sun in nerja

Time for a break, time for a rest. We are in Nerja, a smallish beach town about 100 miles east from Gibraltar. Although the weather has been “partly sunny” (Oregon language), we have gotten plenty of sun, sleep, and playing around on the beach. Also, we are hearing more British accents in Nerja than anywhere else in Spain. I guess they get about as much sun there as we do in Portland in the winter, and where do they come for sun? Spain, of course. Our hotel is run by a very nice couple named Ian and Jane who just bought the Hotel 2 weeks ago. There are several bars in town showing nightly football games (last night Liverpool 3-0 over PSV Einthoven, tonight is Manchester United vs. Rome), and even an English candy store down the street from us (vegetarian candy of course). In fact I am typing this using the wi-fi in an English style pub with a very large screen TV. Liam made the observation, "we got TWO vacations, to go to the beach and to go to Spain." Our plan is to rest up for the 10hr drive to Barcelona where we will be on Easter weekend.

getting wet in grenada

How do you get a ticket for the Alhambra? That’s easy. Just get up at 6:00 and head on up to the ticket booth which opens at 8:00. Turns out that about 6000 out of the daily 7,800 tickets are sold on-line (something called internet). Unfortunately this requires a little ‘advanced planning’, meaning that we had to buy the tickets on the day of the visit. Thank goodness for ipods which help standing in lines for 90 minutes. Still it was well worth it. We have mentioned the Moorish invasion a few times throughout the web log. The Moors invaded in 711, led by Tariq across the strait of Gibraltar (Jebel al Tariq = Tariq’s mountain). Within a few years, almost all of modern Spain and Portugal were under muslim control. Took the Christians about 780 years to get the peninsula back, bit by bit. The last holdout, was a guy named Boabdil, who was the sultan of Granada. He realized the inevitable and capitulated to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, shortly before they backed an Italian explorer looking for spices in India. Today, the Alhambra contains the remains of the Sultan’s palace, along with one built by Fernando and Isabel’s grandson. Ferdinand and Isabella themselves are buried in the cathedral down the hill in old Granada.

In Granada we also encountered a lot of Roma (gypsies), many of whom live in caves on a hill facing the Alhambra. Also, lots of rich Spanish kids who come down to hang out in the Albayzín neighborhood and smoke hooka pipes. Also, we encountered a lot of rain, more than we had expected. So much so, we are off to the ¿sunny? coast in Nerja…….

domingo de ramos (palm sunday)

Palm Sunday, the day celebrated as the day Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, found us in Ronda, in southern Spain, witnessing one of the procesiónes of Semana Santa, (Holy Week). It was quite an impressive experience to watch about half of this town's population of 40K turn up for the procession through town. You can see in the photos pictures of one of the two floats which was carried on the shoulders of the young men of the town, Jesus on the donkey. The other float was a float with Mary. Included in the parade, were lots of kids dressed up as "Nazarenes" (people from Jesus' home town), and many of the adult Nazarenes wore the traditional capuchone (hood). When I asked the old guy next to me what is the meaning of the capuchone, he just said "they've been wearing those for 500 years". Fortunately, Wikipedia (see link) provided the answer stating that they are a symbol of penitence (sorrow for sins). You may notice that these hoods bear a strong resemblence to those worn by a particular southern organization in the U.S; that is no coincidence. The KKK based their outfits on the Nazarene outfit. By odd coincidence, as I am writing this in a wi-fi cafe in Granada, there is a Santa Martes (Holy Tuesday) procesión going by just outside the window. Better go put on my capuchone.

relaxing in ronda

While we are waiting for our clothes to dry in this Granada lavandería, I will mention a few words of our time in Ronda. Ronda is one of the pueblos blancos (white hill towns) of Andalucía in southern Spain. It was one of the last bastions of Islam to fall in the 1400’s (Granada was the last in 1492). It is quite a picturesque town, mostly known for its views of the surrounding valley and mountains, the development of modern bullfighting, and for the amazing Puente Nuevo (new bridge) built in the 1790’s to span the 330 foot canyon (see picture). The Puente Nuevo is known for being the drop off point for many republicans and nationalists during the Spanish Civil War (a brutal way to take care of your “enemy combatants”). Take a look at the wind blowing Liam’s hair up.
While we were in Ronda, a funny thing happened. We went to buy a Spanish novel as a present, and told the shopkeepers it was for a 40ish woman. The female shopkeeper pointed out some novels written by a guy who does historical fiction. The male shopkeeper picked up a book called, "El tocador de mujeres", which can be translated as "the woman toucher" or "the woman player".

ruta de los pueblos blancos

Our biggest hurdle this trip, aside from everyone figuring out how to get along, has been driving in or out of cities- very dicey. As we drove out of Sevilla, we realized that although we knew the freeway to get on, we did not know how to get to the freeway from where we were. We asked a taxi as we were stuck in traffic, none too soon as we needed to turn right at the next turn (from the left lane no less). We miraculously made it through a terribly circuitous route to the correct freeway. We drove to Santiponce, not far from Sevilla, which had the oldest Roman settlement in Spain, Itálica (206 B.C.). We walked through with an older German woman who was on the Camino de Santiago (a very old Christian pilgramage to a church with relics of St. James) all by herself. She had also walked from her house in Munich to Geneva-quite an inspiring person! We have been trying to see as many Roman sights as possible, since Lydia has been studying that period in school.

