Drive to Madrid; fly to Malaga; drive to Arcos

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Today is going to be an agressive travel day. We are driving over the mountains to Madrid where we catch a plane for Malaga and then drive the sea coast, up over another mountain range and arrive in Arcos for a three nights stay.

We had a big breakfast for Spanish standards at the hotel and headed off. L&M know the area so we stopped at a small hamlet, Valsain, on the way out of town and could not believe the ruins. There are apparently so many ruins in Spain that some are just taken for granted and ignored. You can see from the photo that firewood is stacked against the stone arches with tractors parked nearby....amazing.

As we headed into the mountains it started to snow and cloud covered so there was not much of a view at the top. We got out to hike a bit and had to really bundle up. I'm glad I put on my thermal underwear and brought some gloves. There is a gorgeous pine tree that has a mottled, almost exfoliating bark that appears red against the dark needles and sky.

As we descended from the mountains the cloud cover cleared and we had some wonderful views of the valleys below. We did not make time for any touring in Madrid and a lot of time would have been wasted in traffic, but we did enjoy the architecture. The Spanish take every opportunity to express creativity and it is quite evident in their buildings and bridges. If you need to return a rental car at the Madrid airport leave plenty of time as it's not intuative, the signage is nearly non-existent and it's located in the most remote terminal. They do have a bus system, but don't count on US timetables for flight transfers.

The flight to Malaga was uneventful, which is exactly what we had hoped for. It was my turn to drive so the pressure was on as Mike set high standard...no scratches or near death experiences...even with Lynn and Ruth giving continual commentaries.

The ladies wanted to avoid the beaches and tourists, but the guys wanted to see the "scenic" Mediterranean beaches. Since we were driving we won this discussion. We found a place to park and walked the boardwalk til we found a suitable place to grab some tapas, beer and sangria....view of beach, in the shade and the smell of cooking fish...perfect. I strolled off to take in the "scenery" and it never became clear how the food was ordered by the ladies, but instead of tapas I came back to find a whole grilled sea bass at our table along with various other dishes and the pitcher of sangria. Not the tapas we intended but what a great meal. They have old boats out on the beach filled with hot coals. Pick out your fish and they cook it right there for you.

I was glad I slipped into the servico in the airporrt and took off my thermal underwear as now could unzip my legs from my REI pants, put on sandles and sit there in the sun. We marvelled at the fact a couple of hours ago we were all bundled up in the snow.

As we left the beach and got up into the hills we found what I have always associated with Spain...whitewashed buildings. The towns and villages were gorgeous against the hillsides with the seafront in the distance.

It was going to be close for getting to Arcos by sunset, so we (I) tried to resist stopping at each new vantage point for a picture. The landscape was ever changing and the wildflowers seem to be at their peak. We were fascinated by the forest of trees with bark cut off many feet above the ground exposing a brilliant red wood. I could not understand how this was not killing the trees. Lynn suggested she had read something about cork trees, but knowing what I thought I knew about trees could not believe this harvesting of the bark would not kill the trees. Sure enough it was cork, a species of the oak tree. Apparently, this is a sustainable process, with the cork harvested every 7-9 years.

We arrived in Arcos at just about sundown, and found the Centro Historico to be quite crowded. Our hotel was a good way into the center of the city, but after Mike's negotiation in Spanish with the police, they opened the gates to allow us to drive to the top and find our hotel. We drove as far as we dare and L&M went off to find the hotel. After what seemed like a long time they reappeared and suggested we get up there and unload and a Holy week procession was about to take place. We had to collapse the rearview mirrors to squeeze thru the passageways, but we got there. I'm notorious for never wanting to back-track, but I felt it was the best idea in this maze of streets and I knew we could fit. We didn't get 100 ft and a young man with his girl friend started waving his arms indicating we were going the wrong way on a one way. We were in no position to carry on any kind of conversation, so with his assistance we managed an umteen point turnaround and headed into unknown territory. Mike winced at every turn as he knew his credit card would be hit with any car damage, and after many manuevers we knew we had no chance of re-emerging from where we started. Ends up we exited at an archway we had seen when arriving in Arcos so we knew how to get back to the parking garage, and would hike to the hotel.

The hotel was in a wonderful location right in the middle of the holy week activities, so got a chance to participate in one of their processions. We all enjoyed the formations of the "Roman soldiers," we assume is their version of the senior men's tennis team that gets together at a local pub, and then practices after a sufficient amount of beer consumption. Mike was enamored with the miniature cymbels on their shoes, thus the picture.

What a great day...doesn't get much better than this!!

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