General activities

I forgot to mention that in usual Smith fashion we did a familiarisation trip to Granada Airport on Thursday afternoon. When Ian and Diane arrive we now know exactly where to go to park and picthem up. Ditto Andrea.

 

On Sunday we went on one of the back roads to Antequera. We were going to stop in Loja but as it is pretty close to Alhama, decided to go straight through to Laguna de Fuente de Piedra. It is Andalucia's biggest natural lake and one of Europe's two main breeding grounds for the greater flamingo (the other is in the Camargue region of south west France). (Lonely Planet p270). When we got there we found that the flamingos were a long way off, but Brian zoomed in on them with the camera and got some good photos. I wanted him to get some of them when they were flying in, but they were too quick, so I bought some postcards instead.

We then went on to have lunch at Caserio de San Benito, a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet as being 'nearby'. This had Brian cursing all the way about how the Lonely Planet is always so far out in its calculations. Nearby turned out to be about 25 kms and while Sofia did a good job of getting us there, what was adding to Brian's stress, was that a message came up in the car that there was something wrong with its air pollution system.

The instruction book for the car is in French, so it presented a few problems trying to work out exactly what was wrong, but he decided that it is something to do with the catalytic converter. He rang Paris to find out the nearest Citroen repair place and was told it was Granada, and that as long as the warning light was showing orange it was okay, but if it turned to red, we would have to be towed.

As there was nothing we could do, we settled in for a lunch of rabbit with rice - conejo con arroz - which was okay. The atmosphere was good, but I reckon we could do a better job with a rabbit. It was well cooked but the rice had been cooked with the rabbit probably paella style in a sauce which was a bit like a french onion soup.

We got back to Alhama okay and Brian sent an email to the place in Granada.  We thought that we would give them some time to reply so Monday we walked to the thermal baths at the other end of the Gorge.  This is the more upmarket resort than the one we went to last week and on the way Brian took a number of photos.  In real life the first one looks like something that would be  good as a stained glass panel.  The others are of the gorge and the Roman bridge.







                                                                                                  

As we had not heard from the car place at lunchtime today - Tuesday 1st June, Brian rang them and the good news is that we are going to take it to a place here in Alhama tomorrow morning. 

Further exploration

We started the day by setting up the lap top on the ironing board in the roof top bedroom. Have pushed the two single beds together and made space near the window where the cable from James and Lisa’s house reaches into this one. We can work off line which is what I am doing now and then plug into the internet via the cable and send email messages or upload this addition to the blog.




Brian has also managed to install Skype, so will try ringing Therese and Janiece soon.



I did some Spanish study, then we went to the market. Then up to town to buy bread and to have a coffee at the local bakery, then back home for lunch. Then a 6 km walk to the dam through the Gorge in afternoon. It was very pleasant mostly on the river bank – so an ‘along’ walk which I enjoy more than the up and down ones.. We stopped for drink at a nice bar/restaurant which is also a hotel with cave rooms and thermal pools and then returned on the same route in the gorge, but came into town at the top end. We found the square known as the four esquinas (four corners) and the very pleasant small supermarket where I bought some shower gel called Heno de pravia which I remembered Sofia used when we were in Cadiz.



When we got back from the walk we headed up to the roof top patio with the gin and tonics and then Brian went into the ‘computer room’ to play with the photos he took in the Gorge. I retreated further up to the top terrace to get the last of the sun, only to come down and find that he had locked me out! I knocked and knocked, but couldn’t make him hear. I started around 7.30 pm but by 8.15 had not managed to get his attention. I hoped that the smells coming up from the kitchen mean’t that he was in there so in a up to date version of the legend of Rapunzel, I undid some of the clothes line, and tied my book to the end and dangled it in front of the kitchen window, three floors below! Eventually he came out and wanted to know what I was doing! The good news is that we have a good chance of being cast in a remake of “As Time goes By”.



Here are a some shots of the escarpent that we took on today's walk:-