Finishing Europe In Pictures - Part I Eating

I hope to finish off my posts of our trip with the bizillion pictures this weekend starting with this short one on our second to the last great meal

 A nice local wine from Granada

 Not sure what these were but I think they were Migas - bread crumbs fried in oil with some bits in them.

Wife's Seafood Soup

My Seville Style Soup - also seafood but with cream rather than tomato base

Our neat waiter doing the deboning of the fish.

I love table side service but then again I'm an old guy who likes old things.

Fish served

Wife wanted me to take a picture of these gigantic wine bottles

Bizillion Pictures Coming

I have so many pictures from the last few days of our trip but it will take this weekend before I have the time to get them up.

Europe 2012 - England/Spain - The Finale (sans pictures)

As I’m on my way back home and will be back in the work-a-day world as soon as I get up on Tuesday, I am going to wrap up the final events with one post.  The final pictures will have to follow.

Saturday was check out day from the rental.  #3, 3A, and 3.1 had a morning flight from Malaga so I drove them down at 7:30 and got back to the rental at 9:30.  We did some final goodbyes out on the patio overlooking the village of Casarabonella one more time.  Then the others took off and it was just Wife and I waiting for the owner to come so we could take off.  We have rearranged our schedule.  Originally we were going to drive up the old capital of Toledo, another city with great Moorish and inter-faith significance.  However, earlier in the week, we were going on line to buy tickets to get into the Alhambra in Granada and found that they were all sold out except for this Sunday.  The Alhambra is one of the absolute must see sights for anyone interested in the Moorish period.  Wife and I decided to rearrange our schedule.  So after we checked out we did the 2 and half hour drive to Granada.  I was pretty tired from the big walk in Ronda on Friday and getting up early to take the kids to the airport.  We talked about getting lunch and then going into town to check things out.  However, one has to get up very early to get into the Alhambra (more on that later).  So instead we decided to have a nice lunch and call it a day.  This is pretty easy to do in Spain with typical lunch hour being 2 PM.

Our Tom Tom GPS map doesn’t seemed to have updated correctly when I downloaded it before the trip, but it got us to our hotel in pretty good shape.  The hardest part was seeing the hotel sign!  We drove by the place twice.  We were on the outskirts of town, as I didn’t want to pay a lot just for a bed.  As luck would have it, there was a very nice restaurant right across the street.  We walked in and were greeted by a nice case of fresh fish, their specialty.  We ended up having two versions of fish soup to start and then split a whole fish called a Lupine (?) that was cooked in salt.  This was a very old school place with a lot of tableside preparation so they took the meat off the bones for us and then served it with just a splash of some very good olive oil.  After we were done we were getting ready to leave and the headwaiter that had done the serving pulled us to the side and gave us a drink of a lemoncello type liqueur.  We mentioned that we were headed to the Alhambra in the morning (in our sprinkling of Spanish words) and he took us to the back room of the restaurant where there was a huge picture of one of the palace rooms.  Very sweet.  We’d shared a bottle of wine with lunch (which ended at 4:30) so that pretty much killed the day. 

Getting to and into the Alhambra is an experience unto itself.  There are only a certain number of tickets made available each day.  There are also two sessions each day; one that goes from 8:00 AM to 2 PM and the other from 2 PM to 8 PM.  You can buy your tickets online.  And if you can’t print out the voucher, you can get your ticket voucher from various terminals in Granada and at the Alhambra itself.  However, these are not the tickets themselves.  For that you have to go to another place to hand in the vouchers for the tickets.  And when you get your tickets you also get a reservation to go into one of the prime attractions the Nasarid Palace.  And if you don’t speak Spanish this all becomes quite a mysterious process.  And if you are going at our time of year, when sunrise isn’t until around 8:30 AM, you are doing this all in the dark.  But it all turned out OK with us getting going around 7 AM Sunday morning and driving through the dark streets to find the Alhambra and getting all the rest done. 

So how do you create a word picture of this incredible place?  Let’s start by describing its history.  The Alhambra – Red Fortress – was the home to the last remaining great Moorish dynasty in Spain.  After the Catholics had pushed out the North African Berber dynasties and taken control of the majority of the country, the kingdom of the Nasarids remained an independent force for another 200+ years.  It was during this period that they became the resting place for the multi-cultural society that had been al-Andalus.  The Alhambra itself was the palace-citadel for the capital city of Granada.  The Nasarids did what all the Moorish dynasts did they built a sumptuous palace.  In addition on the grounds are the fortress, a set of formal gardens that are from the same period.  Additionally there are some buildings (a palace and church) from after the Catholic final conquest (1492, the same year as Columbus’ voyage). 

