The Cold Light of Day

The sun has been out all week so we decided to visit Granadella which is a one street fishing village set in a pretty cove just south of Cape Nao (the easternmost point of mainland Spain). From our place northwards there are endless sandy beaches but south of Denia it is mostly cliffs and coves until the beaches start again south of Moraira and on to Benidorm.  Granadella is 45 minutes from home according to the Tom-Tom we have just bought to guide us on next week's long distance drive back to London.

The road to the village winds down from the cliff above through pine forest to the cove which has a small beach and three restaurants. During the summer months the car park is always completely full but at the end of March there is plenty of room.

It turns out that since last summer the cove has had some famous visitors in the form of film stars Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver who were here with the rest of the cast to film The Cold Light of Day, that premieres later this year. According to the local newspaper Mr Willis had his own mobile changing room at the beach, no doubt complete with star on the door and those lightbulbs they have around the mirror. We just changed for our walk in the car park and set off without the help of a make-up artist or a body double.

Apparently the entire family of the film's lead character gets kidnapped and it sounds like he generally had a bad day here.  Thankfully our experience was very different, but having read about the film we were on our guard for secret agents as we made our way along the cliff top walk to the ruined castle. You can't be too careful these days but the people following us turned out merely to be retired Germans.

Safely back at the cove we sat outside Restaurant Sur in the rather warm light of lunchtime.  The waiter insisted on speaking to us in English - presumably believing us to be celebrities. His English was rather better than the translation on the menu which offered us, among other things, "some careful prostrated domestic".

We enjoyed a superb mixed fish grill - they send out their own fishing boat and you get whatever they catch - and some wonderful home made ice cream before the Tom-Tom guided us home. Well, most of the way home as the road to our house appears not to exist on the system (it was new five years ago).  At least we know that if the special agents follow us from Granadella, they won't find us with their GPS!

Bottling It

As you all know we are keen on wine and in the last week our travels have taken us to two of Spain's wine producing regions.  The area around Valdepeñas in La Mancha has endless grape vines and huge wineries which together account for over half of Spain's wine production, while Utiel-Requena, nearer to home in Valencia province, produces some of our local favourites on a smaller scale.

We stopped off at Hoya de Cadenas winery in Utiel on the way home on Friday but things got far more interesting on Sunday when we had the chance to get involved in the wine production process itself.   Our friend, Pau invited us along to help bottle some wine at his family's small "bodega" at Pedreguer, just the other side of the mountain from home.

The Vineyard...

...and inside the Bodega

Given that we (well mainly me, actually) have had a fantasy of owning a vineyard for years we were very excited to discover that our friends actually make wine around the corner. It is good too. For this second year of production they have purchased two oak barrels in which this years wine has been maturing and during the course of sunday morning we managed to turn in into around 300 bottles. My main role was putting in the corks, which makes a change from my normal job of taking them out, while Su expertly labelled the filled bottles.

There were about fifteen of us present of which five or six worked on the production line, Pau took photos, his brother Jordi lit the barbecue while his mother and the others prepared food. We downed tools after about an hour and all sat down to the serious business of eating a gorgeous brunch. Our colleagues washed this down with the wine, some beer and malt whisky despite the early hour. Not content with all that one of them asked what was for desert - at which point one of the older guys disappeared, returning a little later with three different flavours of artesan ice cream from his local factory, all of which were delicious. Cue second food break.

The final product

Strengthened by the food and having made a small dent in the amount of wine to be bottled, we got back to the job in hand of producing bottled wine which is named "Brador". The previous week at a very long lunch we had with Pau and Jordi I asked what Brador meant, which caused some amusement. It turns out that while consuming a fair bit of last years crop they came up with Vi Brador ("vi" means wine in the Valenciano language) which needs little translation into English or Spanish!  And a stimulating little wine it is too.

Planned Spontaneity

One clear cultural difference between the Spanish and English approach to holidays and life in general is forward planning. While the English prefer to organise things in advance the Spanish approach is rather more to leave things until nearer the time. Our trips to South America have been booked months in advance but with the road trip south this week we took a rather more Spanish approach such that on the morning before we left we had not decided where to go or how long for. At that point the English approach took over and a few hours later we had an itinerary (see map at foot of this post), tickets to visit the Alhambra the next day, four hotels booked, driving times and distances printed out for each section and plans of all the cities we would be visiting.

