The final week here in Benidorm has just flown by. Fortunately for us, the weather has really been great. We looked at the extended forecast about 10 days ago and it looked like we would have at least 4 days of rain. How lucky can we get, we haven’t had but one night with a little wetness, and the days have been in the mid to high 60’s, sun and…beach weather. One of our neighbors, whom just arrived, heard about our “garage sale” and the fact that we had sold our lounge chairs, so they grabbed two of theirs and offered them to us until we leave on Saturday…that’s great neighbors… We stayed home on Tuesday sitting in our new borrowed lounge chairs and did our laundry. Yesterday we packed up and drove 6 miles down the coast to Calp. From just beyond our campground, we can see the magnificent limestone rock formation called Penyal d’Ifach. This large rock formation sits out at the end of a small peninsula from Calp, and looks like a small Gibraltar. Looking from Benidorm towards Calp, Penyal d’Ifach just seems to rise vertically (1087 feet) out of the sea. On a bright sunny day like today, the Penyal d’Ifach looks like it is on fire…really a pretty site. A point of interest about the rock is it was privately owned until 1987 when it was sold to the government. As Louise and I walked to the base of the rock, and around the marina, we were shocked by the amount of sea birds that have made this rock their home. They put on this little display, when one bird lets out a squawk, they all sound off and bound off the rock ledge and circle by the hundreds above our heads….”let’s see how many tourists we can ____ on”. Driving towards Calp, we went through Altea and Alfas, a couple of other towns that line the shoreline of the Mediterranean. The highway goes right through the middle of both towns, and is a complete bottle neck for both of them. For a “highway” that carries heavy trucks, buses, and a load of other vehicles, the streets are very narrow with the buildings going so high as to block off the sun, stop lights every 50 to 75 yards, and pedestrians coming from everywhere to cross the signed crosswalks…it takes time, so you had just better sit back and enjoy the ride. Once we pulled into Calp, we found a parking place and headed off by foot toward the boardwalk and a coffee con leche. Calp really felt like a place you could spend some “serious” time in. Both of us felt this was a smaller town that not only was clean, had some wonderful beaches, great food and shopping, it just made you feel good to be there. We’ll put this one down in our books to come back. For lunch, we found an outdoor restaurant that had a large display of seafood that we just couldn’t pass up. It was one of the best displays of food we have ever seen, and the prices were very reasonable as well. I had a plate of 4 different fish that were served whole, with fries, a drink, and desert of great tasting melons for $7.40. Louise had a ½ “portion” of extra small squid and a drink for $4.50. When we eat a meal like this, we accept it as our dinner, so anything later is light or nothing at all (except maybe something from our “treat” box). Today (Thursday) we finished breakfast and headed into Benidorm to do some “shopping”. This was a shopping trip for us… things new, things that we will wear home or at home…things to make us feel good…things that were wonderful deals. We know prices have boomed upwards in Spain for years, but they still have some great bargains. Tomorrow being our last day in Benidorm we are just going to stay close…to the beach anyway…
19 January ’05, Thursday.
The final week here in Benidorm has just flown by. Fortunately for us, the weather has really been great. We looked at the extended forecast about 10 days ago and it looked like we would have at least 4 days of rain. How lucky can we get, we haven’t had but one night with a little wetness, and the days have been in the mid to high 60’s, sun and…beach weather. One of our neighbors, whom just arrived, heard about our “garage sale” and the fact that we had sold our lounge chairs, so they grabbed two of theirs and offered them to us until we leave on Saturday…that’s great neighbors… We stayed home on Tuesday sitting in our new borrowed lounge chairs and did our laundry. Yesterday we packed up and drove 6 miles down the coast to Calp. From just beyond our campground, we can see the magnificent limestone rock formation called Penyal d’Ifach. This large rock formation sits out at the end of a small peninsula from Calp, and looks like a small Gibraltar. Looking from Benidorm towards Calp, Penyal d’Ifach just seems to rise vertically (1087 feet) out of the sea. On a bright sunny day like today, the Penyal d’Ifach looks like it is on fire…really a pretty site. A point of interest about the rock is it was privately owned until 1987 when it was sold to the government. As Louise and I walked to the base of the rock, and