February 26-28, 2022
“Just as the American image of Germany is Bavaria, the Yankee dream of Spain is Andalucia. This is the home of bullfights, flamenco, pristine white washed hillside towns and glamorous Mediterranean resorts”
- Rick Steves
We spent the last two days mostly traveling. As we wrapped up the visit to Granada we went for long walks and finally achieved having a bad dinner.
Fried fish is a specialty in this area of the world. The batter is light and seasoned and the fish is usually fresh, salty and delicious. A plate of fried anchovies is like french fries here and they pair amazingly well with the local beer.
So, on our last light in Granada I wanted to have another plate. What was brought to me was clearly old fish with poorly battered, and tasted….well, just like what you would imagine.
Disappointed, we settled for people watching, watching the sunset, and waiting for the lights to be turned on for the Alhambra. Again, the weather here has been perfect. We occasionally get some light rain, but mostly we have had demos in the high 60’s or low 70’s with no humidity. It really is short sleeve weather but the locals have full winter gear on. In the summer here, it can easily reach over 100 degrees so I suppose they are just not used to cooler temperatures.
The couple below showed up in the crowd and started practicing their best "Nan Macy" moves.
Below are views from Sacromonte - a region East of Granada where people used to (and some still do) live in limestone caves
We have seen very few Americans here. In fact we have seen few tourists either. The crowds, which have been described to me as a sea of people, were not here for the most part. There area few Brits here and there and we talked with a couple from Belgium a few days ago. The husband wanted to know every detail about my drone, so while we ‘nerded’ out my wife had and an adult conversation with his partner. This is definitely the ‘off’ season here much to my pleasure.
That changed yesterday. Yesterday was “The Day of Andalucia”. It was a 3 day holiday marking the celebration of this region of Spain becoming autonomous from central Spain. The street became choked with locals out celebrating the holiday.
I thought they were out celebrating my birthday, but Colleen gently corrected this notion.
We have no idea what this was all about -
On my birthday, we spent the day loving car rental offices. Our plan was to drive across the region and over the next week make it to Seville. But, there was a mistake with our reservation and, for awhile, we scrambled to solve the problem. By noon we were at last on our way.
We drove south to Nerja. We read about the town boasted “The Balcony of Europe”. It was reported to be a scenic overlook of the Mediterranean Sea. The highways here are very impressive. They are clean, well maintained, with easy signage to follow. Honestly they put our freeways to shame.
Here are some scenes from "The Balcony"
Despite its lofty moniker, “The Balcony”, proved to be little more than a tourist mecca with lots of t shirt shops and a view point. Here, I suppose because we were next to the ocean, the weather turned grey and cold. It was February after all. I imagine the place is quite full during the hot summer months.
We drove West along the coast. The towns we passed were a mix of white hillside villages and high rises overlooking the sea. We then turned towards Ronda.
This region of Spain makes for a spectacular drive. The highways snakes across the foothills of the Sierra Nevada (The original ones) mountains. The sun returned and bathed the area in rich light. Mountain edifices of granite and sandstone erupted out of rich green hillsides. The area was covered with cultivated orchards with orange and lemon groves. The reflection of the light of the silver brown bark of the many olive trees was particularly striking. Among the rolling hills were villages painted white to reflect the sun and beat back the heat of the summers here.
I have never been a painter. if I were, surely would travel here to try in vain to capture this landscape. This area hosted the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors, the Christians, and eventually Napoleon, yet it character remained unchanged. The whole scene was magical and felt like a living Pixar film.
It was quite a birthday present.
We arrived in Ronda just as the sun was setting. We walked briefly around town and took a few pictures.
Today, we will explore the town in more detail.
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