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.