April 28 - 29, 2010 -- Reflections from Frigiliana

We are nearing the end of our time in Frigiliana and so we spent some time on Wednesday exploring and enjoying this little village and neighbouring Nerja.

Frigiliana is an amazing little village -- so clean and bright, homog- eneous in its architecture, and very livable. Every streetscape reveals some wonderful perspective -- a long winding, cobblestone street, a picturesque courtyard shared by two or three homes, a brilliant white church, a restaurant with balcony or streetside tables, or a plaza with shaded tables and interesting adjoining buildings. The village boasts forty-one restaurants and bars, many of which do not open until nine o'clock p.m. but, despite that, it is a quiet and traditional village.

Today, Thursday, we travelled the short distance (5 minutes) to Nerja, having some places to visit and people to see. Carol got her hair cut by our host's hairdresser and was very happy with the result. Duane visited the car rental dealer to arrange for delivery at the airport tommorrow. We had an early dinner on a balcony overlooking a busy beach.

We see graffiti in our travels which is an expres- sion of people who are not always heard in public discourse. One example expressed a fairly common sentiment here (and in Italy when we were there a few years ago) that the adoption of the Euro condemned the Mediterranean countries to control by Germany in terms of exchange rates, monetary policy, and ultimately economic progress. The thought is that what Germany did not achieve by military means it is gaining by economic control. The current Greek fiscal crisis is seen as a symptom of the inappropriateness of countries like Spain (and other "Club Med" countries) adopting the Euro; they will likely revert to their own currencies -- pesos, lires, and drachmas. This time next year might be a very economical time to visit Greece or Italy.

Driving and parking in Spanish cities is a chal- lenge. Many streets are only ten feet wide and allow one way traffic and no parking. If a street is wide enough, parking is allowed on one side, leaving just enough room for a lane of traffic. On two way streets, cars park from either direction and double parking is very common. Just stop in front of a shop or drive up on the sidewalk, put the flashers on (or not), and go about your business. However, Spanish drivers are careful, courteous and patient. Most of the difficulty for a foreign driver comes from not being aware of one-way streets.

It is sad to leave as we could have profitably spent more time right here in Frigiliana and Nerja. However, tomorrow we are off to Malaga and from there we fly to Madrid.

April 24 - 25, 2010 -- Belly Dancers, Nude Bathers & Internet Daters

Saturday was a relaxing day, spent mostly on the lovely terrace of our apartment. Carol was not feeling 100% and Duane felt a repeated need to visit the neighbourhood store, coming back empty-handed the first four times. We find it amusing trying to figure out the retail hours of opening here.

In the evening we took our evening stroll to the village and then attended a belly dance performance (which began at 9:30 p.m.) in the local school gym. It was a good show, featuring many different styles of belly dancing -- Oriental and Egyptian, but most based on turn of the twentieth century Parisian fashion. One of the surprising features was a male belly dancer who was quite a dandy and showman. He obviously had a large following because people applauded, stood, and cheered loudly.

Some of the dancers were in amazing physical shape -- the body one gets from pumping iron. Others were the more voluptuous type, and still others were out of shape and overweight. At the end of the program (it was already past midnight) the dancers came into the audience to get people up to dance -- we left before they got to us. Duane loved the entire show; for Carol there was a bit too much vibrating flesh! If you'd like to see some of these jiggling bodies check out http://www.bellydanceshirin.com . The video of the dance Percusion will give you an idea of what Duane dreamt about last night.

Today we drove into Nerja and followed a tour book's directions to Burriana Beach. It was a tough 20 minute hike along the beach as the path was blocked off in many areas where one had to crawl through holes, climb over walls and inch around gates. As well we went through a nude beach area which was a novel experience.

When we got to Burriana Beach we headed to Ayo's, a famous "all you can eat" paella beachside restaurant. The Spanish often go out for their Sunday midday meal as an extended family so it was nice to watch the family dynamics with four generations at the table.

After leaving the restaurant Carol started up a conversation with a British couple and we joined them for a glass of Sangria at a bar down the beach. Turns out that they just had met on the Internet and this was their first day together. She is an expat who lives on the Costa del Sol and he is a carpenter from Anglia in the UK. James is quite a wag. Carol was asking how long Gilli had been Internet dating and asked if she had to endure many toads before she met James. James immediately replied: "Ribbit." We got along famously and they are coming to our apartment for drinks on Wednesday and then we will go out for dinner with them in Frigiliana.

Follow- ing our visit with the Brits we toured the Nerja Caves, a fairly large cave system with pre-historic cave paintings (the paintings were closed to the public of course). The community uses one cavernous room for dance and music concerts. Lots of archaeology potential but no significant interpretation of the findings.

