A day at the Alhambra Palace

When Sally turned 60, she said she wanted to see the Taj Mahal for her birthday present. While I wasn't partucularly keen about travelling to Índia...I agreed to go and take her there for her birthday. It was a trip we will never forget

For some time, Sally has also harboured a desire to see the Alhambra in Granada. I suspect one of her friends told her that it was something she had to see. While we had not planned to go to the south of Spain, rather than spend our last week on the Costa Blanca, we decided to book a train ticket to Seville where we would stay for a few days, and from where we could do a day trip to Granada.

And so at 6:15 on Canada Day we set off from our hotel near Santa Cruz for the Seville train station and boarded the 6:55 train for Granada.

While the trip was not quite as challenging as getting to Agra, the weather did seem almost as hot, and after a few hours discovering some very nice parts of Granada's downtown, and some tapas for lunch, we set off for Alhambra.

Whie it was not quite as exquisite or elaborate as I had expected, it was very impressive. The complex was sarted by the Moors in the 11th century and seized by the Christians in January 1492 (a year during which quite a lot happened in Spain). The Christians under various rulers have made many changes and carried out numerous additions to the complex. While Napoleon is reported to have tried to destroy the Alhambra, it has somehow managed to remain remarkably intact over the centuries.

Alhambra is a lot like an architectural history textbook with many styles on display. But it also could be a textbook for landscape architects since the landscaped grounds, with the many water features are outstanding.

It took about three hours to tour about. We could have spent more time but the temperature was in the very high 30's and having gone to bed late the night before, and not having slept as well as we would have liked for fear of sleeping in, by 5 pm we were getting weary. So we returned to the very lively and attractive streets of Granada for some sangria and air conditioned shopping. (I know...what a terrible thing to have to admit....one of the most beautiful places in the world and we left to go for sangria and shopping.)

I now write this from the train as we head home. We'll arive at midnight, making for quite a long day. But like our trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal, I suspect this is another day we won't forget for a long time. And it wasn't even Sally's birthday!

Leaving Xabia or Javea

There are a lot of towns along the Costa Blanca that have been ruined by tourism....Xabia or Javea where we spent 13 nights doing a house exchange is not one of them....While there are a significant number of tourists each year, and a good number of people from other parts of Europe with second homes in the town, Javea has somehow managed to keep its charm and character.The town is divided into three main areas: the Port (where we stayed) with a pebble beach; the Old Town perched on a hill; and Arenal, a more traditional seaside area with a sandy beach (our least favourite of the three). Each has its own distinctive character.One of the most significant heritage sites is a 16th C church in the Old Town. I mention this to give some sense of the age of the place. However, a much more interesting church was built in the 1970's in the Port area, and is designed to reflect the sea going character of the place. While it is squeezed into the existing street fabric, it's a very striking building, both inside and out...quite remarkable.We stayed in a very modern new house in a very desirable area just up the hill from the Port and its parade of seafront restaurants. We didn't need to drive...we could walk down the hill to the Port or into the Old Town...which was fortunate since we not only exchanged houses, but we exchanged cars and I did not want to take any chances drinking and driving....although the Spaniards do it, they also have very stringent regulations.In addition to the beaches, restaurants and fine shops, there was a delightful golf course where we met some very friendly and helpful people...Thanks especially to Brian whose restaurant recommendation was superb.So goodbye to Javea...we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, and can highly recommend it as a good place to visit, or indeed live. We didn't meet one person with any regrets about moving there! And why should they have regrets? It's paradise.

It's not just the buildings that are unusual....so are some of the foods!

One of the great delights in Spain is the food....some of the things we know about...paella, various hams,wonderful seafood, etc. However, there are a lot of things we don't always expect to go together...like anchovies and coke! I really like anchovies, and as you can see from these photos, I ate a lot of them, prepared in various ways...but for some reason, I just couldn't imagine washing them down with coke!There are also many things that we see in the market, and on our plates in restaurants that are completely....well if you'll pardon the pun....foreign! Here are some of the things we ate, or thought about eating during our stay in Spain..






Can you tell which are the flamenco eggs? the musaka?

One last thing...we discovered something here we had never seen before.. in some restaurants, including one where we ate on our last night that was founded in the 17th century....they keep track of your bill by writing the prices on the counter with chalk...if you look carefully you'll see the price of my aged manchego cheese with what looked like seville marmalade, but which tasted quite differently!

