Monday November 16 - Back to New Zealand

90 Mile Beach

A perfect view of 90 Mile Beach on the way on. We arrived at Auckland airport at 2pm, with our connection to Nelson being at 4:15. No issues with immigration, but for once there was quite a queue at Customs and Agriculture. We had lost track of some pistachio nuts and a lump of fig meat – we couldn’t find them in our cabin bags, and couldn’t remember if we had tossed them or left them in Madrid, so confessed to this at Agriculture, but it wasn’t an issue to them, and as it turned out we must have left them in Madrid. Staff in NZ are enormously more efficient than anywhere we have been on this trip. They seem to be able to get twice as much done in a given time, without stuffing about.

It was nice to be back on the NZ side of the border again. We didn’t have long to wait before our Nelson flight. Our equal shortest flight of the trip, and the bright green of New Zealand and the clarity of the air were immediately noticeable. As always it was lovely landing on little grassy Nelson Airport.

Our highlight of the trip? We don’t know. We have travelled so long that it is hard to say what was the No.1  thing. The top experience was certainly the Russian choral group in Carcassonne Cathedral – it was amazing. Best building? A toss-up between the Alhambra in Granada, and the cathedral/mosque in Cordoba. Best City? The lovely wide streets and lovely buildings of Barcelona. Best exchange town – Viterbo for its Italian-ness. Nicest people? Probably the Italians, but the French and Spaniards were great too. Best food? France, for the lovely bread and the cheeses. The again, Spanish tapas and olives were delicious, and the Italian gelato. Scariest roads? Northern Italy without a doubt.

If we were to do a similar trip again, I’m not sure what we would change. Not a lot I suspect. The long stays, with many daytrips out, were excellent. The day on, day off system worked well too. We’d perhaps do a bit more research about where we took our exchanges – we enjoyed the more non-touristy villages more than those with many Pommie imports.

So all in all a superb trip – one of our best.

Sunday November 15 - Dubai to NZ

[Photo: Dubai from our hotel]

 

The city of Dubai doesn’t look too good from the window of the Millennium Airport Hotel. It was covered in smog, and the buildings have a certain tackiness about them. It’s an odd thing to create a new city from a desert, and to my eyes it shows. I’m sure the shopping in Dubai is good, and perhaps some of the architecture, but it has no appeal to me. Much of the flash architecture is just that – flash. It looks to be designed for effect rather than being good architecture. This really shows in the terminal, which at first glance looks pretty special, but is very messy to get around, and has too much room in some areas, and inadequate circulation in others.

 

Our early start left us with sufficient time to do some duty-free shopping. We checked at the booze counter that we could get duty-free alcohol back to Auckland, and were assured we could – we even double-checked as we bought it.

 

Karen must have been tired. She was asleep in her seat before we started taxiing, and didn’t even wake for takeoff. First she knew of the flight was finding herself in cruise mode above the Arabian Sea! Slept OK on the long 13.5 hour flight, Karen more then me. With the good entertainment system, the time goes pretty fast.

 

Brisbane Airport has an incredibly daft system for transit passengers. Even though we had only 45 minutes on the ground, we had to leave the plane, and go through to a transit lounge. To get there, we had to go through a full security screening process, which meant they stole our bottles of duty-free limoncello and pastis. Completely stupid. How does it magicly become unsafe while travelling on the plane between between Dubai and Brisbane? It was even in an official sealed bag. We were rightly pissed off, not so much at the sales staff in Dubai as at having to go through security at Brisbane when we never officially entered Australia. So be aware – don’t ever buy duty-free liquids over 100ml if you are going to transit anywhere on the way.

 

Back onto the same plane (we should have ignored their requests to take all our baggage and just left it in the lockers – we’d be drinking it now). Service, as on the first leg on this plane, was very good. Overall though I think we’d try to fly Singapore Air or Air New Zealand rather than Emirates. The service was just too patchy, and the planes were showing their age.

Saturday November 14 - Madrid to Dubai

Up at 5am for a 5:25am taxi. Got ourselves ready very fast, and a quick trip to the airport, though 32€ hurt a bit. How can a city as large as Madrid not have buses or the metro not working for people with a 6am start at the airport. Perhaps there are some shuttle systems we didn't know about, but no normal public transport.

 

A little time to fill in, then out onto our Air Europa 737. Heaps of room, as we had been given an exit row. I expect that is the one benefit of turning up early at the counter, not having checked in online, where exit rows are always blocked out. The flight to Rome was very ordinary, and pleasantly short. We were there by 10am, with our flight to Dubai not due to leave at 2:15pm.

