Beach Day...YEAH!!

After some debate yesterday about what to do today, we decided on the beach.  The other option (which I think would have been insane) was to go to the 'tomatina' festival in Bunol, a small town about 35 kilometers from Valencia.  For 1 hour from 11 in the morning until noon, people throw tomatoes at each other - like 20,000 tons of tomatoes.  I had read about it in the guidebook.  When we asked for details yesterday at the tourist Information office, the girl actually laughed and said 'Oh no, you don't want to go to that.  It is for YOUNG people.'  Well, I hadn't wanted to participate so much as see it.  They estimate that 40,000+ people attend and you really can't attend without participating.  After reading details on line about having shirts ripped off, needing to be hosed off before heading home, getting groped, not to mention the tomatos (snorkle masks are recommended), we reached the adult decision NOT to go, but it was touch and go there for a little while.

So this morning, we headed south from Valencia to experience the beaches of the Costa del Blanco.  Like the Costa del Sol a little further south, this area is a primary vacation target for many in Europe.  We had seen the beaches north of Valencia (Costa del Valencia) and were pretty unimpressed, so we figured we try south and see what we could find.

We targetted a town called Benidorm which was about 1 1/2 hours away. The drive was spectactular - mountains, hills with castles on them, fields of orange groves, vineyards, a beautiful blue Mediterranean in the distance.  As we approach the town we were shocked to see major high-rise apartment buildings - 30, 40 and 50 stories high.  Clearly lots of people wanted to go there and wanted to be near the beach, not back 10 miles from the coast.  We found parking and trekked onto the beach which was MOBBED.

We had picked this beach because it was on the list of Top Beaches in Spain, however, a little later I was reading the guide book and it named this beach as one of the top beaches in the WORLD!  It was a wonderful half-moon beach about 3 miles long with mountainous cliffs on either end.  Off-shore a little ways was a wonderful 'Gibraltar'-like rock in the middle of the water.

We rented beach chaises for 4 euros (a little over $5 for the day), set up our umbrella and ventured into the water.  The beach was very fine sand.  The water was clear with little in the way of waves.  It was extremely shallow and the bottom was large rocks which you could walk on fairly easily.  You had to go out about 50 feet maybe in order to be in waist deep water.

Okay, so far this doesn't sound all that wonderful BUT the water was fabulous - the clearest, cleanest water either of us has ever been in other than a swimming pool.  It was delightful once you got past the difficulty of getting in and out.  We were in and out for the rest of the day.  It was a wonderful beach.

One thing that was really unusual here was that there was a water skiing set-up.  It was kind of like a horizontal ski-lift that went in a large rectangle out in the water.  You would grasp onto a handle as it came by and ski down a little ramp into the water and if you were lucky enough to not wipe-out, you could ski around the whole rectangle - probably a good half a mile.  Some of the skiiers were fantasctic doing jumps and spins as they went...others wiped out quickly and were picked up by a motor boat.  We've never seen anything like it before. (No, we didn't try it.)

We happened to kind of take a wrong turn on the way home and ended up on the mountain next to the beach looking down on the beach....spectacular!

The humidty was making it very hazy by this point in the afternoon.

We took the scenic road home driving through lots of lovely resorts right on the Med.  In one spot there was this magnificent rock poking up out of the water.  We read in the guide book that it was privately owned until 1987 when the state bought it and turned it into a nature reserve.  There is a tunnel through it and lots of hiking paths...perhaps next trip.

Very cool day.

Cordoba

We left Seville mid-day on Saturday and declared the rest of the day to be a rest day.  All we had to do was drive about 1 1/2 hours to Cordoba, the next and last stop on our whirlwind tour of the Andalusia area of southern Spain.  Cordaba is further inland than Seville and the landscape changed rather dramatically to be miles and miles of rolling fields.  It was quite lovely and quite different from what we had seen so far along the coast and through the mountains.

Once we reached Cordoba and found it to be a little over 100 degrees the only sane thing to do was go to the hotel pool for the afternoon.

