The last blog post ended with our completion of walking the 500 mile Camino Frances of the Camino de Santiago across the Pyrenees Mountains. After finishing the Camino we left behind the rainy Santiago and headed to the east coast of Spain to the hopefully warm and sunny Alicante. When we arrived at the Alicante airport it was after mid-night, everything was closed, and our airbnb was not available until the next afternoon. We spoke to a security guard at the airport about transportation at that hour and where we might go. The guard suggested that we could sleep in one of the more quite terminals right around the corner and head out in the morning as no cabs are working that late. She said we could see her if there were any issues or anyone hassled us. In the end, there were about a dozen of us ‘sleeping’ in the area waiting for morning. If you ever ‘slept’ in an airport you know the comfort is non-existent and maybe ‘rest’ is a better term than ‘sleep’. All we knew was that Alicante was drier and warmer then the north of Spain so we were glad to be there.
The next morning we took a cab in search of the town and our lodging. We were dropped off at a very large vacation condo development. It was fenced and gated so we could not get in. It was around 10AM and our Airbnb was not available until 4PM so we walked down the mountain side into town with our packs to find lunch. We were able to leave our rucksacks with the cafe owner allowing us to more easily roam Alicante’s beach front. As 2PM approached we picked up our rucksacks and headed back up the mountainside to the Condo development hoping we could get in early as we needed showers and sleep after our previous night at the airport and the Camino. Arriving at the complex gate I tried reaching the contact person via the Airbnb app. I didn’t get any response. After a couple attempts we decided we needed to wait until the arrival time of 4PM. The detail info on Airbnb said that the owner would meet us at the unit. 4PM came and went. I messaged again and again. I tried calling numbers on the App but only received voice mail. By this time my phone battery was dying. We must admit we were getting pretty worried, and exhausted as it was quite a walk down the hillside and into town if we needed to change our plans or even use a bathroom. Finally around 6PM someone showed up and we were able to get in our unit. In the end the rental was a very comfortable 2 bedroom condo with a very large balcony overlooking the swimming pool – see pictures.
Alicante is a beach town located on the Mediterranean between Valencia and Cartagena about halfway down Spain. The beaches were nice and the town and lodging were built on the beach front and up a steep incline. The last thing we wanted to do was climb more but our place was on top of the steep incline even though the Airbnb profile said beach front. It was a great big beautiful condo development. There were 3 swimming pools but for us it was still a bit too chilly to go in the water, plus we didn’t have swim suits. We spent a week+ resting, recovering and walking up and down another mountain for each meal. The beach front was very quiet and some places were closing since the holiday season was over for the Europeans. Our goal was rest and recovery so we were grateful for the down time but after a week we were ready to move on. Overall Alicante appeared to be specifically a vacation destination town and almost exclusively condo buildings built into the hill side with bars, restaurants, and mini-markets. It was good for a short rest stop. Granada here we come!
From Alicante we boarded the bus and headed further south and inland to Granada and the Alhambra hoping the weather stayed warmer and dry. Granada seemed to have something for everyone. From the Kasbah in the Moorish Quarter to the Silk Road to Flamenco dancing to square after square of cafes and tourists to an amazing Cathedral and basilica. Also it seemed everyone was there. There were lots and lots of tourists from all over the world and this was the ‘off-season’! We wanted to tour the Alhambra and went to buy tickets only to find out it was booked solid for 2.5 weeks. Even the private tours were full. We ended up being able to walk the grounds but did not get inside. Next time…..
The Flamenco dancing was fun to watch and walking through the Moorish shops and alleys of the silk road was fun and tasty! The Flamenco dancing we attended was held in a museum for the Spanish Inquisition with exhibits of various torture devices. Flamenco was enjoyable but wasn’t fully what we expected. We thought we would see some couples dance with castanets but it was more about the guitar music. The dancing we did see was mostly individuals and no castanets.
One of the prominent statues in the center of town is of Christopher Columbus bowing down in front of the queen to receive funding for his voyage. Food, drink and sites were plentiful in Granada but we also had a very unusual experience happen. Granada is a very walk-able city. We were walking through one of the many squares filled with cafe after cafe. There was a cafe Denise wanted to see that Rick Steves recommended so we headed that way. At about 2PM it was Siesta time so we decided to stop and have a cold Victoria lager. There were 100s of tourists relaxing and walking through the square we were in as well as many other squares. As we sat there, Denise suddenly stopped and said, ‘hey, I know that voice’. She turned around and about 3 tables away were two couples from our old neighborhood of Fairwood Greens in Washington State. We had a short visit with them. The world is truly a small place. This was their last day in Granada so we all said good-bye and we all went on our way to our next adventures.
