Cordoba

June 21 - Cordoba

Once outside of the city, it only took a little over an hour to drive to Cordoba often times passing huge fields of sun flowers. In Cordoba, we followed the same procedure that we had done in Seville - park the car at the first convenient parking lot and walk the rest of the way to the hotel. The narrow alleyways are simply to difficult to navigate.

We were staying at Hotel Lola, situated within the walled section of town. We first visited the main mosque -  the Mezquita. It was exquisite. One enters the mosque through a large gated doorway that leads into a spacious courtyard filled with orange trees. Once inside the mosque, one sees numerous arches in every direction as far as you can see. But when you look in the center, oddly enough, there is  a massive cathedral. On the periphery of the mosque there are rows of small and unique chapels.


There’s also a nook that’s acoustically designed where from the imam calls the prayer. It was explained to us that it was built not unlike a guitar, so as to amplify the imam’s voice to his followers, who would number in the thousands, just outside the nook in the main hall of the mosque. It must have been quite a sight. By the way, I use the word “nook” very loosely. In the Moslem world, there surely is a word for that very area.


Some of the pillars holding up the building were very interesting. On one side they consisted of the original rough rock. But as you looked around the pillar, it graduated to a worked stone to the point where on the other side it evolved into a smooth, marble-like pillar containing colorful, inlaid stones. And to think this was done over a thousand years ago.

Yet to us, the most intriguing aspect of the building remained as to how it was converted from what was a beautiful mosque to a cathedral within a mosque. To the untrained eye (us), it didn’t look totally perverted. But to Emperor Charles V, who had ordered the building of the cathedral, afterwards, he is said to have lamented “the destruction of something unique to build something commonplace”.

Later that night, we had dinner at El Cabajo Rojo restaurant. We had been told about a strange dish they may have to offer - jelly fish (Medusa in Spanish). But thank goodness, they didn‘t have it. I might have been tempted. Instead, I had a tasty rabbit stew.

Before leaving in the morning, we visited the Alcazar (a Moorish fort from the 12th century). The front quad, is composed of a peculiarly colored golden-yellow sand, with which the green trees offer a desert-like contrast. The color can also be seen in the composition of the brick and mortar in the buildings. 

The Alcazar was a bit stark, but the gardens and ponds on the inside were lush and beautiful. It was a perfect end to our visit to Cordoba.  

Sevilla

June 18 - Arcos de la Frontera to Sevilla

The next day, we packed up and headed for Sevilla. We took the super-highway, which has a speed limit of 120 kph. But many cars travel at 160 kph or more. I tend to drive somewhere in between. It took less than two hours to get there.

We had reservations in the old part of Sevilla at the Hotel Las Casas de los Mercadores (House of Merchants). We gave up trying to find the hotel by car because of the one-way, narrow streets. We aimed for as close as we could get to the hotel found a parking garage and walked the rest of the way.

After checking in we found that we were very near the main square, the cathedral and the Giralda. One thing we noticed walking around was all the orange trees that lined the streets. Unfortunately, none seemed eatable because they probably don’t get much water.

We visited several sights around the city. The cathedral was unique. Built over the course of a hundred years (1402-1506),  it’s a massive and ornate Gothic building with gargoyles, spires and numerous arches. (It’s advertised to be the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.)

Within the perimeter of the cathedral is the Giralda, which used to be a minaret of a mosque that once was on the very site. (In this area of Spain where the Moors once reigned, apparently, mosques were converted to cathedrals, once the Catholic Kings re-took the region. (I suppose, that’s better than destroying these marvelous works.) It’s quite a hike up to the top of the Giralda, but it’s a marvelous panoramic view of the city. Huge bells hang all around the top - this is not a place to be at noon!

The other place we really enjoyed in Sevilla was the Plaza de Espana. We were surprised they didn’t charge to get in. Beautiful architecture, the building consists of a half circle. Around it, each of the provinces of Spain are represented, all done in exquisitely colorful tiles with geographical depictions of each region. People from a particular province will come and hang out on their spot and want their picture taken with the name of their province. 

We had drinks in the Barrio de Santa Cruz (Juderia) - it’s quite the lively spot with lots of narrow walkways, bars, restaurants and stores. Apparently, the Jews and the Moslems got along just fine way back then. Jews held many positions in local government and were lawyers and judges.

