An American in London: March 2011

... not only stayed on the plain, but it stayed away from us altogether. Our trip to the southern region of Andalucia in Spain was unforgettable - one of our best trips ever. We'd originally been planning an excursion to somewhere hot & sunny for February - Egypt or Jordan perhaps. However, political events in the area gave us pause and we decided to play it safe and head to the Canary Islands, a Spanish owned volcano-created chain of islands off the coast of North Africa. Then, the later our trip kept getting pushed back due to schedule conflicts, the more I thought that the south of mainland Spain might just be warm enough. Many Brits travel to Spain for their holidays so I had lots of advice and recommendations, and we decided to take our unpredictable-springtime-weather chances and go for it.

We're so glad we did!

We flew from London to Malaga (mah-lah-gah) (I learned quickly that the correct pronunciation is important if you don't want your British friends making fun of you), then rented a car - they drive on the right there - and headed to Marbella (mahr-bye-uh) and our first hotel. (I've decided to skip the details of not being able to put the address into the GPS and going first to the wrong hotel.) It was rainy and late so we decided to stay put and have a bottle of wine and some tapas in the hotel bar. This was the only appearance of the "r" word on the entire trip. I was a bit discouraged the next morning when I looked out over our balcony to the outdoor walkers below and saw many wearing hats & gloves. But by the time we finished our fantastic breakfast and got showered and dressed, the sun was more dominant than the clouds and out we went to explore the old town area of the city - "Casco Antiguo". It was lovely. Marbella is a coastal city and our hotel was right on the Mediterranean Sea, so we were able to get our ocean-fix as well. Of all places we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner that was highly recommended and it was good.

The next day we mistakenly left my coat behind in the lobby as we checked out - the good news was that I didn't need it the rest of the trip! We left Marbella and headed for Seville, planning to make a stop on the way to a town called Ronda at the suggestion of a friend in London. Ronda is also said to be the home of bullfighting, and who can resist that distinction? After winding our way up the mountain road (brought the Lucy classic "The Long Long Trailer" to mind), we did go to the "Plaza del Toros" and saw the bullring and the Bullfighting museum and found both worthwhile stops. What we weren't expecting, however, was the absolutely breathtaking views and vistas we encountered in Ronda. The town is perched on a cliff, split by a 330-ft. deep gorge called El Tajo ("the cut"). The resulting scenery is, in a word, spectacular. We truly had to tear ourselves away from the views in order to make it to Seville (seh-vee-uh) by dark. And we did.

Seville is the capital of Andalucia and is a beautiful place. Our hotel was in an area of wind-y city streets, barely the width of the car we drove. The hotel itself was a former palace and had retained most of its original structure and decor, but the room was quite contemporary and comfy. After a busy day (not only sightseeing, but Chris was called on some work issues dealing with the crisis in Japan and the LM employees & families living there) we decided again to stay at the hotel for dinner - which was truly the only letdown of the entire trip. The food was, shall we say, lacking. Our Napoleon waiter was wonderful and charming, but the dinner was disappointing to say the least, and poor Chris was forced to eat a well-done steak - those of you who know him know what a sacrilege this was. But we rallied!

We toured the Seville Cathedral (amazing!) and royal palace (Reales Alcázare) the next day, and happened upon O'Flaherty's Irish Pub just outside of the cathedral (talk about sacrilege), so it being St. Patrick's Day, and myself being nearly completely Irish (blarney is the word you're looking for), we of course had to stop for a pint o'Guinness... and a green Heineken for me. Yes, we've seen many cathedrals - just about every city in Europe has one - and as I've said before, they each have their own impressive distinctions; Seville's was no exception. For example, it houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus. Chris-to-pher-Col-um-bus for crying out loud. And it was beautiful. As were the gardens of the Reales Alcázare (btw, pronounced "al-cahth-uh"). In fact, these gardens were one of the highlights of the trip for me. I almost could not stop taking pictures, as you'll see in the photo album. Following our tours, we found the guidebook-recommended restaurant for tapas, where I tried the first of my two "mystery meals". "Mystery" because the menus were completely in Spanish and the waitress/waiter spoke little English, so their explanation of the item sounded, well, like they were speaking in a foreign language. I figured, hey - I ate ant eggs in Mexico City and liked them. What's the worst that can happen? In both cases, I was pleasantly surprised.

Back to the hotel for a needed siesta, then on to "Tablao el Arenal" for an authentic flamenco (or as Chris says, flamingo) show. And what a show! I will not claim to know a thing about flamenco and its origins, but I can say that it involves clapping of the hands, stomping of the feet, excellent guitar skills, singing that in some cases sounds like moans of pain, and a great deal of emotion and interpretation. We really enjoyed it... but was not terribly disappointed when it ended. What followed was a frustrating 30 minutes trying to find the restaurant that the concierge had made a reservation at for us; I must inject here that so far our experience in the UK & Europe has been that even if and when there is an actual street name, people don't use it when giving directions. They simply say things like "Just go left up this road then across the square and down the alley and you will see it. You will definitely see it!" So then when we don't see it, and have to go back to where we asked directions and they look incredulous and say, "You didn't see it?!" we feel incredibly estúpido. C'est la vie. We finally did see it and had a fine dinner.

The next morning was another simple but memorable interlude - breakfast of "york y queso" at what the concierge called "just an ugly bar on the corner - but the food is good." It was a real working class, family-owned and operated corner eatery with pictures of Saints covering the walls and puerco legs hanging from the ceiling and no one spoke English aside from us and we still made do and it was great. And then we left for our final - and perhaps favorite? - destination, Granada. Ah, Granada. I think what helps to make our stay there so memorable was the blue, blue sky. Literally not a cloud in the 48 hours we were there. This is why so many Brits love to travel there. As we drove down the highway on our way there, I was struggling to get photos out the car window of the amazing views of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains; little did I know that this would be the view from the hotel balcony. The city of Granada lies in a valley which our hotel overlooked. Also overlooking the city is the spectacular Alhambra Palace, built by the Moors from the 13th to 15th centuries, taken over by the Christians around 1500 and declared a national monument in 1870. It's also an official UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Alhambra is a city within itself, containing remarkable gardens, chapels, bath houses, armories, palaces (yes - plural), and more of those breathtaking views I keep speaking of. We were also fortunate both nights there to eat at restaurants in the Albaicin region of the city which itself overlooks the Alhambra. Our first night in fact was the best dining experience of the whole trip - the concierge back in Seville had made the reservation for us at Restaurante las Estrellas del Mirodor de San Nicolas and she must have pulled some strings, as we were seated at probably the most sought after table in the entire city of Granada. Chris fell in love with the Rioja (Viña Ardanza Rioja Reserva 2001), the service was wonderful, and the food fabulous. Much of southern Spain has a strong Muslim/Islamic influence, and Granada is where we noticed it the most. Granada was also the hilliest place we visited and we got a good workout just walking around the city for two days.

I'm not going to say that my expectations before our trip were low; I was a bit concerned about the weather, and that this might not be the veg-out and just relax vacation that I knew Chris needed. As usual, my worries were for naught. The weather couldn't have been better, and although we hardly vegged-out, we had a fabulous time in an amazingly beautiful place. And our first hotel had a spa so Chris got a relaxing massage in as well. We hope to get to Italy later this year which is one of the trips I've been most looking forward to - our Andalucia experience will I'm sure hold up to anything Italia will throw at us.

https://picasaweb.google.com/swronsky/Spain?feat=directlink
We just could not stop taking pictures!! Hope you enjoy them.

An American in London

27 March 2011

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