DAY 200 !!

Friday 27 January 2012

Not a fun day. Shortly after Charles returned to the van after midnight (charging the computer in the restaurant and using their secure Internet connection), Nicole started with a difficult series of dry heaves that drained her completely and kept us all up most of the night. Food poisoning? -- we all ate the same things. Stomach virus? -- maybe.

Poor thing. Tough for her, and for her concerned parents who cóuldn't do much more than try to make it easier for her and comfort her. Toward dawn she finally fell asleep and rested and slept most of the day, with only one recurrence. We gave her a little water, very small amounts of bread, eventually a little juice and plain watercracker. Charles got a little sleep early in the morning, Dian a little after that and we all survived, thankful we'd had no serious health issues on this trip.

Late that evening Charles returned to the restaurant to find the Friday night karaoke singalong in full swing. A singalong because few grabbed the mike but nearly all raised their voices, mostly for old, really old British songs and ones popular during both world wars. He walked in on "Daisy, Daisy" (which we like because of Dian's Daisy Duck connection) but there were quite a few Charles had never heard because of growing up on the "wrong" side of the pond -- "I'm a Londoner," "Down at the Old Bull and Bush." You get the picture. He enjoyed the spectacle (and also the idea of being, at 64, maybe the youngest guy in the joint) and when checking on his Skype software saw that his Long Beach buddy Kevin Poore was on line so rang him up for a treat, turning the computer screen around for a bit so he could see for himself. Kevin was the perfect guy to "get it" and enjoy it.

DAY 199

Thursday 26 January 2012

The day began early for Charles, who tossed and turned all night on "the worm." Even after six months, the sleeping rotation was still not a thing of grace. Something we usually said to each other first thing in the morning was "Did you sleep well?" Interesting how different the priorities of travel could be from the priorities of home life.

Pam and Dian. Photo by Charles

So up at 9, he headed for the camp market to grab the coveted cereal breads (last two). We wondered: do others notice that there's new guns in town who scarf the best breads early, not leaving any for others? Early worm, too bad. The cereal bread was equal to anything La Brea Bakery puts out, but costed less than $1.70. Yes, we loved Spain. We found out you could "reserve" the bread, so we did, for our last three days.

Nibbling at warm bread sufficed for breakfast, and much of the rest of the low-key day was spent in the adjacent restaurant (with wi-fi) posting blogs and downloading photos by Nicole, with Dian filling in the downtime with original art for postcards to be sent. Charles did some van rearranging and joined the ladies for the El Pino restaurant's dinner special, 2-for-1, for 6.95 Euros. We decided to go for two 2-for-1s and save the leftover meal so we got one one scampi, one pork chop, one chiken tikka and one fried fish. All very good, but the one we skipped, the quarter chicken (which we saw on someone else's table), looked the best. 

At some point Dian made a remark to the couple who sat down at the next table, and.... whoosh, we were off! Pam and Harry were Scots, in their 70s, who lived in Spain and were as lively a pair as you'd want to meet. Nicole and Charles tried valiantly to continue working on the computer and hand-writing a blog, but it was useless. They had too many stories, we had too many jokes and riddles, Harry gave a Robert Burns recitation (he knew the entire "Tam O'Shanter" by heart but didn't recite the whole thing) and he also had a marvelous voice and a packet of Scottish songs. We hoped we would run into them again.

Nicole and Harry

Dian and Nicole retired to the van with NightHawk Charles left to squeeze out more Internet time, and again it was hard. A ladies group soon trooped in and took over the pool table and, possibly aided by the lubrication of liquor, proceeded to have a fine, long time at a volume level achieved only by the Who in their heyday. A little distracting but heartwarming, to see half a dozen mature birds out on the town, as it were, having a rowdy time with no inhibitions, rather than sitting at home and sighing, wishing, hoping, watching the telly. God bless 'em. Despite Charles probable hearing loss.

DAY 198

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Remember him from The Ed Sullivan Show?

PCH, or Costa Del Sol??