We headed south through Alicante province and Murcia to Andalucía, calling in to Guadix to see the remarkable cave houses where we had a bite to eat in a local bar and some coffee that was strong enough to keep the tiredest driver awake for days. Then on to Granada where we managed to go wrong only once while trying to find the hotel, finding ourselves in the maze of tiny streets that made us glad we were driving the mini.  The itinerary has been compiled using the Rough Guide to Spain as a source on the best places to see in the main town and another book, Back Roads of Spain, which has some excellent driving routes on minor roads.

Day two was a leisurely drive across endless fields of olive trees with the snow covered Sierra Nevada mountains in the background to Cordoba and on the third day we passed through yet more olive groves towards the Baeza and Ubeda making it possible to believe the fact that this area produces 15% of the world's olive oil output. From a driving perspective the fourth day was the highlight with some beautiful scenery in northern Andalucia before we descended through the gorge into Castilla La Mancha where a new motorway is being built incorporating some truly monumental pieces of infrastructure.  Huge columns carry the road straight down the gorge instead of winding around it like the current main road. 

The best scenery of all though came after we left the windmills of Consuegra, rising up from the wheatfields and into the mountains where the road leaves Toledo province and enters Ciudad Real.  As you pass the Ciudad Real sign the already narrow road, narrows further, the surface becomes rough and the white lines disappear.  All of a sudden it was like being on a national park road and a pair of deer ran across the road just a few feet in front of the car as we rounded a bend.  They were too quick for the camera so we had to settle for a picture of the view over the wetlands of the Tablas de Daimiel.

When we left Almagro on the fifth morning of the road trip we were about five hours drive from home and we set off for the motorway that would take us back across the country to Valencia.  By the time we reached home we had covered 1550 kms - nearly 1000 miles - in five days, but the driving has been a pleasure. 

Apart from the countryside which is impressive even from the motorway there were views of the new high speed rail line which links Madrid and Valencia and the dam and reservoir on the river Jucar as we crossed back into home territory.  We paused a few times to break the journey, dropping into one of our favourite Valencian wineries, stretching our legs in the town of Requena and eating breakfast and lunch.  Whereas stopping in UK service stations would mean consuming a cornish pasty or an expensive low quality all-day breakfast, here there are proper restaurants on the road with freshly cooked main dishes, salads and tapas at reasonable prices.  We sipped our breakfast coffee while our fellow travellers tucked into their red wine at 930am - another sight one doesn't usually see at Watford Gap!

Map of our itinerary:

Don Quijote Country

On leaving Ubeda on Thursday morning we took a quiet back road heading north which passes through green rolling hills covered with olive groves and crossing rivers and reservoirs.  In beautiful sunshine, with the roof down and hardly another car on the road it was a lovely drive.  A little while after joining the main road north the scenery changed drastically as we first climbed up and then dipped down on the motorway around hairpin bends through a deep river gorge.  On the other side was Castilla La Mancha - the vast high and dry plain of central Spain made famous by the book Don Quijote, published by Miguel de Cervantes' back in 1605.  Four hundred years later it remains the most famous book in Spanish literature and reminders of the exploits of the eccentric self-appointed knight are everywhere in the small villages and towns of the area.

Windmills & Moorish Castle, Consuegra

There are a number of villages that claim links to this fictional character and contain tourist attractions that don't really attract tourists.  We avoided them with the exception of Consuegra in Toledo province which has a picture perfect set of windmills of the type that inspired the original book and its most famous passage where a deluded Don Quijote charges at a windmill with his lance thinking that it is an evil giant to be slain.  The windmills have a captivating beauty and are a great contrast to the sleek new wind-farm turbines found on many other hills in central Spain. The photo above is from exactly the same angle as that on the front cover of our road atlas of Spain.     