On one of the evenings we went to a Flamenco  performance at a small venue down the street from the hotel. As much as we knew of Flamenco, it seemed to be a marginal performance. The singer was obese, the guitarist a bit young yet capable enough, the female dancer, aging but could still kick up her heels while the male dancer was the most impressive. It seemed like an odd match up of performers. Of course, the primary concept about Flamenco is that one needs to appreciate the sad, anguished, wailing cries of the woman singing. Other than that, we loved it.  

The following day, driving out of Sevilla to Cordoba was a snap - we had managed to get detailed instructions from the hotel clerk before leaving!

Arcos and Jerez de la Frontera

June 17 - Arcos de la Frontera

After Zahara, our destination was Arcos de la Frontera. We had detailed instructions on how to get to our hotel, but the narrow, tiny and winding streets proved even a challenge to my master navigator, Diane. We ended up looping around the city center a couple of times until we literally would drive a couple of hundred yards and ask for further instructions to zero in on the hotel. Some of the streets were so narrow that we pulled in the outside mirrors! Finally we found our hotel and parked the car atop the hill, at the Plaza de Espana, next to the cathedral. Our hotel, El Convento, was right down the street. The hotel is a converted convent. From the balcony of our room, we had a beautiful view of the Guadalete River far down below and a panoramic view of the entire valley.

June 18 - Day Trip to Jerez de la Frontera

We took off relatively early in the morning for Jerez. The city is known primarily for its sherry bodegas and its equestrian school. Because we wanted to do both some sherry tastings and to see the school, we had to get there a little early since most things close down somewhere between 1-3pm only to reopen in the late afternoon.

Our first stop was at the Fundacion Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre. That’s a mouthfull for the place they train horses. Oddly enough, in spite of wanting to show off their school, they were very secretive of their techniques, so no photos were allowed.

We toured the stables, the arena where they train the horses, on-going training by horse trainers and a museum. The original training came from the strategic role that horses and horse riding played in war. Better horsemen prevailed. Hence, teaching horse and man to be perfectly compatible and in unison.

Next we visited the Sandman Bodega conveniently located next door to the equestrian school. We got an informative, half-hour tour of the facility, the history of sherry and how it is made. Afterwards, we were offered ample tastes.

A few of the more interesting things we learned were that 1) sherry is made of only three white grape varietals, including Moscatel; 2) they age the wine in American oak, leaving room in each barrel for air and oxidation to occur; 3) they stack the barrels on top of each other, typically around four rows high. The bottom row contains the oldest sherry of which they draw out about one-third for that year’s sherry. They replace the one-third with the sherry from the next row up barrel and also draw from one-third from that row to produce a slightly younger sherry. They follow that principle all the way up to the top row filling those barrels with the newly produced sherry. They term they use for this process is called “Soleras Criaderas”.

We sampled sherries from the very dry to sweet. The medium sweet sherries were our favorite. The oxidized sharpness of the dry sherry was a negative for me. We left Sandman with the intention of finding another bodega. But by the time we got to another one, it was closed. Time for a siesta. Darn! We drove back home to Arcos.

Aside from its uniqueness of being situated so daringly on a mountain peak, its charming, narrow streets and a couple of ancient cathedrals, there wasn’t much more to Arcos. On one evening we spent an hour walking around looking for a restaurant. Most of the places are tapas bars and offer little variety. Still, we were glad to have stopped to experience Arcos.

The Pueblos Blancos

June 17 - The Pueblos Blancos

We drove out of Ronda after a leisurely breakfast overlooking the gorge and watching the swallows flying around. We took the back roads instead of the highway so we could see the Pueblos Blancos - white-washed towns and villages, often on steep hillsides with ancient cathedrals and castles.

Setenil was our first stop. This town was unusual because some of the homes and shops were built right into the rocky cliffs. The streets in the village were extremely narrow - I’m glad we were driving a small car. Next we went to Olvera, with a castle and a surrounding cemetery at the very top of the hill. We got there in the mid-afternoon during siesta time - the town was like a ghost town.

The last Pueblos Blanco we visited was Zahara, situated along a lake-reservoir on a mountain ridge. Zahara was a stronghold against the kingdom of Granada during the Moorish occupation. We hiked up to the castle and had a spectacular view of the entire area. On our walk back we stopped at one of the local hangouts hugging the cliff. We got a snack and washed it down with a cerveza. Needless to say, the view was striking.