around the marina, we were shocked by the amount of sea birds that have made this rock their home. They put on this little display, when one bird lets out a squawk, they all sound off and bound off the rock ledge and circle by the hundreds above our heads….”let’s see how many tourists we can ____ on”. Driving towards Calp, we went through Altea and Alfas, a couple of other towns that line the shoreline of the Mediterranean. The highway goes right through the middle of both towns, and is a complete bottle neck for both of them. For a “highway” that carries heavy trucks, buses, and a load of other vehicles, the streets are very narrow with the buildings going so high as to block off the sun, stop lights every 50 to 75 yards, and pedestrians coming from everywhere to cross the signed crosswalks…it takes time, so you had just better sit back and enjoy the ride. Once we pulled into Calp, we found a parking place and headed off by foot toward the boardwalk and a coffee con leche. Calp really felt like a place you could spend some “serious” time in. Both of us felt this was a smaller town that not only was clean, had some wonderful beaches, great food and shopping, it just made you feel good to be there. We’ll put this one down in our books to come back. For lunch, we found an outdoor restaurant that had a large display of seafood that we just couldn’t pass up. It was one of the best displays of food we have ever seen, and the prices were very reasonable as well. I had a plate of 4 different fish that were served whole, with fries, a drink, and desert of great tasting melons for $7.40. Louise had a ½ “portion” of extra small squid and a drink for $4.50. When we eat a meal like this, we accept it as our dinner, so anything later is light or nothing at all (except maybe something from our “treat” box). Today (Thursday) we finished breakfast and headed into Benidorm to do some “shopping”. This was a shopping trip for us… things new, things that we will wear home or at home…things to make us feel good…things that were wonderful deals. We know prices have boomed upwards in Spain for years, but they still have some great bargains. Tomorrow being our last day in Benidorm we are just going to stay close…to the beach anyway…
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January 14th, sun is out, 60+ degrees, and we feel it is time for our hike to the top of the hill. If we wait any more, we may not be able to do it. Rain will be arriving tomorrow and it looks like it will last almost to the day we leave. At the top of the hill, is a large cross that we noticed the first night we were here. At night, it is lit up so that all the city of Benidorm can see it. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the cross. After leaving the campground, we headed into town, grabbed a left turn and started our climb up. Fortunately we could follow the road all the way. It was steep and twisting, but at least it was smooth. About 75 feet above the road, stood the cross, so we found a dirt and rock path to take us to the top. What a stunning view!!! Then wouldn’t you know it, Louise saw that there was another trail heading off across another hill that over-looked the sea. The decision was made, off we go. Fortunately, we had stopped by one of the markets and picked up our lunch at a British deli. When we arrived at the summit of the second hill (Hell, it was a MOUNTAIN !!!), we took a few minutes of rest time and had ate our lunch. I brought a steak pie and Louise had a chicken and mushroom …both were terrific and filling. The cliffs were a beautiful sight as they dropped straight down hundreds of feet into the Med. The water was so clear, blue-green, and very calm. The cliffs that we looked down on, looked like gold as they entered the surf. Then, as we turned and looked back, we had a marvelous view of Benidorm, the beach, and the mountains surrounding it. Now, what goes up must go down… it was time to head back down. Toes being pushed to the end of our shoes, a small rock or pebble slips out from a secure foothold, and the sun directly in your eyes…IT WAS GREAT !!! We did have a good time, a little tired, but a good time. Unfortunately, as we sit here tonight, Louise has come down with a cold. Hopefully, with a little luck I can dodge the “cold germs” long enough to get back to Seattle in good health….then they can have me. 13 January ’06, Friday. First full moon of the new year…FRIDAY THE 13th… We were up early this morning and had our “Garage Sale” set up before 9am. Yesterday we went into town, and had about 50 flyers printed (about 40 to many) advertising our Garage Sale…”We are selling out to head back to the USA”. By 10:30 everything was sold and people were still coming by late in the afternoon looking for a bargain. One thing for sure, this is a sure quick way of meeting everyone in the park. Now as we walk out to the gate or even to the banõ, people we've said hello to before, now meet you with a larger smile and “neighbor” hello. I think it's just that they are a little more relaxed and feel they know you now more as a neighbor, instead of just a camper. Well besides the garage sale, we have been busy. Whether it's staying home because of a day of rain (we only had 1 of these), or walking into town just to get some exercise. Sunday's and Wednesday's are market days here. This is something that we both enjoy. On Wednesday, there are 2 market locations in Benidorm. This last Wednesday we walked to the one that is on the far side of town. