The last 10 days we spend twirling around Spain in our little Fiat Panda. We managed to put a whopping 1500 km on that bad boy, seeing some amazing towns and countryside in between. Ryan renamed our car the "Pea Shooter" since it had less than enough power to get us up the smallest of inclines, we'd always have to downshift to maintain speed. But we had four wheels and our TomTom which was all we needed to navigate around the country roads.
I wish I could say that this bull escaped from the bull fighting ring that we weren't at, and then we saw it jump over some chic in a mad panic to escape the inevitable, but no it's just from the internet. Thought I would just try to get your attention with some crazy bull picture. Our real ones are nestled in the column to the left under Pictures. Now back to the story.
We flew in to Malaga and took to the road immediately, finding ourselves in the little town of Padul, about 15 minutes outside of Granada. We stayed at a cute little B&B there which gave us easy access to Granada but kept us out of the hustle and bustle of the holiday weekend. It was the Day of the Crosses, and each plaza had beautifully decorated crosses, and lot of women wearing full on flamenco flair to go with it. Granada doesn't really have too many of the charms of some of the other Spanish towns that we adore, but it does have the Alhambra which is an interesting historical site. One evening we got to try Ox Tail, a specialty there, and it was interesting nonetheless. Tasted much like pot roast with a large tail bone in it. Ryan made it not so tasty as he reminded me that thing was used for swatting flies and lifting up so the ox could do his business. Probably won't try that again.
We spent an entire day at the Alhambra, Chance did pretty well walking the whole time without a stroller. One funny story to note is we went to a restaurant close by to the B&B one night at 6:30. It was packed with people but no one was eating. All the tables looked as if the meals were over. We went out back to sit and order, and after not being waited on, I went inside to ask if we could please order. I was told dinner didn't start until 8:30. At 6:30 p.m. the lunch crowd was just leaving!!! People in this region also tend to go by horseback. We kept seeing these signs lining the highways and laughing, until we kept seeing people riding horses to get around, and then we realized maybe they do need these signs after all.
We drove the "Olive Route" north to Cordoba, stopping in Alcala La Real for a quick picture taking at the cathedral there. The countryside along the way was dotted with olive groves as far as you could see making it look like a rolling quilt. There are 165 million olive trees in this region, and we were able to see 154 million at last count.
Cordoba had it's charming little white walled cobblestone streets. We spent sometime lounging in the Orange Tree courtyard of the Mezquita there eating ice cream. Our main event in Cordoba was the purchase of a stroller. We just couldn't take it any more, the whining, the dragging, the complaining. What was I thinking?
From Cordoba we drove to Zahara stopping at an olive mill there, then went on to Arcos de la Frontera. It was a bit less charming than all the reviews gave it but we had a nice time in the little plaza there while Chance passed out in his stroller. We decided that Chance probably had enough of all this city-seeing, and so the next day was dedicated to Chance having fun. We headed to the coast near Cadiz and spent a cold day at the beach. We had a beach Olympics in which Ryan won the rock-put, the 10 meter race, the triple jump; Chance won the hopscotch; and I won the...hmm can't remember what I won.
Then it was on to Casares, and what a beauty it was.
I was most worried about the place here, not knowing if the placed I book was bad or not. What a find. It was perched on a cliff overlooking the town, we had the most spectacular views one could ask for. One evening we sat out and watched the sunset, and we'd watch the peregrine falcons fly over the town as we ate breakfast. This town was a launching pad for seeing the coastal region, so while there we managed to also take a trip down to Gibraltar. We parked on the border and walked across. It was strange that to get in to town you had to cross the Gibraltar airport runway. The country or town, what ever you call it, was very British, obviously, with a long pedestrian only street with lots of shops. Sadly, we could have gotten better deals against the pound with exchange rates the way they are! We made it all the way down there to find out the cable car up to the rock was down for repair so we weren't able to go up. We could have but didn't want to pay the 50 Euro cab fee to do it. We just waved at the rock instead.
Our last day was a Chance day again. It was very cold and so the beach option was out. We decide to head towards Marbella to a rickety theme park. I had left my wallet in the room, and when we parked the car to first eat at McD's, Ryan realized he didn't have his wallet either. We were about 100 km from our apartment on an empty tank of gas, stuck in a parking garage that we had to pay to get out of, with 3 hungry for lunch cranky people. hmmm. We searched the car and good thing we didn't spend those pounds at Gibraltar cause they saved us. We went and got a bad exchange rate but at least we were able to eat, buy gas and make it back. We stopped at the beach for a little while there and let Chance play in the very cold water and dig in the sand.
Then it was back to the grind the next day. We said bye to the tasty tapas, and beautiful rolling hills and mountain tops with windmills. Until next time Espana.