 

Rome airport isn't anything special. We ended up with plenty of time at the airport for checking out the shops. Quite surprisingly for an airport, they had quite a decent range of shops, and even more surprisingly, the prices were perfectly reasonable. Karen found a couple of cheap watches, plus we got a few souvenir bits and pieces. Time seemed to whiz by, and it was no time before we were on the plane to Dubai.

 

Not an impressive performance by Emirates. Our flight started with a half-hour delay, but no explanations of why, and for how long it might be. The plane itself was OK, but the service seemed impossibly disorganised. Normally you get a drink within a little while of take-off, but this time it took for ever. Worse was the dinner service. A person next to us had a vegetarian meal, and it was a full hour before they finally got to us with our meals. No drinks service for a wine with our meal – they came along well afterwards. At times the flight attendants seemed to be milling about aimlessly, and there was a general impression of disorganisation. At least the films and TV programs on the entertainment system were very good. A much better selection for our tastes than those back in August.

 

Very smooth flight, and we had made up a bit of time getting to Dubai, but we ended up losing it all circling above the city waiting for a landing slot. We got on the ground, and through to the information desk where we successfully got our free night's accommodation voucher. It wasn't really a night's accommodation – we only got to the hotel (on a 5 minute shuttle ride from the terminal) about 1am, too late to get the promised dinner. At least they had a 24-hour snacks and hot drinks service, where we topped up our fluids and had a little to eat. Into bed near 2am, and we slept well until our alarms at 7am.

Friday November 13 - Madrid

[Photos: Royal Palace Armoury, Japanese Room and courtyard, Caixa Forum, Madrid, Mercado]

 

We were the last up, as everyone else was off to work, school or uni. Today’s plans were to see the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum, and the palace was within walking distance so that’s where we headed. We thought we would walk through the gardens below it, but after a couple of abortive loops, we discovered that the gardens had but one entrance. They were nice, but not so nice we wanted to spend an extra half an hour back-tracking. Next a visit to the cathedral, a rather unassuming building with a very heavy feel to it, only distinguished by the number of recent burials under the floor.

 

We remembered the Palacio Real as being spectacular from our only previous trip, and it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. We started with a tour of the royal armoury, something we don’t remember having seen last time. Stunning. At least 7 full mounted knights, plus any number of standing suits of armour, and countless guns, swords, lances and knives. We found it fascinating. Then into the palace proper, which was yet more amazing. Total over-the-top opulence, room after room. At least they had the desire to make each room different, so despite the number of rooms, the tour was superb. I particularly liked a Japanese-decorated room. Some were quite small, but all were beautiful.

 

We headed off onto the metro for the Prado, using a 10-trip ticket that we had been given by our host. It’s a great system, though we did make a start heading in the wrong direction. However there are so many interchanges that we simply found another using the map and hopped off at the right one next time. Off at the Banco stop, and a walk along the boulevard towards the Prado. As before, the Prado is all a bit too much to take in. We started in a room with 4 massive paintings, one on each 4 wall. A great start, as all were superbly executed. Then through floor after floor, and room after room of paintings. All the big names are represented. Neither of us like the religious paintings with overdone facial expressions (which the Prado has a fair share of), but the good thing about that is that it leaves a more manageable number of other works to see. My favourites as before were the Breughels and Boschs, the latter looking like a precursor to Dali, whom we had seen further north. It would be easy to spend several days there, but by late afternoon we had already been on our feet for too long.

 

Leaving the Prado, we headed along the boulevard, spending a little time going through the botanic gardens just south of the Prado. Pepe had recommended we visit the Caixa Forum, a re-use of an old building. On our way across the street, I needed to shout “bus” at Karen, as she was doing her best to get flattened by a bus she had thought was turning, but which simply changed lanes. The Caixa Forum as a new building built onto and behind an old façade. Quite strange coming into it – the facade had been chopped off at first floor level, and you entered underneath it, with a massive cantilever above. Great shiny stainless steel steps up to the first floor where there was a nice little design shop. Back to the metro again, and out at Principe Pio.

 

We so enjoyed our tapas of the previous evening, we gave it a second go. We had a range of nice fishy plates, including a smoked mackerel which was mouth-watering. Finally, after some 12 hours on our feet, we made it back to our hosts’ place, a nice walk along what passes for a river.

Thursday November 12 - Cordoba to Madrid

[Photos: Cordoba entrance, Cordoba Mesquite, Madrid tapas bar]

 

Up with the alarm, had our normal cornflakes and muesli breakfast, then out into the city. First stop was the old Arabic baths, which should have been open last night, but had shut early. We have found shop and museum hours quite frustrating. They are not only often closed during siesta, but can be slow to open, quick to close, or simply don't open at all. At least we have rarely been trapped by places having closed days – normally Monday or Tuesday.