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get there. Once there, we found it to be much larger than the one closer to the campground. Walking back, we came across a Tony Roma’s one of our favorite rib restaurants. We just couldn’t walk past it…Baby Back Ribs ??? Oh my God, were they ever good. Fortunately for me, Louise couldn’t eat all of hers, so I was able to have a great “left-over” lunch today. Not only are we selling things prior to heading home, we are also buying??? Yep, we both have found a deal or two that we just couldn’t pass up. My purchase today, was a pair of shoes !!! Now you know how hard it is for me to find shoes. They may not be a perfect fit, but for $49 Euro, I can limp a little. Besides, I just wanted to have a regular pair of shoes, not just tennis shoes or sandals. One of our “neighbors” introduced us to Skype, a phone system that we can use through our computer. After up-loading their free program, we were making phone calls to everyone…calling the states from here cost us less than 2 Euro Cents a minute. We call from our computer to the house phones of our family and friends. Boy, do we like this !!! OK, now I am caught up. 6 January ’06, Friday. Well tonight is it, Los Tres Reyes Day !!! A national holiday for Spain, with all the stores, banks, and just about every other type of business closed. For those on vacation down here, a lot of the restaurants and most of the bars remained open. January 6, the last day of Christmas, comes with its own traditions, rituals and symbols. Carolers are going from house to house. In many homes around the area, Christmas trees are taken down and in some areas, burnt in a big bonfire. For the children this is an especially happy occasion because, associated with taking down the tree, goes the "plundering" (or raiding) of the tree. The sweets, (chocolate ornaments wrapped in foil) and cookies, which have replaced the “sugar plums”, are the raiders' rewards. Of course, the 12 days of Christmas end with the Feast of Epiphany (The Adoration of the Magi). It was the 3 kings that saw the Star of Bethlehem and found the Christ child. Last night Louise and I went into Benidorm to watch the arrival of the 3 Kings and the start of the Celebration. The crowds were thick, the kids excited, and the adults anticipating a great time for all. The parade wasn’t to start until just after 6pm, so we went into town about 3:30 to make sure we could find a good location (and hopefully a seat) to watch the excitement. We were a little early…well hell, we were a lot early. It started to feel like the town hadn’t got the message about the parade being at 6. As far as finding a seat…no problem…we had our choice of about 1200+. Feeling a little awkward, we found a seat and sat…sat for a long time before anyone else started to do the same. Finally, about 2 minutes before 6, people started to come out and find a chair. Now we are feeling much better, colder, but better. Now let’s get on with the parade. Just before 7, we heard our first indication that there really was going to be a parade…a “Boomer”, and then about 3 more to announce the night had started. Our chairs weren’t free ($4ea), but they sure were worth it. We enjoyed seeing camels, donkeys, cattle, horses, sheep, a flock of geese and turkeys?... What is it with the turkeys? There were about a dozen of them, they were all right at our feet and wanting to get through us to freedom…go turkey go. I wanted to grab one for dinner, but Louise grabbed my hand just as I was about to score a nice one…. Oh yes, then there was the marching bands and dancers, floats and many other exciting things and people to see. All were dressed beautifully in “Gladiator” type costumes. There was even a baby tiger that was led by on his leash…sooo cute. Finally the last to come were the 3 Kings, mounted on their highly decorated camels, and making the night for all the kids in attendance. We jumped right in behind the Kings (as did everyone else) and followed them through the rest of the parade route. Finally at the end, they dismounted from their camels (with a little difficulty) and went up onto a huge stage. Already there, was a baby (a real live one) waiting in a cradle. As the Kings came up and made their presentation of gifts, the sky lit up with incredible fireworks that seemed to last for ever. What a great night… we missed being home with the family, but being here was wonderful. 