Wandering Soles

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. -St.Augustine

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Tour of our cave in Spain

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Views from Guadix

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Flamenco and Hammams

Last night we went to an authentic flamenco show here in Granada. We had made reservations for dinner and a show at the oldest flamenco club in all of Spain, Peña la Plateria. While the club has a website, they require you to call for reservations. I called a few days before and had an entertaining/confusing conversation with a lovely gentleman that did not speak much English at all. In the end our reservations ended up being under “Carly-Charley” as the man could not understand Kelly. 😊 As a side note, I’ve informed Christoph that we need to come up with more Spanish sounding names for any future Latino counties where we may need reservations - he’s decided on Cristo, but I’m still working on mine. The flamenco show was a true work of art with incredible singing and guitar performances, accompanied by an amazing demonstration of dance. We were both blown away by the whole experience, and even had to look up the performers on YouTube when we were back at the flat. Considering flamenco shows do not begin until 10-11 PM, we made the decision to sleep in the next day and loaf around prior to our appointment at the Arabic baths. After rousing ourselves for a late breakfast, we languidly made our way through the narrow streets towards the Hammam. The experience of the baths was like nothing we could have even imagined! After checking in and changing we were given the opportunity to partake in the baths as we pleased, before and after our massages. The baths include soaking in medium, hot, and cold temperature pools, in any order desired; also there was a steam room recommended for after the cold pool. We enjoyed several rounds both before and after our massages and later discovered we had technically overstayed our time in the steam room. Apparently it is recommended one only stay for 5 minutes each time, but when you’re from a place like Alabama, that steam just doesn’t have the same effect on you! The massages were also wonderful and helped soothe our aching bodies after the past few days of intense walking and hiking. Tomorrow we will leave Granada for the alluring caves of Guadix.

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Glorious Granada

Yesterday we left the Pueblo Blanco of Ronda early afternoon and made our way to Granada. It was our first day of subpar weather, and after driving the whole way under a rain cloud we arrived to our flat in the outskirts of the Albaicin district. The AirBnB rental we had secured for this portion of the trip proved to be the best one yet - a three bedroom flat that included a beautiful terrace and an enchanting view of be city. We spent the rest of the day pretty low-key, strolling up and down the hills, taking in some tapas, and popping in a few shops...all in the dreary weather. We were also quite dismayed to discover that the forecast for the next day was more rain and temps below 60 degrees; of course this was also to be the day we were going to the Alhambra. But thankfully Granada decided to change her tune. Although the weather was cold and gray as we during our early morning journey up the hill, the sun actually came out during our visit and it proved to be a wonderful weather day. Our visit to the Alhambra took us between 4-5 hours...and I feel like that still was not enough to take in all the beauty of the place. Of course, the Nasrid Palace was the highlight of the day, with its intricately carved walls, beautiful colored tile, and honeycombed ceilings. But also as lovely were the ground's gardens. We were also amazed at the number of pomegranate trees. Tonight we are taking in dinner and a a flamenco show at Spain's oldest flamenco club. Of course, the show doesn't start until almost 11 PM, which means I need to work in a little siesta beforehand...

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The beautiful Alhambra

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A ShortTrip Through Ronda

After leaving Tarifa, I had planned for us to make a short, one night stop in Ronda to help break up the drive to Granada. We made it to the gorgeous pueblo blanco by early afternoon and immediately started trekking through the old town. I told Christoph, Ronda was what I expected all Spanish towns to look like, with my its white washed walls and terra cotta roofs. We spent the day roaming around the lovely old town, making sure to take in plenty of views of the notable “new bridge” as well as Spain’s oldest bull fighting ring. It was a worthwhile stop, at most I would have liked to have had a full day there, but we made the best of the time that we had. Tomorrow begins the next-to-last leg of our journey before heading home. We will be spending the next few days in the quintessential Moorish town of Granada before heading to Madrid.