 

The baths were a little disappointing, as it was hard to see how they had been used. We went from there to the synagogue, one of only two remaining in Spain. The Spaniards and the Inquisition did a ferocious job of removing Jews, considering there were large populations of them at some points. The synagogue was really quite a small and lightly decorated building, where we had expected something a little more generous, having seen the massive amount of decoration in the Christian and Muslim religious edifices. Out through the winding streets again. We love the building entrances here. Most have beautiful heavy wooden doors, often with iron or brass studs, then a lovely vestibule, invariably tiled to dado height. Then there is normally a pair of wrought iron gates leading into the building proper, or often an internal courtyard. The biggest courtyards will then have planting or water too. One of the main pleasures of Cordoba for us has been the walking about discovering new streets and entrances to look at.

 

Our final stop in Cordoba was the cathedral, which was in fact the mosque for the first centuries of its life, and apparently built on an old Visigoth church before that. What a building! The outside wall is huge, containing both the mosque and a large courtyard. The inside is equally large, being a forest of columns with the distinctive banded red and cream arches that we have seen in many books. On entering, we just stood and marvelled for a bit. The sheer number of columns is overwhelming. It was started with a decent size mosque, then doubled, then doubled again before the Christians took over and made their mark on it too. It was fascinating to see the way the Christians fitted Christian requirements into a Muslim building, and also pleasing to see that there was a surprising element of respect for the earlier religion. The mihrab was still there with a number of surrounding bays, and a large bay near the centre had been left in Arabic style.

 

There were a number of religious officials wandering about, in their brilliant scarlet and purple robes, which added to the atmosphere a little. It was clearly well worth the detour to get to Cordoba. Having absorbed as much of the atmosphere as we could in the time, we got back to our hotel (12pm checkout as with all of Spain) and headed back through the centre of Spain to Madrid. James (as in "Home James"), the GPS took us neatly to the door of our Mojacar owners. A bit of fun on the way in as we went through a 5km tunnel, with several splits in the road, and of course being a tunnel the GPS had no idea where we w ere. We must have guessed right though.

 

Our hosts Ana and Pepe were very pleased to see us. We didn't have long with them, as the car was due back at the depot near the airport by 5pm, but being able to offload our gear made the return trip easy. The car return was amazingly efficient. There was a man walking round the car before we had even stopped, and not ten minutes later we were on our way to the airport in their courtesy van. Madrid has a nice simple modern metro system, and for the grand sum of 2€ each we found our way back to Principe Pio, the station nearest our accommodation. We had arranged with our hosts to ring them when we got back, and after 15 minutes they arrived on foot to give us a tiki-tour of the inner city.

 

It's another generous city with lovely buildings and some big squares. But the best bit was stopping at the Mercado for tapas. It was an art nouveau style building (as many markets seem to be) with a mix of market stalls and tapas bars. The great thing is that you can order a drink from one bar, and then bring over tapas from several others, and stand at the bar and eat them. Pepe ordered a couple of different types of jambon (like prosciutto) and Ana ordered some nice salmon, tomato and cucumber on toast, together with some very good lager. The place was packed with hundreds of people doing the same as us. Spaniards eat their main meal in the middle of the day, and therefore many just eat tapas in the evening. Madrid was bright and noisy, with the streets and squares full of people. Back to their home for a couple of hours talking, including with Aurora and Anaola (?) (the two daughters), then off to bed, with the Prado being the main order of the following day.

Wednesday November 11 - To Cordoba

[Photo: An entrance hall in Cordoba]

 

Started the morning with breakfast in bed, then had a final swim. We have enjoyed the long pool, even me. Then down to the simple task of cleaning. A final lunch of bread, sausage, lettuce, peppers and beer, and at 1:00 our hosts arrived as they had said. We were a bit surprised to find them very pleasant – the volume and tone of the instruction manuals suggested they might be a bit on the fussy side, but it wasn’t the case. They had just come back from their daughter’s marriage to a German, and had had an excellent event by the sound of it.

 

We had decided that the mosque at Cordoba was too good a sight to miss since we were so close. It also had the benefit of reducing the drive to Madrid down to 4 hours instead of 5, so we were aiming to spend a night in Cordoba, with a visit to the mosque and anything else that we could fit in. As always, the drive was rapid and easy on the dual carriage 120km/h roads. Into Cordoba fine, and found a hotel pretty easily, with parking at a fair rate. The parking has been a constant minor annoyance the whole trip – it would of course be easier not to have to find parks all the time, and cheaper too, but having the car has been great, and we have never struggled to find carparks. At worst we have used council parks and just paid the fees whatever they are.

 

Had a really enjoyable walk around the old areas of Cordoba. We were not able to visit any of the sights as most of them closed at 6 or 7pm, but we enjoyed the walk through the old lanes, particularly in the old Jewish quarter. The city has a very old feel here, with nothing in straight lines.

