The Rain in Spain (& Portugal)!

In speaking to many fellow travellers over the last couple of months it seems that we made a wise choice staying just south of Alicante for December and January.  The central and south-western areas of Spain and most of Portugal have had a much wetter than average winter.

Yesterday to went to visit a few sites to decide which one to move on to when we leave here.  One site in particular which we've always hoped to be able to stay at is a brand new five-star site near to Odemira in the Alentejo region.  When we arrived we almost turned round and drove back again because it looked like the site was closed.  Fortunately we decided to drive in and enquire at reception and found that the site was open but that they were struggling to cope with the flooding.  We were offered a tour of the site in a 4X4 (that gives you a clue how wet it was!) - the caravan pitches were unusable and caravans and motorhomes were only being allowed to park on the roadways rather than the lovely lush grass (underwater) pitches. 

If that was all the site had to offer there is no way we would consider staying there - it would be like Humilladero all over again!  However, we were then given a tour of the inside facilities which were amazing and lived up to the brochure and website (http://www.zmar.eu/index.php?lang=en  if you fancy a look) so we are going to give at a go next month.

The lady who gave us the guided tour said that October and November had been unusually dry and then in December it started raining and since then it has hardly stopped - they have never known a winter like it but then it seems that just about everywhere around the world has had unusual weather this winter.

Since leaving the eastern Meditterannean coast of Spain we have encountered a fair bit of wet weather and we have experienced some torrential downpours since we arrived in Lagos - but when the sun does come out which it does most days it is really warm and at night-time the temperature only drops to about 15 so we can't complain.  Having seen what happened on Madeira we count ourselves very lucky that the flooding here has only been annoying rather than life-threatening.

Bom Dia

We are now well and truly settled on our site in the Western Algarve and have just said goodbye to our friends, Diane & Dave, who flew out to stay with us for a week. 

The original plan had been for them to sleep in a pop-up tent in our awning but we thought they would be more comfortable with a proper bed so hired a small chalet on the site for them.  That turned out to be a very wise decision as the weather during the week was akin to a tropical rainforest - lovely warm sunshine interspersed with torrential rain - so much rain that the water started to come up through the awning floor.

But we still had a lovely week with them.  We will update the blog with some of our experiences so far in Portugal but just thought we'd publish a quick post to let you know that we are alive and well.

Humilladero

We had identitified a site to stay at which was pretty much on a straight line route from Granada to Seville - an ideal stopping-off point for us to visit Julie's sister in Marbella without having to tow the caravan all the way down to the coast and back.

In the guide book the site sounded ideal - a brand new purpose-built site with excellent facilities.  Well, when it's finished I'm sure it will be lovely but unfortunately in between placing an ad in the 2010 Camping Cheques book (which they probably had to commit to in mid-2009) and the beginning of 2010 all building work came to a standstill.  We're not sure of all the details but the current owners told us that they had taken over the site from the local council and were now doing their best to make it ready.

To be fair, the essential facilities were all in place - a shower/toilet block, fresh water & electric points etc. but the site itself consisted of a series of gravel roadways radiating from a central road.  These roadways were meant to provide access to the pitches but all there was on either side was rather soft red soil. 

We stayed for eight nights and actually quite enjoyed it because for most of the time there were only two or three other caravans/motorhomes on site so we had plenty of peace and quiet.  Except that is for Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon when the site hosted a Spanish caravan rally and 60 more outfits came on site.  It was quite good in a way to see a bit of life and watch Spanish families enjoying a weekend away similar to ones we have experienced with the Bucks Caravan Club Centre in the UK.  The only downside was that a group of young boys decided that the series of unmade roads made a fantastic off-road cycle track and proceeded to use their wheels to spread large amounts of red soil across all areas of the site, including the toilet blocks!

