An Andalucian Adventure

Let's set the scene right in the beginning, shall we? A very poor example of a summer in the UK in 2012, followed by a cold, dark, damp winter and my thoughts began to turn to being warm (hot, perhaps) and in a sunny climate for a while. Elseline found a tour of some of the main cities in Andalucia -  Seville, Cordoba, Malaga, Ronda and Granada - and this met all the criteria we had set, so it was booked and before we knew it, we were embarking on the plane from Bournemouth to Malaga. Just so you get the picture I have thoughtfully provided a map to enable you to see the area. The area marked with the "A" is the town of Mollina (Mo-yee-na), where we stayed at a B&B villa.

The Andalucian Area of Spain

The first day we had was a free day, so we went to Mijas (almost on the coast in the centre of the map).

This is a town 7 miles from the Med, halfway up the mountains. It has a bullring, which is not that unusual for Spanish towns. It is also an example of what is known as a "pueblo blanco" or white village, as all the buildings are blindingly white. Seems quite reasonable in the heat of summer.

Owing to the heat, there are lots of under cover patios where it is a lot cooler and they are a delight to see. After our hill climb, we ate at one, on the roof, under a grape vine.

All the little streets are decorated with pots of flowers on the walls and it makes a pretty sight.

 Most of the flowers are red or pink, but I particularly enjoyed this white one.

After our obligatory cup of coffee, we left the little town and walked up the hill, as this seemed like a much better thing than shopping for tourist tat in all the shops that abound in all of the towns we visited.   There is a pathway to follow that leads up and up and up, past a shrine and on the the peak far above. Eventually we only got about 7/8 of the way up, but what a lovely climb!

Here we are, only a little way up and still very keen and almost cool!

The slope was unending, but occassionally there would be a copse of pine trees to provide a bit of shade. Not that it was really required as the day was not very hot.

A little bit of local fauna......

And some of the pretty wildflowers.....

It seems as if  the theories about the origins of the Easter Island statues might be inaccurate! I found this stone on the hillside.

A girl, very pleased with her ability to scramble over the hills, pointing off towards the west and perhaps trying to say that is where I should go!

All around the town itself, there are little gorges and in some of them, rock climbers were practising their art.

Our first day, off to Mijas, was a free day for us. The rest of the tour group arrived during that day. The tour began with a trip to Seville, also known as the furnace of Andalucia. We started off with seeing the  magnificent Plaza De Espana, built spcifically for the 1929 Exhibition, but was unfortunately a bit of a white elephant due to the stock market bust that happened at the same time.

And so we were off to the Old Town. I have a thing for doors and this one caught my eye, not surprisingly, as it is magnificently carved!

We stopped for lunch in the Jewish Quarter and one of the little bodega-cum-restaurants had a good display of the typical spanish hams hanging. Apparently the person who carves these has to have done a lengthy course on it!

Being the furnace of Andalucia, it made sense to build the old buildings really close together, so as to expose as little open ground to the blast of the midday heat (in the mid to upper 40's C) as possible. Clever people.....

 The exterior of the buildings are drab and plain, but once you get a peek through a door, you see a whole new world. I really like the idea of an interior courtyard, around which the house is built.

And finally, we came to the Real Alcazar. This is a building that has influences from the Arabic period (8th century), right the way through to the 19th century. That which is most striking is from the Arabic period, the detail and intricacy of which is astounding and has to be seen to be appreciated.

I have a fondness for a bougainvillea hedge and this was a rather good one!

Peter The Cruel (whose palace the Real Alcazar was) had a mistress who apparently used to bath in the cool waters of the underground water tanks and they have now taken her name, the Baths of Lady Maria de Padilla.

Another look at the incredible attention to detail that was applied to these buildings. The craftmanship is simply awesome.

The Hall of Ambassadors has a domed roof the likes of which I have never seen. I assume it was no accident that this breathtaking scene was where the throne was and where  official receptions took place. It must have been rather daunting and mind-blowing to see what magnificence had been created. If I seem a little effusive, it's only because it is entirely beyond words and I have been attempting to describe the indescribable.

Elsewhere int the palace there were a number of rather large tapestries which have sadly faded a little over time, but would have been magnificent in their own right. This one below is of part of the known world (at the time).

Horseshoe arches seemed to be all the rage, as they abounded throughout the palace. Lots of things in sets of three, but I dont know the significance of that.

Cordoba was next on the list.... There is an annual competition for the best patio flower display. This is one of the entries.