April 22-23, 2010 -- Frigiliana and Malaga

On Thursday we relaxed around Frigiliana, attending the market in the morning before having coffee in the plaza. We pretended we were Spanairds and had a couple of cups of cafe con leche as we watched the people at the market. We bought luscious local produce: avocadoes, peppers, plump moscatel raisins, figs, mangoes, salted almonds, tasty tomatoes, and fresh asparagus. Later we feasted on some of those treats.

Today, Friday, we visited Malaga, taking the bus from Nerja, which was a very wise decision -- no getting lost and no parking issues. Despite what travel guide Rick Steves says, Malaga is a lovely city with a long, beautiful beach, impressive harbour and gorgeous mid-city park. It claims to be the sixth largest Spanish city and second largest Andalusian city after Sevilla, but it is very compact and the downtown area is fairly small.

We did a city tour first, which is our usual practice, then visited the Moorish fortress and palace, the Alcazaba. It is a marvellous defensive structure dominating the city but providing a sense of calm and serenity that the royalty were able to achieve in their palaces, with running water and fountains, extensive gardens, trellised courtyards and cool, airy rooms. The juxtaposition of massive defensive structures enclosing this luxurious setting is quite jarring.

Right beside the Alcazaba is a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre, now being incorporated into Malaga life as a venue for performances. Such a great idea to use a 2000 year old theatre for the same purpose for which it was built.

We also visited the Picasso Museum (which, unfortunately, was partially closed), Picasso's home, a Salvador Dali exhibit, and an extensive retrospective of a Czech modernist painter, Frantisek Kupka. It was a full, but very interesting, day.

Back on the bus -- a treat for Duane, the usual chauffeur -- and off to Nerja and Frigiliana for another of Duane's gorgeous dinners.

April 18-19, 2010 -- Frigiliana and surrounds

We are back in Frigiliana, catching up on laundry and journaling, and have had some time to reflect on our Spanish trip. We have learned enough Spanish to get around, although we have had some humorous experiences, eaten some surprise dishes, travelled some circuitous routes, and relied considerably on the kindness of strangers.

We are amazed at the Spanish daily schedule. We described their meal routine, but that doesn't cover it entirely. After their second breakfast, and their 1 p.m. beer or wine break, shops close (even the Tourist Bureau) and people go home for dinner, the big meal of the day, which is followed by a siesta. They return to work about 3:30 and apparently work until about 6:30. Then everyone, young and old, is on the street for an evening stroll, the paseo, until dinner at about 8:30.

Ladies shoe stores abound and the women in Spain love fancy shoes. These are on display on the evening paseo. Older women also are out and about and they are dressed in lovely suits, and nylons in their more sensible shoes.

Around 10:00 things begin to come alive -- concerts and shows begin, tapas bars are lively and overflowing onto the streets, which are full of local people, including little children and babies in strollers, and this goes on until after midnight when tipsy people begin to loudly wend their way home.

We are aghast at some of the expatriates' attitudes towards the Spanish people, who are regarded as lazy, ignorant, ugly, and improvident. We find them kind, helpful, and courteous. Their farms are well kept although their goat dairies seem run down and dirty. We have seen very little of the equestrian culture that is such a part of Spanish identity.

One of the things that will linger most in our memor- ies of Spain will be the scent of orange blossons; orange trees are everywhere and the scent is amazing.

Arrival in Spain

Our trip to Spain was long (a problem when using flight points) and we managed to miss a connection in Frankfurt, but -- Kudos to Lufthansa -- they managed to re-book us on another airline a few hours later and miraculously our luggage arrived with us!

We stayed overnight in Madrid where we had a late night tapas feast with wine, and in the morning, a lovely walk, before boarding an afternoon flight to Malaga on the Costa del Sol. Here our very gracious English hosts (whose Spanish vacation home we are using) met us and drove us through the seaside village of Nerja, and then on to our "new home".

The apartment is in a small complex on the fringe of the lovely whitewashed Andalusian village of Frigiliana, just three miles inland from Nerja. It is a "penthouse" (just four floors) with large French windows overlooking a swimming pool and the Frigiliana Valley. There are two double bedrooms, two bathrooms, an efficient and well-equipped kitchen, a large living room/dining room and a spacious terrace. Everything is extremely clean and is well decorated in white, blue, orange and yellow. Without a doubt we will be very comfortable here.

Our hosts, Ann and Mike Denny, offered for us to stay an extra week so we will now be "stationed" here until the end of April.

In appearance, Frigiliana is exactly what I expected of rural Spain.

It's getting close!

It's getting close -- we'll be gone within the week -- and I'm reviewing the wonderful photos that our house-exchange hosts have sent to us. This first photo is of the little town we're heading to -- Frigiliana.