Europe Trip - 2010

June 8-9 - LA to Amsterdam

The flight from LA to Amsterdam was flawless. No turbulence and excellent service. KLM appears to be at odds with the typical U.S. airlines and actually gives you free wine, beer and even cognac after a very tasty dinner (also included in the price of the airfare). What a concept! Breakfast came before we landed and, even for me, was too much to eat. KLM definitely is getting my business whenever they fly to where I want to go.

Thankfully, our friends, Maria and Maarten were at Schiphol to whisk us away from the airport mayhem when we arrived. Shortly after our arrival we were sitting in their living room discussing things we had seemingly left hanging when we last met.

Later that evening, we drove into Amsterdam for “rystavel”, the traditional Indonesian dinner. As usual, it was very tasty and way too much food.

June 12 - Malaga, Spain

A couple of days later we were sitting in the Obispo Plaza in Malaga, in the shadows of the Obispo Cathedral at the Cheers Bar when the announcer on the big flat screen came on to say that the next soccer game was the U.S. v.s. Great Britain - this was at the world football cup in South Africa.

Malaga is one of the original old cities of the world. It’s been around since the Roman empire. It has had visits by the Visigoths and Moors before the Catholics were able to recapture the city in the 15th century. And here we are staying at a small guesthouse (Villa Alicia) in the hills of Malaga, just outside the old part of town. It’s a short walk from the Alicia’s up to Malaga’s history - the Gibralfaro fortress.

One of the places we visited was the Pablo Picasso Museum. Although Picasso was born in Malaga, he left here when he was 19 and never returned. In spite of this, Malaga still pays homage to him in a serious way.

Although the museum has much of his typical works, there are lots of other, more unusual drawings and paintings of horses, rape scenes, bestiality, lots of curly pubic hair, minotaur sex scenes etc… I didn’t realize what a wild and crazy guy Pablo really was. Things of interest - 1) some of his drawings looked like they would take ten minutes to draw and had a long and curious title while other very detailed etchings that certainly would have taken many hours, if not days, to draw were listed as “untitled”. 2) There was little hiding the fact that he appreciated women with big boobs. And he didn‘t shy away from drawing detailed vaginas with lots of curly pubic hair.

He loved horses, bulls and bull fights. One of the simple drawings that he made was of two horses standing next to each other. It was all drawn with one line, never taking the pen off the paper. Quite remarkable. The museum also has quotes by Picasso. One of them was in regard to doves, in which he noted that he had watched doves peck another dove to death. He concluded, “So much for doves having anything to do with peace“.

June 14 - Day trip to Granada

Today we picked up our spiffy Mini Cooper and hit the road to Granada. It took us a little over an hour to get there on a very nice and smooth freeway that went through hilly country roads.

We drove straight to the Alhambra, a walled city complex (referred to as the Medina) consisting of a fortress started in the 9th century by the Moors, a summer palace, a type of amphi-theater and a number of beautiful gardens. Much of the Alhambra (meaning red fort) evolved over centuries.

It was ruled by the Muslims until 1492 (of interest to those following the journeys of Columbus), when the Catholic Kings conquered Granada. During their rule, it was transformed into the royal palace. Centuries later, Napoleon conquered the area and ended up nearly destroying the entire complex in the war of 1812. By the 19th century the Alhambra was pretty much abandoned. As you can tell, the Alhambra has had a long history.

There was a dark side to the fortress too - the dungeon. It was cavernous and massive. We only got a glimpse of it from atop and found out it was only used as such when wars were going on. Otherwise, it was used as a storage area. It didn’t look like a place one would want to be as a guest.

After the splendid tour, we went into the city of Granada to walk around and see the main cathedral and some of the small bazaar alley ways that reminded us a lot of when we lived in Iran.

After having dinner at one of the restaurants around one of the city’s squares, we headed home to Malaga. We both thought that Granada would be a good place to spend more time.

June 15-16 - Ronda

After breakfast, we ventured back on the road, this time towards Ronda. We went by way of Marbella, one of the premier cities on the Mediterranean that cater to the rich and famous. So we only stopped for gas. From Marbella we turned north and began a drive on a long and windy road into the mountains. Dramatic views.

In Ronda we had reserved a room at the Hotel Dom Miguel, a smaller hotel adjacent to the “new” bridge and supposedly right on the gorge. We had asked for a room with a gorge view. Then we opened the door and looked out of our window, we could see that our room clung to the edges of the gorge and had a spectacular view all the way down the gorge (over 150 m). It looked somewhat like an aviary with sparrows, doves, pigeons and swallows all flying throughout the immense void from the river bottom to the very top lined with aging castles and white-washed homes.