It also had a yellow rose - Mom, this is just for you!

Oh dear, I found another door.....

We were led to one of only 3 surviving medieval synagogues, this one was built in 1315 and was used after the Jews were expelled in 1492 by the guild of shoemakers. It was a hospital and a nursery school at some time too.

After yet another delicious Spanish lunch, we headed off to the Mezquita. One of the first things you see upon entering is this wooden window.

Some closeup detail of the window...

And so on to the Mezquita..... The red bricks in the arches below are actually jasper, all of them! And there are 856 columns made of jasper, onyx, marble and granite.

Originally there was a (tiny) cathedral built around the year 600. When the Arabs invaded, they bought half of the cathedral & for about 200 years they worshipped side-by-side. Eventually the Christians moved off and by the year 987 the Mezquita had reached the size it is today. Strangely there is a big cathedral in the centre still, with some AWESOME woodcarvings, as you can see in the pictures below.

There is an Islamic prayer niche, which used to contain a golden decorated Koran. The worshippers would circle the niche seven times on their knees and this has worn a path in the marble floor

Now - is that not a beauty? But really, what a door! What you see is only the bottom half of it and there are 2 of them to close the entrance.

The next day dawned with us anticipating 20-odd degrees in Malaga, so I donned shorts for the occassion. Unfortunately, the day began with a trip to the mountains where it was a mere 3C!!! I must admit to shivering a little. The trip to El Torcal allowed us to have a little walk around the rocks and crevices of this magnificent karst landscape. The low clouds with fleeting breaks of sunshine made it look really dramatic.

During this walk, there was a moment when a fox walked right past us, not 5 feet away from us - quite unconcerned about our presence. We also came across this lovely wild peony.

From El Torcal, we headed off to the coast at Malaga where we had lunch at the beach at a restaurant which is frequented by the locals and not the hordes of tourists. This was born out by the lack of languages spoken, other than English (our tour) and Spanish (all the rest). The prices seemed to reflect this too. Most of the group ate the freshly caught and cooked sardine, but I cannot bring myself to eat fish that hasn't been scaled or cleaned, so I went for the calamari.

Back into town after lunch and we visited the Alcazaba (the palace) which was a rather impressive edifice that must have been quite impregnable in it's day.

From the walls of the Alcazaba we could see the bullring in the town and the Med beyond.

A scale model of the Alcazaba does not include the fortress (the Gibralfaro) that sits above it at the top of the hill. 

As ever, there is a fountain and water flowing to a pool in the courtyard in the palace.

And a drinking fountain, although the water is not for human consumption these days. Perhaps they had stronger constitutions back then? 

Ronda is a lovely town, split by a gorge and joined by a few bridges. This is the view from where we ate lunch, looking upstream.

And from below the new bridge (built in the mid-18th century). It has some dark historical moments, as both sides in the Spanish civil war threw opponents off it.

Use is made of the river, the gorge and the waterfall. While we were eating lunch we saw a bunch of youngsters heading upstream, going canyoning. When we took a walk (clamber?) down to the base of the bridge and beyond, we saw some abseilers going down the waterfall.

It seems as if there were lots of happy people, to be able to wade, abseil or climb steep slopes!

There are a number of properties right on the edge overlooking the view which is described only as breath-taking.

After climbing back up the slope we found a quiet and peaceful cafe to have a refreshing cup of coffee.

As with all of these old towns, there are remains of the walls and gates.

This was the only bridge, built bt the Arabs and with the remains of arabic baths just beyond them.

The final city on the tour was Granada. We were told not to eat much for breakfast as we would be eating churros first thing.  A great thing, a fine churreria!

As we had some time to spare before going up to the Alhambra, we went shopping. For us it was a herb and spice shop and one particular blend of tea had been sold out, much to my chagrin!

We also found an icecream shop that had some watermelon carvings in it. This is a wonderful art!

 And so on to the Alhambra, which boasts some lovely gardens that include well tended hedges.

Oh, and the ubiquitous water feature.  This one was particularly splendid.

The Alhambra contains several palaces. After a few hours of wondering through the various gardens, fortified castles and other buildings, we queued up to get into the Nasrid Palace. Rather bored by the whole thing we entered the building, not expecting too much, but were soon flabbergasted, gobsmacked and simply blown away by the splendour inside. So much so, in fact that I forgot to take any decent photographs and am left with just these three that are worthwhile sharing. The rest are all skew, blurred or otherwise just not acceptable.

This little panel shows the sheer attention to detail that the craftspeople paid when making the palace.

