The End of Spain (finally?)

Hi folks – yes we are back from Spain and have finally downloaded the last of our photos

Nerja

Balcon de Europa

We had a relaxed end to our stay and spent a bit of time doing the things we should have done earlier (like hiking locally) and getting a few photos of Nerja itself.  For anyone who does not know, Nerja is the town that we stayed in for Jan, Feb & March in a rental furnished apartment.  This turned out very well, with the exception that by the time we left (after 3 months) we realized that we should have made an effort to find some English-speaking friends.  There are a lot of British pubs in Nerja but we had decided that we were not after a British experience, so we avoided them.  Ultimately though, our Spanish was not up to real conversation so we realized a bit late that British or not we should have sought out places that English speakers went to.  Good learning for the next time I suppose.

So – the town of Nerja is very cute and sits in a wonderful position between mountains to the north and the Mediterranean to the south.  It is about 50 km east of Malaga which has the area’s main airport.  There is a lovely consistency of the building style – almost everything is white with orange tiled roofs.  As the tourist season started to come (from March onwards) there are more and more (Italian) ice cream shops opening which proved to be extremely dangerous.  As well, coffee and croissant places abound.  There was one particular place that I would go to if I misplaced my husband.  Usually worked…..

Through our time in Spain we managed to visit, briefly in most cases, several cities or areas.  Here are some of them:

Seville

View from La Giralda (Seville Cathedral)

Seville has a wonderful historical centre where everything seems close by and walkable with narrow cute streets.  We only spent one full day there and focussed on the area known as Santa Cruz which has some of the more well known places such as the Real Alcazar and the Seville Cathedral.  Both of these had enormous entry lines even though it was a Monday morning.  I can’t imagine how they would be in the summer.

The Tomb of Columbus

Given the lines we decided to just do one and picked the cathedral.  Wow, what a place!  It was very large, apparently the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.  The high altar area is a wonderful gold (of which I am afraid my photos are too fuzzy to share).  In it is the tomb of Columbus, but given that it dates from the 1890s you’ve got to wonder.  Great looking piece though.  There is also a very tall tower (La Giralda) from which we got a terrific view of the city.

Metropol Parasol

Another interesting spot was large wooden structure called Metropol Parasol which was designed and then built to rehabilitate one of their plazas.  It is most remarkable looking and is said to produce a slight micro-climate in the area during summer.

Toledo

Toledo is an old walled city a bit south of Madrid.  Its claim to fame is that this is the area that the character Don Quixote travelled in. Not far from Toledo are the windmills (you might recognize the tilting at windmills reference).  I have not read the book, but have certainly heard of the character, and the windmills.  The windmills have been renovated, and now one holds a café that we visited.

Madrid

Madrid is a large modern city, and we stayed right in the heart of things.  Finding the hotel itself turned out to be a bit of a challenge as it turned out to be an address on a pedestrian street, of which there are several in the immediate area.  We of course were in a car with the GPS getting quite confused.  Ultimately we spotted the sign, way down a block and got into the hotel and out for some dinner etc.  The next day we went to the Prado which is an art museum of quite a high standard.  I found it really well curated, and the size was approachable, unlike some art museums.  Walking in Madrid might well turn up a royal palace or (for me) an unusual food promotion.

This was just a chain type restaurant – not fancy – but they are having a Pulpo (octopus) promo. 

Never seen that in Canada…

In the evening we headed out for flamenco!!  The show we chose was in an old cellar quite near our hotel with the performers so close we could touch the stage.  It was quite wonderful, passionate and exciting.  This particular group is trying to keep the traditional flamenco alive – hence the cellar. I still don’t understand how they can move their feet so quickly.

Extremadura

Stork nests atop an abandoned building

After Madrid we decided to drive in a round about fashion through an area called the Extremadura. This area seems to be was sparsely populated farmland, along with some lovely landscapes – and quite pretty.  We did have quite a cool stop for coffee.  Next to the café was an abandoned building with a stork nest on top of each column.  There were other storks flying in and out bringing nest material (and maybe food?).  The beaks were clattering and they seemed not to be too thrilled with our attention – but they were clearly way out of reach and in no danger from us.

Cadiz

We also headed to the town of Cadiz which is on the Atlantic.  This is said to be the oldest city in Europe founded in approximately 1100BC (there is also a legend purporting Hercules as the city’s founder).  This is a nice beach town with a pretty waterfront, a terrific sidewalk along the shore which surrounds the old town.  Plus some dancing with this fellow.