The Nasarid Palace is the only remaining, mostly intact example of the architectural design and decorative design tastes of al-Andalus.  It follows a classic Islamic format where the exterior is not as much a focal point as the interior (the Palace really doesn’t look lime much from the outside) and fabulous intricacy of design based on geometric patterns on floors (even exterior), walls, and ceilings with ample use of water and fountains.  I know this doesn’t do a very good job.  Then there are a separate area of terraced gardens that go up a side of the hill and where each terrace is almost self-enclosed but where the whole affect is achieved when standing on the upper terrace.  There are reflecting pools, fountains, small streams of running water, and a water staircase going up the three sets of terraces where water runs down what would be the equivalent of banisters. 

This was truly the high point of the trip from a sightseeing perspective.  We finished up at 2 PM then we drove the five hours to Madrid.  We had a hotel very close to the airport but in the community of Bajaraz so we were able to walk to dinner for one last meal. 

Monday was just the long ass flight back to New Mexico and home.

Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 17 - Help Me Ronda, Help Help Me Ronda

This is our last full day at the rental and our plans are to go to the town of Ronda, another well preserved town from the Moorish era with a spectacular setting.  We said goodbye to the Steve, Lady Di, A and Aa group as they are going back from Madrid on Saturday morning and have to drive back today. 

The rest of people in our group have been to Ronda but like it so much and feel there are more things to see that they are going again. In spite of the caravanning experience of Wednesday and the lack of ability to coordinate in Cordoba, we are going to meet up with Cabinet Lady and Dr. Deb for lunch.  And has fate would have it because the town is so small we are bumping into the other four all during the day.

We (our family grouping) were the last group to leave the rental and as we were going down the steep driveway we ran into another car coming up.  This caused much anguish of trying to work our way so they could pass.  Then we were anxious because we didn’t know why any one would be going up to the place and we were leaving it unlocked because we had so many people coming and going and there were only a couple of keys.  If it were the owners we were afraid they’d lock it up and we couldn’t get in.  So after getting all the way down, we decided to go back and check it out.  Everything was fine.  There is a second house up there and we think that was where they were going.

So we arrive until almost the lunch hour meeting time.  3.1 has developed the pattern of avoiding falling asleep in the car until just minutes before we arrive at a destination at which time nothing can wake her – except taking her out of the car.  This has caused all kinds of nap disruption.  So #3 said she would stay in the car after it was parked while the rest of us started to explore.

Ronda is built on a hill as so many early cities were for defensive purposes.  There is a steep gorge with a river flowing on its northern side that separates it from a plateau and high cliffs on the southern side that protect most of it from the plains with one area where there is a reasonable slope up.  Most tourists approach Ronda from the north, going over the new bridge (18^th century) from the new town to the old town.  You can also enter from the south I found out later.  The walls of the city are pretty much intact.  The gorge itself is very scenic and there are multiple sets of ruins including a palace where you can walk down through the mountain to the water level where there is an original well for the palace.  Also down at the lower levels but outside the mountain are remains of the baths and the old bridge that was existing during the Moorish period and may even date back to Roman times (who also had a city at this site).  We ran into Cabinet Lady and Dr. Deb who were having a coffee in a square and we decided to make that our rendezvous point.  Wife went back to the car to tell #3 while 3A and I went to the new bridge to check it out. 

 Shots from and of the New Bridge

WE had our nice lunch in a lovely outdoor cafe.  The weather has been spectacular and we've eaten outside a lot.

 Enjoying eating outside

Croquettas - Not as good as Wife's!  Mostly potato

Mixed Vegetable Paella

Tortilla - Potato bound by eggs.

Revuelta - a dish made with scrambled eggs and stuff, in this case fries and blood pudding.  It was pretty good.

Three lovely ladies enjoying lunch conversation

Two of three lovely ladies paying attention to my request to look at the camera.