2 January ’06, Monday. It has been a few days since I’ve written so let’s see what we did… Just outside of Granada, the road started a pretty steep climb (that is for “Bumble Bee” it was a steep climb) and headed for our first pass. Going over the top, we saw the sign that told us we had just passed over 3600 feet and that was the first of 3 such passes we would go through before heading into the valley areas. At some points we were struggling along at 40km in third, and then there were the flats that I had to let off the pedal to keep us from going over 100km. As we were coming to a small town called Guadix, we started to notice some caves. Then it went from 2 or 3 to 2000 or more. Some of these caves have stone fronts and others, stucco facades. This made a very interesting find for us, but unfortunately we just didn’t think we could take the time to stop. I had miscalculated the time and distance we had to go (from Granada to Benidorm) so we passed. Looking later at the travel books that we have, we found that some of these caves date back to the time of the Moors (10th century). It would have been a good stop. The soil is soft to dig, but once it is, the walls turn almost rock hard and give a constant year round interior temperature of 55 degrees. The whole day was spent going through some of the best “natural” views we have yet to see in Spain. Then to my surprise, we were going by Alcante and only had another 15 miles to Benidorm. That was a quick trip!!! We found Benidorm to be just what a lot of Brits had said it was…A High Rise Beach Club that is filled with so many loud and rowdy pubs that it is like a 24 hour party. As you know, we kind of like that kind of stuff, so we were off to find the campground and settle in for 3 weeks. Our first duty was to head off to town (about a 12 minute walk to the beach) and check it out. The sun was out bright, the temp was wonderful (70+- degrees) and Benidorm looks new and wonderful. Having an early dinner of sea food paella was a great way to start our visit. The next day, the clouds came in for the morning, but ever since we have had wonderful sunny days. On New Years Eve, our plans were to head into Benidorm to enjoy a great fireworks display while dug into the beach sand with a bottle of the bubbly. We did get to the beach, but decided to leave the “bubbly” at home. The fireworks display didn’t let us down. First of all, it was centered in one of the city plazas. They had “boomers” (huge fire crackers that are hung on a line one after another) that were so loud that it sounded like you were in the middle of a war…at times there must have been 60+ going off one after another. Then mixed in between they sent up the huge star burst pieces that would light up the sky for minutes on end. As each sky rocket was fired, it went right up past the windows of the high rise condominiums….SHWISSSS !!!! BANG !!! The crowds were excited, we were excited, and the dogs of the city left town… Well now that we are all set up, we are starting to sell off some of our things that aren’t needed any more. Today we sold our Camper Van tent, an electric drill, and one of our portable tables…”come one, come all, we have a “deal for you $$$”… We also signed up for 3 weeks of Wi-Fi that will give us 24/7 internet…I love it. 28 December ’05, Wednesday. Every travel book we have read and every person we have been talking to since arriving in Granada have said the same thing…”if you want to visit the Alhambra, and you must, you MUST have an appointment”. Well, I went to the office at the campground and asked if they would call for us. “You want it for today???” Fortunately she made the call for us and we were able to get a time for 3:30 this afternoon. That gave us plenty of time to see some of the other sites we wanted to fit into the morning. From the center of Granada you look to the right, and on top of the hill you find the Alhambra…you look to the left, and you find at the top of hill the Albayzin neighborhood. We will see the Alhambra later, so we took off hiking the narrow streets of the Albayzin neighborhood and to making our goal of the St Nicolas viewpoint. The Albayzin area is the oldest and best Moorish quarter in all of Spain, and we really enjoyed walking through it. We walked past many colorful corners, courtyards, flowery window boxes, shady lanes, and a small plaza market. At the top, we visited a Muslim school and Mosque and then walked across the plaza to the St Nicolas church and viewpoint. The views over the city and across the valley to the Alhambra were wonderful. Fact is, in 1997, President Clinton and his family made this one of their stops as well. Further up the hill is another area we had interest in, but with our time getting short all we could do was just look from a distance. That