THE END OF OUR STAY IN ALHAMA DE GRANADA

We can't believe that we are now at the end of our stay in Alhama de Granada.



It has been an enjoyable one. The house lived up to expectations, and we, plus our visitors have been very comfortable here.


We have been impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of the locals, and have enjoyed joining in or observing their festivals and activities.


Our Spanish has definitely improved, but we still have a long way to go to be fluent. Still we have managed to get buy on most occasions. The one big exception was the problem with the car and we are grateful to both Antonio and Lisa. Antonio for having the good sense to go and fetch Lisa who was so helpful in translating that what appeared to be a problem was not in fact a problem. My only regret is the poor man who arrived to have his car fixed at the same time we did, had to wait for such a long time. Because our car was a leased one, and because we did not explain that we were staying in Alhama, Antonio had to give us priority and so the local had to wait.


We really enjoyed having Ian and Diane and Andrea visit - they certainly made us get out and visit most of the restaurants and bars in town as well as further a field. As a consequence we have both put on weight and will need to do something about it when we return.


We have had good weather - except that the last three weeks have been very hot. Just like a Pomona summer in fact. Too hot to do any long day walks, which we were planning to do. There are not many shade trees, so the walks are all very exposed and with almost constant sunshine and high temperatures it would be about as enjoyable as walking in the rain. Something neither of us likes doing.

Our last excursion was on Sunday to Antequera. It is another town in this area which dates back to Roman and Moorish times. Like most of the towns in Andalucia it is a white one. It has an Alcabazar (closed when we were there) plus some interesting churches (also closed) and some roman baths. We did not find the oldest ones dating back to BC, but did find the 1,300 ones but they were also closed. So we had some nice chorizo sausage (similar to the ones our Pomona butcher makes) and beer before walking around town. Then some coffee and cake after it!

We were not impressed by all the litter in Antequera, something that we have not noticed in the other places we have visited. It is an old town with a large industrial estate and while we haven't seen much evidence of the economic problems Spain is reported to be suffering in the other places we have been to, it may be that Antequera has been affected more than the others.

We arrived back to Alhama in time to watch the World Cup Grand Final, which we did in the square. Started out doing a bit of a bar crawl but ended up watching it on a large screen TV in front of the Al Dente. Brian decided that the thoughtless people who settled themselves directly in front of the screen thereby blocking the view of all the other tables were probably Dutch or British, but as we did not hear them speak we will never know. By craning our necks and twisting and turning we did manage to see most of the game, but really didn't need to, the crowd soon let us know when something happened.

But when they scored the goal, there was uproar. Someone in the Bar Andaluz next door gave a very good karoke performance singing what I assume is the equivalent of Up there Cazale and then the cars started arriving from the new town tooting their horns, waving flags and singing Viva España. They all did a few circuits of the old town and when we left there were still fire crackers and car horns tooting away.

We got home around 1.00 a.m. and shut the house up in an attempt to keep out the noise, but I couldn't do much about the noise inside. I've decided that Brian's snoring has gotten worse here due to the extra large rums they serve in Spain.

We have spent today cleaning and packing and tomorrow we will have one last class with Lisa and then drive to Cordoba for two nights, followed by one in Aranjuez - where the King has his summer palace - perhaps we will be invited to dinner - and then our final night in Madrid at the same hotel we stayed in when we arrived.

We leave on Sunday afternoon, have two nights and almost three days in Seoul and arrive in Brisbane early on Thursday morning. Brian says he will be going home on Thursday, but I am staying in Brisbane to go to a concert with Alison on Friday night. So hopefully I will be home in time for Pomona's King of the Mountain Festival on Sunday.

Thanks to all of you who have commented on the blog and as they say in Oz

Katchyalatta!

Mary and Brian.

WOW! BARCELONA!

BARCELONA – 2 – 6th July, 2010.

Headed off to Granada airport in time to catch the 12.30 flight to Barcelona.

Caught a taxi to the booking office where we were given keys and directions to the apartment we had at 25 Bruc No.3 on the 4th floor. Very comfortable, all the furnishing and fittings from Ikea. Nice and quite with a view of sun roofs where Brian was pleased to see some topless sunbathers!