We have been staying at fabulous hotels on this little trip - all 4 star hotels, all with pools and air conditioning.  The hotels are ridiculously cheap for the quality.  We are paying well under $100 a night including parking and taxes and whatever.  Our hotel coming up for 3 nights in Madrid is $67 a night and it is 4 star also.  It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon especially given the heat.  Larry walked around town a bit but finally succombed to the heat and joined me at the pool. 

We attempted to take the bus into the center of the city to find dinner without a bus map (because there apparently aren't any such maps).  We had our first mishap of the bus variety - ending up way out of town at the end of the bus line, having to wait 15 minutes and pay again to come back into town on the same bus.  We then ended up walking in the last bit, which turned out to be lovely. 

The main attraction in Cordoba is the Mezquita Catherdal-Mosque and we ended up walking across the pedestrian bridge just at sunset.  Magnificent!

We had a terrific dinner and ended up walking back to the hotel, not wanting to risk another bus trip.

We didn't explore the Mezquita until the next morning.  The guidebooks say that despite having seen all the other castles, forts and cathedrals in Europe, this one is something different - nothing like the rest.  You'll never see anything like it - and we agree!  It is very hard to convey the scale of this place
First a little history, there was a church located near the river.  The Islamic community rented half of the church as its mosque.  They outgrew that space and ended up buying the rest of the church, which they tore down and made into a large mosque.  Then, along come the catholics during the 'reconquest' (I love that term.) and they rip out the center of the mosque and build a cathedral smack dab in the middle of the mosque.  The effect is quite bizarre and mostly lovely.  It has been very well maintained and was protected from destruction by the catholic authorities.  It is hard to explain but these pictures below all came from inside the same place.  The cathedral part is in the center and it is surrounded by the beautiful red and white arches of the mosque.

After exploring the Mezquita we took a cab back to the hotel, checked out and hit the road for "home" in Valencia, figuring (incorrectly) that we could get something to eat once we were on the road.  We found a nice looking restaurant but it didn't open until 1 pm and it was only 12.  Then we found another one which opened at 2, but by now it was only 1pm, so we kept driving. We ended up not eating until around 4:30 in the afternoon and that, believe it or not, was at a closed shopping mall (it was SUNDAY) at a McDonalds.  This was the first time we have eaten American fast food in Europe this trip, despite seeing many McDonalds and Burger Kings, but we were starving by this point in the day.  (I have to admit it was really, really good.)

The most amazing thing (other than eating) on the way home was the landscape - for several hours we drove through olive orchards which went up and down the hills and went out as far as the eye could see - miles and miles and miles of them.  Larry later looked up Spanish olive oil and discovered that 95% of the olive oil in the world comes form the Mediterranean area and Spain is the primary poducer - outdoing Italy by 2 to 1.  Who knew?

This central/southern part of the Spain is a very high plain and we saw several hundred wind turbines, as well as a large number of solar cell farms.  I think oil is very expensive and they are really embracing alternative energy here in Spain.  Good for them.

Seville is Beautiful

Of all the Spanish towns and cities we have been to so far, Seville, is the most beautiful.  It has wide avenues boarded by tall trees and magnificent buildings.  Everything is clean and freshly painted.  The city really sparkles.  It has the most beautiful squares and parks and buildings everywhere you look.

The bottom left picture above is of the bull ring.  It is the second largest in Spain.  We didn't tour it.

As usual there was much to see and do there.   I already posted the fabulous flamenco show we went to but there was also an immense cathedral there (of course, isn't there always?)  There are on-going arguments as to whether is it is larger than St. Peter's in Rome.

The interior was massive and impressive but kind of ghastly.  Very baroque.  Check out the altar in the bottom right picture below.  The ceilings were amazing - some were even pretty.  The bottom left picture is of the mirror which allows you study the ceiling without craning your neck.  Interesting approach.

See the bottom left picture below take in the treasury room.  Pretty much all cathedrals in Europe have tremendously rich treasurys containing elaborate art pieces used in services and parades.  There is a lot of wealth stored here.