We witnessed two unusual sporting activities in the town's communal area just outside the site.  The first was a greyhound track - nothing unusual about that - but this was was dead straight which meant that all the dogs had to be walked up to one end of the track with one of the owners carrying the "hare" which was attached to a long cord.  The other end of the cord was attached to a spindle driven by a motor-bike engine - the speed of the hare could be regulated by using the throttle on the bike engine.  Basic - but it worked!

Also in the same area were small concrete towers with pictures of pigeons with coloured wings painted on the sides.  When we first came across the reason for these towers we thought we had discovered a new species of bird but it turns out that pigeon racers in Spain actually paint their birds with their team colours so that they can easily see whose birds are whose.  I'm not sure if it does the birds any harm or not but it certainly makes for an amazing spectacle when you seem them all come racing home.

Heading West!

After enjoying the delights of Granada we sadly packed up to move further west.  We did decide that at some point in the near future we would like to spend a long weekend staying in the city centre itself, but that is something for 2011/2012.

We are now 1,732 kms (1,076 miles) as the crow flies from 60 Shelley Road.

This is the furthest south west we will be bringing the caravan.  Day trips will take us further but when we leave here we will be heading (oh so slowly) towards home.

Getting here:
From Granada we travelled on the A92 towards Seville.  My sister has an apartment near Marbella, and as we haven't seen her since we left, we aranged to meet up together for an overnight rendevue.  We 'parked' our caravan at a brand new site in a small town called Humilladero, due north of Malaga, to meet up with her on Monday 7th February. 

Humilladero was a town like no other, but I will leave Peter to tell you all about that!

It took us 1.5 hours to drive to Tricia's apartment through heavy rain, fog, low cloud, sunshine......you name it we had it....but not snow!

Our sat-nav found her address without any problems, (which is surprising as we have travelled many miles out of our way because of this contraption).

We had a lovely time catching up on family news and seeing the south coast of Spain.  (Thanks Trish and John for your hospitality.)

We headed back to Humilladero on the Tuesday to continue our adventure.  We had decided that it was possible to drive from Humilladero all the way through to Lagos, Portugal in one go.  It meant a total of 5/6 hours driving but we were now hungry to leave Spain and get to our premier destination...Portugal.  This is where the dream began......22 years ago....to tour the whole country.

We have settled on a lovely site about 4 kms west of Lagos.  Our nearest beach is Praia da Luz, about 2 kms, easy walking!

We have friends from Wycombe coming to stay with us on Sunday for a week, and we think we will remain here for at least a month, possibly longer, we'll see how we feel as time progresses.

Benji's hair is slowly growing back, so he'll probably need another haircut within the month, but I will do it myself.

I need to pass the computer to Pete now for him to fill you in on our week at Humilladero.

Hopefully we will have Wi-Fi access more regularly now so we can keep the blog updated.
J x

The Alhambra

The Alhambra is one of the reasons we decided to include Granada as a stop over on route to Portugal. We had been informed that when you buy your ticket you are issued with a timed slot to enter the Nasrine Palace, if you miss that time slot you can’t get in…..and it’s better to view it in the morning as you are allowed to spend the rest of the day wandering around at your leisure.

On arriving at our camp site I asked if they could book our tickets for us, but was informed that as it was low season there wouldn’t be any problem just turning up there on the day. For some reason this caused me a little apprehension but we went with it and decided to visit the Alhambra on our last full day in Granada.


On Sunday, still feeling a little apprehensive about finding our way on public transport, I went to reception to ask exactly how to get to the Alhambra. Thankfully there was another English lady paying her bill at the same time and she had been to see it the day before, so Peter and I got some wonderful instructions on how to get into Granada, what direction to walk in and how to find the shuttle bus which takes you to the gate. (So there was no need to worry.)

We knew we wouldn’t be able to take Benji, so Peter got up early to give him a long walk, and we left the site to catch the bus at 9.30am. (early for us!)

Spanish buses are marvellous. They are cheap, run on time and never come in threes!

