Las Cuevas de Nerja

The nearby town of Nerja, pronounced Neer-hah, has an extraordinary cave complex that stretches for some 5 kilometers below the mountains. Admission for two was €17 and €5 more got you the audioguide, which was entirely worth it. Knowing the names and origins of the various  "speliotherms," made them seem almost animated. I took some pix, but without profesional equipment they don't begin to show the vastness and height of this one-of-a-kind natural wonder. This website www.cuevadenerja.es has gorgeous, well lit photos and even a virtual tour for those with an intest in learning more.

It's a big personal achievement whenever I talk myself into a cave. As claustrophobic as I am, I begin to get sweaty and dizzy within a few minutes. This time, I breathed deeply, tried to suppress the diziness that started creeping up and was distracted from my own nuttiness when a group of senior citizens in front of us began howling and meow-ing to hear their own echoes. It was hard not to laugh at their goofy enthusiasm. For awhile I forgot I was below ground and was spellbound by the magnificence of the caves.  The dizziness came back toward the end of the public pathways and I was delighted to emerge back into another day of sunshine.

Have I mentioned the view??

The apartment we are renting is really very nice. It has three bedrooms, two full baths, livingroom and kitchen, but the number one feature that surpasses all others is the terrace. It is about 50-feet long by 15-feet wide and runs the entire length of the flat. There are glass doors entering the terrace from the livingroom as well as two of the bedrooms. When we are here, day or night, we are almost always on the terrace. Here's why:

Sunrise

Afternoon

Evening

Ahhhhhhh . . .

A little history before lunch never hurt anyone

The town of Almunecar, which is about a 10 minute drive from our apartment, is an interesting mix of old and new. They have a McDonalds and cellphone shops and clothes stores in the more modern part of town. In the ancient part, there is a "white city" like in many regions of Spain, Italy and Greece, and also a hilltop fortress that was just begging us to climb up and check it out. 

The Castillo de San Miguel was begun by Romans, altered and expanded by Muslims, then later stolen and further modified by Castillians. Each layer of history is present--the grain bins of the Romans, the Mosque of the Muslims and the design elements of the later conquerers all come together to tell a centuries-long tale of accomplisment, wars, more wars and later rebuilding.

The fortress still has intact walls, towers, a parade ground and a very well done museum that includes  a video of three actors, each representing their era of ownership, telling how they were the ones who truly shaped the region as we have come to know it. The best feature is the endless view, now encompassing miles of beaches and posh hotels, but those same views once ensured that whoever was in control of the fortress certainly knew of the approach of marauding bad guys well in advance.

Of course, fortress exploring can work up an appetite, so we headed to our favorite beach bar in La Herradura for an all afternoon string of tapas: grilled sardines with peppers, followed by skewered shrimp in a spicy marinade, followed by Gallician-style octopus, followed by a platter of mussels in a tomatoey broth.  We just sat for hours slowly enjoying some local refreshing white wine, watching the beach-goers and the after-church ladies talking on the sidewalks. Listening to the happy chatter of a sunny Sunday.

You learn something new every day

This morning, I decided to get on the bathroom scale in our apartment to see what kind of effect the fried eggplant was having on my physique and so I stepped up, looked down and was met with an incomprehensible number: 10. 5.0.

I stepped off and on again and the number was exactly the same. WTF!!??

I was expecting to have to do some math, converting kilograms to pounds, but the number staring back at me just had no business being there. I did some quick research. Oh. Stones. Stones?? Do they actually still use stones as a measuring tool? I guess so. So more research . . .

The 10 is the number of stones, followed by 5, which is the number of pounds, so this equates to 145 pounds, with one stone equalling 14 pounds. That means Donna equals 140 pounds normal weight plus 5 pounds of fried eggplant. Oof!

Granada: take one

Granada is one of the premier cities in Andalucia. With over 300,000 residents and enough historic monuments to satisfy any guidebook geek, it's not a place that can be fully enjoyed in a day. We decided to split it up--seeing the cathedral, the historic Albaycin district and other sites in the center of town today. The magnificent palace, the Alhambra, we will visit on Tuesday. Luckily, we are staying only an hour away.

If I had to compare Granada to an American city, I'd say it's a little like Boston in that it has history, monuments, public gardens, great universities, and a modern science museum complex. It's also about the same size, which is a little daunting for a first-timer, so we decided to take the bus turistica to get a feel for what the city had to offer.

After the 1.5 hour tour, we were dropped off near the cathedral and made our way up through the narrow maze of streets that make up the Albaycin, an ancient Muslim enclave. The shops and restaurants have a Middle-east feel and the aromas are of smoke wafting from the hookah bars, mingled with kabobs and dried spices.

After a stroll uphill then down, we found a small plaza with a few tapas bars and ordered a snack. Hand sliced jamon ibirico is just as good as prosciutto (but don't tell any Italians I said that). We also tried the berenjenas con miel=eggplant with honey, which sounds odd, but is addictively delicious. The thinly-sliced eggplant is dredged in flour and fried till crisp and is served with a small pitcher of what tasted more like molassas than honey. I think it was actually cane syrup, since they have a large sugar cane industry here.

After tapas we visited the area in and around the cathedral. The church itself is magnificent with its gleaming gilded ornamentation and a solid silver altar piece.

In the smaller chapel next door, we crashed a wedding, then returned later to find the ground covered with rice and rose petals.

We stopped for one more glass of wine, a red blend for Joe and a Manzanilla sherry for me. They came with two bite sized tuna sandwiches on salty buns. 

We'll be back in a few days for take two.

Los gatos

I just don't like cats. Any cats. They make my nose itch. I don't trust them. 

I especially don't like cats when they hang around my ankles at a restaurant with outdoor seating. Last night at a beachfront place in La Herradura, there were three of them. A dark shaggy misfit with young, twin yellow and white accomplices. I spotted them at a far table when we arrived and noted happily that they were at the other end of the place. Well, the second the waiter brought the gambas pil-pil, there they were. Under, around, shiftly little ankle warmers. I tried making brutish, throat-clearing noises at them. They looked at me like I was a little nuts, but since I still had an aromatic plate on my table, they weren't about to am-scray. 

Frustrated and getting the "why can't you just let it go" face from Joe, I made a quick decision. I filled my water glass and instead of bringing it to my lips, I tossed it at them. Done! 

El SUPER Supermercado

The Mercadona market in the center of Almunecar is a fantastic place to shop! First, it has an underground parking lot where you also get your shopping cart and then head up to the store on a flat escalator. Joe loved this part and insisted on pushing the cart.

I find foreign food markets fascinating. In fact, I would rather go up and down each aisle reading labels (and mentally planning my next meal) than, say, go to the beach or a museum. This place, brightly lit with wide aisles and colorful products, was my kind of vacation attraction.

How can you not love a place where you can get an entire Jamon Ibirico for 48€.? Or gleaming fresh fish on ice?

Of course, in every country, there's always products geared to children with no nutritional value whatsoever. 

By the time we finished provisioning the house, we had some aged goat cheese, a pile of thinly sliced Serrano ham, pickled anchovies, olives, lettuce and tomatoes--all of which will find themselves on a platter tonight on our terrace, where we will eat while marveling at our magical view of the Mediterranean Sea.