Catching Up

Today is Sunday May 27. We have been on the road for about a month and are having a blast. Ellie's Spanish has proved invaluable. She makes friends as easily here as at home. I have been drawing and learning about the Spanish people. They are family people that are having fun together in this extremely challenging economic time. Today is a holiday and the camping is full.

Ellie And Chloe are in Barcelona today and I am sitting in the tent pecking away.

Back a few days... after arriving in Cordoba we had dinner in a three-story courtyard (I will write a food post soon) and woke the next morning somewhat early to see the Mezquita Catedral. Mass was underway in the cavernous core and we meandered through in a somewhat of a daze. It was cool, dark and incredibly beautiful.

Mezquita

 

Cordoba

Friends

In the afternoon it was time to start back to Catalunya. I had penciled in a small village on the map and thought it might be a camping (the European name for campground). It was several hours from Cordoba and after driving up a narrow road we came to a hill town, Penascosa. We were directed to the camping and found a quaint spot seemingly deserted. We did find a Dutch couple on bikes that had pitched their small tent. A sheepherder we had passed on the road wandered in and told us the owner (?) would be in at 8pm. Set up the stove and commenced into a feeding frenzy. When they showed up we rented an affordable bungalow with a sleeping loft.

Camping Sierra de Penascosa

Penascosa whitewash

The girls liked it so much they decided to become squatters

A nut for Nutella

In the morning we hiked up the hill to the village for our mandatory cafe con leche. I like this lifestyle...

Andalucia

After the Alhambra I clocked out for a day still feeling pretty rotten. The girls set out for Granada downtown to get a read. They returned with groceries that night with stories and hoping that we could all go back. The next day I was fit to be tied and with some antibiotics I was back out. We caught the bus from the campground into town and walked the streets. Chloe showed me her favorite plaza... resembled an old French movie. There was a small merry-go-round powered by a guy on a stationary bike with the kids riding on varnished wood animals.

Bungalow at Reina Isabel, Granada

Happy

As the night came we decided to grab a taxi up the mountain to the caves of Sacromonte to see gypsy flamenco. Our cab driver hooked us up with a last-minute seat and we stayed out late in our favorite city.

Fast feet in Sacromonte

After a complicated episode at the cash machine we checked out and started south to Nerja, a beach town recommended by a British friend in Sitges. Quite a contrast to Granada, the small city sat perched above the Mediterranean. Good food, beautiful weather and a small hostal room (no frills hotel... different than hostel) made for a couple of nice days. By the way it has not rained yet. It may not.

Chloe's room over the narrow street to the beach

Nerja

 

After checking out we headed for Malaga. We were looking for our friend Francisco's family shipyard. We met him in St. Augustine before leaving at our friends Phyllis and Maurys'. The St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological and Maritime Program and the St. Augustine Historical Society are partnering with Astilleros Nereo in the building of the Galvestown, a Spanish brig important to the American Revolutionary War. Francisco and his wife Mellisa treated us to seafood on the beach and let us stay at the family summer home in the hills above Malaga. It is being used as a field house for archaeology interns. We partied hearty with Everett and Scott that night...

Galvestown under construction

Everett and the stem pattern

Francisco shows me the shops and the new bandsaw

Mountain field house

The next day was spent in Malaga touring the Museo de Interactivo Musica with its director Miguel. It was quite interesting and supplemented with beer and tapas. The hospitality was still flowing when we left for Cordoba.

Tapas including baby eels and blood

There we checked into another hostal next to the Mesquita... a huge medieval Islamic mosque that was saved when a cathedral was built within it. More later...

Mesquita, Corboba

Into the Exotic

I woke and found that the contract on our house had gone south. The buyers had second thoughts. We are sure a better family will come along soon...

A couple days ago we drove to Granada. It was a long ride and I was under the weather but we made it safe and moved into a bungalow at Camping Reina Isabel just outside town. We had gotten some of the last reservations to the Alhambra and our entry time was 8am the next morning.

It is an incredibly beautiful place where there are no images of any person as dictated by Islamic law. Only patterns, colors, design and natural features that cover a whole ridgetop above town. The photos hopefully give you an idea...

Carved and guilded wood ceilings

Carved marble

This image says a lot (taken by Chloe... I wish I could take credit)

Granada below

Back to the Coast

We headed south from the Pyrenees after visiting in Andorra. The first day we stopped at a camp and paid for a night without riding through. It was so empty and sketchy that we bailed and took the loss. Hard but probably smart. Preceded on to Salou on the coast and were the only campers in the tent area. Ellie stayed in the car. I slept in the tent with 'knife in my teeth'.

Not all camps are inviting 

Th next day we returned to Sitges and had a nice evening with Charlyn's friend Jedd who lives there. Basque tapas. Wish I had a picture... it was quite a bar full. We walked back along the beach. Quite a beautiful place.

Sitges

The next day we grabbed a bus into Barcelona, walked the Ramblas and climbed Montjuic to the Miro Museum. When we returned to catch the bus back, the street in front of the stop was packed with students protesting tuition hikes and austerity. Nothing but to find the train to Sitges and a taxi to the camp. It was good to see the activism...

Market off the Ramblas

Segrada Familia towering over the Barcelona skyline

Resting on the Montjuic climb

Remnant of the Olympics

At the Miro Museum

Bari Gotic

Guadi in the Eixample

Unrest

Today is a special Mother's Day. Chloe arrived at the airport for two weeks. Yippee!

Up to the Pyrenees

Leaving the lake at Banjoles

Bellver de Cerdanya

Serra del Cadi range

The mountain farming village of Prullans

A symphony of bells echoing off the hills

Barn door

Our favorite trailer in the camp

Narrow road to the church, Prullans