"Get with the program Munchkin! "

After our lunch (where I had a second non-comprehension additional course addition of a lamb shoulder when I thought we were just getting starters for us to share), I had the idea that I wanted to climb down and circumnavigate the old town.  According to the map this was possible.  Ronda was on the “Great Tour” of the 18^th and 19^th centuries when the wealthy and romantic would travel to the famous Classic and Moorish sites of Europe.  A picture of the town painted by one in 1823 graced one of the information boards we saw on our way to the bridge.  3A and Wife agreed to take 3.1 so #3 could join me.  The climb down was a bit steeper than we expected.  No One Helluva A Lot Steeper than we expected.  But we made it down fine.  Then as we made our way around we discovered we were at the absolutely lowest point compared to getting back up.  So the majority of our circumnavigation was uphill.  Still it was a good workout and it was neat to get a feel for how it must have felt to approach the city if you were an attacker!

The Circumnavigation in Pictures

Looking out as we are on our way down

Two views of the New Bridge after we were down

We came down from a place just to the right of the upper right corner

I'm not sure why I took this except that I thought it looked neat

Starting our way around the wall

We're at the south side starting north again and we got a view of the newer part of town

While the walls continued on our left

We had hoped to go into the Baths but they were closed because it was a holiday, Spain Day.  Fits in with the rest of our trip.

Looking at the New Bridge from the Old Bridge opposite from where we went down

Final climb back into town

And a final look at the New Bridge as we reach town level again

(And if you look just to the right of the bridge and down a little you will see the outdoor cafe where 3A and I had coffee while waiting for Wife, 3A, and 3.1.  Actually they had gone down to the old bridge and via cell phone contact were able to see each other.)

That night RSM whipped up a meal using most of our leftovers.  We did a pretty good job of managing our food purchasing and not a lot was left.  Even though we all had to pack, everyone was reluctant to go to bed as this was our last night together

Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 16 - Bad Luck Fairy Continues to Stalk

After the long, long hours in the car yesterday, I was ready for some chilling out.  #3 and 3A wanted a little alone time to go to a lake area not far from here and do some walking without 3.1.  I volunteered to babysit.  But with the number of baby loving adults here, that is really not much of an issue as there 5 or 6 people very happy to keep 3.1 occupied. 

We had then planned to go to the town of Rhonda in the afternoon but decided that it needed a whole day to really see it.  So instead when the two got back, the five of us (Wife, 3.1, 3A, #3 and I) decided to drive into the coastal city of Malaga and see if we could rustle up some interesting food for our last full group dinner at the big Mercado Centrale.  Some of our members had had gotten badly lost in Malaga but we were able to go right down where we wanted to without a p3Alem.  We found a place to park in just minutes and a parking place too.  Our luck was changing!

Wrong.  We got to the market as it was closing.  Evidently (in spite of information to the contrary we had found) it closed up for the day at 3 PM, we arriving at 3:05.  So that was a bummer.  We hung around in Malaga for an hour getting some coffee and ice cream.  A nice clean, modern looking place (at least where we were) with lots of pedestrian only roads.  

And lots of motor scooters

And a place we ran into while looking for a cafe to have coffee with a big ole church!

 Plus the obligatory Munchkin Photos

 We remembered that there was a big store we passed on the way in to Malaga, but we missed the turnoff.  So we ended up at another place we knew about that didn’t have the best selection but at least enough for us to make a good dinner.

Munchkin trying to use camouflage to avoid meld in with store products and score ice cream. 

I had loads of help tonight.  In fact I pretty much delegated most of the cooking and grilling and we all had a real good time.

Thanks SRM, Lady Di, Steve and G for all the cooking help and everyone else for all the cleaning up help!

Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 15 - 5 hours Drive for a Meal

I wish I could say this was one of those planned gastronomic experiences but it was instead a comedy of errors.  Wife and I started out by wanting to see the Atlantic coast by the ancient city of Cadiz.  But when we looked on the map we found that it was going to take over 3 hours of driving time.  A bit of research found there was a small city, Tarifa that is the farthest point south in Spain.  It is the place where one can stand and see both the Atlantic and Mediterranean within yards of each other.  It is also the place where the Muslims first landed in their conquest of Visgothic Spain.  In fact it is named for the general who led the invasion, el Tarif.  Our research showed it was a little of two hours away. 