It is impossible not to be struck by the countryside that gave birth to this very strong symbol of Spanish identity.  It is in someways quite plain in that its flat agricultural land rolls on further than the eye can see, but its dry, sunny climate and the cold winds remind one that this is a place is that is usually either way too hot or way too cold and as such breeds a phlegmatic character in its people who continue to make their living from an increasingly mechanised and agriculture-based economy (wheat and grapevines being the most common crops).  It seems the sort of place that you need to be from in order to live there and despite the attempts to create a Don Quijote theme, one couldn't be further off the tourist track in this country.  There is a feel of an older Spain that existed before Franco died and the tourists arrived.  One can imagine how life was in these quiet rural towns and villages hundreds of years ago as one walks around the sleepy streets and squares, every now and again arriving in a hidden gem such as the Plaza Mayor in Almagro and its neighbouring four hundred year old outdoor theatre.

Plaza Mayor, Almagro

The high of the Reconquest that we learned more about in Granada was followed by the triumphal building of renaissance palaces in places such as Ubeda of course the conquering of much of the Americas during what became known as Spain's "siglo de oro" (golden century).  The intellectual flourishing of Cervantes books and the satirical theatre in places such as Almagro were the expression of that age but turned out to mark the end of the golden age as Spain fell into two centuries of sadness and decline rather like the character Don Quijote himself.  However the traces of that golden era remain and it is good that out of the poverty of the last few centuries the history is being rescued through renovation and brought back to life.

The Hills of Ubeda

Apparently if you ask a Spaniard where he has been, and he doesn't want you to know, you may get the same response as the King once got from El Cid. It is said on being asked why he had turned up late for a battle, the legendary knight and hero of the Reconquest retorted that he had been "in the hills of Ubeda" - a place that we had never heard of until this week.

We drove east from Córdoba into Jaén province in the north-eastern corner of Andalucía, leaving behind the great moorish monuments that we had seen in the previous two days. Two cities here, Baeza and Ubeda have been awarded World Heritage status for their Renaissance architecture.

Mani Square, Ubeda with Parador hotel on left 

Sat on a high ridge overlooking the valley of the great river Guadilquivir which flows down through Córdoba and Sevilla the towns had important strategic value and were on the frontier between Moors and Christians for a couple of hundred years. After the Reconquest was completed with the fall of Granada, the Catholic Kings invested in the area and Ubeda became one of the four most important Andalusian cities in the new era based on it's agriculture.

The military operation of the reconquest was followed by Christian settlement where people were enticed to come south by being offered special privileges and as wealth built up great buildings were erected as the Christians imposed their own style.

Both cities are provincial backwaters now having fallen into serious decline when Spain had a bad couple of hundred years through to the early 1800s. In the period since the civil war however they have regained prosperity on the level of a busy market town and in the last 20 years the investment in the tourist industry has also helped.

Centre of Baeza

The Renaissance buildings are remarkably well preserved with the main square of the old city of Ubeda being the focal point. The Parador hotel in which we stayed is housed in one of the principal structures and is a tourist attraction in its own right.

Su pores over the map inside the Parador

Both cities are fine places to stroll around and Baeza in particular has a nice feel as the old buildings are more integrated into modern life. The views across the valley above the Cazorla national park are stunning too.  So if anyone asks us where we've been last week, we'll be saying, in the hills of Ubeda.

Religious (In)Tolerance

As with our previous visit to this area back in 1993 the trip to the Mezquita in Cordoba brought on mixed emotions.  Then I felt it was the most extraordinary building I had ever seen and eighteen years on I think I agree with that assessment. The astounding beauty and scale of a mosque built in the tenth century and expanded over the next couple of hundred years is amazing.

The Mezquita

The stunning simplicity and symmetry of the building combines with the beauty of the design to incredible effect, especially in the intricate detail of the decor of the mihrab, which pointed the faithful towards Mecca, and the signature red and white of the arches resulting from the initial construction which combined brick and stone. Outside a beautiful courtyard of orange trees welcomes you in.

The Mihrab

The only problem with this near perfect example of Islamic architecture is that during the 16th century King Carlos V authorised the construction of a Christian cathedral within it. The result is that in the midst of the  spartan Islamic arches is a full-size Catholic cathedral with all the gold and accompanying artifacts that implies. Even Carlos didn't like the result and knew he had destroyed something unique.

