the rain in spain
22 may 2000

hola, amigos, que tal?

sorry to be switching from dutch to spanish but we just spent two wonderful weeks travelling in southern portugal and spain. my tale, however, begins with queen's day here in a'dam. wow, i still can't get used to the idea of living in a country that has a queen. it's so.....europe, you know. well, this is one holiday not to be taken lightly. either the queen is very well respected or the dutch just like to party. i can't tell which. april 30 is officially queen's day but really it's the queen mother's birthday {she's still alive} because queen beatrix has a birthday in the hideous month of january and that just won't do.

our good friends bob and cici happened to be visiting us at that time and none of us knew what to expect. i was desperately hoping i wouldn't have to hide under the bed due to the fireworks. here's how it goes: everyone wears something orange as the royal fam is part of the house of orange. gary was decked out but the rest of us didn't seem to own anything in that color scheme. {gary bought a t shirt specifically for the occasion.} basically, it's one big party with loud obnoxious music oozing from every block; mostly live bands. we live in the "hood" so there was quite a bit of action. it starts the night before and continues the next day-all day. luckily bob had a spare set of earplugs for me so i was able to get some sleep. the really fun part is that the city turns into one huge garage sale. i have never seen gary out shopping at 10am but there he was with me trailing behind, taking it all in. anyone can reserve a spot on the sidewalk and sell anything and everything. fortunately for us, we picked up a few items, desperately needed, such as a floor lamp, very nice rug, and a mirror. the price was right. at the end of the day, we spotted a discarded table which bob and gary schlepped home and up the three flights of steps. it looks quite nice. hail to the queen!!

on to faro, portugal. portuguese, now there's a language that sounds like nothing you've ever heard. it looks similar to spanish but sounds more like russian. very strange. somehow people just looked at us and started speaking english. i guess it's obvious. anyway, faro is on the southern coast and very close to spain, and as every place we visited on this trip, has a lot of moorish influence. of particular note are the lovely ceramic tiles, called azulejos, which decorate the outsides of many of the houses. portugal is light, a'dam is gray. it was so refreshing to see whitewashed houses {in spain as well}.

our first day was 1 may, a holiday, and we took a spin up into the hills. it was like driving through a magic fairyland seeing the most beautifully shaped green trees with trunks that were very dark. for those of you who remember the 70's, the colors reminded me of the intense blues and greens of psychedelic posters we all had on our walls. going through some of the small towns, we saw tons and tons of people picnicking. in one town, we saw a wedding procession in traditional dress, very old world looking. we had the feeling of being in a third world country at times, with a real sense of the exotic. hard to believe we were still in europe!

our second night was spent in a town called, tavira, a lovely fishing village; quiet and pretty with castle ruins and an amazing rose garden. we encountered mucho roses on this trip, all of which were larger than the width of my hand. how do they grow that big? not to mention the array of colors. i was beside myself with joy because i could finally wear a short sleeve shirt unaccompanied by three other layers! cheap thrill, eh?

it's nice to know that gary and i are still learning things about each other after all these years. i have a defect which can be described as "cartographically challenged". yes, folks, sad but true, i cannot read a map to save my life!! to make matters worse, gary is a master at it. that would be ok if i had an international driver's liscense but no.... he had to do all the driving and expected me to be the official navigatrix. i failed horribly. finally he just did the opposite of what i said and it worked out pretty well.

entering spain was a breeze with no border patrol to deal with. the european union has its advantages. spain is absolutely beautiful, including the super highways which sport an incredible array of gorgeous foliage. the sun was shining and the "costa del sol" was calling. after an in depth study of all available info, we found the perfect spot. malaga is way too overrun with touristas for our personal taste so we went further east to a town called nerja. the view of the mediterranean was breathtaking and the sea air put me into a state of nirvana. i have always loved the beach and i will always love the beach. our hotel had its own private beach but gary was so relaxed in the "room with the view", he only ventured out to take a meal or two. i however, basked. it was very tempting to spend the entire holiday there but after all, we needed a little culture.

granada was next, only a short drive from the coast. and then the rain came. bye bye beach. the main attraction in granada is the alhambra, which is the former palace and gardens of the moorish kings dating back to the 13th century. what the guide books don't mention is that it's pretty difficult to get a ticket once you are there. we arrived on a friday afternoon and it was sold out. bummer. we even waited around to see if there were any returns. not to give up. we started walking and found we could enter the gardens through the back door. so we did. {when i write my own guide book, i'll be cluing people in to this scenario}. anyway the complex is immense and the gardens go on forever with their incredible roses {see above} and numerous fountains. set in the midst of all this aesthetic landscaping, was the summer palace and the fortress. you can also look out and see a grand overview of the city. the rain stopped and we walked and walked and took loads of pictures.

the next morning, gary got up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for tickets. he succeeded and we were in. oh my stars, the architecture of these rooms is like nothing you can imagine. it is all carved intricately and symmetrically with some of the ceilings being at an angle and so very many different designs. everytime you look at the same wall you see something different. and there are beautiful patterns of tiles everywhere. granada was the last moorish settlement to fall and the alhambra has been restored over the centuries. it is fascinating to read about the history. nothing i can say could really describe the scope of these rooms. gary kept saying, "when i get to be king, can i live here?" despite being completely rain soaked and damn sick of the other thousands of people, we are forever enhanced by that excursion! afterwards, i read "tales of the alhambra" by washington irving and the legends in that book really sprang to life for me.