But the best-laid plans often get led astray.  We ended up caravanning with Brother-in-Law who wanted to go by a more direct/scenic route.  3A and I both had reservations about this but were not forceful in our protestations.  Our fears were well founded.  The ‘short’ route was much more winding and slow than thought, we got behind an incredibly slow truck with no place to pass, and the ‘scenic coast road’ got us into a major traffic jam in a big tourist city.  We were the only ones with a GPS so we took over navigating and went by the toll road to finally get there.  As we’re climbing and descending the final hills to Tarifa, we are enveloped with fog so no views of Africa which is only around 20 kilometers away over the Mediterranean.  Then to add insult to injury, we couldn’t find any parking and drove round and round for another half hour.

Poor 3.1 was really sick of being in the car seat.  The one bright spot was lunch.  We were went to a place that seemed pretty normal and had another excellent fixed price meal.  I had a wonderful gazpacho type soup that was pureed with some small bits of tuna in it.  I had Munchkin try some and she liked it so much that she ate almost half of it.  My main course was tuna in a tomato onion sauce.  They even went out of the way for SRM and Andrew, two vegetarians with plates of very well executed grilled veggies.  The only bad thing about lunch is it took a long time but that was not so bad as it gave Munchkin a chance to run around.

We finally got to start touring the town around 4 PM.  Of course the primary fortress was closed for renovations.  But I did get to see the Mediterranean/Atlantic confluence.  

Med on the left/Atlantic on the right

 We needed to get Munchkin back so I left Wife with the other group and they went on to Gibraltar.  #3, 3A, Munchkin and I got back with only one further incident (going back to our car the way we had come only to find that we could have gone the opposite direction and gotten there in three minutes instead of 15).  At least the fog had lifted and we saw the rock of Gibraltar and Africa on our way out.  

Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 14 - de-I Sandia Outfitters en Espagne

 Yes the assassins of de-I Sandia Outfitters have become international!

Another reason I chose this region of Spain is because it is mountainous with numerous national parks and areas for hiking.  Andrew, Cabinet Lady, Dr. Deb and Lady Di are all avid hikers and came prepared to go out even thought they have all had previous experience with the notorious de-I Sandia Outfitters.  

 I researched a place around 45 minutes from us where we could get in a good hike.  We didn’t account for the hair-raising ride to the trailhead. I had some basic instructions but not really anything very specific.  So we wandered around a bit.  Fortunately Dr. Deb is one of our three Spanish speakers and by two or three sets of inquiries we ere able to locate the road to the trailhead.  Then the fun really began because it was a steep dirt road with a series of about 8 tight switchbacks.  Cabinet Lady was our driver and her rental car is a small, underpowered Opel.  But she did a great job of powering her way up the switchbacks.  I think maximum heart rate was achieved during that drive.  This of course had been the de-I plan and I fully expected to get the insurance from at least one of them dying of heart attack.  But Noooooo.  They all made it.

Then we actually started the hike going about 7 miles round trip.  It was a good climb but I’d be hard pressed to guess the actual gain.  I had been concerned about heat because it has been in the 90’s.  But we started much higher and because of the altitude all through the hike we pretty much weren’t heat oppressed.  After about halfway into the climb we were above the tree line and from that point we had great views.  We didn’t seem many people until we reached the point where we decided to turn back where we ran into two sets of hikers.  Then looking down into a high valley we saw a shepherd and a flock of goats. Pretty cool.

Hard to believe that this innocuous trail sign is at the end of the road of death!

Our Trailhead

On we go

Andrew, Cabinet Lady, and Dr. Deb making sure de-I Sandia Outfitter Guide is well away from them

Lady Di's survival technique is to ensure that she puts plenty of space between her and the de-I guide.

"Back off guide.  My insurance is pledged to charity and I'm not carrying any valuables."

At our destination, The Pain of Lovers

Dr. Deb consoles Cabinet Lady for having turned down the marriage proposal from the Moroccan parking attendant in Cordoba. 

de-I may not have gotten any gains but he did have a good hike :)

The ride down was nowhere near as stressful as the one up.  It was about 2 PM by the time we finished which is around the time people eat lunch here.  We had lunch at a café on a square we had passed at the nearest town to the trail.  We ordered a bunch of tapas:

Cheese

Hot and cold sausage

Baccalao-salt cod-in tomato sauce

Tortilla-potato and eggs

Potato salad with aioli – garlic mayonnaise

Then we went back to the rental, showered and rested in contentment where we found that SRM had made one beautiful bread pudding.