Newer Buildings along the Costa Blanca...ugh!

While it is easy to be impressed with the charming medieval towns and villages along the coast, not all the towns and cities are beautiful. Sadly, many of the older fishing villages have been...well, let's say transformed, thanks to package tours from throughout Europe. What one finds in these towns is often very ugly, although I must confess I was fascinated by some of the newer developments going up. For those of you who don't know what Alicante and Benidorm and Calpe look like, and are not quite sure whether you want to find out, here are a few images.






One thing you will appreciate after looking at some of the newer developments is the impact of Vancouver's condominium bylaws that restrict what one can do to the outside of their unit!

Touring the Costa Blanca

One of the reasons we decided to return to Spain was because we had so much enjoyment exploring the Costa Brava outside of Barcelona last summer. It seemed that each town was a little bit more beautiful than the one before, and some of the medieval towns were absolutely marvellous. While we did not know whether we would find the same quality of towns on the Costa Blanca, on a number of occasions we set off in our large comfortable Saab looking for memorable places. And we found quite a few.

One such place was Xativa, about 50 km south of Valencia. An ancient mountain town, and supposedly the first place in Europe where paper was used, it was also where two of the Borgia popes were born. A large castle dominates the old town, and not wanting to wait for the little train that takes you up, we set off for the top by foot.

However, I’m ashamed to admit we quit about half way, blaming the 30 degrees plus weather, and the bottle of wine we had with the assorted fried small fish and an excellent seafood rice ‘soup’ we had for lunch.

The whitewashed buildings and narrow streets we discovered near the top of our climb reminded us of Cadaques on the Costa Brava, and places like Mykonos and Kefelonia where donkeys replace cars as a mode of transportation up the long, winding streets.

Perhaps the highlight of Xativa was its main street lined with giant plane trees…it was remarkable, and I wondered which civicly minded individual had convinced his (it was most likely a man) peers that this would be a worthwhile investment. I can hear him now….”I want to make Xativa the greenest town along the Costa Brava….” . Well, he certainly succeeded as you look down the main street.

Another memorable town was Elche or Elx, south of Alicante. In the white and ochre tourist office, set in a central park, we learned that the town is known as one of the shoe manufacturing capitals of Spain...

and has twice received UNESCO World Heritage Site designations, once for the magnificent palm trees that were planted by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago, which now are seen throughout the town; and also for the Mystery of Elx, a medieval mystery play dating back to the 13th century, that is performed annually.

One of the advantages of a house exchange is that you can often invite friends to come and stay. This year we were joined by Sally' longtime friend Maxine, and a couple I got to know when I worked for Building Design Partnership in the late 1960's...John and Lynne Townsend. When John was staying with us, he wanted to take us to Altea, known for its leather markets

Unfortunately, after a long day of sightseeing, culminating with a visit to the very awful Calpe, the ladies in the car wanted to return home. But we did subsequently make it to Altea and I’m glad we did. While we didn’t find the leather market, we did find a delightful white pueblo town, with narrow streets and lively attractive squares. Nearly all of the buildings were painted white, and were well cared for. It was a very delightful place. Another remarkable place was Guadelest, a 'must' on most tourist itineraries in the northern Costa Blanca. We drove to this medieval town along a very narrow, winding 10 km road…for quite a while we were the only car on the road...and didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived. What we were not quite ready for were the hordes of people who had arrived by the busloads to explore this outstanding place.

Nor were we ready to view a magnificent bright turquoise lake that was visible from the top of the town. Sadly, the souvenir shops have overtaken the place, and they seem to be selling some very ridiculous things….while I quite like some of the metal work, who would ever think of buying a rubber front door mat that says ‘welcome’ in a place like this?

(I did enjoy this white lady, who was one of many 'statues' we came across while touring the Costa Blanca...yes Jackie, I did give her a few coins before taking her photo!)

While many of the places we visited along the Costa Blanca were not as impressive as the towns and villages we discovered last year along the Costa Brava, these four towns were definitely 'must sees'....I just wish we had spent more time in each of them...well all except Guadelest....which sadly is being over run by souvenir shops which dominate the place...sort of like the T-shirt shops in Gastown!