One thing we are having difficulty to is adjusting to the Spanish eating schedule. At the hotels, typically breakfast is served between 9am and 11am. Dinner is typically served starting at about 8:30pm, though if you show up then, you’ll be eating alone. Spaniards won’t show up for at least another hour.

In Ronda we made an appointment to go to our first Spanish winery (a bodega) for a bit of wine tasting. We drove about five kilometers out of town towards Seville, parked the car at a hotel and were then picked up by a minivan that took us to the Joaquin Fernandez Bodega. They had a spectacular view of the valley and of Ronda - at the top of the hills.

The winery grows all their own grapes for their wines. They grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Grenache. Their wines are an interesting blend of each of these varietals. They make a nearly white wine from Merlot grapes, and also make several blends using all of the varietals in various proportions and blends. All were very good wines and not too pricy (between 10-15 Euros). For our first introduction to a bodega, it was a success.

The Wrap Up

April 8 - Haul Out Day

Our appointment to be hauled out was for 1pm. We motored to Spice Island Marine (about a quarter of mile from where we were anchored) and the crew at Spice Island had us hoisted out of the water in no time. The entire process went flawlessly. They then moved us with a highly maneuverable vehicle to a narrow spot between two other boats. That is now Lahaina Roads' home for the next six months. And for us there is no more rolling sensation. We are on the hard, as they say. Now it takes a long ladder to get on board. There is no more taking a quick dip in the water before dinner.

We took a quick trip to Grand Anse to go to the bank and to a store - it was an adventure. The buses here are similar to elsewhere in that they are vans. Here, though, there is a twist to the process. Each “bus” has an additional individual whose job it is to entice and recruit more riders. Some of them use pretty aggressive techniques to reel in additional riders. One, in fact, jumped out of his bus, ran over to me (about 100 feet), then grabbed me by the arm to get me to ride on his bus. I opted out since another bus had just pulled up right where I was standing. I suppose that this is the entrepreneurial spirit alive and well. The bottom line is better with each additional rider.

The following day was spent getting the boat ready for the hurricane season. We took down the headsail, mainsail and mizzen, along with the reefing lines and preventers. The outboard for the dinghy was thoroughly cleaned and stowed, as was the inflatable dinghy itself. These were not trivial tasks. The sails are huge, bulky and heavy. The dinghy and motor are heavy too and has to hoisted from the ground all the way up into the boat, rolled up and stowed. The 90 degree weather and 85% humidity made it all that much more work. By 4:30pm we were tired and ready for a shower. It was time to sit down and relax.

Sitting on the boat on the hard in the middle of a sea of other boats is a strange sensation. You see so many boats and masts and a number of people diligently working, cleaning things and putting gear away. It’s a solemn sort of a moment in which all these (expensive) adult toys are being neatly stowed away, hopefully to be played with, six months from now. Literally, millions of dollars in boats are busily being prepared (just in this marina).

Monday morning we leave for home. Our Caribbean adventure - Part I is wrapping up.

Union, Carriacou and Grenada

April 2 - Union Island

Union Island is the most southern of the Grenadines. We anchored in Clifton Harbor, the island’s main town. Clifton is one of the larger towns we visited (although still mostly all on one main street). The airport landing strip is a stone’s throw from the main street, so it was fun to watch the planes taking off and landing so close by.

The town is colorful and is not as run-down looking as so many of the other places we have seen. It has a cute central market area with fresh produce for sale. But let me comment on the cost of the produce - it is not cheap! Most of it comes from St. Vincent or elsewhere. For example, I bought six small tomatoes and a small papaya for $9.20! I asked an expat if there was a double standard for charging foreigners and she said no, that produce was just VERY expensive.

Being that it was Good Friday, the long weekend celebration had started. (It appears that all of these islands take their Easter holiday seriously. The drinking starts on Friday and continues through Monday.) A number of the local men were hanging out in front of bars drinking rum, listening to the music, talking and checking out the ladies that walked by. We had a feeling things were going to get loud in the evening.

The following morning we headed off to Carriacou, one of the three islands in the Grenada chain.

April 3 - Carriacou Island

In Carib, the word Carriacou means “island surrounded by reefs”. One look at the charts and you realize that they knew what they were talking about. We first entered in Hillsborough to clear customs and immigration. We were successful with clearing customs, but immigration was off to lunch. They must have eaten a lot, for they were gone the rest of the afternoon.