Wow what a city! Andrea told us it was vibrant with something happening all the time and she was not wrong. After sleepy little Alhama, we thought that Granada was busy enough, but Barcelona was much more. It seemed even busier to me than Madrid but the taxi driver assured us that Madrid is a much bigger city, so I think it must be the tourists who take over Barcelona in the summer.


On Andrea’s recommendation, we bought tickets for the tourist bus, and used them for the first two days to get to most of the outside places like the beach and Park Guiel – a Gaudi project and also up to the gardens, and then walked just about everywhere else.

The apartment was not far from the main square and we found it fairly easy to find our way around the newer parts of the city. The old town was a different story though and as is usually the case, Brian being a long distance ahead of me, I could not stop to look at a fabric store, and when I finally caught up with him, we could not find it when we went back later.

We found some good restaurants, ate in the apartment a couple of times, did some people watching at the beach, and visited the sites. The Casa Batillo is amazing and Brian took lots of photos. I lost him at one stage and spent a worrying 15 minutes wondering if something had happened to him, but he was up on the roof. I didn’t think visitors were allowed up there, especially as there were doormats in front of some of the apartments (don’t think I could live in a place teaming with tourists all the time) but the doorman found him and told me where he was.

                                                   

                      

                       

The 1992 Olympic Games were obviously important in reviving the older derelict parts of Barcelona especially around the port and the coast. But like every large city there were also building works going on especially around the Cathedral and the Gaudi Sacrada Familia Cathedral.

The pick for me was the Palau de la Musica – it was designed by a contemporary of Gaudi’s – Llluis Domenech I Montaner and the concept was to have a light filled hall for choir and concert performances. It was privately built by the members of the choir and it is stilled owned by the choir, but like all these great buildings a lot of government money as well as private sponsorship has been put into it as well.

And light filled it is. The external walls around the auditorium are glass with fantastic art noveau designs – a different coloured glass for each level, pale pink like we have at Pomona with roses and other flowers in circles and borders, light aqua on the next with bows and long strings of ribbon and then various symbolic designs including the cross of St George, the patron saint of Catalonia. The stage backdrop is very ornate with an orange tiled back ground with sculptured female figures of different Spanish speaking nationalities imposed on it.

The crowning glory (pardon the pun) is the roof. It is a spectacular dome which is comprised of different sized roundels in about four shades of orange and lemon. Moving out from the circle of the dome to form the flatter part of the roof are magnificent stained glass panels of angels in shades of blue and white highlighted by their red lips and blonde hair. This is a rectangle panel over the centre of the auditorium and the remainder of the roof is comprised of flat stone columns which actually look like wooden beams, and at each end there are big sculptured roses also in stone and painted in pinks, yellows and green.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in the building, but we got one of the street front entrance.

There was a very good audio visual introduction and Elizabeth our guide was excellent. I found her accent delightful especially when she was talking about areas because it sounded like arias – appropriate in a musical context!

We also visited the opera house and having been to the Palau de la Musica beforehand found it interesting that the opera house was very much an upper class venue where the wealthy could purchase boxes etc., whereas the founders of the Palau de la Musica were more democratic. Their palace would be open to everyone regardless of class. (So long as you could afford the price of the ticket I suppose!)

The opera house was burnt down twice the last time in the early 1990s, and needless to say lots of government money went into restoring/rebuilding it. We did wonder why they didn’t opt for a more modern building – especially as the design of the older style opera houses have limited vision spaces, but I guess old money would not allow that to happen.

WEDNESDAY 7th July

Returned Tuesday night in time for a Spanish class on Wednesday. Then of course out to the square for the semi-final in the World Cup. As members of the anti-football league we are definitely traitors. As you can imagine when Espana beat Alemana there was much excitement. We were surprised that there were not many people in the square, but when the game was over there was a parade of horn tooting flag waving cars streaming around and around. Brian said he could still hear the hooting of the trumpets the next morning.

Far too hot to do anything but write, study or read at the moment. 40 degrees for the past three days and looks as though it is going to continue for the next few days as well