The roof of one of the rooms is just as detailed.

So, folks, that was our tour which we booked through Tour Andalucia, who I am very happy to endorse.

Ooh la-la!

I had a few days vacation of the "use-it-or-loose-it" variety and my dear wife and I decided that we would go and spend a few days in the Norfolk Broads. After a few days of searching for a suitable hotel, B&B or self-catering place, we were beginning to despair on finding a place in time. We delight in watching certain TV programs, one of which was Monty Don's French Gardens. In one episode, he discussed going to  Claude Monet's garden at Giverny. He then went on to show us a little bit of Monet's Waterlily panels on display in Paris.  "I'd love to see that!" said my wife. 

"Why don't we go there then?" I asked, having attempted several times before to take my wife to Paris in the springtime (even though strictly speaking, this would be pre-springtime).

So it was that we decided almost on the spur of the moment to go to Paris. Eurostar offered some specials with various hotels and before we could say "Jack Robinson", it was all booked and we were ready to set off. Wow - 4 nights in Paris, what shall we do? Straight to the library and the internet to research things to do, sights to see. Everything said the same: the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower and shopping, shopping, shopping. Well, we are not the world's greatest shoppers, so we left that off the list.

The journey itself was uneventful and we were deposited on the platform at Gare Du Nord and left to fend for ourselves, in a city full of Frenchmen, who according to various horror stories imparted by well-meaning friends, hate the guts of anyone speaking English! And here we were, barely able to say "bonjour" between the two of us. It must be said that we have never had any such experience ourselves. Luckily we had bought a guidebook with a Metro (underground) map and this allowed us to find our way to our hotel where we booked in, dumped the suitcases and had a breather. 

Then, as we were tourists, we had to head out to see the sights! Our first point of call was Montmarte and the Basillica of Sacre-Coeur.

This is built on the highest point in Paris and commands a great view in all directions. For the observant among you reading this, you will have noticed the skies are grey and low. This combined to ensure that we were unable to see this view, no matter how lovely the guidebooks all said it was.

 

There are a lot of grand buildings in Paris which have these verdigrised statues outside them, this one guards the entrance to the church. I love the way they seem to shine green against the grey background of the mighty edifices behind them.

Around the world one comes across some strange signposts. This one baffled me. Does it mean no synchronised skipping? Or is it stating that the scene behind it is illegal, the man ought to be holding the hand of the child? I never found out...

The front door to the cathedral Saint-Pierre de Montmarte, just around the corner from the Basillica. It was closed when we were there, else we would have gone in and looked around. From this side it doesnt look like much, but apparently it is beautiful inside.

A day wondering Parisian walkways would not be the same without a cup of coffee and a crepe, now would it?

Heading back down the hill took us past this famous site, but we didn't go in, as we did not have the correct dress code!

The next day dawned as cold and grey as any we experienced the whole trip. We did get seriously cold there!  So onto Day 2 - guess where we went and what we saw?

This is in a building that most people enter near a glass pyramid, go downstairs and buy their tickets, then get to wander along 17 kilometres of corridors of absolutely amazingly awesomeness. 

Don't you just love the spiral staircase? The Louvre contains so many items on display that as (according to various guides we heard) if a person were to spend three minutes in front of each, then it would take 3 months, twenty four hours a day, to see them all. 

As we only had a few days, we decided we would be exceedingly selective and headed directly to the Mona Lisa. Yes, very touristy I know, but now at least that is one off the bucket list! 

Now, I work with a man by name of Bassano, a very fine man. But what, I want to know is this: what happened to all the money Jacopo Bassano made from painting for the Doge of Venice?

Then there were a few of the Dutch Masters' works....... This one is Vermeer's The Lacemaker.

There were some, which I did not recognise and know nothing about, except that the colours were so fresh and vibrant that they looked like they were finished yesterday.

After these astounding pieces, each of which blew my mind just a little bit more, we decided to take a break and we headed to the area of the museum devoted to statues and carving.

This was an enormous area covered over with glass and had the most amazing pieces spread out all over the place. I was simply gobsmacked by the works in front of me, and I am afraid that I do not remember much from here except I was stunned.

I cannot name these pieces, I have no photos of the great works there, but a few really took my fancy and I hope in time to be able to try my hand at these with some woodcarving. This "green man" above would be a lovely piece to do, I think.

This plaque above, too, would be a nice one to make an attempt of.  

