(The pictures may or may not work. Sorry if there is a glitch. I blame the computer!)
This was a 15 day driving tour of Spain. We know no Spanish. I (Ben) have never driven on the right side of the road. We don’t have a map of the first city we are going to and are not sure where the hotel is. It’s going to be hot and we both only have one pair of shorts each. We have only booked the first two nights accommodation. A positive is that we do have the new Coldplay album for company so that we don’t have to listen to Spanish radio. This should be interesting…
ALMERIA
Arrive at 10pm, pick up the car and then…how do we get to our accommodation? How do you read Spanish maps? How do you ask people for directions? How do you drive on the wrong (right) side of the road? We managed all that with just a little stress and enjoyed a couple of interesting days in Almeria. We loved the Alcazar – the early Muslims in Spain were amazing at designing and creating buildings and gardens that are beautiful and tranquil. Almeria is extremely arid and hot. The surrounding countryside has been used in many westerns with Clint Eastwood and other actors (probably cheaper than the US). We declined a visit to “Mini Hollywood”, the Western movie theme-park.
RACHAEL AT THE ENTERANCE TO ALMERIA’S ALCAZAR
ALCAZAR
STAIRS TO THE OLD FORTRESS WALL
ALMERIA’S ZAPILLO BEACH
GRANADA
Next stop was Granada. One thing quickly learned while trying to get around in Spain is that what looks like a street on a map may well be a metre-wide path. It may or may not be intended for you to drive down. We took our little car down some amazing ‘streets’ and marvelled at those who attempted this with much bigger cars – just about every car in Spain has scrapes, scratches and dings in it. If you run into someone else’s car you kind of just smile an apology and drive on.
The main drawcard in Grenada is the Alhambra. This was the royal city for the early Muslim conquerors – it has palaces and forts, etc. It’s extremely old (1238) and one of the most important showpieces of Muslim art and design. The inscriptions and artworks inside the buildings were fantastic and the endless gardens with lots of water features were stunning. A big thumbs up from Ben and Rach – a definite highlight.
The other sights in Granada were awesome too – a beautiful cathedral, churches, windy streets, a rooftop café in our hostel, little shops, free tapas, paella, friendly people…Granada was fantastic.
VIEW FROM THE HOSTEL ROOFTOP (FUNKY HOSTEL) GRANADA. THE CATHEDRAL IS THE BIG BUILDING.
GRANADA FROM THE HILLTOP
HOT WEATHER CALLS FOR A CALIPPO
ALHAMBRA DOORWAY
RACAHEL IN THE PALACE
DETAIL OF THE PLASTERWORK
OLD GROUNDS OF THE ALCAZAR FORTRESS
BEN WITH SOME OF THE PLASTERWORK WHICH LOOKS LIKE LACE
ROYAL COURT AREA
ALHAMBRA FROM A DISTANCE
SOME OF THE GARDENS OF THE ALHAMBRA
GIBRALTAR – THE ROCK
We knew nothing about Gibraltar except that there was a big rock there. We decided to drop in quickly on our way to Seville. Gibraltar was another world – right on the southern tip of Spain, it is owned by the English (still not quite sure why), who have stamped it theirs with red double-decker buses, British post-office boxes, fish and chip shops and even Bobbies. We took a cable car ride to the top of the rock (mostly so we could see Africa across the water). It was a fantastic view! Another bonus was the monkeys, who just live up there freely and hang out with the tourists. They are very cute and cheeky – as I (Rach) took a photo, one monkey came and took my book and started chewing through the bag. It flicked through the novel and, either not interested in Maeve Binchey or disappointed that the book was not edible, finally gave it back. We saw another monkey steal a packet of chips and savour them one by one.
RACHAEL AND THE ROCK.
MAIN SQUARE OF THE CITY OF GIBRALTAR
CABLE CAR RIDE TO THE TOP
VIEW FROM THE TOP TOWARDS SPAINISH CITY OF ‘LA LINEA’
GIBRALTAR MONKEYS
NEANDERTHAL WITH MONKEY
RACHAEL WITH MUM AND BABY MONKEY
BEN WITH AFRICA VERY FAINT IN THE BACKGROUND
SEVILLE
It was a long day to drive from Granada to Gibraltar and then Seville. Fortunately the Spanish highways are great, you can do 120klm, but there appear to be no police so I managed a respectable 150 most of the time, and I was frequently overtaken. We arrived quite late in Seville and headed for Hostel Lis, a great place full of unusual tiles. Driving and parking in Seville was hectic but we managed. We went to the cathedral and the palace and just generally looked around the old city. A pet peeve of mine (Ben) - paying a lot for parking. I’m getting over it through practice…$30 AUS per day.
RACHAEL AT HOSTEL LIS, GREAT TILES EVERYWHERE
THE CATHEDRAL/FORMER MOSQUE
GOTHIC TURRETS
CATHEDRAL ENTERANCE
VIEW OF SEVILLE FROM THE BELL-TOWER
BELLS OF THE BELL-TOWER
THE ORANGE TREE COURTYARD – AREA WHERE MUSLIM PEOPLE WOULD WASH THEMSELVES BEFORE ENTERING THE MOSQUE, BEFORE IT WAS CONVERTED INTO A CATHEDRAL.