before leaving granada, we visited the federico garcia lorca house. he is considered to be spain's most important playwright and poet. it was a beautiful house and the short tour was led by a very pretentious guide, the likes of which i can do without. we had a good laugh about that guy's attitude back in the car.

we now had our sights set on a bullfight. gary was determined to see one and i was a little curious even having such a weak stomach for that sort of thing. bad timing, we had just missed a huge festival in sevilla and several bullfights. but we got wind of one that was to take place in a smaller town not too far from the coast. so we booked a room at a small hotel owned by dutch people and showed up to find a very charming and lively inn. i got to practice my dutch, which was really confusing after dealing with spanish. after a delicious sunday lunch, we headed to mijas, which turned out to be tourist central. the drive was magnificent and just a little hairy, reminiscent of some colorado roads we know and love. the bullfight was actually a horse show with a short exhibition of bullfighting at the end of the show. the ticketseller was emphatic about telling us there would be no blood. we certainly felt silly but bought tickets anyway and made the best of it. the horse show didn't do much for me, but i have to admit there was something exciting about the interaction of the matador with the bull. i know i'd have to close my eyes at the real thing but there's just something about a bullfight in spain that draws me in. next time.

eventually we would be making our way to sevilla but decided to drive some back roads and found ourselves amongst more rain and the beautiful spanish vistas. this area of spain is called andalucia and boasts of olive trees as well as orange and lemon trees. no shortage of wildflowers, either. arcos de la fronterra was our next resting place. it is a city built on a huge hill with gorgeous views. not much to do there but relax and we did. we stayed in a hotel that used to be a convent, had some great meals, and drove on the narrowest streets ever built, i think. i just loved it there. gary read three books in two days: can you say relaxed? and then there's sevilla. what a beautiful city but i would never want to drive in it again. not that i drove but it was quite stressful until we parked the car. found a not so great hotel room, which we didn't spend much time in. out and about, we took a horse and buggy ride through this wonderful park. i've been begging gary to do that for years but it seems only sevilla inspired him to do it. just by chance during the trot, he got a glimpse of a theatre with a long line of people outside. upon closer look, we noticed there was a performance by a ballet/flamenco company that very night. in we went after standing in line for 45 minutes to get tickets, and who knew but our seats were in one of those theatre boxes. we parked ourselves and realized in the first scene that it was "cinderella". it was danced beautifully and had a mix of modern, ballet, and of course, flamenco. we were so happy we got to see some real flamenco and not some tourist show. the dancing was really fiery and powerful and worked very well in a concert setting. after the show it was late night tapas for us. spanish people eat really late, perhaps because the sun doesn't go down until almost 10pm. or perhaps because they take a nice long siesta in the afternoon. i must say, i was a little disappointed in the food in spain. most of it was very tasty but drowning in olive oil and pretty salty. the next day, we visited another moorish palace called the alcazar, equally as impressive as the alhambra. the gardens weren't as nice but we did enjoy watching the painters strewn throughout trying to capture the images. everytime i think i've seen the ultimate in cathedrals, i see another one that really blows me away. the one in sevilla rivals st. peter's in rome so that gives you an idea of its enormity. there is a magnificent gold altar enclosed by a huge iron gate. it is detailed with angels and the like and is incredibly ornate, the spanish baroque style. the cathedral was a mosque in the days of the moors and the church tower, which we climbed, was the minaret{the top of the mosque}. the church also has rooms that are works of art in themselves; it was like being in a museum.

upon leaving sevilla, we visited a site of roman ruins, called italia. the site was discovered several centuries ago and is still being excavated. so much for culture, it was back to the beach to spend our last two nights, this time in portugal. the algarve, which means west, in arabic, was the farthest expansion west within the moorish empire. it is the coastal region and has really pretty beaches. we found the perfect one. prahia da rocha has its share of tourists but we managed to stay at the less inhabited end of town. we decided that a great hotel room can really influence an experience and were determined to find the right one. we came upon a "residencial", a small facility to which i was attracted by its bright blue shutters. we had a huge room, with our own terrace and about a two minute walk to the beach. what fun for me, jumping waves in the ocean, even though it was a bit chilly. i had to do it. needless to say it was grand. we were blessed with the perfect evening on our last night. i don't just mean the physical beauty of the place but the feeling it brought on. walking on the beach at sunset inhaling the sea air has always been a favorite of mine. sitting on the terrace, we drank some green wine{a portuguese speciality}, and then went out for pizza!

gary had to practically drag me away from there when it was time to go. i was really pouty and didn't want to leave. it is a place i could visit every year easily. back in a'dam we learned that it was sunny and dry the entire time we were away. it is now cold again and i can't wait to see the pictures so i can relive this wonderful experience. i'm glad to be able to give you a small glimpse of our travels in this big world!!

adios,

with love, deb