The Christian Cathedral inside the Mezquita

The current literature at the ticket office describes the site as "Cordoba Cathedral" rather than the Mezquita - as if anyone would pay €8 to see an average cathedral such as this.  This change of name is accompanied by the literature you receive telling you how intolerant the Moors were of Christianity and how they seized and destroyed an earlier Visigoth church to build the Mezquita.  This is all rather different from the description of the enlightened, tolerant Moors that we were given here 18 years ago  (and which still continues in our latest guidebook). The historical interpretation of how the Moors operated seems to have changed since Muslim-Christian relationships have taken a turn for the worse in the last ten or so years.

For more than half a century Spain was on the front-line of religious tension between Muslims and Christians. Now as the same tensions resurface in the modern world it is interesting to see history being rewritten. But as much as some people want to emphasise the differences, Spain is in fact a blend of Moorish and Christian influences, as demonstrated by the food, the language, the dark complexion of the people, the architecture and many other aspects of culture.

The Mezquita/Cathedral too is a mix and perhaps it is best if we all recognise (1) that were it not for the earlier mosque few people would bother coming here to see the cathedral and (2) that if the cathedral had not been built within the mosque the Mezquita would be long gone by now. The crossing of the two has benefited both sides and that's the reality even if the purists might not like it.

Granada, 1492

Our arrival in Granada reminded me of a dinner party on 31 December 1999 where our hosts had asked us to vote for the most important year of the Millenium that ended that night. I went for 1492, the year that Columbus stumbled upon the Americas and, coincidentally, the Portuguese became the first Europeans to arrive in Cameroon. It was also in January of that year that the Moors surrendered Granada and the Christian reconquest of Spain was completed.

I chose 1492 because it seemed to me important both as an end and a beginning. Columbus triggered off the sequence of events that led to the creation of the USA, the state that would become the most powerful in the world by the end of the Millennium. But that same year marked the end of the Moorish empire which had been the most powerful and advanced state in 1000 AD. It is a good reminder that in time all things decay and pass on.

In January 1492 the last Moorish ruler Boabdil left his palace the Alhambra in Granada and on leaving the city wept for his loss. His mother chastised him for "weeping like a woman having failed to defend his city like a man". Poor bloke. You know things are going against you when even your Mum gives up on you.

The Alhambra

However the peaceful handover at least allowed the Alhambra to survive, which it has despite a chequered history. Now people come from all over the world to see what the Rough Guide to Spain describes as the greatest site in Europe. The beautiful gardens of the Generalife are based on the Islamic idea of paradise - the greenery and running water being the opposite of what medieval Muslims typically found in their lands.

The Generalife gardens

The Alcazaba is a virtually impregnable fortress built on a rocky outcrop above the main city with commanding views and in between lies the astounding beauty of the Palace of the Nisrids which captures even today the sophistication and opulence of the time. Beautiful patios with running water and pools are surrounded by intricate muslim calligraphy and ornate doors, windows and wall decorations.

Patios in the Nasid Palace

We enjoyed the superb views of the city as the sun went down and in the morning climbed up through the old quarter, the Albaicin, to the gypsy area on the hill at Sacromonte where the views back to the Alhambra on the other side of the river are equally memorable. Unlike many Spanish cities Granada still seems to be thriving and it's prosperity is reflected in the extent of refurbishment going on to the many beautiful properties and the lively bars and cafes.  Perhaps Boabdil need not have wept for the future of his city and maybe his mother should have gone easy on him.

The Albaicin from Alhambra

Las Fallas

Mar 18, 2011

Las Fallas is the most famous of Valencia's fiestas (and there are a few)! The event is timed to mark the arrival of Spring and makes the national news as the programme of activity builds to its conclusion on March 19, St Joseph's Day.  There are smaller replicas in our local towns but for the first time we visited Valencia during Las Fallas to see the processions and the statues on the streets.

In each competing neighbourhood there is a Fallas House which is the focal point for the creation of the "fallas" the wierd and wonderful statues created out of papier mache that are erected on wooden stages.  The bigger ones are 20-25 metres high and each tries to send a message, often ridiculing local or national politicians.  Most are pretty hard to fathom but the one chosen as the winner this year has an environmental theme is the work of the Falla Convento Jerusalem based near the main railway station.  They won last year too and their budget is thought to be around a million euros.  The money comes from fundraising dinners (paella of course) held throughout the year and from sponsorship and a massive amount of work goes into creating these monuments. 