The one really amazing things that is there is the tomb of Christopher Columbus.  It was so cool to see that.    It looked like it needed some major dusting. His son is also buried in the church (who knew he even had a son?)

The other really fun part of the cathedral was the tower attached to it, which was actually much older than the church having been built by the Moors as part of the masque.  The Catholics destroyed the masque to build the cathedral but they kept the tower.  Smart!  Instead of stairs inside it had ramps which went around and around for 34 floors.  They used a ramp so that they could charge up there on their horses! (We had to go on foot.)

The views from the top were wonderful.

We took a lack luster tourist bus around the city but frankly we had seen more by car driving in and walking.  Later in the day Larry took the boat ride on the river which he really enjoyed.

The bridges were wonderful (top right one was designed by Eiffel, of tower fame.)  The most interesting thing(see bottom left picture above) was the control tower (like you would have at an airport) that sits in the middle of the river where it bends.  At it's heyday Seville was a major port despite being inland from the ocean by quite a bit.  The river was quite navigable and they needed the tower to control boat traffic.

After Columbus discovered America, Seville thrived, as it was designated by the spanish monarch as the sole trade city with the new world.  The town really flourished during the 1500s as a result and much of what you see there today was built during that timeframe.  The trade building next to the cathedral (built so that the business people would stop doing thier business on the steps of the cathedral) now holds a world-class archive of documents related to Spanish involvement with the new world.  They apparently undertook the effort to collect a proper view of the history of Spanish involvement sort of as a propaganda campaign when they were getting a bad name for how they were managing their colonies.  What a treasurer trove of maps.

Next to the cathedral is the Real Alcazar, the royal palace which is actually still in use today by the royal family when they come to Seville.  It was a very interesting mixture of styles, much of it very Moorish reminiscent of the Alhambra in Granada. 

However, in this case, it has been restored much better including the painting of the various wall pieces, so it was possible to really get an idea of what it looked like. 

My favorite item in the whole place was a tapestry which took up an entire wall and depicted a map of the Mediterranean Sea.  It was unclear what the date was on it but it clearly labelled many cities in Spain and France and the islands in the sea.  Out in the Atlantic there were sea-monster depicted.  It was really fascinating. 

And then it was off to Cordoba.

Flamenco, Ole!

One of the many things that Seville is known for is its fabulous flamenco dancing. Getting to see this while there was a definite item on my bucket list.  The cultural exhibition hall recommended by the tourist Information office and by our guide book happened to be just 1 block from our hotel so we booked the late show, 10:30 pm.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures until the very end of the show.

The show was really fantastic and not quite what we expected.  The first 'act' was a singer accompanied by a lovely spanish guitar.  The singing was a bit more like wailing and at times it seemed like he was about to burst into tears.  The origin of flamenco dancing lies with the Roma gypsies and the singing sounded a lot like a Jewish cantor singing. 

After that a lovely young woman came out and danced for us.  She whirled and stomped to the guitar music.  The singer sang (a little less whiny this time) and there was another accompanists who clapped a marvelous rhythm.  The synchronization was phenomenal.  It was loud and staccato and it started and stopped abruptly.

Then there was another instrumental by the guitar player which was lovely, but there was a problem.  It was beastly hot - well over 100 degrees in the room.  There were about 80 people in there and everyone was fanning themselves to keep from passing out.  While the music was lovely, it wasn't what anyone had come there to see.

The next 'act' was an unbelievable male dancer.  His feet moved so fast at time they were just a blur.  It was the best tap dancing I have every seen or probably will ever see.  I felt sorry for him in that heat.  He was just drenched by the end.  As he danced the woman, the singer and the guitarist accompanied him with stomping, clapping, music and song - all incredibly syncopated.  Just amazing.

At the end of the show we were able to take some picutres but it was hard to capture the marvelous show.  The two danced together for just a moment at the very end.  It was wild.  I really feel that I have been to Spain now!

