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.
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