Having been dropped off at one bus stop we duly made our way on foot through the city to the plaza where the shuttle bus would take us up the steep incline to the entrance of the Alhambra.

I was looking forward to ‘a bit of culture’ because so many people had told us that it was not to be missed, and we had seen it from the other side of the valley lit up on Saturday night – and it looked spectacular.

But to be honest both Peter and I were a little disappointed. The architecture and mosaics are amazing, and I’m pleased we went, but it didn’t have the appeal of the Albaicin. (Like many National Trust properties in the UK, it’s a monument to life created for the wealthy.)

We prefer to be around people and places which teem with everyday life, which is probably why we loved the Albaizin so much. The buildings are very old but it is still full of life today and you can imagine what it was like a couple of centuries ago.

Having walked a lot of Kms, we got back to Benji at about 2pm. What a welcome!

We slowly began to pack up to move off on the Tuesday morning to the next part of our adventure…………..to be continued!

A few pictures of the Alhambra below ..........

Flamenco

To be honest, a Flamenco show was not high up on my list of things to do but Julie had done her research and assured me that Granada was home to real Flamenco and we had to go and see some while we were here.

We booked on a tour from our camp-site which offered transport to Granada, a guided walking tour around the Albazin (the old part of the city) and a Flamenco Show in a venue in the Sacramento caves.

Our site was about 4 Km outside Granada and waiting outside at 9 pm as promised was a rather luxurious 20-seater coach/minibus – at that stage we were the only passengers but over the next 45 minutes we wended our way through the busy Granada streets stopping at hotels to pick up the rest of the people on the tour.

Our tour guide gave a commentary as we drove through the streets towards the Albazin – mainly in Spanish as everyone else on the coach was Spanish, but also stopping every now and again to explain in English to us.

Having driven down the ‘Calle de Darro’ a single lane cobbled street, and it certainly couldn’t accommodate anything wider than our minibus! ( In fact we had to stop to allow pedestrians to pass by!) It was a beautiful alleyway next to the river Darro with the rock rising up on our right which was the foundation of the Alhambra and little buildings on our left.

We were dropped off on the edge of the Albazin, which is the old Moorish part of Granada. We were then taken on foot to tour through the narrow cobbled streets and plazas. With archways and sharp right and left turns, supposedly to prevent horse-back riders from entering in an attack.

The night-time view of the Alhambra from San Nicolas, a former mosque, changed into a church by the invading Christians, was breathtaking, but the best was yet to come.

Now when we had originally booked this I had imagined that the Flamenco show would be good but that it would be something scripted and rehearsed – the same show every evening for the tourists. Wrong! The entire troupe consists of about twenty-five dancers, guitarists and singers and each night a small group of them perform together.

The atmosphere was undoubtedly helped by the venue – there were about 30 of us sitting on small seats around the edge of a long narrow cave (by the way, inside these caves the temperature is always 21 degrees Celsius – cool in summer, warm in winter). In the middle was the “dance-floor” - a well-worn piece of wood, about 2 metres long and a metre wide.

The performers sat with us and after a while the guitarist started to play a few chords, the singer sang a few laments, the dancers started some rhythmic clapping. As a Flamenco virgin I wasn’t sure whether the show had started or they were just tuning up, but then one of them got up and started to dance, if dance is the right word. It’s more of an interpretive dance than anything pre-rehearsed and there is an incredible interaction between the guitarist and the dancer, neither controlling the other but both influencing what would happen next.

Four dancers who each performed twice, each very different in style, gave us a taste of real Flamenco – it’s raw, intense, showy and sometimes aggressive – they weren’t just putting on a show - they were showing-off. It was fantastic and I would definitely go and experience it again but we won’t get a chance this time round.

Back on-line!

We've been nearly two weeks without Internet access so apologies for the lack of new posts - well be trying to catch up over the next week or so.

We are now in Portugal on a lovely site between Praia de Luz and Lagos.