Before leaving Granada we both were able to get our first haircuts of the trip. Denise also got a pedicure and I opted for a beard trim! Our next stop was back to the coast but further south to Malaga and the Costa del Sol. Malaga is known for the Alcazaba, Roman ruins, bull fighting, Malaga Cathedral, and a Mediterranean port. We like Granada but really liked the Malaga area. It was smaller and while we were there it was less crowded then Granada and is the beginning of the Costa del Sol of southern Spain, beaches are always best!. We spent a few lazy days here enjoying beverages, the beach, and the history. The Alcazaba and the other ruins were pretty neat.
Malaga was very relaxing and easy to walk and get around. There were a lot of cafes, restaurants, and bars. There were lots of stores but they were more designer and high end stuff. Cruise ships also dock here, so especially at the port area, there were businesses catering to the cruise clientele.
We had initially planned to go to Valencia but chose to stay further south where it was warmer. It was a good decision as a major storm was sweeping across Spain and Valencia had major devastation from floods from the rivers washing down to the Mediterranean. I guess we left a few places to visit for another trip.
For anyone interested, we made daily posts of our trip with commentary and associated pictures. If you have interest you can join my channel on the Social Media app called Telegram. You will need to download the app and create a Telegram login. Just copy this into your browser and it will take you there, https://t.me/rbillock .
From Malaga our next stop was up in the mountains to Ronda. This place was really cool. It has a massive old stone bridge spanning a very large gorge linking the old town with the ‘newer’ town. How they built these things back in medieval times is nothing short of amazing. There were structures built into and on the canyon walls.
We toured the oldest bullring in Spain which we got to go out onto the arena floor. We saw a show ring for fancy horses and the paddocks. There was an excellent museum on site showing the history of bull fighting and matadors.
We discovered that the Ronda church had relics of St Theresa of Avila (a hand). She was a ‘mystic’ and Doctor of the Catholic church. If I remember right, she went into the convent at age 16 and died at 26. For such a short and young life she had such an enormous impact. When St. Teresa’s body was exhumed in 1582, her body was found to be incorruptible with no evidence of decay as if she had just died. Pretty cool!
Ronda is pretty high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the sights were beautiful. We were able to see quite a distance. It was a very defensible location in medieval times and also had very fertile land all around it. There was a nice walking park and good cafes and restaurants. The surrounding region had small white-washed towns built on cliff edges and mountain sides.
After a few days we were on the train and headed for the British held Rock of Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain! The weather in Spain was continuing to deteriorate with a storm sweeping the country. Even though we were at the very south of Spain it was pretty wet and only in the mid-60s. Hell we were almost in Africa and the Sahara desert but were cold and wet! We just wanted to be warm and dry.
The Gibraltar area was not what we expected. The area around Gibraltar on the Spanish side was pretty disappointing. Even though it is on the water with Mediterranean beaches it seemed and appeared pretty sketchy. We expected the typical tourist beachfront Mediterranean atmosphere but it was more rough and felt industrial and neglected.
Spain and England have fought and disputed control of ‘the rock’ for centuries and it is still contentious to this day. The rock itself was quite interesting. There are miles and miles (30 miles if I recall) of tunnels carved through it for defense of the channel between Europe and Africa during WWII. There were giant artillery guns that were operational up until 1976 when they were last fired ceremoniously. These guns were able to reach all the way to the north African shore so they covered the channel in and out of the Mediterranean pretty effectively. Something we did not know is that there is an area across the water in what we would call Africa that is similar to Gibraltar and also controlled by the British.
Some of the cannons were positioned in portals in the rock and faced Spain and were used by the English for defense against Spain. The conflict has its roots in the 18th century, with the most significant military engagement being the Great Siege of Gibraltar during the American Revolutionary War from 1779 to 1783. During this siege, Spain and France attempted to capture Gibraltar from the British, but the British garrison successfully defended the territory despite a prolonged blockade. More recently (2019) there was an incident with a Spanish warship and territorial rights of the waters near Gibraltar.
I never knew Gibraltar had vast caverns filled with beautiful stalagmites. One is called St. Michael’s as it has very large stalagmites that look like a giant archangel – see pictures. We also saw the monkeys that roam freely on top of the rock and these are not just the tourists. The monkeys can be quite aggressive, again also the tourists. The Gibraltar Airport separates the Rock from the main land. To get on Gibraltar, whether walking, in car, or bus, they need to first make sure no flights are in or out as you walk right across the runways. The video gives a good view of this. There is also a checkpoint for passport control. We are glad we visited but probably would not go back again. It is a ‘one and done’ location.
Next we were riding the rails again and headed for Cadiz on the southwest coast of Spain on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the oldest city in Spain having been occupied by the Phoenicians over 3000 years ago. Cadiz had a castle, cathedral, old town, ramparts, and time for us to eat, drink, and relax. The weather stayed wet and cold. Regardless of the weather, we did lots of site seeing in this port town. Looking back, we really enjoyed the stay in Cadiz as it was relaxing, easy to walk, and had lots of bars and cafes. This is another cruise stop so it also had tourist businesses that you would expect to support cruises.