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Taking in the sights and tastes of Ronda

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Day trip to Gibraltar

Our last full day in Tarifa we decided to catch a bus to Gibraltar. Unfortunately the bus we decided to catch was either an hour late or somehow left without us, so our day didn't really start until about 13:30. Once the bus pulled into the Línea station in Spain and we crossed the border, we were officially in the U.K. Double decker buses, red phone booths, and British accents were all around us, but overall we agreed that the transition between the two countries wasn't really significant. We took the cable car up to the top of The Rock and mainly milled around watching the monkeys for a while before riding the cable car back down. While the views are nice, I'm not really sure we felt it was worth buying a ticket and standing in line. Considering we had eaten nothing since leaving the apartment that morning, we finally found a place to sit down and eat a proper fish and chips around 5. The last bus to Tarifa left at 8, so we made sure to make our way back across the line and to the bus terminal with plenty of time to spare. All in all we weren't terribly impressed with Gibraltar, but still glad that we were able to make a small side trip and take in a bit of England while we were here in Spain.

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Monkeying around in Gibraltar

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Marvelous Morocco

Today we took the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier to spend the day with our guide Samir, in Morocco. Samir was an excellent tour guide and took us around both Tangiers and Asilah today. Asilah is an old Walled Moroccan town that reminded me a great deal of the islands of Greece with its white walls and blue doors. Samir informed us that the walls of all the homes are painted white in observance of the recommendation of Mohammed to keep there from being a distinction between social classes. Tangiers is another port city, so similar to Tarifa, it is a little "dirty" and crowded; but the souks in the Medina were amazing! I think they sell everything imaginable in these markets! We made sure to get some spices to take home and a healthy supply of olives for snacking during the rest of our trip. Overall, we both decided that while Morocco was definitely different from Spain, it did not make us worried for our safety, as we had originally suspected. Christoph even mentioning Mentioned that he would not mind going back to Morocco...especially for the olives...

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Big day in Morocco taking in the towns of Tangier and Asilah

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Tapas and Topless in Tarifa

Yesterday afternoon we arrived at our second stop here in Spain, the port town of Tarifa. After checking into our new AirBnB apartment we set out to explore the old town. Tarifa sits at the point of Spain where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet. So we made sure to take a stroll to the southernmost point of Europe. The weather here is much more balmy and breezy than Seville, thank heavens! And yesterday evening we even needed long pants and sleeves for the first time on this trip. In the evening we found a delicious spot for tapas; this is definitely going to be something we will miss when we leave Spain. Today I had planned an "off day" for us, so after sleeping until almost noon (!) we decided to lounge around on the beach and enjoy the sounds of the waves. Like most European beaches, the majority of the women here prefer to sunbathe topless. As a result, we decided "when in Rome"... Tomorrow we will take the ferry over to Tangiers, Morocco and go on a tour of the town with our guide, Samir.

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Sweets of Seville

We had to be out of the apartment by 11 today, but I had one more stop I had to make before we said goodbye to Seville… I left Christoph to finish packing his bags while I walked a few blocks I the Convento de Madre de Dios. I had read several travel blogs that said many of the convents in Spain sell sweets, handmade by the nuns, in order to make a little extra money. The nuns sell them from behind a closed door with a lazy-Susan style turn table for an exchange of money and goods. Of course, the nuns do not speak English, and as my Spanish largely revolves around greetings and informing people that I don’t speak Spanish, I knew that I needed to study up. I managed to find the convent’s website and a listing of the sweets they sell, including prices. Alright, ready for some dulces! Of course, nothing can ever be simple like that…when it came my turn to request my order the Sister told me they did not have the sweets I wanted. Actually, she told me that and a lot of other things, but of course I didn’t understand anything other than I had to quickly come up with another plan. Fortunately, the lady in line behind me asked the nun what sweets they DID have today (at least that’s what it sounded like she might have said), and as the Sister started naming sweets I blurted out “esta bien!” So I say all that to say that I’m not sure what kind of sweets I actually got today. We plan on having them for breakfast tomorrow, so fingers crossed I ended up with something good!

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