On 15-16 March the hundreds of fallas are erected in position on the streets (causing widespread street closures) and the parties and noise begins in earnest for this is the annual opportunity to do what Valencians love most - making an unbelievable amount of noise and setting fire to as much as possible.  The fate of the fallas, after all that work during the year, is the same for all.  They burn on the night of 19 March in a massive party.  The winner and the one in the main square burn last - in the early hours of the morning.  The children's versions also get burned, earlier in the evening, with a few tears from the kids who have obviously become attached to their falla over the previous weeks and months.  The party goes on for days with bull-fighting and daily controlled explosions of fireworks which each group trying to out-do the others in terms of volume.  We observed the burning of the fallas on the TV from the safety of our lounge but could hear the fireworks from Denia (18 km away) with our windows closed. 

Before that final day each neighbourhood parades through the street in traditional costumes accompanied by their own brass band playing traditional music.  Each neighbourhood chooses a young woman to be their "Fallera Mayor", a sort of carnival queen, and one of those is selected from all across the city to light the blue touch paper from the town square balcony on the last night when everything burns.  We saw people of all ages in an endless procession as the Fallera women carry flowers to the centre of town where a huge falla depicting the patron of the city, the Virgen de los Desemperados (the Virgin of the Foresaken) is built on a wooden frame and the flowers brought from all corners of the city become part of her dress.

The 12 pictures in the attached album will give you an idea of what the processions, costumes and falla statues look like.  As is appropriate for a fiesta designed to usher in the Spring, the event was blessed with beautiful warm sunshine.  Let's hope it stays for a while!

The City of Arts and Sciences

We first came to Valencia in November 2004 having already committed ourselves to buying the plot of land here at Monte Pego and building our house. On the previous trip, that September, when we took the plunge, we had travelled via Alicante airport and so when we chose the location of our house we didn't really take the proximity of Valencia into account and nor did we know much about it.

On that first stay in Valencia we fell in love with the city - Carmen (the old quarter), the local football team (with its noisy old concrete stadium) and especially the new museums that had been constructed in the dry river bed that is now a linear park. Our infatuation with the city has deepened over time and we now feel very much at home as Suzanne deftly pilots the car through the local traffic or as we sit listening to the locals barrack the referees at Mestalla Stadium (occasionally joining in and thereby widening and adding colour to our Spanish vocabulary).

More than six years later we have still not been to an exhibition in the museums but it is the architecture of the buildings that most captured our attention.  The buildings are ten years old now but still beautiful. They are gradually becoming an icon for the city in much the same way as the Opera House did in Sydney. The complex is known as La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (the city of arts and sciences) and includes an I-max cinema, science museum, aquarium, arts museum, botanical gardens and exhibition areas. It is built where the Turia river used to snake through the city down to the port until it had to be diverted away from the city after the floods of 1956.

For the tenth anniversary of the complex the landscaping around the museums has finally been completed and when we visited a couple of days ago the futuristic buildings were shimmering in the early spring sunshine, a stark counterpoint to the traditions of the Las Fallas festival being acted out a short distance away in the old town.

Coming from America...and Guernsey

It has been a few months since we have had visitors here at Monte Pego although to be fair we haven't been here much. Like London buses when one set arrive the next one is not far behind and the visit of Niki and Jeff from Guernsey was followed almost immediately by the arrival of Ian and Tess from Minnesota.

Both sets of friends have reappeared in our lives after periods of absence. Ian was a university football team-mate who I hadn't seen in 20 years until last year when he came to visit us in London. We discovered then that 20 year absences don't impact on the ability to discuss football trivia and of course we had a lot to catch up on. We had a fantastic time catching up and meeting Tess for the first time.

With Tess & Ian in Denia

When Suzanne and Niki got back in touch after a mere five years or so it turned out that Niki and Jeff had been over to Monte Pego to look at buying a house here. It's a small world. While they decided not to buy right here it looks like they will be getting somewhere quite close by thereby adding to our growing colony of friends here.