The town of Hillsborough runs mainly along one street paralleling the beach. An assortment of restaurants, bars and boutiques fill the main street’s beach side, while on the other side are some run-down buildings, grocery stores and fresh produce stands.

During our fruitless, long wait for immigration, we talked to a friendly taxi driver. A real nice fellow. I asked him how he could afford the impressive new Toyota diesel he drove. He said it was from a small business loan that the government offered. We talked about the U.S. invasion of Grenada back in the 80’s after Maurice Bishop, the communist leaning prime minister, was executed along a number of his cabinet. He said that in spite of Bishop’s acts of tyranny, he had made some good contributions by improving education and access to health care, but at the cost of civil liberties. Even today, he remains a popular person.

We gave up waiting for the immigration official and headed back to the boat, hoping to complete the check in, in Grenada. With Hillsborough being a wide open bay (the only one without a reef around it), we opted to move to the more sheltered bay of Tyrrel.

It was late afternoon by the time we anchored in Tyrrel. The bay wasn’t very interesting looking. A local came by the boat and sold us a dozen “mangrove oysters” and a fellow named Simon, in an old beat up row boat, offered to sell us bottles of Australian and Chilean wines. The prices were reasonable but we didn’t really need anything. He looked surprised when I told him no thanks - we still have plenty of wine.

April 4 - Carriacou to Grenada (Our final destination)

We pulled up anchor after breakfast. There was a light easterly breeze, so we decided first to motor. Along the starboard side of us was a tug boat towing a big barge and we could see by the way it was towing, there was a strong current at work. It was helping us move along briskly for a total of eight knots. Not bad.

Eventually, we hoisted the sails and had a leisurely sail to the coast of Grenada. As we approached the island from the north, it appeared steep, lush with vegetation and verdant, not unlike St. Vincent. But by the time we got near to the south in St. George, its capital, the land was flatter and dryer looking.

We anchored in the outer harbor and went ashore to find immigration. No luck. They were on holiday hours (apparently, Easter in these islands is a four-day holiday). We then decided to have a look at St. George. The inner part of the harbor was quite pleasant looking and is called the Carenage. From afar, it looks a bit like pictures of Portofino, Italy. But on closer inspection, the area had a more worn and rustic edge to it. Fort George, overlooks the entrance of the harbor. Around the waterfront area there are lots of old brick buildings - stores, warehouses and some government buildings. It would be a perfect place to have sidewalk cafes and restaurants, but none were in sight. Two cathedrals can be seen up the hill. When we walked to them, we noticed both were in ruins (perhaps damaged by hurricanes).

The following day we moved to the south of the island. Prickly Bay is where Spice Island Marine is and that‘s where Lahaina Roads will be hauled out and put on the hard. Prickly Bay is upscale, with huge, multi-million dollar homes lining the hills of bay. One end of the bay has a nice white sandy beach with palm trees. Part of it is owned by the exclusive Calabash Resort, a spendy looking place.

The following day we rented a car to circumnavigate the island and see some of the interior, which has a rainforest, rivers, lakes and waterfalls. Driving here is on the left - that’s always fun! The first place we went to was the Grand Etang Reserve. There was a small crater lake there, a visitors center and some shops. It was reported that Mona monkeys come by the visitors center but we never saw any.

Next, we drove to a spot where you can hiking to a series of waterfalls. We parked the car and proceeded by foot through a beautiful farming area that eventually led to a steep, wild and jungle-like path winding its way through the forest. After about a half hour we found the waterfall. We took a refreshing swim in the cool water and after a while headed back.

We then went to look for the nutmeg plant in the coastal town of Gouyave. Finding it was a bit of a challenge because the roads were poorly marked and the map we had was insufficient in detail. But after a few missteps we got on the right track and found it. The building was an old warehouse, dark and somber looking. A tour guide explained to us how a rusty and antiquated-looking machine cracked the shells open and then how workers separate the mace from the nutmeg and the final process of how the nut gets ground. Grenada is only one of two countries in the world (Indonesia being the other) that grow and export nutmeg and mace.

The factory had a small store that sold nutmeg products such as syrup, liquor and yes, wine! I didn’t buy any, already having been disappointed by an earlier purchase of ginger wine. I’m sticking to grape wine for now.

The rest of the island driving adventure was nice but by the end of the day we were glad to be back to the boat.