 

We went to an Arabic-style restaurant for dinner, but on getting in found that prices were steep, and more important, there was no beer on the menu, and we were desperate for one, so we moved down the road for a menu del dia, with beer! We set the alarm for the morning to make sure we got to see a decent amount of the city before our long drive to Madrid.

Tuesday November 10 - Frigiliana & Nerja

Went into Nerja for a final coffee, and a little shopping, including pastries and some bread for lunch. We found K19 The Widowmaker on TV, the only daytime TV we have watched the whole trip. We really haven’t felt the lack of TV at all. We have caught a bit of news on BBC or CNN from time to time, but it seems to be about the Berlin Wall, and other things that don’t seem to have much relevance to us. In the late afternoon, we spent some time arranging our bags so we had one at 21kg (using bathroom scales) and a cabin bag with 6kg of books. The remaining main bag and cabin bag were clearly going to be within our Air Europa limits of 23 and 7kg. We felt that only having one bag to pack would make things easier.

 

Karen feeling near 100% today, my tooth perhaps a bit better. It has been a real bind, and a nasty way to be finishing the trip off. We had turned the pool on for our hosts on Sunday, and by now it was up to 29 degrees. Strange thing was that it didn’t feel any warmer when we had a swim session in the afternoon.

Monday November 9 - Frigiliana

Up quite early to get Sandy & Lynette to Malaga. A bit of a hassle getting bags sorted as they had a Ryanair flight which has unusual weight limits – 10kg for cabin bags and 15kg for checked in baggage. We felt we had seen all we wanted to in Malaga, so headed straight back towards Frigiliana. We did a quick stop at Torros – both the beach and inland village. The beach area was a bit built up, but a nice long beach. In the village, we tried to stop in town, but no parks available, so we headed through to turn round and stumbled across their market in action. Not very exciting. Mostly full of tacky clothing and other product, but we did get a few tomatoes.

 

Back home, and Karen for some reason had a vicious headache, so she slept most of the afternoon, while I did some washing, and took time out to read. My tooth still causing major pain whenever I had a drink, food or swam.

Sunday November 8 - Frigiliana

Sandy woke up this morning all clogged up. He had been suffering from a growing cold for the last few days, and it came to a head overnight. As a result, we headed back down to Nerja to find a farmacia to buy some decongestant. Passed a few closed ones, then stopped at an open medical centre, who pointed us in the direction of an open one, where Sandy was able to buy Otrivine and a decongestant, which we hope will make a difference.

 

We also got some pastries from a place we had been to before. I had a number of nasty tooth attacks, really disappointing after a good day yesterday, so took a Voltaren with lunch. What a bind. At least I know the Voltarens control it very well.

 

The strong wind overnight had left all the terraces filthy and gritty with dust, so I gave them all another full hose-down, and also turned on the pool so it would be warm for our owners when they arrive (3 days headstart on their instructions). It started the morning at just 26, so the colder air and winds are having an effect.

Saturday November 7 - Frigiliana

[Photo: Chocolate & Churros at Nerja]

 

Back to our day on/day off routine, which seems to be working our very well. Both of us were still tired on waking, and breakfasted in bed. We thought we would all go and check out some of the things close to Nerja, such as the Caves of Nerja and an old aqueduct on the way. Back to warm weather again – the car said it was 24 degrees on the way down. Drove the 6km to town, parked up again in the parking building, and sat down at a café. Sandy & Lynette were determined to try out the chocolata con churros that we had eaten a couple of times previously. So we put in our order for three of these. Karen chickened out on the churros, thinking of her waistline. They were duly enjoyed, but they feel so decadent and rich that I think I will be the only one prepared to have another round of them sometime.

 

We tried to find a small coastal walk from the Balcon de Europa, but it either wasn't there or was very overgrown, so we had to give that away and jumped in the car to find the Caves of Nerja. Passed the aqueduct on the way – a tall structure of five stories supporting a rather small top layer carrying water over a small gorge. Got to the Caves, and parked in the carpark. We found they cost 8.50€ each, which seemed rather steep after just 12€ for the whole complex at Granada, and we were not keen enough to think it worth the money. Karen and I could go another day anyway if we reconsider. To add insult to injury, it cost a Euro to get out of the carpark.

 

Rather pleased to be back home for an afternoon around the pool. The water was down to 26.5 today, but 27 by afternoon. Still OK for swimming, but not as tempting as if it had been 28. Karen did 90 lengths, I swam rather fewer, concentrating on technique. I have been enjoying the swimming, although sometimes it has been triggering a vicious toothache attack, so I am a little wary. Karen made the fatal mistake of challenging me to a length's race, which much to the great surprise of both of us, I won by a good half body length. Then trying to get her own back, she challenged me to two lengths, which again I won, though not by much. I must say I was pretty chuffed, and Karen not so! I had to refuse to do a 10 length rematch.