The aroma of the warm cereal bread came wafting in the van from Charles’ early morning visit to the camp market. Although most the camp appeared to get up after 10, we were fed and ready to explore Malaga by 11. When we arrived in the town center parking was abominable and we circled the area for an hour. Not fun. We must remember that these old sections weren’t engineered (if goats running on a trail is engineering) for so many vehicles and even the river where we parked was bone dry with only a few joggers and free parking making it a draw. The Picasso museum WAS a draw (no pun intended) and for the second time (gracias, Espana!) our respective passes (journalist, teacher, student) got us all in gratis. What bliss for Dian who, in art class at UCSB got paired up with Picasso to copy his work as faithfully as she could.

One of the famous bull billboards in Spain



Dandelion-like fountain

Pretty old train station

Etched window art

Nicole in front of and around the cathedral:

Pedro De Mena, sculptor

Taking down Christmas lights

We left after two hours of musing and close inspection of the master and an adjacent exhibit by renowned sculptor Alberto Giacometti. We perused the cathedral exterior and peeked in ditto for the castle but didn’t go in. Inside a bookstore we bought a map of Morocco. Now we were committed. After a few tangerines and chips we were escorted by a kind gentleman who took is on a twisting convoluted maze of narrow streets and finally to the river, so we could find our way back to the van. 

Entrance to Picasso museum

Street musician singing "Ave Maria"

Inside we had couscous with curry sauce and then left for the Facebook friend Ana’s jazz jam in a town 30 minutes from Malaga. Unfortunately we didn’t have a phone number for her and when we stopped at a cool Indian restaurant (Raju’s Indian City) to order take out and use the Internet to see if she had written back, she hadn’t. Alas, we had only chiken tikka and aloo gobhi to console us but we enjoyed meeting the outgoing owner, Raju, who moved to Spain 15 years ago and said to quote him on his choice: “East or West, Malaga is the best!” We loved walking into an Indian restaurant in Spain and hearing Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings coming from his programmed music mix, also LA icons Warren Zevon and the Eagles (or did he surreptitiously call up “Hotel California” just for us?) – it’s a music/culture blast that’s hard to describe unless you’re there. Turbaned Raj was also playing a computer chess match nearly the whole time he was chatted animatedly with us.

Our guiding angel

Back at home we went to the restaurant near our camp to catch the end of the big soccer match, have a beer and call Dian’s mom and dad. Charles eventually did reach them and learned that Grandmother had received the castanets Nicole bought her!!! It had been 75 years since she learned to use them and perform Spanish dances but she was glad to try and work up the routine again, or so she said.

Raju and Charles

DAY 196

Monday 23 January 2012

By 10 AM we had left Granada for Malaga. We found Camping El Pino, a pretty little camp within a walk of the Mediterranean. The store was filled with delicacies that British folks seem to love, so we deduced who the greater clientele was. We jumped at the opportunity to stay a week upon hearing the price of seven nights at 14.40 Euros per night, with the last two being free.

We put down stakes, had a light dinner, read some Don Quixote, and went to bed.

Lots of birds at the camp

DAY 197

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Up at 9:30, Nicole seized the opportunity of another warm sunny day to write a letter to her dear friend Ariana. Dian took a quick walk around the camp, then decided to take a shower... without anything with her (no towel, shampoo, soap, nada), just to see if she could. And she did! Pouring a bunch of the camp's soap on her hair (shampoo + body wash!) and using one of her fast-drying outer-layer shirts as a towel, she was squeaky clean and on her way in no time!

Following her ears, Dian met a couple from Amsterdam who were playing on their new guitar bought in Malaga. She chatted with them a bit, then came back to the van so we could all take part in washing it (a much needed thing). Using water, vinegar, and cleanser as an abrasive, our van was sparkling once we were through.

Later on we treated ourselves to some "gourmet" potato chips, and chocolate milk made from some of the "sipping chocolate" powder Marie and Joe had sent in a care package to Toledo. Ah, the simple pleasures.