Gibraltar Rocks!

On Wednesday we left Granada behind and drove down to Gibraltar.  For some reason, this was a place that had much allure for both of us.  It was a must see given that we made it to Spain.  I really didn't know what to expect, but for some reason it wasn't what we saw.

Above is our first real view of the rock taken from the nearby spanish town, La Linea, where we parked the car.  We walked across the border, flashing our passports but noone seemed to care.  We took a bus to the center of town - finding the entire place to be far larger than either of us expected.  To get to the town and the base of the rock you have to cross the middle of the airport runway.  That was an interesting experience. 

The town is a fairly typical European town except more people spoke English here and there were some lovely accents!  The other thing they have is english candy, specifically my favorite candy in the whole world - Rowntree's Fruit Gums.  I'm embarassed to admit how many rolls we bought.

After a mediocre lunch in town, we took the cable car to the top of the rock.  The views were fantastic.  That mountain in the middle of the picture with me is AFRICA.  Imagine that!

One thing that was very interesting up there were the apes.  They are free roaming and can be found all over the place.  Spain has tried many times to get Gibraltar back from the British.  It is said that Britain will not leave the rock until the apes leave.  Supposedly Winston Churchill once learned that there were only 3 apes left and he ordred that more be brought immediately from Africa.  Winston would be happy to know that there are a lot of them up there now.  We even saw lots of little babies which were very cute. 

What wasn't so cute was the one that came up and hit me in the rear and grabbed the roll of Fruit Gums I was eating right out of my pocket.  It all happened so fast I didn't even have a chance to get scared.  I debated momentarily whether to wrestle him for them because I had barely opened the tube of candies, but level heads prevailed and I let him have them.  I opened another roll and kept it in a zippered pouch until we were out of ape territory.

We explored the top of the rock for a while admiring the views and watching the apes and listening to the audio guide.  There are actually three peaks up there.  The cable car takes you to the middle one.  After much debate, we decided to WALK down the mountain.  Keep in mind that Gibraltar is almost as tall as the Empire State Building.  About half-way down when my legs began to shake from the effort of walking downhill, I began to question the sanity of this decision, but once down in town again, we were tired and proud to have done it. 

Not surprisingly, we didn't see anyone else walking down.  A goodly part is stairs straight down the mountain but there were also several kilometers of inclined roads.  The views were terrific, of course, all the way down.

After a rest and some ice cream it was off to Seville.  What a whirl-wind tour this is.

The Alhambra and Generalife

The Alhambra is a set of magnificent Moorish palaces.  It is a daunting task to even attempt to describe the things we have seen there.  The detail is unimaginable on every square inch of the palace buildings.   It is very hard to convey but here is a small sample.  I can just imagine what this must have looked like before all the blue paint came off of it.

The scale of the Alhambra is enormous.  It sits sort of in the middle of Granada but way up on the top of a hill (of course) which ran for more than a kilometer.  It was the home of the Moorish emirs who ruled the area, along with a whole town that supported the palace. It was a place of refuge for Islamic people when the catholics were taking over the rest of the Europe.  We spent over 4 hours touring it.

We opted for the early tour for fear that it might be too hot later in the day (good idea!)   We arrived at the entrance around 8 am and the sun light was spectactular - lighting up the buildings just right.  We rented audioguides which were actually pretty good despite what the tour book said.  The American author Washington Irving came by the Alhambra in the first part of the 1800's when it was more or less in ruins and liked it so much he moved in.  It inspired him to write 'Tales of the Alhambra' and the audioguide was mostly someone reading his words of description and telling tales of the Moors who ruled from there from the mid thirteenth century til 1492 when the Catholics took it over.  They then built over various parts of the palaces and added to it.  Napoleon even used this place as a barracks for a while.  He even tried to blow up part of it but one of his soldiers cut the fuse line (thank goodness). 

I actually filled up my camera taking pictures but I will post just a few here to give the idea.