 

For dinner Sandy & Lynette took us out for a meal as a thank you for the trip, which was lovely of them. They had hoped we could get into a restaurant run by four sisters, but it was closed up, as indeed were most of them. However we ended up having a very good meal at one in the church square. An excellent day tooth-wise, with little hassle at all, and no Voltaren needed.

Friday November 6 - The Alhambra, Granada

[Photos: The Alhambra, Granada. Details, Courtyards, Courtyard of the Lions, Generalife, Views to Granada]

 

Another good 8-ish getaway for the hour- and a half drive to Granada for the Alhambra. Most of it on 120km/h roads, so the distance disappears remarkably fast. We have had the first properly cold weather since New Zealand. On the way into Granada, the car thermometer went from 18 to 15 to 10, then finally as low as 9 degrees coming over the hills just before Granada. It was blowing a gale too. The GPS took us to the Alhambra carpark satisfactorily. Thankfully we had learnt from previous daytrips, and had warm gear in the boot, so we were able to add the bottoms onto our zip-off trousers, put on shoes and socks and don our polarfleeces.

 

Got our tickets in a few minutes, with only one or two ahead of us in the queue. Obviously there is no issue about needing pre-booking at this time of year. We were given the 10am slot for the Nasrid Palaces where the best carving, decoration and fountain courts are to be seen. We got there a couple of minutes before opening time, so had a coffee, partly to warm up as we were cold even with our warm gear on. Later on at one point during our tour we discovered the reason why – there was fresh snow on the hills above the city!

 

The Alhambra was every bit as good as last time we were here 27 years ago. More of it open, some places closed or under renovation, but that is par for the course. Last time we used a whole 36-shot roll of slide film – easily twice as much as any other single sight in our 4-month Europe OE of 1982. This time, using the wonders of modern technology, I took 215 shots. I must say our camera has been superb. Its zoom is 25-300 (12X) giving both a very generous wide angle, and a hefty telephoto. It is very rare that I am ever forced to use the flash, and the low light quality is streets ahead of any previous digital camera we have used. Yet it is still small enough to pop into a packet. We have seen literally hundreds of these Panasonic TZ cameras, so I can't be the only traveller who likes them. This time, I made sure I had plenty of detail shots, as it is in the detail that the Moors excelled.

 

As before, we really enjoyed our visit. The spaces are so attractive, and the detail so special. Since 1982 they have opened up Charles V's palace as three museums, which though small were interesting. There were two things we missed – the Court of the Lions was without lions as they are being restored (a 4-20mm coating of hard water deposits being removed), and I couldn't find a particular 1982 detail shot I wanted a new digital copy of. Come to think of it, the donkeys the staff were using for maintenance tasks in 1982 were missing this time too. However the visit was a real thrill. One of the few times we have returned somewhere and been just as impressed.

 

The normal recommended tour time is 3 hours. We managed to stretch it to 5 hours car-to-car, which gives a measure of how much we found to marvel at. There were plenty of things in this visit that we hadn't noticed last time round, and in particular how attractive the city of Granada is as viewed from the Alhambra. There are so many trees, gardens and lovely courtyard houses. A huge advantage of the time of year we are here is that the crowds are entirely manageable. If I wanted a shot without people, it was normally achievable, even in the long vistas of fountains on the Generalife. So all up, a trip well worth making again. Sandy and Lynette as first time visitors here thought it was the single best thing from their trip.

 

After the Alhambra visit, we drove down the hill to the city, where we wanted to check out the cathedral and have a bit of a look around. At the cathedral, we were in two minds as to whether to pay for yet another cathedral visit, but we were glad we paid up. It is a massive building, with the distinction of the altar being near the middle rather than right at the top end.

 

I had found Voltaren so effective that I decided that some more might prove useful. No problem at all over the counter at a farmacia.  A pack of 40 tablets cost me the grand sum of 3.12€. How come a similar purchase in NZ is so massively more expensive? Somebody is making a whopping profit. We keep thinking that New Zealand is a cheap place to live, but the more we see of southern Europe, the more expensive NZ looks.

 

For dinner we were looking for a decent meal, but not much open so we ended up back at our place of a few nights ago, where we had another good and simple meal.

Thursday 5 November - Frigiliana

Had a dreadful night. Tossed and turned with aching teeth, and for some reason my brain going in three directions at once, at a hundred miles an hour. Don’t know if it was last night’s coffee, the anis, the various painkillers or the new fancy toothpaste causing the problem, but the net effect was most unpleasant, and left me sleepless much of the night.  There’s no way I felt I could sensibly trip to Granada and back, so we had to give that away for today. My teeth were as sore as ever, though I’d hoped the new toothpaste would work very fast. Obviously not.

