Addendum

I always forget something. 

Pictures taken: 1,045

You just thought I posted a lot of  photos!!! 😂

Farewell to Spain

We checked out of our B&B this morning and headed to Madrid.

As we were leaving Granada, we spotted a large shopping area: DIY store, home store, etc. One of the things I had been looking for was a wall hanging planter. I had seen some when we were hiking in the Catalan area but didn´t want to carry it in my backpack so figured I would find one once we got the rental car. Nope! Looked and looked. We decided to make one final attempt so Kim exited the äutovia and turned around to go back. We had no luck in the DIY store but in the very back of the home store there was a "jardin" area and Eureka! I found some! 

Not only were they the painted clay pots made in Spain, but one even has the blue and green pomegranate design which is unique to Granada. Everywhere you go in Granada, you see the pomegranate: in drawings and paintings; on signs, pottery; as statues, fountains and imbedded into the pavement and roads. The pomegranate or Punica granatum, is "granada" in Spanish and the official symbol of the city. All the street signs have a painting of the fruit on the top of them. It´s even on the sewer manhole covers. 😂 Once you start looking, you´ll find them everywhere.

Kim was kind enough to say I could have both designs. They were super cheap compared to buying ceramics from the souvenir shops in the city centre. It´s just getting them home that´s the issue.

Once we got back onto the autovia, it was miles and miles, kilometers and kilometers, of olive groves.   I´m talking 400+ kilometers of olive groves. 

The hills were covered with them as far as the eye could see. 

I asked the B&B owner how they were harvested - by hand or machine. She said they lay down a tarp and whack the trees with a branch knocking them out and then pick them up. I say that´s a lot of whacking and figure there has to be some machinery involved for this many trees.

These bull silhouettes are all along the road.

This was only the second mariachi silhouette I saw.

Arrived Madrid

We walked down to the shopping area to find dinner. It was a huge mall and they were having a mini chef school (decorating alphabet cookies). I wish I could upload the video because he is hilarious but here´s a pic anyway.

We shared an Oktoberfest dinner. Did I mention how hungry we are for mexican food, a real steak, catfish????

We highlighted our route on the map. You´ll have to zoom in to see it.

It´s been a remarkable journey in many ways. I´m always reminded of the omnipotence and omnipresence of our God more than ever when we travel. His creation is indescribable and His presence is felt at every turn. He has watched over and cared for us even when I made silly, and sometimes frightening, mistakes like leaving my purse with our passports and Kim´s international driving license, in a restaurant. Someone turned it in with everything intact, for us to claim over an hour later. Praise God!   

It´s a joy to share it all with you even though I know the pictures don´t begin to reveal the true beauty. It´s even more of a joy to see your comments every morning when I wake up. It´s the perfect start to my day and makes us feel connected to home even from so far away.

We´ve met the most interesting people along the way and hope we´ve shared the joy of having Christ in our hearts. The woman who cooked us the Portuguese feast lives in a beautiful village and loves cooking for others. They have quite the catering business and location in the midst of all the vineyards in the Douro Vally, yet her desire is to move to America with her son. They are Trump supporters and have, I believe, a very idealized view of America, talking about how corrupt their government is. Little do they know about ours, and even less do we know about theirs. What seems like an ideal way of life on the outside must be much less in reality.

Some trip stats:

miles walked: 103.39

steps: 223,394

floors climbed: 605 (10´ elevation gain is a floor, so 6,050´ gained in elevation)

miles driven: 2,350

hours driving: 45.25

average speed: 52 mph

longest day driving: 8 1/2 hours and 481 miles

best meal: pesto pasta on my birthday - how serendipitous

bread eaten: TOO MUCH!!!

adios (goodbye) hasta la proxima (until next time)

Visiting Granada, Spain

After our typical Spanish breakfast, we headed into Granada City Centre for shopping and site seeing. Getting to the inner city is always a stressful adventure but we made it and squeezed into a tiny parking spot underground. Kim literally had to squeeze himself out of the car.

The first thing we saw when we came up out of the parking garage was the fountain Fuente de las Batallas

The domed roof on a hotel

The Granada Cathedral or the Cathedral of the Incarnation - a Roman catholic church in the city 

Ave Maria 

Calle Elvira and the Moroccan quarter

The Royal Chapel is the burial place of the Catholic Monarchs.

