Day 1, 2 - Malaga
We flew into Malaga, a Mediterranean seaside town. Since we were so busy getting ready to get out of town and look for an apartment in London, we only had a general plan for Spain, but had made no reservations at any hotels. We were lucky to find a nice hotel in the center of town. The first night in Spain we went out for dinner at about 10pm and I think we were early. As everyone knows, Tapas are a fantastic way to eat. We lived almost entirely on the assortment of Iberian meats (chorizo, procuitto-like serrano ham, etc), wine and sangria.
Day two, we shopped. Apparently a lot of shoes are made in Spain -- we looked at a lot of shoes. Erin became a complete shopaholic in Spain beginning in Malaga.
Following shopping we loaded up the rental car and started driving toward our next seaside destination of Nerja. We had a bit of a hard time figuring out the roads and directions, especially since neither of us speak spanish. But we were on the road. In one town along the way we were driving slowly through a parking lot looking for a bathroom. Suddenly Erin shrieked "lookout...LOOKOUT!" and out of nothing a kid on a bike shot out between two cars right in front of us. Fortunately, we stopped in time, but it was one of the closest calls I've ever had. Needless to say I was a little unnerved as we got back on the road. As I was driving slowly down a small road about 20 minutes later. Just starting to get more comfortable after the near miss and was looking at the sites and suddenly SLAM. I looked around and realized I didn't hit anyone, nothing in front of us. Look in my rear view mirror and as soon as I saw the car that hit us, we felt another SLAM. I couldn't believe it, we were being rammed. We pulled over to the side and the driver pulled up next to us and started screaming at us in Spanish. The driver was very drunk, and apparently we weren't going fast enough so he slammed into us like bumper cars to get us moving. We were completely shocked and didn't know what to do. Fortunately there were some people on the street who looked as shocked as we did. As we got out of the car to inspect the damage, he thankfully sped off. There wasn't much damage, just a dented bumper if you looked closely. We decided to forget about it because of our terrible spanish and decided to move on. I was getting nervous about our decision to rent a car and drive through Spain. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful, except for after the third night when I went to get the car and found out someone had hit our car in the parking lot and put a three inch ding near the front tire. We'll find out how good the insurance on Diners Club is soon I guess.
Back to vacation. We spent three nights on a horribly uncomfortable bed at a stunningly beautiful town called Nerja. Our hotel was on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. The first day the whether was hot and fantastic and we got our share of sun. The next few days were cooler, but great and we were able to wander all over the small town and down on the beach.
Days 5, 6 - Granada
Drove north to the town of Granada, site of the Alhambra. The Alhambra was an amazing fortress built about a thousand years ago. It is quite famous and we were lucky to be able to see it. Words can't really do the Alhambra justice, so here's a picture of me looking at enjoying some spanish wine.
Day 7 - Cordoba
Cordoba is former Roman town founded in 152 BC. It was amazing to see Roman ruins, including a bridge that old. There was also an amazing mosque. Another highlight of Cordoba was visiting a Arab Hammam, which was really a series of a pool, a hot tub and a cold plunge, with a mediocre massage, but in a stunning building.
Day 8, 9, 10 - Seville
Seville was amazing. We were there for an annual festival called Feria. Feria is a weeklong festival following easter that celebrates the Spanish Flamenco culture. All over town we saw women all day wearing full flamenco dresses, men in suits and kids dressed to match their parents. All-day we saw people being driven to the fair in horse-drawn carriages, cars, mopeds, buses, you name it. Like everyone else we headed for the fair as well. After about a 2 mile walk, we found the fairgrounds. Amazing...the fairgrounds probably stretched two miles. I would guess that there were 200,000 people there...at 3am. One night we were leaving the fair at about 2am and there were far more people heading in than heading out.
Feria was unlike any fair I've ever been to. There are thousands of tents set-up each hosted by a family or a business, or luckily for us a public tent for a district of town. Each tent is more elaborate than the next and all feature chandeliers, speaker systems, bars, kitchens, lots of people dancing and eating iberian cured meats. The kicker of all of it for us was the drink of choice....Sherry. Every tent serves Manzanilla, a chilled, dry sherry served by the bottle or in a giant pepsi cup containing a bottle of sherry and some 7-up. The first night the sherry was great. The third night it was gross...we were thankful for the 7-up...but we still drank it.
One great night at a bar following Feria, we went to a bar and had the bartender give us a sampling of different kinds of sherry's. They were quite good. Neither of us had ever had sherry before, but no doubt we will again. Most were much like Port. I've been meaning to look up the difference between sherry and port, but I haven't yet.
(note the sherry bottles and more meat products)
The other highlight of Seville as attending a bull fight. The bullring in Seville was built in 1758 and holds about 14 thousand people. We showed up about 2 minutes before the first bull and were directed to our seats about 10 rows above the entrance. I tried to ask which aisle we should go up and the guy didn't understand my question, just kept pointing up while pushing us forward because the bull was coming. So we had to walk straight up the seats and ask everyone to stand up to let us by. There were no aisles. Of course the seats were also directly in the sun and we had no hats, but fortunately plenty of sunscreen.
Bullfights are pretty amazing. Certainly not for the squeamish. It's amazing that 14K people show up every night to watch the gallantry in 6 bulls getting killed. Starting with knives in the bulls shoulders, ultimately leading to the matador finally stabbing it in the heart. Then the bull wobbles around and dies. Only to be triumphantly dragged off by horses.
Day 11
Back to Malaga
There are probably a million details I'm missing, but here's a start...
More soon.
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