is the Sacromonte, the area of the Gypsy caves. There are many caves dug into the mountainside that have now been fronted with windows and a doorway. This is their home and in some cases, their businesses. Finding our way back down, we had a quick tapas lunch along side the river and then caught the bus that runs to up to the Alhambra. We were to tour the Alhambra in 4 different parts…Charles V’s Palace, Alcazaba Fort, Palacios Nazaries, and the Generalife (hen-ne-raw-LEEF-ay) gardens. We saw so many things we could write about, but I will just have to give the highlights. First, all of this sits high on a hill overlooking Granada and the valleys below. The snow topped mountains of the Sierra Nevada sit high above the Alhambra, and almost totally surround Granada…a beautiful setting. The Generalife was used as a summer home of the Moorish Kings. The Palacios Nazaries was the Moorish Palace that was built in the 14th century. The rooms that we visited were decorated from top to bottom with carved wood ceilings, stucco “stalactites”, ceramic tiles, molded plaster walls, and filigree windows and passages. Now it wasn’t just in the palace, it was the same throughout every building we saw today. The work that was done by the artists is absolutely unbelievable. All of the designs are taken from the Koran’s symbol of Heaven. In the designs that the Moorish used, there were no images of “man” anywhere. The open air areas always have a water feature, a fountain, elongated and square pools, flowing water troughs along the walkways, and more. The vegetation is always sculptured, and the pathways are inlaid bricks or stone. One of the most photographed parts of the Alhambra is the Court of the Lions which features 12 lions holding a large fountain on their back. Each of the lions used to spout water from its mouth. It was a way for the Moorish King and court to tell time by which lion was spouting the water. 4 hours later, we boarded the same bus that took us to the Alhambra and rode it down the hill and into town. When we got there, we decided to stay put and see just where this bus would go. It ended up taking us back up to the Albayzin area through some of the narrowest streets you could ever imagine. There were places that were so close to each side that the mirror would all most touch on each side at once. Don’t rock the bus !!! Then it was down the hill on the other side… What a wizard… One more bus to catch and we had to get on our way. Tomorrow, check-out and head across country to Benadorm 27 December ’05, Tuesday This morning we walked across the street and caught a bus into Granada. As always, the first time you step off the bus, train, or metro you stand there for a minute or two just to see if there is anything that might look familiar. Of course it wouldn’t look familiar because we had been there before, it would be because we saw a picture of it in one of our many tour books. Today wasn’t any different, we had no idea of which way to go first, so watching the locals disperse from the bus, we just watched which way most of them were going. It works most of the time, and it worked again today. Within 25 minutes, we were talking to the TI office, have a map in our pocket, and received some of the other important pieces of information….the internet cafes, cathedrals, palaces, etc. The old town and the new town of Granada come together easily. There are good signs to find your way around. The city isn’t too large so you can walk to just about everything that you might want to see in just no time. We did do a lot of hill walking today, but that was interspersed with stops throughout the day. We visited the Cathedral, which is one of two Renaissance churches and the second largest in Spain. They are doing some repairing on the interior, but we still had a good chance to see most of it. The pipe organ is one of the largest we have seen yet. All the trumpets, huge to tiny pipes, and all the gold…wow. The interior columns are gigantic. They look the size of a very old giant red wood tree, and they form their own forest for all there are in the church. Next door is the Royal Chapel. This is the 16th century Gothic chapel with the tombs of Queen Isabel, King Ferdinand, and their heirs to the throne, their daughter Juana “The Mad” and her husband King Philip “The Fair”. Prior to taking this trip, I had a life that I thought had been somewhat trained in the histories of Europe, but now that I’ve been here I can see just how little I did know. Yes, I knew some about King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, Christopher Columbus and on and on. Now that we have stood at the foot of the tombs of all three of them, and many more Saints, Popes, Kings, Queens, Pharaohs, and others, it has kindled a need to know more. Fortunately, I have a good teacher in my wife. Lucky for us, we decided to take the umbrella with us, for like last night, it