A futball street poser

Pizza with spicy sausage and peppers

Pesto pasta

Italian cafe where we ate lunch

A charming church in the heart of Granada with an unusual renaissance design in the midst of all the moorish architecture.  

Stream running through town

Narrow streets for cars and pedestrians  

We are headed up for a view of the Alhambra. More stairs. Just walked up this set...

...then we got to go up these...

...then more...

...then up a narrow street where we had to suck in our stomachs to let this car by...

...and still more steps. Kim's fitbit said it was equal to 39 floors. I think it was more. All I know is when we went up some stairs later in the day, my legs didn't like it.

This is the Alhambra. It is the best preserved and oldest moorish palace and fortress, and the most visited monument in Granada. It was originally constructed as a small fortress in AD 889 and then pretty much ignored until it's ruins were renovated in the mid 13th century by the Nasrid emir Mohammed Ben Al-Ahmar. It was conquered by Christians in 1492 and that's where Christopher Columbus received the royal endorsement for his expedition. After 1492 the entire Iberian peninsula was controlled by Christian rulers. The conquest was followed by the Alhambra Decree, which expelled Jews who would not convert to Christianity. The Alhambra contains some of the best preserved Islamic art and architecture in the world, which is odd because for years, while it was in ruins, it was inhabited by squatters. Okay, enough history for today.

The city of Granada is way down there and where we were before we started that long trek up the hill.

Jamon is the Spanish word for ham. It refers to certain types of dry-cured ham from Spain. Jamon iberico is ham from the black Iberian pig and Jamon Serrano means ham from the Sierra or mountain range. 

You can find them hanging in all the grocery stores.

Sign advertising dinner with flaminco dancers.

14,899 steps today and just over 6 miles.

Tomorrow we head to Madrid, turn in our rental car, spend the night and fly home on Friday.

The Apujarra

This morning I took a walk around the property while everyone else was sleeping.

Sunrise over the mountains 

Breakfast

Eating on the terrace

Stairs down to the lower terrace

And they kept going

A swinging bed by the pool

View from the lower terrace

Looking back up at the house. Our window is behind the trees on the left side.

Walnut tree

An awesome stone sink outside

After breakfast we headed further into the Sierra Nevadas.

Embalse de Beznar reservoir

The Alpujarra is an area with gorgeous little whitewashed villages that sit along the southern edge of the Sierra Nevadas. Today we visited Capileira, Bubion and Pampaneira, three very small villages nestled together at the top of a very narrow winding road.

The flowers everywhere are just beautiful. We started at the highest of the three villages, Capileira. I bought some tiles (go figure), a couple of little pottery bowls for salsa and finally, after much debating over which one, chose a leather backpack from Piel J Brown, a leather workshop.

Next we visited the lowest of the three villages, Pampaneira.

Looking up at two of the villages, Capileira and Bubion, on the hillside.

A little waterway running right down the middle of the sidewalk. We went to a hidden gem of a shop at the end of the walkway and bought some olive oil from the region. They only have a gazillion kinds from which to choose.

Looking down the street at the wares.

This was a plate of potatoes and what we think was squid that they brought out for us to eat before our meal. They eat a lot of potatoes here. This entire dining experience was terrible. 

We sat on the patio along with about a thousand flies and several fat cats that tried to reach up on the table and swipe our food. It was so bad, I don't know why they would want it. 

We also bought chocolate from Abuela Ili, an artisanal chocolatier. You could smell the chocolate as you walked in the door before even going downstairs.

Our last stop was Bubion. The only shop in this tiny village is a rug weaver. I bought two small rugs from her. She tried to tell me the rugs could be washed in the washing machine but I had no idea what she was saying so she pulled out her phone and spoke into her translation app. It seemed so out of place in this little shop but it worked.

You may not be interested but here is a pic of the purchases I made today. 

Looking down into the valley

Back to the B&B where we took a little walk around the block.

A few pine trees with huge pinecones.

Then fixed ourselves another antipasto meal for supper. 

We've decided to stay another night at the B&B and spend some time in Granada tomorrow. I'm off to bed.