Over the Halfway Line

Today, March 9 is Day 176 of the 351 Days of our career break and we went for a walk on La Marjal (the rice fields below Monte Pego) where we first hit on the idea of a year off.  We reflected on the highs and lows of the last few months - here is a summary of what we said:

View across La Marjal

Su: So what have been the highlights for you?

Paul: From a travel perspective the 2 weeks from leaving Rio, passing through Iguazu Falls, Buenos Aires, the Glaciers of Argentinian Patagonia and of course staying at Torres del Paine, Chile.  If I had to pick a single memorable view it would be the Perito Moreno Glacier but my favourite place was San Telmo in Buenos Aires and the Sunday evening listening to and watching the samba band and the tango dancing.  The atmosphere was fantastic. Spending time with Dad and being able to be together so much has also been great and that was a major objective of this whole thing.  And for you?

S: Similar highlights from a travel perspective - I would say my favourite was the walking and the views at Torres del Paine.  But also just the experience of travelling is so stimulating - meeting new people and experiencing different cultures.  We've made some new friends from various parts of the world and learned a lot about the history of the places we have visited.  Spending time in Cameroon was very different from past trips and much more relaxing.  Obviously reaching the summit of Mount Cameroon was a special moment too! 

P: Yes but Mount Cameroon also had its moments! Which brings me to the other side of the last few months, the low points.  What would you say they have been?

S: Well, there were a couple of moments when I thought we would never make it too the summit and staying at Hut 2 was grim.  Hearing of Rob's death was clearly another low point, as was the trip back for the service in that miserable weather.   

P: Being apart for 5 weeks when I went to Cameroon was difficult and I wouldn't plan to do that again either, although I got a lot out of the trip.  I think, despite our friends here, in the last couple of months especially we have started to miss friends and family in England too.  Don't miss the weather though!  And the next few months?

S: I'm really looking forward to the Peru and Galapagos trip in April/May and to travelling around Spain a bit more.  We have a couple of trips back to London so it will be great to see people and we have a few visitors booked in to come here too.  Warmer weather will also soon be on the way and we've got to do some more thinking about what comes next from September onwards.

P: Which is a whole other story, no doubt requiring several more walks on the beach and Marjal! Lucky we still have 175 more days to go...

Back to work (temporarily)

A first glance at our calendar when we arrived home from Cameroon mid afternoon on Friday 25th told us that we were due to go on a five day road trip around Andalucía starting early the following Monday morning. However neither of us could face more travelling just yet so we opted for staying at home for the week to get a few things done. Sevilla and the Alhambra will still be there in a few weeks time and by then we might even have got over the disappointment of Arsenal blowing the Carling Cup Final.

The house resembled an office last week with the principal task being to build a website for my Dad - something completely new. While in Cameroon we both got slightly frustrated with slow progress on Dad's community health website and I rashly offered to build him a better one. This one is focused on his other main area of work, the provision of medical education in Africa. Dad has been acting as a consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which has been funding a study on quality of medical schools in Sub-Saharan Africa and is currently in Johannesburg attending a conference on the subject.  He has many ideas and wants to use the website to progress the debate on getting quality standards in place.  So we've been sitting over our laptops learning how to build a site from scratch. Fortunately some great tools are available and the output is surprisingly good (if I say so myself).  I have sent the output off to Cameroon for approval and when Dad gets back from South Africa it should be ready to launch.  Meanwhile,  as well as acting as my technology consultant, Su has been building a new site for her coaching business.

A stethoscope over a map of Africa -
the image chosen for the Medical Education website

The challenge is to keep momentum going on the projects we have got involved with in Africa and to continue to contribute remotely from Europe.  As well as the websites, last week also brought an investment programme for upgrading Dad's Conference Centre ahead of two meetings being held there in the next month, which will be important for the reputation of the business.  We have also been looking at options for Dad's development site down by the beach which is to be built on using the new family property company that was established before we left Cameroon.

Having made progress on a few fronts with Dad's projects we called a halt to work on Friday morning and headed for lunch at La Seu in Denia where we raised a glass in remembrance of Mum, who passed away exactly 23 years ago on another Friday morning, back on 4 March 1988.  She always encouraged me to learn about Cameroon so the work we have been doing is very much with her memory in mind.