 Along with the many buildings, there were beautiful gardens with many ponds and waterfalls.  The sound of flowing water was everywhere.  Supposedly the Alhambra was built to create paradise on earth.

Larry's theory about the water, is that the Moors sort of worshipped water since it was so scarce where they originally came from.  Perhaps. It was lovely.

The emirs who lived in the palace apparently found palace life too hectic and they established a magnificent country "summer home" less than a kilometer away.

On our way over there, we were fascinated to see a man repairing the walkway.  It must be something to learn these old time crafts and maintain a place such as this.  We stopped and talked to him and found out that after placing each stone by hand, he tamps down the rocks in the sand/concrete to get them level.  He showed us the tamper-downer.  It was a pole with a large cement block on the bottom.

The summer palace is called Generalife (pronounced henna-rah-leaf-ah).  It is surrounded by huge gardens and provided some great views of the Alhambra.

After exploring Generalife, we hiked back to the far end of the Alhambra where the military buildings were.  It was more in ruins than the palaces but was still very interesting and provided commanding views of the city of Granada. We climbed to the top of the bell tower, of course to get the best view.

All this and it was only lunchtime.  Just imagine!   We hiked back down the mountain into town and found lunch at a nearby restaurant which had about a million hams hanging from the ceiling!  We had some typical rgional food (for a change).

(I still look tired, don't I?  Maybe I am just very relaxed...)  That's a plate of beans (unknown kind) and ham with a perfectly fried egg on top, a plate of fried potatoes and peppers in oil, ham croquettes and, of course, bread.  It was all delicious.

Okay, so then came the eagerly anticipated and well earned siesta back at the hotel.  (Did I happen to mention that we WALKED back down into town from the Alhambra?)  Once we recovered from the morning activities, we walked back to town visiting an impressive monastery on the way. 

I haven't been in so many churches since I was touring Europe with my parents in 1961!

Phew, what a day. 

  

Granada: Day 1

Tuesday we drove about 6 hours to Granada in the Andalucía region of Spain. We stopped for a quick bite to eat in a tiny little town (Cullar), selecting the pizzeria because we figured we could order a pizza for lunch…good plan, but they only serve pizza at dinner time, so we were stuck with a ham and cheese sandwich. The bread was so tough neither of us was able to eat much of it. The lady running the place was very, very nice and spoke no English at all. We asked for mustard and she came back and explained that she didn’t have any mustard but she had something which was like mustard – turned out to be ketchup!


We checking to our wonderful hotel right on a main street in town and hopped the bus to the center of the city. After locating the Tourist Information office (this is the mandatory first stop in any city we go into) to obtain bus maps and city map, we purchased our tickets to see the wonderful Alhambra tomorrow morning.

With that all arranged, we wondered over to the cathedral which surprised us both by how big it was – very tall, with huge columns, many alcoves and a massive main area and incredibly ornate alter. It reminded us of St. Peters in Rome – that’s how big it was.  It was quite attractive as well.

It was as impressive outside as inside but it is hard to get a sense of it walking around it in the city as it is jammed in by buildings on all sides.  The next day we saw it from a distant hill and it was obvious how much it towers over the rest of the city buidlings.

Granada has an interesting history having been a seat of power for the Moor’s for about 250 years as the Catholics slowly took over the rest of Spain. Then in 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand laid siege to the city and eventually won it – she liked how it looked. (1492 was a busy year for her!) It was Isabella who commissioned the cathedral to be built although it wasn’t even started until after she died in the early 1500s and it wasn’t finished until the early 1700s.

Next to the cathedral is the wonderful Capilla Real  (left picture below)– the ornate chapel Queen Isabella had built to be her tomb (and Ferdinand’s, of course). It was quite amazing to be looking at their lead coffins lying in the crypt knowing it had been just there for almost 500 years. Her daughter, son-in-law and baby grandson are in the crypt as well.

Then we walked around the bazaar market (right picture above) behind the cathedral.  The specialty souvenir here was the inlaid wooden boxes.  They came in all sorts of sizes and shapes.