April 30, 2010 -- Off to Madrid

Friday was a travel day. We vacated the Frigiliana apartment at 11:00 am and mailed the keys to England, then visited Nerja for morning cafe con leche and some window shopping.

We have been fascin- ated by the ubiqui- tous clutches of old men congre- gated in plazas in every village and town we have visited. In Nerja Duane asked, mostly by gestures and body language, to join one group for a photo op and the men were agreeable -- at least we think they were. The day was lovely -- 27 to 30 degrees as has been usual -- and we meandered along the Mediterranean coast through a number of little villages which now seem to be mostly English enclaves.

We drove to Malaga, left our rental car in the public garage and walked to the new and very commodious Malaga airport, still somewhat underutilized and barren. After leisurely tapas in the airport we caught the Spanair flight to Madrid where we took the hotel shuttle to a marvellous four star Hotel Husa Neuvo Boston. We have found really good deals on some of the better hotels, depending on the day of the week, and this was one of those good deals.

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 11, 2010 -- Mediterrean Coast east of Nerja

Today we explored the small coastal towns Herradura and Almunecar and on return, Maro and Nerja. Here the mountains rise right up from the sea and the terrain is very rugged. The new Autovia going east employs mile-long tunnels and 200 foot-high bridges in an effort to smooth out the highway.

Herrdura is uninspiring, sporting a kilometre-long grey, gravelly beach, lined for the most part by one row of three story condos or hotels.

Almunecar is more interesting, with a life other than just tourism. This little town is built around a circular medieval village with short, narrow streets. Palm-lined streets and a decent beach make it quite attractive.

On our homeward leg we took the lower, older, winding road and ventured up a narrow river valley into the hills. Here the farmers cultivate steep slopes right to the top of the mountains with mangoes, olives, sugar cane and almonds evident. Near Maro we stopped to observe the lookouts which were built along the coast every five kilometres after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. These were apparently built to warn of approaching pirates.

Maro, an attrac- tive little village, is a suburb of Nerja and features caves with prehistoric paintings, Roman ruins such as the Aqueduct of the Eagle, pictured here, and industrial ruins. We will return to explore these.

On to Nerja where we strolled beneath El Balcon de Europa and watched a wedding on the beach.

Then, it was home to Frigiliana where we dined out, enjoying wonderful fish soup, fresh salad and, of course, vino.