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Published: April 1st 2007
A great view
This is a pretty typical view from the headlands looking south and a bit east into the Meditarrean. Happy 13th birthday to niece/cousin Mackenzie Conley, queen of the Irish dance!
We spent today in Almeria, the largest city in this area. There were two highlights: first, we stumbled on one of the Holy Week processions. As many of you know, Holy Week is a huge time throughout Spain, and nearly every city has a series of religious processions to commemorate the week. Typically, each Church will have its own parade, and there are multiple ones each day. The one we saw today was one of five on Palm Sunday. The accompanying pictures will give you some idea of what it was like. I’ll try to write more about the procession later but am frankly too tired to do it now.
The white costumes with hoods that are worn (and that are so disturbing to Americans familar with our country's sad racial history) belong to penitentes. These are believers who feel as though they have sinned in the last year; they walk in the procession as a form of penance, and wear these costumes to hide thier identities. The white symbolizes their rebirth into the community of believers.
The other thing we did, after lunch, was
Ryan at Cabo
It was so windy up here that Ry was worried about getting blown off the cliff! to walk through the Alcazaba, a huge fortress and palace that dates back to 955 A.D. Originally it was built as a mosque and a defensive fortification for the city, which was the most important port in Spain (Al-Andalus) during the time it was an Islamic territory from about 950 to 1492. (I would highly recommend the book “The Ornament of the World” by Rosa Menocal if you are interested in this period.) Once again, the pictures here should give you some idea of what it looks like and how imposing it must have been 1,000 years ago.
Yesterday, by the way, we went to Cabo de Gatos, a peninsula that juts off the southeastern coast of Spain. It was formed by volcanic overflow and is essentially a desert of lava and rock, with some beautiful beaches tucked away under the cliffs. It was too cold and windy yesterday to swim, but that didn’t stop us from happening upon one nude sunbather. We also found a great Italian restaurant (the waiter was from Torino, the radio station from Italy) in the picturesque town of San Jose, which looks like a Greek village with its white-washed houses climbing up the
Nude Beach
I thought this one might get your attention! hills overlooking the sea.
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Lorri Ahl
non-member comment
I wish I were there with you
Hi guys! I just skimmed your blog and can't wait to read it in detail. I am so jealous. I wish I were there with you! Keep having fun! Voy ponerme en un sobre y enviarme por correos!