 

Sandy & Lynette went out for a walk in the town, while Karen and I tried to catch up on sleep. An afternoon around the pool, though I stayed inside much of the time catching up on sleep and trying more pills to look after the teeth. Dinner in, with more yummy Spanish tasty sausages, and finally, my teeth co-operating and not bugging me during dinner. Hopefully this marks the turning point.

Wednesday 4 November - Frigiliana Old Town & Nerja

Tooth was particularly bad this morning, so we decided to go back to the dentist in Nerja for another look and possibly an x-ray. I looked up the Spanish for x-ray just in case! We worked on our tans and lunched, then headed into town for 4pm when the first of the shops start to reopen. Yet another lovely day with clear skies, and 32 degrees on the car thermometer on the way in.

 

Found the dentist again OK, but they were in the middle of implanting teeth, so asked me to return around 5:30pm for a check. We used the time looking though more of Nerja's shops. It has a lot of interesting shops with a good range of wares. A lot of imported stuff – African, Indonesian and more, and most of it very well-priced. I found some nice jewellery for Karen, and then in the same shop a lovely small handbag on sale. We hummed and haa'ed a bit, got offered a discount and decided to take up the offer, before heading to the tooth factory.

 

Again, very pleasant and prompt service, this time with a white-coated man. He had another look, couldn't find anything visible so went on to taking an x-ray. This took only a minute or two to do, and showed precisely nothing other than a normal looking few teeth. His diagnosis was that I had developed surface sensitivity, and he gave me a prescription for some desensitising toothpaste, which we were able to collect at a nearby farmacia. I immediately rubbed some on in the hope it might start working. Total bill – just 20€. How can NZ dentists charge so much?

 

Talking things over with Karen, we have come to the conclusion that our travel toothbrushes may be the root of the problem. They were chosen as nice little ones that fitted well into the small pocket at the top of our toilet bag, but they are a bit harder than our home brushes. Karen had wondered if that was a problem, and had been (unbeknownst to me) deliberately brushing much more softly. Her tooth pain symptoms from France were remarkably similar to mine – pain with hot and cold, never quite in a defined location, throbbing rather than stabbing – and so we think the hard brushes have been too much for our teeth. Incredible that something so basic could cause such a problem.

 

Mentally I felt a whole lot more cheerful, having some kind of explanation, even if it still hurt like crazy at times.

 

Sandy & Lynette needed to confirm their RyanAir flights, so we did that in an internet café so they could print out the boarding passes. The manager's English sounded so like Juha, our Finnish Couchsurfer, that I asked if he was Finnish. Very close – Estonian.

 

On the way home, we all got a big load of groceries at a big supermarket, including a new set of soft (suave in Spanish) toothbrushes. We had decided it was time for a decent dinner out, so walked out from our home towards the old town. The place recommended by our hosts was closed, so we took one a little further along. Very cheerful and pleasant service. We all had the menu del dia starting with drinks. My anis was of Turkish proportions, being a wineglass with a couple of ice cubes topped ¾ full with anis.

 

Entrees were superb – garpacho, noodle soup and sausage soup, followed by squid rings, veal cutlets and veal kebabs. Simple food very well cooked and delicious. Even a nice dark chocolate mousse was included. We will probably come back here for another meal sometime.

 

Went to bed full of hope my teeth were on the mend, with the alarm set for an early daytrip departure for Granada.

Tuesday 3 November - Nerja

[Photos: Nerja, Frigiliana, Pastry, Pool at night ]

 

I felt very tired this morning. I think the driving is getting to me. It is much less relaxed than NZ driving. The roads are either 120km/h, which is just a bit too fast for comfort, or quite narrow. Either requires a lot of concentration. On the way to Malaga a few days ago, there was one place a truck had broken down and traffic suddenly had to squeeze into a single lane, requiring some pretty serious braking. Braking hard from 120km/h makes you realise how much less control there is at that speed than at 100km/h. Our little car, while fine most of the time, simply doesn’t feel as stable at the higher speed. I suppose I could go slower, but then we’d be on the roads longer, and that isn’t an appealing thought either. We’ve now done 5800km since Rome.

 

We all went down to Nerja this morning, partly for a look around, and partly as I too now have a toothache which has been steadily getting worse over the last few days. It started as a vague discomfort, but has now got to the point where a hot drink causes a vicious throbbing a few minutes later.

