Blogs from Nerja, Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 3

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

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

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

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

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