Blogs from Nerja, Andalusia, Spain, Europe
September 26th 2010
This morning, we left the mountains of Zahara de la Sierra and headed south to the Costa del Sol, or the sun coast. We were headed to Nerja, a tourist destination on the Mediterranean famous for its beaches... but even more famous for its caves. Exiting the highway and heading into town, I studied the driving directions I had printed off Google Maps, still naively hopeful that they might actually get us to the hotel without incident. Driving in Spain, Lesson #2: You know how Colorado Springs has Cheyenne Road and Cheyenne Blvd? Spain does that, too. I had finally learned how to locate street signs, and was overjoyed when I saw the sign for our street, Calle Gomez. The roads were, of course, ridiculously narrow and jammed with cars that were half in the road ... read more
Sometimes it's lovely to do nothing ... in the Sun
Published: January 8th 2011Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Nerja
August 8th 2010
Having sworn off 'English' Spain before Alicante, I moved up my acceptance of that part of the world when the girls decided a week of sun and relaxation in a coastal village in Spain was in order. The fact that my friend Jo's parents have an apartment there so it would be a cheap week didn't hurt either. Nerja is a small, still quite traditional fishing village. Yes there is tourism, but it's been saved the highrise hell that seems to dominate the Costa del Sol. It's close enough to Malaga to use the airport, but a world away in feel with villas spread out along the hills, a sweet town centre, a nice beach and lots of places to eat (very, very important). A lot of the week seemed to be spent on the balcony ... read more
May 22nd 2010
Well finals finally ended. Where should we go? The beach!!! Deanna and I left Granada at 7:00 AM to catch a bus to Nerja, which is a small little beach town in Malaga. The only word I can use to describe this town is… cute. It’s just plane cute! All the buildings are white washed, there’s flowers and palm trees everywhere, and lots and lots of people from England. Normally Nerja is a town with 20,000 people, but in during the summer months the population shoots up to about 90,000. People from England, and other countries within Europe come down to live for the summer. Not a bad idea if you ask me. There is a lot to see and do in Nerja including caves, but since we were only there for the day, we decided ... read more
March 20th 2010
Gill and David run walking holidays for folks mostly from the UK. We tended their gardens independently and helped out with preparations for lunches and daily walks. As a bonus we also got to have a number of traditional Spanish tapa dinners and walks with the walkers. Karen learnt how to hang crab stick in plastic bottles to keep the fruit flies off the oranges while Clarissa practiced some brutal trimming on a water-logged nispero tree and perfected her lemon slice recipe - awesome for afternoon tea with the Brits and earned us some serious WWOOFER points! Coupled with the animal interactions this was a really nice experience in which we worked hard but with some freedom and experienced some genuine generosity from Gill and David (including amazing French cheeses … all the way from France). ... read more
September 30th 2009
Frigiliana - White-washed hill town Went with a friend I met on the beach to one of the hill towns yesterday. Half the streets were shut for repairs - no sign to let one know they were shut until you hit the barrier. We finally found somewhere to park the car after about an hour of driving around. Much of the town is pedestrian only, so we went off exploring. Frigiliana is up in the Sierra Nevada range, just north of Nerja. Beautiful white-washed houses with brightly painted doors, lovely iron work, and magnificent views of the ocean in the distance. We had a lovely afternoon wandering the city. Pictures will have to go to FB, as I borrowed my friend's camera which does not have the correct settings for here. ... read more
September 30th 2009
Lazy day in Nerja Today I sunned myself on the beach, and went for a couple swims in the Mediterranean. It was lovely, and it is good to be on vacation! ... read more
September 28th 2009
Slowing down, finally I promised pictures a couple days ago, but have been too busy relaxing to take any or even post. Nerja is the sort of place where one truly is happy to just be on vacation. It has been pouring rain, and I have been getting out for walks during the sun breaks but not taking the camera with. Today the sun broke through the clouds for much of the morning, so I went on my walk with the camera this time. I was rewarded with some lovely shots of a local fisherman mending his nets, and the local feral cat population in their respective sun rays. I was also happily surprised to see the beach Paella huts were open and filled with happy paella eaters. Ayo's was mentioned in both my travel books, ... read more
September 26th 2009
Raining on La Costa del Sol (coast of the sun) It was cloudy when I left Granada. Funny, I caught the local bus going the wrong direction. The driver tried to tell me, but I could not understand him. It was not until we got onto the highway that I turned to another rider and asked where the bus station was. I got off at the next stop, but had the same driver going back. Thankfully, I'd left with 2 hours to spare. I got to the bus station with an hour remaining before my bus. I got to see the newer part of Granada, it is very pretty and has some nice pedestrian bridges over the river. My journey was filled with amazing women. The first, I am guessing at 60 or 70, has traveled ... read more
June 14th 2009
As I had mentioned in an earlier blog, this past week was Corpus Christi; a large religious celebration in Granada. Because of the festivities, school was canceled from Wednesday-Friday. A perfect opportunity to do some day trips! Friday, a couple girls and I took a bus south again to another beach on the Mediterranean Sea-a little city called Nerja! This was actually the one recommended day trip in my "Let's go Spain" travel book. It was a bit farther this time, taking us about 2 hours south. We took the earliest bus possible which put us on the beach by 9:00 am. The bus ride there, we took the same path as last weekend; thus I got a second helping of the BEAUTIFUL views! The weather was forecasted to be 95 degree day, and at 9:00 ... read more
June 10th 2009
We visited Madrid for the weekend and had a great time. We stayed in a hostal and the whole group went. The first day we just kinda walked around and got a feel for what the city was like. The next day we went to all the prado and the reina sophia, both museums along with a botanical garden. The city of madrid is really cool with old buildings and architecture.... read more