Next we drove to some hill towns near the Sierra de Grazalema, called the Route of the White Towns. We saw Arcos de la Frontera (picture with Isabelle/Liam), Zahara (picture with Lydia/, Grazalema, and stayed in Ronda. They were once on the frontier between the Christian advance on the Moors "reconquista". All were not very touristy and incredibly picturesque. We wished we would have had more time here. Chris and Lydia climbed up to a Moorish castle for an amazing view in the town of Zahara. As we drove along we saw some oak-looking trees with their bark all stripped off- turned out to be cork of course. We also saw wild rabbits, and goats, plus lots of non-wild sheep. This region seems much more arable than the Castilla area we drove through from Madrid to Sevilla (that was barren, with red dirt and many olive trees). Next entry on Ronda.

spring in sevilla

Sevilla is quite touristy, but its old city is full of sights. We visited the Cathedral, as typical in Spain, a Christian church built on Moorish Mosque, built on a Roman foundation. It’s got a certificate from the Guiness Book of World Records attesting to it being the largest Gothic Cathedral. We walked up 330 feet with what seemed like every student in France to the top of the only Moorish part of the church that’s left, the minaret. The pathway was not a staircase, but a ramp capable of allowing a horse and rider to ascend to make the Adhan (muslim call to prayer). Great 360 degree views of the city.
The church has the recently authenticated (DNA traces to his brother’s living descendants) tomb of Christopher Columbus. We also visited the Alcazar, originally a Moorish palace that became Christian in the 1200’s. It had the rooms Columbus, Ferdinand & Isabella, had some of their dealings in.

A highlight of our visit, especially for Liam and Isabelle, was going to a playground where we meet a very nice man (Jesús) and his 5 year old girl. She ordered Lydia around telling her to put out pretend fires, which Lydia graciously complied with. Liam has a way of being silly that includes loud mumbling and lots of staggering. The little girl, Helena, called him a borracho (a drunk) and pretended to take him to carced (jail). We met Jesús' woman and sister as they waited in line for the first bull fight tickets of the year- after a little chatting, which included commenting on Bush being a criminal, we were friends. You always know you’ve become a friend in Europe when you are kissing the air next to both sides on someone’s face. It was the second time that day that a Spaniard brought up that Bush was a criminal. Earlier we asked an older woman for directions, and as she talked about the parliament building somehow she brought up the Madrid bombing, that the amigo de Bush lost the election, and that Bush was a criminal.

la comida, by guest editor Heidi

The honest way to sum it up for us veggies here deep in carne country is- bread and cheese (Lydia has eaten her fair share of Nutella as well). We have had just about every iteration you can imagine. First of all it’s just too expensive here to eat out every meal for 5, so we eat out 1 or 2 a day. Our best source of food is a chain called “El Corte Inglés,” which means “The English Style.” It’s like a very nice Target with a grocery store downstairs, where we get the needed queso y pan. We have some success with tapas. Tapas are snacks served between lunch (about 2 pm) and dinner (about 10 pm). The best have been: a wild mushroom fried in garlic and olive oil with cheese & bread, goat cheese and olive pesto on bread, cheese and sweet walnut spread on bread. We tried two vegetarian restaurants in Madrid, which were pretty good but no different than in the US. Also their tres quesos (what else?!) pizzas are good with grueyere, gorgonzola, and goat. We had some very good Pallella con Verduras, and Tortillas de Español (potato omelette that looks like a torte- needs salsa though- should have taken less gold and more chiles from the new world!). Café con leche in the morning a few times has been heavenly. We’ve eaten some great strawberries, and Mandarin oranges from Valencia. As Chris has already mentioned the churros con chocolate, as well as the gelato (helado) that is everywhere, and the marzipan in Toledo have been great. I’ve been disappointed in the cookies- the ones I’ve had don’t have butter in them! The German ones at the grocery were better. Lastly, but certainly not crucially, food would not be food in Europe if it didn’t come with a large helping of second-hand smoke.

DANGER for strict vegetarians: do not read this paragraph. We have eaten a little carne. It’s hard to escape when your restaurant has stuffed bulls’ heads all over the walls (see photo). Ham is very important in Spain so we’ve had some with mushrooms, and once in some boccadillos (sandwiches). We also had some fried fish. This was 'adobo' (shark), served up by your local freiduría. All of which was fairly unpopular with the kids, but there’s only so much bread and cheese you can handle in a day.