Gandia, June 16-22, 2014

June 16 – 22, 2014

GANDIA

We are met at the bus station in Gandia, a few hours up the coast, by Estaban, a dapper gentleman with white hair and a pipe. We have a short ride through the city with him and his wife, Francesca. Neither speaks much English, but we manage. It’s Francesca who is in charge of the apartment, evidenced by the assortment of brochures and instructions waiting for us, all very organized, and which she talks us through with enthusiastic gestures and phrases. It’s a very nice place, a real home, much like Alicante, with heavy furniture and full sets of china and silverware.

Gandia is two cities. We are in the old city, the commercial center where few tourists venture. Then, the beach city, a collection of hotels and restaurants gathered along a spectacular sandy beach. The two are connected by a strip of roadway with a bike path and some neighborhoods of townhouse developments. We have a bus stop right near the apartment, so we try out the bus ride to the beach. It turns out that they are red-flagged because of the waves, and completely empty, which seems pretty strange. We’d expect to see people out on the beach even if there’s no swimming. But the facilities are very nice, with lounge rentals, snack stands, beach showers and restrooms. We stroll the promenade a ways, passing a few packs of college kids coming in for a holiday. All the girls are hauling gigantic suitcases. They’re also all wearing flip-flops, tiny shorts and tank tops. They must also need a few hundred outfits on hand. Farther along, we find a massive bonfire under construction. There’s a festival Saturday, Solstice and all, so by then it should be really, really big. Impressive.

Our balcony overlooks a big city park with high trees and a water garden, and…a skateboard park! We can’t see anyone, but we can hear loud smashing and banging noises, “like a construction site, where they throw boards around,” says Bob.

We take an afternoon to visit the Ducal Palace of the Borgias (Yes, THEM), the city’s main tourist site - very elegant - but we spend most of the week here at the beach. Conditions have improved and the water is lovely. We see lots of very large fish swimming right at our feet. Bob can’t believe no one is surf fishing here. The beach vendors tote bags of bikinis, cover-ups and sunglasses, leather braided wrist bracelets and weird apple-shaped cutting boards that splay into a basket, always handy to have at the beach. One young Spanish woman has great success with a popular item, a silky, long vest-like garment that comes in florescent rainbow of color choices. She’s wearing one, and demonstrates for her customers the dozens of ways it can be worn with the use of a little belt loop. “Like this, a halter dress! Like this, a wrap dress! Like this, bandeau style!” She moves through several more styles, flipping the fabric around, over her head, arms in, arms out, pulling it through the belt loop. Her customers are mesmerized, and fork over the ten Euros, to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out exactly how she did she do that???

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Benidorm, June 9-15, 2014

June 9 – 15

BENIDORM

We are living the condo life in Benidorm, an odd city just a couple hours north of Alicante that seems to be completely composed of high-rise apartment buildings. Some of them are freakishly huge, sticking out of the landscape like a monstrous saguaro forest. We look for any signs of industry or business, but beyond the touristy shops and restaurants along the main avenues, it seems that all the people here are on holiday. Well then, when in Rome…

The city is all about the beaches, and a grand promenade follows the coastline from one end of the city to the other. The colorful bands of tiles are very attractive, but there’s no shade on the walk and the middle of the day can be brutally hot. As the bus passes along, we notice an awful lot of burnt-red pot-bellies tottering along the walkway. In bikinis.

We have a great little condo on the seventh floor of a development, looking out over our pool to a tree-covered mountain, with the city beach just down the street. Benidorm is full of British and Russian vacationers, we hardly hear any Spanish being spoken. There’s a lamb-roasting restaurant on the corner just like the ones we saw in Bulgaria, a Russian mini mart, and dozens of real-estate offices with Cyrillic signage.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, our street is closed off for about a mile for a street market. Rows of vendor tents on both sides of the street pop up early in the morning, selling everything from underwear to radios, with fruits and vegetables, baked goods, olives, cheeses and hams thrown into the mix as well. It’s fun enough, and we buy some unbelievably good olives.

We spend most of the week here between the pool and the beach, enjoying the views from our terrace in the evening. There’s not much sight-seeing to be done. Our big entertainment is watching people walk their dogs on the street below us. People in Spain love their little dogs. Yorkies and Chihuahuas are very popular. We watch the daily outings of one very old black and white Akita who shuffles along, sniffing at every tree, totally enjoying his walk, while his owner leads him along, slowly, slowly, slowly.

One afternoon we talk a bus to the outskirts of the city and walk up the hills to a water-park-zoo attraction. The hill walk seems to go on forever, but we have great views of the city and the sea as we go. The sidewalk path is landscaped with palm trees and flowering bushes, so it’s very pretty. It is really hot, though. When we finally get to the park, it looks closed, there’s practically no visitors. But it is open, and so we practically have the place to ourselves. At first, it looks really lame, just a walk through fake rocks and shrubs with some parrots and peacocks, but through the afternoon we find more animals and we have a pretty nice time. There is an awesome tiger habitat with a glass wall near the tiger swimming pool. The tigers are actually swimming and playing in the pool, and put their faces right up to the glass in front of us. In another exhibit, we see a king cobra – enormous – and he rises up and flares his hood. We can actually go into the habitat with the llamas, goats, and deer, which Bob absolutely loves, being allergic to everyting in sight. There is a monkey island, where the monkeys are active and look pretty happy.