 

We arrived in town about 10, when the shops were just opening, and got a local street map marked up with dentists’ locations. We agreed on a time to rejoin Sandy & Lynette, and Karen and I went off on a dentist hunt. The first was closed, and the second location didn’t have a dentist at all. The third however was just right. I walked in off the street, and thirty seconds later was in a chair with a dentist or dental nurse having a good fish around. She couldn’t find anything, so blasted the sides of the sore location with cold water to try and get a reaction. No reaction! So we agreed that I would come back in a day or so if it got worse. Cost zero. Couldn’t help compare that to New Zealand. You’d be weeks getting an appointment, and even for a toothache you’d be hanging about waiting for a gap. And an inspection would certainly not be free. Walking away, the tooth went mad, causing me to think the problem might be deep rather than surface.

 

I was felling pretty low. Having a nagging but non-understood pain is a sure way of getting me down, and I wasn’t the best of company for a bit.

Monday 2 November - White Towns

[Photos: Ronda - Mill houses, Bullring, Bridge, Butcher. Setenil, Plains]

 

We had always had Ronda on our list of places we must visit, and today was the day. We got up really early – 7am and were away by 8am. Pretty good for us, and way ahead of most Spanish, who sensibly prefer a slower start to the day. It was only about an hour and a half to Ronda, through mostly pretty dry landscape. It was a very attractive drive, taking in some smaller roads, which is always a whole lot more pleasant than the 4-lane 120km/h motorways.

 

Managed to find a park easily in Ronda, and worked our way down towards the old centre. First we came across a very nice, broad and tree-shaded plaza, which turned out to be right on the edge of the cliff that Ronda is built on. Plenty of Spaniards about as today was a national holiday for them. From the plaza, we could see the older part of Ronda (where it started on an isolated rock), the original track to it, and all the mill buildings below us along the river. It is very attractive country around here.

 

Next along from the plaza was a bull-fighting ring, said to be the first purpose-built bull-ring in the world. Previously there were clearly plenty of bull-fights, but only in squares or other spaces. This one was a good size ring which we were able to walk around, complete with interesting bull handling facilities, and a museum built under the seating. The bull handling area showed the respect they give the bulls – all the movement and confinement of bulls was done from above with ropes, sliding and hinged gates, and was very heavily built. The ring is clearly still in use.

 

We finally go to the sight Ronda is known for – the bridge separating the original outcrop and old town from the newer areas. It was built twice, with the first built in the 1560s collapsing 30 years later killing 50 people. The next build was massive, with bases going the full depth of the narrow gorge. Karen and I went down the original entry path to get a view back at the bridge – a long way down and even longer back, but the reward was a good view of the chasm and the bridge. Some looneys were abseiling down a waterfall directly below the bridge. Abseiling can be fun, but why add the discomfort of doing it inside a waterfall?

 

Again found ourselves lunchless at 2pm – we seem to be adapting to Spanish time, without really trying. Picked up some tasty bocadillos for lunch, then finished off the town visit with a trip down to the Arab baths where we arrived at 3:05 to find the gates closing up. Siesta can be very frustrating at times. Back up to the streets, the car and then the next of the white hill towns. We haven’t found the white hill towns here as spectacular as the Italian or French equivalents. Sure the white makes them different, but they are not as tightly contained as the other countries towns, nor in such good locations. Here the intensity of the original town has been diluted with newer buildings radiating out from the old centre, while in France or Italy, we saw many where the new town if there was one at all, was below and outside the old town walls, and so the integrity of the original was preserved.

 

Our second white town stop was at Setenil. Ronda is said to be the most attractive white town, while Setenil is the most unusual, as it is built into a volcanic tufa gorge, and a number of the houses are tucked in under tufa overhangs, with caves digging into the rock at the rear of them. We got there just as the sun was setting inside the gorge, well before real sunset of course. The streets each side of the gorge are called Sunny Street and Shady Street (in Spanish of course). It looks like those on the north and shady side may well never see sunshine at all. We had a good walk up the village, like Ronda very tidy and well looked after.

 

Back home on a different set of roads, through entirely different country. While the trip out was through hilly land, with plenty of olives and a lot of unused land, the return was over huge plains of cultivated rolling land, at this time of year lying fallow. A number of beautiful farms, with big clusters of buildings complete with stables, yards and houses.

Sunday 1 November - Frigiliana Old Town

[Photos: Our exchange home, Frigiliana Old Town]

 

Got out and up to the old town of Frigiliana. We are housed a little lower down, in the new town. Our hosts have left a huge amount of helpful information for us to wade through, including a very booklet containing an excellent self-guided walking tour through the old areas. In the 80s, the town won a Spanish competition for beautification, mainly by paving their streets with the traditional vertical stones in cement, and a series of ceramic explanatory posters of the history of the town, and in particular what happened when the Christians finally conquered the Moors. Frigiliana was one of the very last Moorish strongholds, and the story of the conflict was fascinating. The town here has the only remaining molasses factory in Europe, and one of only three in the world.

