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Hello Everyone, how´s things? Hope you´re all well!
Apologies that´s it´s taken a little while to get our first blog under way but when it´s really hot and you´re being lazy in the sun then it´s very hard. We also haven´t really had proper internet access till now. The irony isn´t lost that the first blog comes the day I fly back to the uk for Madonna, leaving Kia to baby sit Rich (and Kisha and Daniel of course) but we have an hour before driving back to Almeria so thought we´d fire one out quick.
So, what have we been up to?? The first few days were spent relaxing and catching up with Kisha and Daniel in La Mela. This is a small Hamlet (smaller than village), about 50 minutes from Almeria. To say it´s a lovely place doesn´t really do it justice. It´s such a small place a traffic jam would consist of the goats, meeting the man on the donkey and possibly a car if you´re unlucky. It´s really beautiful and it´s not hard to see why Kisha and Daniel are so happy here. The surroundings are hilly and rural and it´s pretty stunning. Surprise surprise though.....there´s
The goats
otherwise known as a traffic jam! one little bar within walking distance and....it´s run by non spanish speaking english! Typical! Saying that.....they serve great tapas and cheap booze....WINNER! Many a lazy afternoon spent there.....and probably a few more to come.
We didn´t sit on our butts doing nothing for long.....Daniel took some time off so we had a very fun packed weekend, visiting Beaches in Almeria and Caba de gata, which is a beautiful national park close to San Jose. San Jose was pretty cool, filled with hippy´s and a marina. We spent an afternoon in a funky bar after leaving the windy beach behind. Was a little extreme for us unaclimatised two and little Kai. The bar worked too though and we had a few wines....well a bottle and sat and enjoyed the crazy hippy´s and the techno. Nice!
Next up, Mini Hollywood. Great day out although was a little off colour due to.....err.....still aclimitising to the Spainish heat. We didn´t have very high expectations for it really but it turned out to be a really good day. Basically, there are a few old backdrops left from when Hollywood came here to film the old Spaghetti Westerns: example The Good the Bad and
Mini Hollywood
home of the spagetti western the Ugly, and some bright spark has turned them into theme parks. We chose the one with a zoo attached as we had the boy with us....and it turned out to be great! There was a slightly dodgy re-enactment of a bank robbery which was a little on the slow side but all in all, the rest of the day was tip top! The zoo was wicked, set in really lovely mountain surrounds. All the animals we expect to see in africa, big cats, rhino, hippo, and our favourite, meerkats :-) The backdrops of mountains were really amazing! Kit, found a little something for you....will post pictures when we remember camera, leads and memory sticks all together.
We had a lovely time with The Boakes family and thank them for a great week. Will deposit Richard later.....Ta!
We decided time to strike out on our own.....EEK! So, after hirering a car (a fiesta no less...ha ha ha) we headed for Granada....via Guadix. The drive was as stunning as we´d hoped with the snow capped Sierra Nevada spanning to our left. The motorways are pretty easy to figure which was good as I was left in charge of navigating.....more
of that soon....
We stopped off in Guadix, famous for it´s cave houses after about an hours drive. Wow.....very strange place. Looks like something out of Starwars...Tatooine to be precise. All these little domed houses going into the mountains with chimmenies pocking out of the rocks. Was really funny. We had a stroll to a view point and took some cool pictures....to follow. Then, following our hungry bellies and decided to find somwhere to eat. With no English speakers and our very little Spanish we managed to order two beers at 10.30 in the morning....result, we hit gold. Now comes something that we leant and will take round the rest of Spain with us.......TAPAS IS FREE! It´s Heavan!!! Cheese, Ham....Chorizo, Olives, Bread...(mouth watering again as I type).....it´s all FREE! Who needs Spanish.....all we need is Dos Cervezas por favor (two beers please)! BRILLIANT!
Granada has been great. Ít´s a beautiful city, domiated by La Alhambra which is a huge red, amazingly stunning castle on the hill. After a 3.5 hour queue which would test the patience of a spanish saint....Rich pushed in a faster queue and we aquired two tickets for Nazrid Palaces abd the General Life Gardens.
We tried not to be too smug about this stroke of genius cheating as we left the queue of equally frustrated tourists of all nationalities. We returned after a sleep for our alloted time slot of 14.00. The Castle was pretty cool in itself and the grounds really green and lush. Water features heavlily throughout the grounds.
We queued once again to enter the actual palaces and wow....all the waiting was worth while. It was amazing!! There was a strong muslim influence (as was built by Muslims way back when) and each room had walls carved in marble which must have taken years to sculpt. Again, photo´s will follow. Water also featured in nearly every room which cooled everything down and could be considered as art in most parts. Very clever fountains which would link rooms with water channels...leading to more fountains and pools of water. Orange trees and interconnecting gardens also featured heavily.....never really sure if you were inside or out. Really clever. The views over Granada was fatastic too, all framed in ornate arabic arched windows. Very good.
So...we have survived three days alone we haven´t got lost, starved or been robbed yet. Although there was a
slight incident with a key (wasn´t there Rich) and I seem to be struggling to stay awake past midnight. We´re all good though and I´m excited about flying back for the Big Weekend and Rich is looking forward to some more relaxing sun, beer and free tapa!
So.....hope we´ve not bored you too much. Will add photo´s as soon as we figure out how and we miss everyone very much! Sorry if we haven´t yet replied to emails but thanks for the updates. Will get round to replying when we´ve ploughed through the junk emails.
Love to all.....hope you enjoyed and speak soon!
Au revoir!
xxxxx
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Diana
non-member comment
lucky lucky lucky !!!
wow sounds like you are having a fantastic time... great start !! and soooooooo jealous that you are going to see Madonna !!! I think you should stay on holiday and let me go instead LOL!!!!!! Enjoy it all... you deserve it !!! xxx