree we have seen in this country). 

As the sun neared the horizon spotted a great roadside stop beside another rapiding brook, across the road a short path (50m) to a lovely waterfall, not a busy road, certainly no trucks as too narrow/windy - perfect it would seem!  Chocked up the back right wheels, kids leapt out to play boats in the brook and stick chucking games, picked up a sack full of strewn garbage, augmented the paella, scrubbed the gritz, quoffed a scotch and settled in for another peaceful evening on the cheap (28 nights so far in Eddie of which 13 free camped).  Will need to wash properly and add water soon though! 

Dice Roll 

Wil (worst part) slipping on the rocks in the middle of the icy stream and nearly falling in

Kel (word of the day) “lipides” on the back of the french tomato sauce bottle - clutching at straws here!

Jeff (best part) finding another quiet park up by a babbling stream, after leaving 1 this morning

Jen (best natural thing) sound of the babbling rivers & the large Russian winter hat style storks nests decorating village spires

She's got a headache

14/3 slowish getaway after some creek play and 2 cuppas, onward weaving through the small country roads among the hills and cultivation, caves (man dug) everywhere in the sheer cliffs (makes you wonder???), many crags ruled by old towers which were lookouts for approaching marauders, the storks (who are furiously into breeding) rule the towers, 

another tower and caves

towns dotted about with surprising facilities, like the awesome motorhome dump station we found (that’s rare here), 

the dump

like the rock climbing wall, then into a larger town with a Decathlon (sporting chain store) where Jeff bought a mountain bike (about $400, the ribs are up to it, the weather is favourable), Jen sent emails from Maccas, and then broke back onto the country roads, about 20km of gravel, winding as the sunset up to Sos del Rey Catolica, little hill top village where King Ferdinand was born in the 1400’s, whose marriage to Catherine formed Spain through the joining of the 2 main kingdoms, enabling those pesky Moors to finally be expelled from Granada, and then they kicked off the Inquisition to finally ethnically and religiously cleanse the land of anyone not Catholic.  Beware the zealot.

Parked on the edge of a cliff under the city walls, didn’t sleep too well for fear the hand brake would fail, as would the reverse gear, and then the chocks under the front wheels would give way and we would all career over the cliff.  Must have fallen off a cliff or something in a past life!  Anyway, next morning Jen and Kel said they had the same concerns!!

Up for a Jen run (Achilles mildly injured), some school, then another quiet walk through this historic village which has remained quite authentic, all rock, not much paint or plaster, lots of ruins and soon to be ruins by the look of some of the buildings.  

Sos centre

down hill besides Sos wall

Plaza Sos a la Contador!

More unfriendly/shy/rude people, rare to have someone meet your eye or reply to your greeting.  Inward looking, >1000yrs of being attacked, depressed by the economy???  Just getting to the point of giving up on the Spaniards but saved by the lovely man who sold us a good local bottle of wine (we are in Spain’s best wine area), all in sign language, and the lady in the cafe who sold us a coffee.

Out heading north towards Anso and Hecho, small villages up in the Pyrenees foothills, past a huge aqua green hydroelectric dam which doesn’t seem to be finished (so many infrastructure projects stalled), 

along a very windy, narrow road into a deep gorge through rough blown tunnels up to Anso which just got an Eddie look before we headed over the higher pass to Hecho and a nice little campgound from where we drank the wine while the kids played with the sun setting lighting up the snow peaks to the north, then the kids cooked dinner (their pasta salad with chorizo special), we washed the clothes and the stinky bodies, read, did photo downloading/editing, surfed the net (very slow!) for bike racks so we can get 3 more, read and slept.............this is good!

Madrid to Castille y Leon - now getting pretty & relaxing

8/3 a day in, doing school, washing, reading, exercise, skating and had drinks in the evening with Dieter and Anne-Katerina, lovely retired German couple in a mega van.

9/3/11 MADRID

fast train in from Toledo, about 30min. Queued for entry to Museo de Prado, took an hour to get in, started off enthusiastically but after some 3-4 hours, we were all trotting for the finish line and wide open plazas outside. Don’t reckon we’ll linger much more in these sorts of galleries - collectively we seem to enjoy the modern galleries more.  Prado is full of 15th - 19th century Renaissance stuff mostly religious themed (some gory, some grotesque, some quite lewd), the rest portraits of rich people - suppose only the church and nobility could afford it back then.  Was a great collection of Roam sculptures as well.

Wandered around from grand street with decorated skyline, to manicured gardens adorned with statues (the most impressive being the one Wil lead us to of Don Quixote and Sanco Panza astride their mounts) to incredibly pleasant wide open plazas packed with busking entertainers, and finally to coffee and tapas before fast train back to Toledo.

dice roll

Wil (best saying) “quixotic” - meaning impractical, idealistic and silly

Kel (worst part) waiting in line at the Prado  - I had to use the toilet really badly.

Jeff (best part) relaxed open and airy plazas every few metres

Jen (best taste) strong coffee with tapas

10/3 Toward Segovia

we left Castilla - La Mancha , arriving in Castilla y Leon after travelling through a 3km tunnel. Surprisingly (not) the only campsite in town is closed (the intercom button at the gait fell on the ground when pressed) and there are no others in Segovia. We jumped out beneath the surreal aqueduct, to marvel at its grandeur, get some info at the turismo office and then drove to the outskirts of town, free-camping with a view of the snow capped mountains at sunset.

Jen awake until 0400 writing volumous e-mails in her head to people she’s thinking about; getting quizzical about how life will be when we return and realizing with a thud that it is middle March!

11/3 SEGOVIA

Into the old city for the day and made for coffee in the sun first up. Thoroughly enjoyable day meandering the streets of this UNESCO listed town with it’s World Heritage listed Aqueduct all gloriously framed by snowy sierra.

Noticing our “Oz” definition of the Mediterranean diet (nuts, olive oil, pulses, greens, ish) being in contrast to the majority fare here (salty, oily jamon, cheese, white bread only, and fish and nuts....all started & finished with a cigarette).

Wil’s job - to explore all things to do with the aqueduct.

Kel’s job  - to photograph as many different sgraffito walls as we see

our job - hang, mooch, 2 coffees, chats alongside playgrounds as kids frolic.

Drove for an hour and parked in supermarket carpark for the night. On the way to  ‘postcard perfect‘ Spanish town tomorrow.

12/3 Covarrubias

surprisingly quiet night. Maths test morning!  Kel smashed hers in 10 mins - need to set longer and harder next time.  Mama set way too much for Wil - bring this back a bit next time.

Nice drive to farming town past flocks merino sheep, small market gardens marked off by low pretty stone walls, the start of vineyard country and occasional nags (Spain is home to both merino sheep & the Andalusian - horse which we saw many more of along the gorgeous costal farms of Costa de Luz). Large white storks adorn the tallest building & spires.Jeff & I laughing about elocution phrase, “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” as we’ve not had a drop of rain since arriving.  All our days so far have been presented beneath wonderful clear blue skies.

Parked up alongside a bubbling river across a pretty stone bridge for school,coffee and come what may. 

Step back in time - old bridge, old people tilling small market gardens in old tractors, very quiet. 

THIS is what we love. 

Kids played all afternoon with cork boats (building materials collected from around picnic tables - evidence of a great community weekend scene) in the river.

Mum’s paella - almost right - underestimated the saltiness of the dried fish. Will have it nailed with left overs tomorrow night.  A few more mushrooms, tomato, capsicum, shrimps & peas me thinks. Think we’ll stay the night as still the only ones here.