rained off and on most of the day. We weren’t bothered too much by it because of the time we spent visiting all the sites. One of the churches we did get into today wasn’t even mentioned in the tour books, and I thought it was absolutely beautiful. It was un-like any other we have seen. It was called Nuestra Senora de las Angustias. It would do it an injustice to describe what we saw, so if my pictures turn out, you will have a chance to see what I’m talking about. Now a little about some special people that live here in Granada…the Gypsies or “Gitano”. They have found a special home here in Granada. The people of Granada not only tolerate them, they have made them feel welcome (as long as they stay in the Sacromonte. There are about 50,000 Gitano’s living here and we have come across them with just about every corner we have come to. Some of the ladies are selling sprigs of rosemary and the men are trying to shine your shoes. The downfall from their sales techniques is that while they are doing that, they are also trying to get into your pocket…really, “their” hands into your pockets… We were approached many times, but when I waved the umbrella at them, they got the heck out of the way. On the other hand, it was fun to watch them work on the unaware. We didn’t see them get into any ones pocket or purse, but it wasn’t for not trying. Ok, that’s it for the day, but tomorrow we will be back. We are going to have to finish our site-seeing in Granada soon, as this morning we had some pretty heavy snow fall all around us and the forecast is for a lot more to come this week. 26 December ’05, Monday. We were leaving Ronda just as the weather was changing. The rain had been with us off and on most of the night, so when it came time to pack, we got a little lucky. The rain let up and didn’t show up again until last night. We had a nice drive to Granada through the mountains and foothills. It is amazing to us the amount of olive trees that they have in Spain. When we were traveling through Turkey, we thought they had a bunch, but now that we’ve had a pretty thorough look in Spain, we know what we had heard was true. Most of the time we were on the road yesterday, all we could see from the top of one mountain to the valley of the next and then on up to the top were olive trees. We were surprised at the amount of them that hadn’t been picked yet. The olives are black on the tree, but we have learned that these are most likely going to be used for olive oil, as the older the fruit, the more oil available. That was new to us, because when we visited the olive pressing plant just outside of Sparta, Greece, they were pressing green olives for the oil…OK, who’s telling us the truth ??? As we pulled on to the last portion of the highway coming into Granada, we could only tell by the signs telling us we were close. Trying to see the “City” of Granada from the major highways is either tough to distinguish or you just can’t see it. So, we just followed the signs far enough to find our campground. We are camped in a suburb of Granada called La Zubia. We had a wonderful dinner at the campground restaurant last night. We were there last night because we didn’t get to a grocery store prior to setting up. I think I will blame that one on Louise…naughty, naughty. Tomorrow…Granada 24/25 December ’05, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning (well after 10 when we finally rolled out of bed) we put our walking boots on and headed into town. This time is was just to be a part of the Christmas shopping crowd most of all. With nothing in mind to spend our money on, we just went from shoe store to shoe store (Louise’s idea…). Naa, it wasn’t exactly like that, we did go into a couple of clothing stores as well. Fact is, I was the first one to buy anything. I thought I needed a pair of pants for our Christmas “Lunch”, so finding a pair of cords I felt that I was ready. This was the first pair of “cords” I’ve had for over 30 years. OK, I’m ready… Now it was off to see every shoe store in town. Actually I had a good time walking through the stores and pulling shoes off the shelf and asking…”How about this one ???”. I’m sure you know the answers I was getting… Finally successful, we headed off to the grocery store and then strolled our way back to “Bumble Bee”. We ( I ) thought it was time for lunch, but Louise had a good idea for lunch at home, so after finding out what she had in mind, I agreed. After a quiet evening, we settled in for the night in anticipation for Sundays “lunch”. I don’t know what it is, but since we have been in southern Spain, we have been staying in bed until well after 9 am…fact is, it’s 9:30 at least before “I” roll out and head for the shower. This had better improve before we head back to the states. Merry Christmas !!! Its Christmas morning (and again after 9:20). A “wonderful breakfast” purchased a wonderful sweater in a small mountain