ALCAZAR FISH POND (BIG FISH)
ALCAZAR GARDENS
CORDOBA
This was our favourite place. The small town of Cordoba had a great old city with one of the most fantastic buildings we have seen in Europe. A perfect mix of Christian and Muslim architecture, the Mezquita was first a cathedral, the cathedral was knocked down for it to become a mosque then the Christians took over again and built a cathedral in the middle of the mosque. The building is a fantastic, tranquil and cool place to go out of the Spanish sun and we spent a number of hours there walking around. Unlike in other parts of Europe, the Spanish seem happy to just restore things to their former glory so the building has had quite a bit of work done to it but it retains that historical feel. We could only get one night here, all the hotels were booked, but we would love to come back some time.
A DOORWAY TO THE MEZQUITA
INNER COURTYARD
INTERIOR OF THE MEZQUITA
ROOF
CATHEDRAL WITHIN THE MEZQUITA
ENDLESS COLUMNS
RACHAEL AND THE COLUMNS
CORDOBA’S MAIN PIAZZA
CORDOBA BUILDING LIT UP AT NIGHT
TOLEDO
Toledo is a small medieval town about 60klm south of Madrid. It is built on a hill with a massive fortress that stands proudly on top. The streets kind of run down the hill from here like rivers. You meander through these streets finding new things all day. It’s a bit like Venice with the explorer feel. Everywhere in Spain seems to be ‘famous’ for some local craft. In Toledo it is knife and sword making so there were tourist stores everywhere with massive swords and knives for sale as well as shields and armour etc… The streets here are truly tiny and we shot a great video of us driving through them. Most people have to fold their side mirrors in so that they can fit through the streets. This was also the first place where we found ‘free’ tapas, that is when you order a drink you get free food, a great way to save on dinner.
THE SMALL STREETS OF TOLEDO
THE ALCAZAR FORTRESS
BEN WITH THE TOWN HALL OF TOLEDO
TOLEDO’S GOTHIC CATHEDRAL
RACHAEL AT THE LOOKOUT
OLD CITY WALL AND FORMER GATE
VALENCIA
We wanted to get to Barcelona but the distance for our short two weeks was just too much so we ended up in Spain’s third largest city of Valencia. It’s a great city located just a couple of miles from the beach. We managed a visit to the legendary cathedral that is supposed to have the holy grail…it might be I guess, why not? While on our way to the cathedral we saw a strange film or TV show being made that involved about 200 people riding bikes through the main town square. We tried to get in the background, so we could be in some Spanish movie…you never know. The cathedral also held the arm of a martyred saint, which was an interesting addition to our experiences. One of the greatest old buildings in Valencia is actually the post office, but the new buildings are what we enjoyed the most. The City of Arts and Sciences is a massive building project that holds the aquarium, planetarium, the science museum and concert hall. The buildings are a great mix of organic forms that are kind of like sea creatures, hard to explain but the pictures show it. Excellent modern architecture.
FOUNTAIN AND TOWN HALL BY NIGHT
POST OFFICE BY NIGHT
FORMER ROCOCO CHURCH (ROCOCO IS THE STYLE – FANCY SCHMANCY IN OTHER WORDS)
RACHAEL AT CATHEDRAL ENTRANCE
THE HOLY GRAIL(OR MAYBE JUST AN OLD CUP BUT WE FELT LIKE INDIANA JONES NEVER THE LESS)
A MARTYRS HAND – VERY COOL BUT WELL KIND OF CREEPY
FORMER GATE TO THE CITY WITH CANNON HOLES COURTESY OF NAPOLEAN DURING THE CIVIL WAR
RACHAEL WITH STRANGE FILMING OF PROTESTERS ON BIKES
THE BULL FIGHTING RING – WE DIDN’T GO TO SEE A BULLFIGHT ON PRINCIPLE
EXAMPLE OF STRANGE SPANISH PARKING PRACTICES
This one requires explanation. We have seen people park everywhere. We have seen them park on the footpath. On a corner. On the inside lane of a roundabout. Park people in. Park behind a traffic light on a medium strip. Park by feel (where you hit other cars as you park). This is a parking situation photo. It’s a six lane highway but instead of having a medium strip down the middle…people park there. The traffic closest to the right hand side of the photo (the bus) is driving, the other two lanes of traffic are parked there.
THE NEW CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BUILDINGS. SOME OF THE BEST MODERN ARCHITECTURE WE HAD SEEN IN EUROPE.
BEN WITH THE FANTASTIC KIA PICANTA THAT DROVE US AROUND SPAIN. TOP SPEED AS WE KNOW IT 165KLM. COOL LEFT HAND DRIVE.
LAST DAY AT LOS ALCAZARES ON THE SPANISH EAST COAST. VERY COMFORTABLE.
We spent our last two days by the sea. I (Ben) managed to get sunburnt on the back and am peeling as we speak. We stayed just 50 metres from the beach in Los Alcazares, which is situated on a Spanish salt lake/bay. The water is always a comfortable temperature and lots of people swim at night. It had taken us this long to get used to the Spanish day which is essentially, get up late, have siesta at about 2 until about 6, eat dinner at about 9 or 10 then stay up until about 3 in the morning. There is no exaggeration there, that’s what they do. We did it as best as we were able.
So now we are back in London for a couple of days and head to Austria on the 28th to meet up with my relatives. We fly home on the 7th and arrive in on the 9th. For those interested, we arrive at 7:10am on the 9th July in Sydney. OZ 601. We are hoping to catch the Olympic announcement on the 6th at Trafalgar square before we leave which will either be a completely sad event or a great party. Rach thinks Paris will get it, Ben thinks New York has an outside chance. London….well, who knows?
If we have time we will post some Austria pictures on the website before we leave, otherwise this could be our last transmission. Thank you to the faithful blog readers (Clare B, Mel from York etc…) and we look forward to seeing you all soon.
Love and Best Wishes.
Rach and Ben
