Spain

By Sue

We arrived in Spain on November 10th. We had a terrific condo right on the Sea! Beautiful sunrises every morning. Manilva was the town up the hill and Sabinillas bordered us along the sea. We often walked to Sabinillas, but the next big town, Marbella, required a bus ride or taxi. Taxi's we're pretty costly and buses always seemed unreliable. It was hard to find a schedule online, and if you did it wasn't always up to date. One day, in Manilva, we sat at the bus stop for half an hour. No bus came so we went in to the nearest tapas bar and asked about it. They said there was no bus. I showed them the schedule but they just shrugged and said that those schedules aren't always right. If you go, I would recommend a rental car. If you shop around, you can get very reasonable rates, and you have the freedom to visit all the beautiful little towns that dot the hills and coast.

Our Beach

View from Our Balcony

Fish Market in Marbella

Smoked pork legs are available in all shops and most tapas bars.

I was really happy to find Johanna, a wonderful lady who organizes hikes through her company, Sur Walks. Unfortunately I didn't find her until only a few weeks before we left, so we weren't able to do all of her hikes. The ones we did go on were terrific. I highly recommend tracking her down if you are in southern Spain. Her website address is http://www.sur-walks.com/index.php.

Johanna with the kids at the sulphur bath in Cesares where Julius Ceasar bathed

I'm torn about which hike was my favourite. One day we hiked around the city of Ronda in the morning and then went into the city for lunch. It was beautiful. We saw a gentleman knocking olives out of his trees the way they've done it for centuries. He seemed quite pleased to have his picture taken. We also stopped by a beautiful horse ranch and watched a ferrier at work. We visited the ancient Roman baths and and the bull fighting ring. Back in town, I got a kick out of the way the people there refer to their two main bridges as the old bridge and the new bridge, since the new bridge was built in the 13th century!

Old Bridge

New Bridge

Olive Farmer

Ferrier

I do think I have to give the edge to our hike up to the La Pileta cave, followed by a hike down along the Guadiaro River with lunch in Jimera. The cave was such an unexpected surprise. There is only one other cave in the wold, discovered so far, that has drawings as old as these, and that one is in France. The drawings were of mainly two types, red, which were neolithic, and black, which were Paleolithic. The stalagmites and stalactites were also incredible, especially when you think that they grow about 1cm every 100 years! We weren't allowed to take pictures, as the light damages the drawings, but I bought some postcards, and this image is from one of those postcards...

The hike along the Gaudiaro River was beautiful. We saw goats and birds, and we found loads of acorns. The hills were green and their were huge fish in the river. When we arrived in Jimera, we were starving. I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant as it was in an old train car service building, with huge wooden sliding doors and a fire burning away in the fireplace. The food was another pleasant surprise. Gourmet, but at a reasonable price. The company we shared also made it special. Johanna is a kind hearted, nature and animal lover. I felt like I'd known her forever. A lovely German couple, Roman and Juta, had joined our hike that day, and we enjoyed their company as well. 

After being in Spain for about five weeks, and two months in Croatia and Turkey before that, we were sure starting to get homesick! But we had something great to look forward to... Kyla and Tom we're coming for Christmas! Their visit was awesome and helped us get through those last few weeks before meeting Dave in Thailand. What a fantastic Christmas! They brought Stove Top Stuffing for our turkey dinner, which I don't mind saying, turned out terrific! And they brought all kinds of other surprises... Cheese Whiz, peanut butter, and lots of Christmas treats, like brightly coloured socks (I'll never wear boring old white again!) and this terrific oil called Peppermint Halo. We played charades and a blind drawing game and had lots of laughs. Kyla and Tom made Christmas extra special.

While Kyla and Tom were here, we rented a car and visited Tangiers in Africa, Ronda, Seville, and Granada. The Alhambra Palace in Granada is a must see. In Seville I liked seeing the Metropol Parasol in La Encarnación Square, which claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. I wish Dave could've seen it. We also shopped. And shopped and shopped! I think we saw every shoe store Spain had to offer, some of them twice! Katie and I both bought a pair of boots, but I think Tom was the winner with several pairs of desert boots, in a variety of colours. While we were in Tangiers Tom, Kyla and I all bought Jelabas, a hooded, floor length, long sleeved tunic. I bought one for Dave as well. It's rare to see a man there not wearing one or some version of one. Cooper was very patient through all of this shopping, never complaining once. 

A Bakery in Tangiers

Dressing Up Tangiers Style

Thread Store in Tangiers

Street Performers doing a Flamenco Dance in Granada

The Alhambra Palace in Granada

After Tom and Kyla left, the kids and I visited Gibraltar. We saw the rock, St. Michael's Cave, and the monkeys. We ate fish and chips, spent British pounds, and posed for a picture by a classic London style phone booth. It was like being in Britain for the day, but only took us about an hour and a half by bus to get there. It was a fun day, and a good break from school work. 

Overall our time in Spain was a great experience. We stayed in the Manilva condo because we had a connection that helped us arrange it. It was way nicer than any other place we had stayed in, and was within our budget. If I had it to do over, however, I would probably choose a smaller town near Seville or Granada, where there are fewer British expats. We didn't learn any Spanish, but I think we ended up with British accents! Haha!

Just a Couple More Pics!