 

The walk took us most of the morning, and by 2pm we were decidedly hungry, so found a restaurant with a lovely view where we ordered one of all the tapas dishes they had to go with our beer or wine. A nice range of tapas – anchovies, whitebait, meat, morcillo, sardines, mackerel. Each not large by itself, but with sufficient of them, it made for a delicious lunch. Really a bit late for a sunbathe by the time we got back, but we did so anyway

Saturday 31 October - Malaga

[Photos: Alcazaba views and detail, Boquerone lunch, Malaga streetscene]

Sandy and Lynette’s trip to Morocco ended this morning in Malaga, and we drove on down to pick them up. The roads were mostly 120km/h, and it was only some 40 minutes away. We thought we’d go down early, and spend the day there before they got in between 4 and 8pm. Put our Peugeot in an underground carpark and started off with the Alcazar.

This was a lovely Moorish defensive castle rising up above Malaga. We had an enjoyable hour plus working our way through it, then followed it up with a visit to the castle further up the hill. On our way up the hill, a thick sea fog rolled in, half obscuring the Alcazar at times. Quite a pity as the view would have been great. Malaga wasn’t what we expected at all. We had a picture in our mind’s eye of huge white holiday tower blocks lining a white sand beach, and while there are places like that along the coast, the actual city of Malaga is remarkably ordinary, with an ordinary port and ordinary buildings.

Had a delicious menu del dia with in my case, whole sardines in a very light batter. Very tasty.

There were some nice boulevards, lined with the normal flash shops selling flash stuff we weren’t likely to want to pay for. One place we did try to find was the market building. After a few wrong turns and some smelly urine-soaked lanes, we did find it, but it was all wrapped in mesh and under renovation. Like much of Spain, there are many buildings here consisting of an old façade and a new interior going in behind it. The conservation ethic is very strong, even if it is achieved by force of legislation rather than developer’s choice as we suspect.

We got a text just before 5pm from Sandy, and our trusty gadget guided us outside the door of the agreed meeting place. Loaded up and back to Frigiliana for an unpacking, and a swim. Unbelievably, I have been enjoying doing lengths here in the pool. I think it is the environment that makes it pleasant compared to Riverside, where I find lengths very little fun. We both brought our goggles with us, and they have been a good thing to have.

Friday 30 October - Drive to Frigiliana

[Photos: Pepe & Ana from Mojacar, Cabo de Gata views and buildings]

We managed to get ourselves all packed and organised, the washing on, the dishes all done and the house clean by 10am, when Pepe and Ana turned up. Enjoyed half an hour telling them about what we had done, discussing NZ a little as they intend to visit early next year, and just chatting. It turns out that they not only do house exchanges, but host Couchsurfers like we do. Quite a joke. They appear to be quite similar to us. Finally away close to 11am, with offers of accommodation for our last two European nights in Madrid, and an invitation to return any time we like to Mojacar. It was such a nice spot, we might well do so at some time.

Heading south we had decided to follow the coast as much as possible, and found the route most attractive and enjoyable. From Carboneras south it was all new territory for us. We dipped down into a number of small towns on the coast starting with Agua Amarga. This is a lovely little town, with some superb low level houses overlooking it, and quite strangely, the beach full of French people. Everyone on the beach that we could hear was French. Then to Las Negras, where we had a coffee. Some gorgeous new big houses surrounding the town, it had a very different feel to Mojacar, being much more upmarket, and probably more Spanish.

Back to the main road (Las Negras was a bit of a detour) and then inland cutting across the Cabo de Gata peninsula. Stopped at one lovely viewpoint, among red volcanic rock, with excellent views up and down the coast. At the most inland point, the landscape was very dry and barren, with many old tumbledown buildings. The final stop was San Jose, quite a large town around a lovely horseshoe bay with a harbour. Yet again we had trouble finding something for lunch, as there are very few pasticeria compared to France or Italy. We finally found one and got 6 turnovers with fillings of tomato, spinach and meat, which we ate sitting up overlooking the bay. It was onto the motorways from there, with an unbelievable number of greenhouses from Almeria right through to our destination, Frigiliana.

The GPS did its job well, though we were stymied by the expected roadworks near our exchange still being very much a work in progress, so we had to park a few metres away and lug our gear down. The exchange house is pretty good, but the pool that goes with it is something else again! It is massive – five metres wide, and sixteen or seventeen long, complete with a twice a week pool guy. It has 4 underwater lights, and an optic fibre ring light that changes colour every few seconds. We chose a room downstairs looking out onto the pool, and settled in, feeling we had made another good choice of exchange home.