The ceilings were not immune to being displayed. There are some incredible ones to be seen. Here we have half of the roof span. The detail is quite amazing.

Another fine example, this one being painted, not sculpted (moulded?).....

And finally we came to a certain statue from Greece.  Anyone know who this is?

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This delightful lady came from the island of Milo...

And here she is in all her glory. What an incredible piece!

It is amazing that in this building, the staircases, the doors, even the windows are not just functional, but become works of art all by themselves.

Leaving the Louvre, as we could not take in any more, we walked down through the garden towards the Obelisk and the start (end?) of the Champs Elysses.

From here we made a sharp left turn and entered the Musee d'Orangerie, where I experienced one of the most amazing things in my life - the panels painted by Claude Monet. I cannot begin to explain what I felt as I sat and stared at these magnificent, incredible, indescribable pieces.  I could have stayed there for days!

No photography was allowed of the main exhibition of the Waterlily panels (humph!), but there is a different section where you can take photos. This section hold paintings from many people, not just Monet, but this is one of his many that he did at Argenteuil. This man was an absolute genius!

A friend of my wife had told her we needed to go to a certain area (Cadet) to look at at knitting shop, which we did. Having left there, we discovered this sweet shop above. Everything in the window is made from chocolate, even the puffer fish!

Around the corner, in a little glass-ceilinged passageway, we found a needlework shop that had the most amazing items on display, and some were too irresistible and had to be bought.

The following day found us outside this little building. It is currently celebrating it's 850th anniversary and rather a lot of people were there to wish it well! Didn't see a single hunchback though.

Look at the size of those doorways! 

Strangely the spire of this cathedral is rather muted, compared to those others I know, such as Winchester and Salisbury

And from the south, showing the rose window, which is astonishing from the interior.

This is a little bridge over the Seine from Isle de la Cite, the island that the Notre Dame is on, to the South Bank.

After coming out of the cathedral, we discovered that it was rather cold and decided a hot drink was required. Also, we needed to sit and rest a while so this is a photo of a cup of hot chocolate enjoying it's last moments before oblivion.

On all of the bridges over the Seine, one can see hundreds of locks, locked to the structure of the bridge. What one is supposed to do is to write your and your lover's name on it, lock it to the bridge, then throw the key into the river, so you are joined together for eternity. How romantic.

Wondering the roads and alleys of the islands, we came across this little shop and discovered we were a little peckish. We disappeared inside and devoured a delicious three course meal.

Which just happened to include deux verres de vin rouge. Meet Ms. Beaujolais and Mr. Bordeaux.

I take a certain delight in photographing doorways. Not artistically or anything like that, but straight-on and I make no apologies for this. I simply enjoy the different ways people make portals. Here are a couple of them for you to enjoy too!

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This one is exquisitely decorated on top of it all.

From this point, all distances from Paris are measured. It is known as Point Zero, or Kilometre Zero. It is just outside the entrance to Notre Dame.

The oldest remaining bridge over the Seine - Pont Neuf, leading to the Right Bank.

Outside the cathedral is this statue of Charlemagne. Wow - what a moustache this guy is sporting!

A close-up of all those locks - it is so popular that the street venders are selling the locks & pens to write the names with!

  

Saturday was just as gloomy as all the others, although there were signs that the grey blanket was beginning to thin and fray. This was the day we headed to that great piece of engineering, the Eiffel Tower. What an incredible structure for it's day and it still is.

The view from the top was rather misty and constrictive, but we could just about make out the Basillica in the distance which we had visited on our first day.

This is one of the few quintessential sites we did not get to, the monument to triumphalism, the Arc de Triomf. An enormous and imposing edifice, but I think that is the whole point of it! Isnt it amazing what Photoshop can do? This was such a misty image, like the others for today, until I used the built-in Auto Image Enhance function.

Looking east from the tower, the city of Paris sprawls over the Left Bank

Apparently every hour, for 10 minutes, the tower sparkles at night, as these triangular lights twinkle. It must be beautiful, but we didnt get to see it as we were both knackered by about 7 p.m. each night from all the walking around we had been doing, plus the misty weather.  Something to go back for...

This is just to proove we were there & didnt just get the pics from some random place! Boy, it was a cold, cold day!

I just loved this telescope and could not resist photographing it. I love the way the  top disappears into the background. 

This was a terrific trip and I didn't even mention our visit our visit to the Musee d'Orsay, the home of The Impressionists. That is another story and another visit that blew my mind! I shall never be the same and I blame Monty Don for this. Damn you, Monty!