DAY 195

Sunday 22 January 2012

So, you like ham?

The day was full of unexpected “emotional currents” to quote Dian’s sister, Monica. While we don’t have a real desire to print all of that for everyone’s consumption, we do want to be true to ourselves and report not only the good stuff. Dian woke everyone up by farting. Not really. No, really, she did. Okay now Dian has told you her worst secret. We’ll see who else in the Happy Trails Gang will share THEIR worst secrets and you can bet they have a few.

More street art, this time featuring Urkel

Bird, Juan, Dian, Charles

We didn’t start as early as we had hoped in order to see a free children’s Mozart concert at the Manuel de Falla Auditorium partly because a mean bus driver sped up to leave us in his dust. Okay, we weren’t quite at the bus stop but hey…

One of Nicole's favorite pieces of street art to date

Upon arrival in downtown Granada we started seeing band members in their marching band uniforms. Many were warming up but Nicole and Dian agreed that they were already HOT (see photo for verification). We hurried along to where Charles had found our site on the map and GPS but it was not there but was finally got pointed out to us on a hill about a 20 minute walk away (according to a concierge.) We visited the beautiful church and courtyard of San Matias and after a prayer for guidance, Juan from Chile showed up.

Scoff if you will but we considered him, a fellow traveler to be a godsend since he was not only friendly but willing to help us get to our destination using the GPS on his phone. We eventually got to the auditorium just after the show ended. Walking inside we saw how beautiful the place was and only cried a little.

Marching band members

Juan’s philosophy is to get lost on purpose and we adopted his idea with a vengeance. (The only part we needed to eliminate were the frustrated glares and insinuating comments). We ended up having a quarter of a kilo baklava treat that was devoured while listening to a FANTASTIC band with a charismatic leader who really had the gift of music (as they all did.)

The snowy Sierra Nevadas were in the background as we listened to a flamenco band and other street musicians near Saint Nicolas Church. Then we walked to the Flamenco headquarters in the caves of the Sacromente district which ran above the river Darro just below the Alhambra.

The flamenco group

Finally we headed to our bus stop and were home for soup and showers by 6 PM.

DAY 191

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Note: Some of the pictures correspond to each other, like these two (above, below). See if you can spot them all

We rose early so as to get the most out of our day at the Alhambra. The air was crisp but clear from the rain the night previous, and with jackets and gloves we marched from campsite to bus stop to Alhambra! A friendly employee gave us a map of the grounds and a little explanation of some of the highlights and with audio-guided tours in hand (courtesy of Dian's parents), we began our tour. (Oh, and Charles got in gratis!)

To our surprise and delight, our audio-tour was narrated by Washington Irving (well, someone voicing him)! Although Nicole and Myles found it delightfully cheesy at times, it was really quite enjoyable in comparison to other sometimes dry narrators. Dian agreed it brought a lot of life and romance to the already fantastic yet serene buildings. We spent much of the day strolling around and it was nice to have the luxury to go at our own pace and gaze upon all the "juicy pommygranates" (as Irving put it).

Although our tickets were a combined entrance to the Alhambra and the Generalife, we still only had a certain amount of time for both of them because people are allowed but a few hours in the actual buildings (to cut down on crowding) and the Generalife closes earlier than the rest of the grounds. So, tearing ourselves away we hightailed it to the gardens to make the most of out last hours there. From the gardens we climber atop a tower for a breathtaking view of all of Granada. The sun was in a glorious position for pictures.

With this we said goodbye to Mr. Irving and the beautiful place he had led us through, and went home. Nicole and Myles started playing the "i" game (a game where one person tries to stump the other by ending their sentence with a word rhyming with "i") to pass the time. This game still has not ended.

Back at the bungalow Myles played his first game of Boggle with us. Poor thing didn't know what he was getting himself into. Nicole killed everyone with her score so that even veteran players Charles and Dian were humbled.

We called Dian's folks, though Marie wasn't there, and we all thought of Marie's mother Martha, who would have been 121 that day.