We stop at the show arena for a performance of “horses and falcons” according to the posters. There are no horses, probably too hot, but we have a ponytailed guy in quasi-medieval leather dress who releases falcons and owls and other raptors into the stands. We go in to take a seat, next to a barn owl. The guy brings a falcon over and puts him on my arm. Pretty exciting.

We have a long walk home, missing a couple connections for a tram and a bus, and walking most of the way back. At nightfall, the moon is full and red, breathtaking.

 

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Alicante, June 2-9, 2014

June 2 – 9

ALICANTE

We are very excited to be at the Mediterranean shore, at last. Our bus ride was pleasant enough, taking us through landscape that reminded us very much of Nevada with olive orchards.

Alicante is a mid-sized city, about 300,000 in population, with an important port that, this year, is the starting point of the great Volvo Yacht Race. There is a medieval castle on the rock hill overlooking the city and the bay that is its signature monument. Our hosts, Jose and his wife, both professionals here, meet us and drive us through the city streets to our apartment, which belonged to Jose’s parents, and where he actually grew up. They are reluctant to sell it in the current market, so their teenage son hooked them up with web rentals so they can pay the taxes with the rental income.

We have an entire floor of the building to ourselves. The place is sprawling, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, three balconies. There is real furniture, a marble coffee table, mahogany armoires, built-in bookcases with books, a working fireplace. It’s a real Spanish home. We wander around losing each other in the space. Fortunately, there’s a little tea trolley in the pantry that we can use to wheel our meals from the kitchen at the one end to the balcony on the other. It’s a long, long walk.

About this time, Bob has developed a persistent earache. He usually treats this with a mixture of alcohol and white vinegar, but this time he has found a remedy on the internet. A clove of garlic in the ear will act as an antibiotic. It can be a little harsh on the skin, so rubbing a little olive oil with it will act as a salve. So he’s sitting at the table, smelling like a salad himself. I say, “You have garlic in your ear!” “What?” he says. “You have garlic in your ear,” I repeat. “I can’t hear you,” he says. “I have garlic in my ear!”

We take a walk to the harbor, enjoying the grand promenade, a colonnade of high palm trees over a beautiful mosaic walkway of wavy stripes in black and almond and terracotta stones. At the harborside, along with the restaurants, casino and replica tall ship, we find the Volvo Ocean Race Museum. One of the actual racing yachts stands on its keel at the entry. The museum is free, basically a promotion for the race, but it’s still really interesting and well organized.

There are displays telling the history of the race and the story of some of the notable yachts and sailors. We enjoy a large-screen video game where we can pilot our own yachts against each other. The actual racing control room is in the museum, NASA-worthy technical stations follow every aspect of the race. The walls are lined with amazing photos, showing some of the beauty, danger and drama onboard. Then, we sit mesmerized and watch a film documenting the race activities, interviewing the sailors and telling the story of the race - nine months on a course that circumnavigates the earth. Boy, are we pissed when a guide comes through and tells us that it’s closing time! We could spend several more hours here.

There’s a small island just beyond the harbor bay that makes for a popular day trip. We get tickets and hop on the tour boat. It’s all looking very pleasant until a couple of busloads of teenagers board with us, probably on an end-of-school trip. They’re all very lively, running around punching at each other, hanging off the railings in a death-defying way you would never get away with in the U.S. When we reach the island, we find the beach area completely full of kids, mostly about nine to twelve, in groups with one or two teen leaders, who have found that screaming contests are a great way to dissipate excess energy. There’s a ring of beachfront restaurants, but nothing too tempting, especially in the heat of the afternoon sun. We walk on to the “old town,” a more residential neighborhood with remnants of a fort and a stone church. Here we come upon a not-so-authentic site: a giant tent full of people wearing bright blue polo shirts, watching a big screen covered with pie charts, with the unmistakable blaring crescendo music that accompanies a motivational sales presentation. So we have the great good fortune to arrive at the confluence of Every School’s Holiday Trip and the Annual Sales Awards Weekend. The island is quite small, but we manage to find a nature trail along the perimeter that’s very enjoyable.

There is a beach in the city of Alicante, always crowded of course, but Jose has recommended that we take a 20 minute tram ride to the beaches to the north of the city, and he is right on! The beaches here are spectacular. Wide stretches of white powder sand, bright blue waters and mountain views in the distance. There are not many shops or restaurants, just a few snack shacks on the beach, But we can rent our chairs and umbrellas and buy a couple beers, so we are good to go. The water is beautiful and clear, a little calmer than I like, but just gorgeous.

