The Andulucia

We have spent the last ten days traveling through Andulucia with Cathy and Andrew...we soon settled in to our roles for smooth transitions from cities, hotels and tourist sights. Tony was the driver, Tom-Tom and I were navigators, Andrew was the back-up with the map and Cathy verified from the tourist notes we had , where exactly we were meant to be!!

Andrew had spent some time prior to the holiday in learning some Spanish, and as English is spoken here pretty rarely (even the local tourist bureaus had staff who mainly spoke Spanish!) we certainly put his knowledge to good use...some times with some comical outcomes!! For some reason, even though Andrew would be the one speaking Spanish, the responses would come flying back to Tony( maybe thinking he was L'Espanol !) causing the utmost confusion in trying to sort it all out. By the end of our stay Andrew was feeling a bit bruised 'coz no matter what he said, it was like he wasn't there

Driving through this part of Spain you could be mistaken for thinking that you were in country Victoria/NSW. Very dry, reasonably flat...you could see the heat haze coming up from the ground; for the first part there were olive groves galore, very few used irrigation; as we got further south The Sierra's came into view. At first they seemed to be just hills but as we got closer they were very rugged, sparsely dotted with vegetation, ruins of castles or fortresses, on the hilltops; white-washed walls with faded- tiled roofed houses nestled in the valleys. We were really fortunate with the weather -around the mid-thirties with only one day feeling like we were re-visiting the Great Flood! The most amazing deluge..big fat drops of warm rain, ankle -deep rivulets of muddy water (there go the sandals!); drenching all possible available surfaces of clothing - even the covered ones!!

The thing that has struck me the most about this part of the trip is that there are centuries of different civilizations which have blended to make Spain what it is today. In one place - Toledo- there were three of the four different cultures of Romans, Jews and Moors which co-existed at the one time- when the Catholic Kings reclaimed the area, they exiled the Jews and Moors!!

When you walk around the township you would find a mosque alongside a church; the whole village was surrounded by a wall built by the Romans, a synagogue was built re-using the stones of Roman buildings as was a mosque. We spent an evening at the Flamenco and you could see the similarities with the arm movements to the ones used by the belly dancer we saw the following night, though the flamenco was a storytelling experience with the interchange between singers, guitarists and dancers. The passion with which they tell the story is fervent, feet-stomping rythmic and loud;animated faces, body movements determining the tempo of the music...a night to remember:)

A real blend of cuisines - the paellas( of course!), great fish dishes, pastas, seafood, specialties such as tongue, tripe , black pudding- afraid none of very adventurous here, though Tony did try Partridge! and Andrew the suckling pig!

Towns we visited
Toledo: a world heritage listed city. An intact ancient town, sitting on top of a hill surrounded by a Roman wall on three sides and a river-with bridge and moat- on the fourth . Under the town there is a network of caves which timeline the history of the city:- Hercules was said to have been there, alchemists used them as a base to work from as it was forbidden to practice, the Romans built aqueducts to provide the water for the city, and they were a hiding place during the inquistion. It is here that three idealogies lived alongside each other-Moslem,Jew and Roman Christians..( not to be confused with what is later known historically as Catholic Christians)....

Toledo Cathedral in background

A novel way to see the sights...

Granada: Another World Heritage listed town -as it was the last city recaptured by the Catholic Kings it has a strong Arab influence and heritage...the most well-known is the Palace Alhambra. Inside it's walls are the fortress Alcazabar( a Moorish King residence within which Spanish Kings later built a palace) and the Summer Palace - the Generalife, which has the most amazing gardens, fountains, patios, mazes...the Arab architecture is designed to bring the outside in, and as a result there is a blending of nature and brick using archways and internal courtyards to create a harmony, your eye is drawn to the symmetry around it, and through the arches to whatever is next..

Unfortunately, our visit here was encumbered with the only wet day we have had in Spain...it was a very challenging day and it had some very funny times as we and tribes of other committed, deluded tourists battled the elements with inappropriate footwwear and umbrellas which covered only the tiniest parts of us, as the wind constantly changed the direction of the rain! Once hypothermia set, in Tony and I ( he very kindly supported my decision to bolt!) set off for the hotel and a hot bath :)

Courtyard at Hotel

The boys


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