A New Adventure in France

After a week exploring the coastal area around Nerja we decided to head a little way inland to visit Granada and the Alhambra while we had the opportunity. We didn’t fancy negotiating Granada with the van and trailer so we stopped for a couple of nights at a site at Beas de Granada, not far outside Granada itself, with views over the snow-capped Sierra Nevada and with a direct bus to Granada stopping just outside.

The weather that week cooled off a little, so it was even cooler in the hills and distinctly nippy when we set off early for Granada.  We had managed to book tickets a couple of days beforehand for the general area of the Alhambra and timed tickets to visit the Nasrid Palaces, built for the Nasrid Sultans in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Alhambra site sits on a hill above central Granada and we had time to walk around some of the historic centre of Granada before taking one of the small city buses that go up to the Alhambra – we decided that walking downhill at the end of the day would be easier than the very steep walk up. The extensive site has three main areas and we headed first for the Generalife, an area outside of the main Alhambra walls and including a recreational building of the Nasrid Sultans, landscaped gardens and an area also originally  used for agriculture.

A description of what we saw would end up sounding like a guide book and there are plenty of those available, so suffice to say that we explored the whole site at a leisurely pace, enjoying the architecture and views over Granada. Amazingly, we also bumped into, again, friends from Lot et Garonne who were visiting on the same day! For Joe, the imposing Alcazaba, the oldest part of the Alhambra, a former defensive area with walls and towers that also housed the military residential quarter, was his favourite part of the visit, as well as the other outside areas.

For me, it was probably the interiors of the Nasrid Palaces with the beautiful ceilings and tiles, courtyards and colonnades. It certainly was a very leisurely way to visit the city, with a scenic bus ride both ways. 

Our accommodation stops continue to provide variety and contrasts. Both recent stops coincidentally have been owned and run by Brits. The  campsite at Nerja, whilst not scenic and in need of some modernisation of facilities,  had a good community feel to it and draws in the expat crowd for its weekly Sunday pool parties with live music. After heading out for a walk in the morning we decided to see what went on and in the early afternoon the expats from the nearby town were bussed in.  The live music was very good, as was the food, but it did feel strange to be sitting around a pool in January. Some of the hardier souls even went in for a dip. Let’s hope the profits from these events will enable the owner to develop the site a bit. 

After Granada we spent a few days travelling cross-country through miles and miles of olive groves with off-grid overnight stops at various scenic spots. Our next base was at a ‘Casa Rural’, a privately owned house, run as a B&B by the expat British owner and with pitches in the grounds for 4 motorhomes. The house is near the town of Coín, a typically Spanish town, located about 35 minutes inland equidistant between Malaga and Marbella. The main industry in the area is fruit growing so we were surrounded by fields of orange and lemon trees. It was certainly a tranquil spot and was a good base for visiting coastal and inland spots with the scooter.

There are any number of white hillside villages that you could visit, but one of our favourites has been Mijas, midway between our site and the coast. It’s a popular destination for tourists, with regular bus services from both Fuengirola and Torrelmolinos, and you can imagine it would be inundated in high season. However it felt lively but uncrowded on a sunny day in January. We were also treated to a pre-lunch display of flamenco dancing in the central square. 

Another outing took us further down the hill from Mijas to Benalmadena, a coastal resort between Fuengirola and Torrelmolinos. As we came down the hill towards the coast we stopped to look at two quite unexpected sites – both fairly recent. The first was the Stupa of Enlightenment, a Buddhist temple and at 33 metres high the tallest stupa in Europe, inaugurated in 2003.

The second was the Castillo Monumento Colares, a monument dedicated to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and built between 1978 and 1994 by a Spaniard, Dr Esteban Martin y Martin who had lived and worked in the USA before returning to Spain. The  information provided describes the castle as a fusion of architectural styles but it would probably be more accurate to describe it as a folly or hotch potch!

We’re having plenty of opportunity to try Spanish food and drink and very much enjoying it. We learned very quickly that a dish shown as a starter is often as large as a main course so we rarely need to order a main course and just try the local starters, tapas style. Olives or crisps are usually provided when you order drinks but we discovered in the Granada area that it is the tradition to offer a tapas dish with drinks, so if you have several drinks you might not need lunch! My new favourite drink is a ‘tinto de verano’ or summer red wine, a mix of red wine and fizzy lemon, probably not dissimilar to sangria. 

Although we’re in what we think of as the winter season, it’s so lovely to see colourful flowers and plants everywhere. I love the bougainvillea and the bright orange flame vine that we see everywhere as well as the ‘cup of gold’ vine. 

I think it’s just me, but the Spanish sign for cows on the road always reminds me of a pantomime cow, wearing a baggy costume!