We spend one afternoon making a long walk for the obligatory visit to the castle, which is fun enough, great views all around, but for the next three days, we are just happy at the beach.

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Granada, May 26 - June 1, 2014

May 26 – June 1

GRANADA

Adios, Sebastian, as we head out to the train station. We have a pleasant journey north, away from the coast and into the mountains. Granada is a well-kept, vibrant, elegant city. We walk along a busy main avenue to our neighborhood, where our very enthusiastic and friendly host brings us to the apartment. It’s on the fourth floor, very clean and modern, with white marble tiles and a purple couch. We are well located for walking everywhere, with parklike plazas, cafes and shops all around us.

Everyone comes to Granada, every tourist, that is, to see the fabled Alhambra, the 11th century castle of the Moorish king Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar. We’ve booked tickets ahead, and not a day too soon because the only time open was for 6:30pm Sunday, just before we have to leave. So the highlight of the week will be our last event, leaving us free to explore the rest of the city until then.

Granada has a mix of urban, medieval, modern and historical. There’s a major university near the city center, a cathedral surrounded by a lively market, a Jewish quarter from the 6th century, and a historical district in the shadow of the Alhambra. What we didn’t expect, though, was a colony of troglodytes, with cave homes still in use. We found this area while walking along the small river that flows below the Alhambra, a neighborhood of old stone walls and historically quaint boutique hotels. The streets are lined with souvenir shops and clogged with slow-moving tourists, but it's still very pretty. We followed the street to the hillside opposite the Alhambra and walked to the crest of that hill to find the Cultural Museum and Troglodyte homes. The museum is beautifully set, with a wildflower garden path to a small arrangement of traditional cave homes showing scenes of life in the last century, where basket-making and ironwork were common. The caves are small, clean and appealing. The views across the gorge to the Alhambra and the plains beyond the city are stunning.

The Cathedral in Granada is tucked into the city blocks, not set on a grand plaza as in most cities we’ve visited. We find our way there by working through the shopping district and then through the Mercado section, both full of people shopping with great enthusiasm. The Cathedral is grand, enormous, and notable for its collection of medieval folios, of which more than a dozen are displayed in the corridors behind the altar. They are massive books of heavy vellum, illustrated with gold and red ink, meticulous script and intricate drawings.

Just outside the cathedral is a 14^th century Madrassa, now part of the University of Granada. Before we enter, we stop to listen to a street musician playing a beautiful melody on a hang, a recently invented instrument similar to a Jamaican steel drum. The Madrassa is a small building, and a wonderful opportunity to see the traditional Islamic plasterwork decoration very close up, accompanied by the explanations from a university student guide.

Our entry ticket to the madrassa includes a visit to the Rodriguez-Acosta estate, a great, modern villa located on the hill nearby. This is an unexpected treat. Rodriguez-Acosta was the son of a wealthy banking family who became an artist. He built this estate for himself as a source of inspiration and as a center for his salons, gatherings of intellectuals and high society types. Rodriguez-Acosta drove his architects crazy getting every detail, nuance and element just right, his own Hertz Castle. Now it is a cultural center, artist retreat and visitor attraction. His studio is still there, in use by his son, not available for tourists to see. There are tiers of formal gardens, reflecting pools, groomed hedges, and beneath the building, a maze of ancient cave passageways, not even fully explored to this date. There is a small museum attached, built from a donated private collection of Greek, Roman and Medieval pieces. Interestingly, none of Rodriguez-Acosta’s own work is exhibited here at all.

Another site worth seeing in Granada is the Science Park. We walk to it through the campus of the University of Granada, parklike but overall unremarkable. The Science Park occupies several blocks just on the outskirts of the city. There’s a very large atrium leading to exhibition spaces, auditoriums and an Imax theater, and outdoor exhibit spaces as well. We see an unusual exhibition on a Spanish puppet theater group, with some huge puppets, puppet making and performance techniques.  We walk around the grounds to see some displays on water behavior, olive making, raptors and satellites. It’s designed for children, but the park is still interesting for adults.

Our long-awaited visit to the Alhambra comes on a very rainy Sunday. We arrive at the entry, where dozens of people are waiting in line to buy tickets, just as a great downpour begins. No one wants to lose their place, so they huddle under little travel umbrellas and pray for it to stop. We have tickets, so we take refuge under the canopy of the entry. After nearly and hour in the heavy rain, it slows and then stops so that we can move out to the beautiful gardens of the Alhambra. The tree-lined paths weave along the hilltop, showing off gorgeous views of the valley around us, along formal rose gardens and terraced plantings. A second downpour blows through, forcing us to take shelter in a very non-descript rest room café building, basically a hall with vending machines. Then, finally, the rain is done and its time for our entry to the actual Alhambra castle.

The elegant rooms are just beautiful. The palace is covered with delicate plasterwork, carvings, painted tiles, with reflecting pools and columned courtyards. It’s worth the wait to come to see this, one of the great sites of Spain. We wonder, though, how much of Granada the other tourists have missed, coming here to see the highlights and then moving on to the next city.

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