Hola from southern Spain

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The adventure continues. We made it to Madrid without any problems but spent over an hour finding a campground. Never found the one we were looking for - think no longer there due to new highway, but did find another. Spent a day in Madrid. Had a great meal which I will describe later, but underwhelmed with Madrid. Pretty dirty and somwhat blah with no greenery in many of the plazas. Also the city as is the rest of Spain seems to be under renovation so many torn up streets, barricades in some of the plazas, etc. so we didn´t see Madrid at its best. Also very hot so spent one day taking a walking tour of the historic sites and then headed south to Granada.

Granada redeemed Spain for us. Beautiful clean city with lots of greenery. Spent most of the after noon touring the gardens and buidlings at the Alhambra. Amazing moorish palace first built in the 700´s AD. Can imagine how spectacular it must have been when at its height. Many moorish influences in the Granada area.

Must tell you about the drive from Madrid to Granada. Madrid was in hillier country than we had thought, but opens into a large plain just south of Madrid. Many wheat fields which gradually change to vineyards with a few olive trees. As you get to within about 50 miles of Granada it gets hillier again and all the hills are completely covered with olive groves. These are obviously cultivated groves because the trees are in rows, but as far as the eye can see on all the hills, nothing but olive trees. Couldn´t believe it.

Had planned to spend a couple of days at a campground on a beach on the Mediterranean, but the campground no longer exits. The entire area is now being turned into condos. As much, if not more building in southern Spain as we saw in the center of the country. We continued east along th coast and came to a campground just outside a small hilltop village and bout 3 km from the beach. Very quiet and the little village looks like old Spain. We are off the beaten path and will stay here a couple of days of visit the beach, wander the shopping stalls in the village and do laundry.

Need to give you some food notes since haven´t done that so far. Have been eating many meals in the RV (all cold since watching propane). Bread in all countries wonderful so eating sandwiches and fresh fruit is no hardship at all. Also great wine everywhere.

Eating out highlights

Prague - great roasted duck and pork tenderloin stuffed with plums in a restaurant just off the main city square. Had hot red wine with the meal. Very good particular when cold as it was. Also had a great cheesecake type pastry with blackberries and raspberries on top.

Austria - White asparagus in season so both had it at meal. Quite good, but they let their asparagus grow to much thicker and thus a little woodier stalks than we do.

France - Ham, cheese, mushroom and egg galette in the gardes at the Louve. A galette is a crepe, but called a galette when a main course rather than dessert. The galettes are made in a buckwheat crepe which is quite good. Also had great omlets in southern France.

Madrid - Ate at a restaurant recommended in travel book close to the Plaza de Sol. Excellent traditional food. We had mussels au gratin as an appetizer. David had a tomato and green onion gazpacho. We both had the stewed bull´s tail with potatoes. Very good. The broth and seasonings reminded me of the oxtail soup my grandmother used to make.

Granada - Ate at the restaurant next to the campground. Had a drink in the bar and watched a soccer game. Saw people coming from a wedding and when we asked about having dinner they said the restaurant was closed for the reception. I think it was obvious we were from the campground and had no way to go anywhere else so they offered to serve us dinner anyway. We had the entire dining room to ourselves and had a GREAT paella with clams, oysters, shrimp and chicken. And got to look out the window and see the wedding party arrive. A meal to remember.

Think I have rambled on enough. Need to get ready to head to the beach. If you want to track on a map we are just east of Ameria by a tiny town, Mojacar. When we leave here we will head to Valencia and then Barcelona.

Adios until the next installment.

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