town outside of Valencia, and decided this morning that it just wouldn’t work with the new cords, so I put the cords away and pulled out my black jeans (heck, I really didn’t need the cords anyway…). Louise got all dressed up in her bright new hot pink sweater and black shawl and together we headed off to town one more time…lunch was waiting. I had mentioned earlier that we had made reservations at the “Parador de Ronda” for their Christmas Lunch. When we got there, the tables were all set up with 3 large wine glasses, a champagne glass, 4 different forks and 3 knifes, and some wonderful table accessories…now this is going to be a special lunch. The menu read like a book: Each person was to receive 6 different appetizers, a sub main course, main course, first desert, second deserts (6 different ones at once), as much white wine as you would like with the first half of lunch, as much red wine as you would like with the last half of lunch, and then it was into the champagne that never found the bottom of the glass, and finally a cup of coffee. Just to give you a sample of the menu; Appetizers Iberian Cured Ham Acorn Iberian Pork Loin Cured Goat Cheese from Ronda Sweet Duck Wrapped in Crisp Pastry Home Made Meat Croquettes Sub Main Stuffed Piquillo Red Peppers with Sea Crab Main Grilled Tenderloin of Veal First Desert Warm Ice Sabayon with Wild Fruits Christmas Cake and Almond Nougats And, And, And… I’m afraid I have a slight guilty feeling right now, but one thing I know, IT WILL PASS !!! Tomorrow, we move onto Granada…tonight, I try to recover from this afternoon… 23 December ’05, Friday. We found out about an arrival of “The Three Kings” for tonight, so we decided to stay around camp until later tonight and then go into see the arrival ourselves. That also gave us a chance to do a little laundry. It seems that doing the laundry is almost a daily routine. For the two of us, we do seem to go through a lot of clothes washing, but you know the old saying… ”Cleanliness is closer to Godliness”… The weather has changed a little by the wind calming and the sun coming out off and on. The temperature seems to have increased as well, but I’ll bet it was just the difference in the wind chill. We had a pork roast that I was to barbecue, so at 3 I put that on to grill. Putting that together with some great pasta, we had an early dinner and then dressed for the night in town. We missed the first part of the Three Kings arrival, but made that up by being early for the second. The second part “Benlen Viviente” (The Live Nativity), took place in a courtyard beside the old city walls. We climbed the rock step to the top of the city walls to see the view and watch things get set up below. The crowds arrived slowly, but as we looked down into the valley below, we could see people coming out of their homes and walking toward the walls. The little kids jumping all around in expectation of the evening ahead. Every once in awhile, there was a large firecracker sent into the air for an explosion that would rock you where you stood. At an area of the wall that was used as an entry into the wall, they had a crib set up and a couple of young teenagers had dressed as Mary and Joseph. Just outside of the entry, there was a cow, mule, and about 15 sheep. In a niche above the entry stood an Angel. Further up on the wall a star lit the way to the crib. Out into the grounds beyond the wall there were a “smithy”, woodcarver, potter, and women working a spinning wheel. To keep the people warm, they had built 3 bon-fires scattered around the area (boy, can you see the lawyers handing out their business cards in the states on this one??? Oh yes, the stairs leading to the top, and all along the wall, didn’t have a railing to hold you back from falling either, which was about 30 feet at the highest point). There was a large stage set up for a group that sang and danced Spanish folk and Flamingo songs all night. Along the back of the courtyard they were serving sweet bread that they cooked in a hot oil pot, home made sausages, olives, other meats and cheeses, and 2 different home brewed sweet liquors that tasted wonderful on a cool night around an open bon-fire. When the crowd got to the largest, the arrival of the Three Kings and Papa Noel was just what the kids was looking for. It was wonderful to see the excitement of all those kids, or should I say most of … Just like home, there are some that just don’t want anything to do with “that strange looking person”… Now at last, the kids could pull out their “List” and present it to the Kings in great anticipation that come the 6th of January, every item on it would be delivered to them because they had been “The Best Kids In The Whole World”… All and all, WE ALL had a great time and now have some additional memories we can look back on…Christmas in a small town in Spain…Ronda. |
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