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| Gaudix |
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| Scenes in Gaudix |
The countryside is a bit like the west of the Australian dividing ranges, but with some very grey soil, mainly olive trees and lots of cactus. It was also quite hilly. The train line ran up to 800m above sea level, and boy was it slow uphill.
Anyway outside Gaudix, our destination, there is a whole area where people have built under and into the hills which are mostly dirt, not rock.
We wandered around there for a while, feeling complete strangers and aliens as we walked through the village - no other tourists. In fact we encountered very few tourists on the trains and smaller villages. Most tourism seemed to be buses travelling between major towns or attractions.
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| Approaching the village near Gaudix |
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| The village near Gaudix |
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| Scenes in Gaudix |
Back in the main town of Gaudix we found a hostel for the night and showers, and then had dinner in the restaurant below, not bad.
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| Bar Martinez, Danielle's surname |
Now it's off to bed for the 10 AM train. Today we found out that the mountains in the distance that look like they had snow did in fact have snow on them - they were the Sierra Nevadas.
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| Villages photographed from the train |
We travelled through some more strange country side, right out of an American western, rocks, pills, tussocky grass and small rail towns, all with snow-covered mountains in the background – very impressive.
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| Courtyard of Fountains Postcard |
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| Courtyard of Fountains - Postcard |
The post cards and photos don't really show what it's like.
Not much else interesting happened, except getting used to our wine bag and spending lots of money. We hope to last six weeks on the money we have left. PS: I went to an exhibition of local art, the best painting being of old guy in yellows and browns called 'Viego tornado el sol'.
The following series of photos were taken in Granada:
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| San Francisco, Spain |
Before arriving in Malaga though, we had to stop off at a little town called San Francisco - a place we found to be much smaller and laid back than the similarly named city in the United states.
When we arrived at Malaga itself, it was late and just wandered around, tasted the local sweet wine and bought the odd souvenir for our friends and relatives.A late-ish start the next morning, getting lost on our way to the station, to store our bags again.
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| Jaoquin Sorella "Bebedor Vasco" Postcard |
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| Pablo Picasso "El viejo de la manta" postcard |
The museum had an excellent collection of Spanish painting over the centuries, including the odd Picasso.
Unfortunately the best artworks, as usual, not being obtainable on postcards, or else not containing all the details.
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| Alcazba - Internet Postcard |
It was quite different to most castles, with a narrow walkway all around the top and gardens inside (presumably replacing destroyed buildings) and set within a nice park. There were no good postcards here either.
We bought some small gift bottles as well, adding to the daily expenditure and caught an evening, uneventful train to Cordoba where I am writing this travel. At least the pensione is the only 145Pts.
This part of Spain, Andalucía, is the centre of flamenco which had its origins in India, transported across northern Africa by the Moors and blended with the dance culture of southern Spain.It's possible to see flamenco in many restaurants such as the El Tablao every night - much is performed for tourists, but it's a still an important and intrinsic part of Andalucían culture.
These photos were taken at the Alcazba ruins:
From Malaga on the coast, we caught an early morning local train inland to Cordoba. We had a really speedy look around Cordoba as we wanted to catch the afternoon train to Los Rosales to stay the night.The idea was that instead of staying in a big city we would stay outside the city for a day, and then go into the city in the morning, giving us a better chance to find somewhere good to stay.
However even after the short look we had, Cordoba we agreed would probably stick in our minds for quite awhile. Our two main visits there with the mosque and the local history museum, mainly about bullfights, were well worth it. Also the Roman bridge and many old buildings and winding streets, houses with small courtyards. Cordoba is also full of silversmiths doing really fine work. I bought mum a brooch from a place where the guy was making them. Speed and skill was unbelievably good.What we didn't spend in time in Cordoba, we made up for in postcards and photos. Here are some postcards from Cordoba.
Here are some black & white photos, including black & white cats:
The next town Los Rosales was really country - no postcards here! We probably got the only room available in the town. It was half finished and attached to a house nearby. The people though, once talking were really friendly and we got four beers for the price of two due to their eagerness to please.
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| Collecting Oranges, Los Rosales |
It was the first place for a long time where people have made an effort to make us comfortable. Well, for dinner we had fried eggs and chips, then deep-fried sardines and huge oranges to finish, and really good red wine to wash it all down. It's getting harder to resist drinking one bottle at a session.
Well the room, dinner, coffee last night and coffee with two brandies each this morning cost us a cool 400 Pts, about $5.30. More than we should be paying but I think it was worth it for the experience.
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| Plaza de Espana - Postcard |
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| Plaza del Toros - Postcard |
After a short time running around and getting orientated, we had a leisurely lunch and then visited the Plaza d’Espana, Cathedral and a few other attractions that were closed when we arrived!
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| Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold) with Don Qixote and Sancho Panza |
The civilians seem to have an aversion to working in the afternoon - think siesta big time.
I found Sevilla more businesslike than Cordoba and it felt that tradition was maintained more for tourism than for its own sake - but this is only the observation of a passing traveller. At least there are lots of nice parks and some interesting architecture including El Costurero de la Reina. We are eating out again at a cheapie cheapo cafes - you can tell when you walk in by the sawdust on the floor.
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| Juan Sebastian El Cano |
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| Juan Sebastian El Cano Column |
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| El Costurero de la Reina |
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| El Costurero de la Reina - Internet photo |
It was a slow-ish train trip to Algeciras, with not a lot of interesting scenery, a few hills near the coast was all that was worth seeing. Algeciras is the main departure point from Spain to north Africa and just around the corner from British Gibraltar. We could not go to the "Rock of Gibraltar" because the frontier was closed due the eternal political dispute between the Spanish and British over the rather this large rock.
We changed a couple of traveller's cheques to have pesetas in Morocco where the black market rate was supposed to be better. We had tea and a cheap cafe for a change and then crashed for the night!
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| Port of Algeciras - Postcard |
We went to the same restaurant as last night to have a paella for lunch. Not a huge helping but they put everything into it, whole prawns, mussels, etc. After a little while lying in the sun to digest and let the time pass we went to the hostel for a siesta until evening. We didn't realise the pace at which we had been travelling, and it finally caught up with us.
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| The Victoria at Algeciras - Postcard |
The 18th of January, and tomorrow we leave in the ship Victoria for Ceuta in North Africa.