Our next planned stop was Seville. It was raining both when we left Cadiz and when we arrived in Seville. We traveled using BlaBlaCar from Cadiz to Seville. BlaBlaCar is kind of like Uber but different. The driver was a younger Spanish fireman that didn’t speak English. He was head to Seville to go to class. He played Flamenco music our full trip. We hoped for a longer stay in Seville but that didn’t happen. What we forgot and failed to know was that All Saints Day was arriving in a day or two and was a big celebration in Seville. It is like St Patrick’s day in Dublin, all the locals leave and the place is over run with partying tourists for the weekend. Our intended time in Seville was cut short since there was nowhere to stay unless we wanted to pay $500+ per night but at least we got a little time for a quick visit.
Time in Cadiz and Seville was fun but exhausting as we were still walking to see things and getting very wet. The weather continued to have a major impact on the trip from start to finish. We also found that many of the sites required advanced tickets and many places were sold out for weeks. Even though it was off season there were still tons of tourists crowding everything and everywhere. We did a lot of research for the overall trip and we didn’t see any warnings about not being able to see sights and the need to by tickets ahead of time. Also everything we read projected the weather to be hot and sunny. All and all we made the best of things and enjoyed our time together.
Spain has had, of late, an undercurrent of discontent with the residents in some areas regarding the volume of tourists that have driven up prices and taken over towns. There have been some pretty rowdy protests in some places. Living in Southern Florida, we kinda of know how the locals must feel since we are invaded by the snowbirds who take over the place.
In Seville we saw an old but still used Moorish Palace and the Seville Cathedral. Strange enough these were pretty much right next to each other. We toured the palace. It was real cool with neat architecture and history.
The cathedral was built on top of a mosque, which maybe explains why it was next to the Moorish Castle. The Cathedral is one of the 3 largest church buildings in the world as well as the largest Gothic church in the world. The Seville Cathedral was both enormous and amazing. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. This is where the remains of Christopher Columbus are interred. Also there is the Basílica de Santa María de la Esperanza Macarena (no not the dance). This is one of the most beautiful and beautifully kept churches that we have seen. This church is one of the most famous churches in Spain. The church houses the weeping statue of the Virgin Mary. A miraculous statue that multiple times has been found to have real verified and documented tears streaming down the face of Mary. I can see why Seville is such a draw for tourists. We should have tried the Chestnuts that vendors were roasting on open fires on the street…something for the next time we visit!
On our last day in Seville the weather cleared a little so we spent time doing some tourist shopping and visiting the bullring before getting the bus for our next and final stop at Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol. Yes, back to just south of Malaga on the southeast coast. We spent 12 days in Torremolinos to finish up our allowed 90 days visa in Europe in a nice airbnb. We were glad to find dry and warmer weather. Each day we walked the malecon along the beach visiting the shops, bars, and cafes.
There had to be more than a dozen Irish pubs here. This seems to be the town the Brits come for holiday. Just down the beach, in the next town, that we could walk to, everything has a German focus obviously for vacationers from central Europe. The Costa del Sol was winding down for the season but there were still lots of people and lots to see and do.
The warm sunny weather was so welcome! The Costa del Sol area is well known for topless sun bathing on the beach. It seems that in early 1900s Salvador Dali and his girl Gala were a big deal here and she liked to bathe topless and thus a new fashion was born. At times in the past this was and still is a big draw for the rich and famous…and those that want to be…but we found that normal folks fit in nicely also.
The food in south Spain is Andalucian food. Again the beer and wine is generally cheap and plentiful and EVERYTHING comes with fries whereas in northern Spain everything comes with thick crusty bread. One of the real cool things that happened in Torremolinos was that we met Antonio Montañez, the Gaudí de Torremolinos. He is a famous mosaic artist. We just happened across his place and he was working out of the back of his home/museum/studio. Here is an article about him with some pics of his work (hopefully your browser has auto translate to English) https://www.azcostadelsol.com/oncesoles/antonio-montanez-el-gaudi-de-torremolinos/
His whole house was mosaic’d as shown in the article pictures and pictures below. It was real cool to meet him and Denise showed him some pictures of some of the mosaic art she has created. At the time we had no idea how big a deal he was in the art world and just thought he was another local enjoying his hobby.
We went to Flamingo Beach and Burrito Beach among others. We had a plate of Mediterranean Sardines, olives, burgers, and beers. The burgers come with fried egg, bacon or ham and goat cheese – delicious! The beach front cafes all had these small boats filled with sand and in the middle they would build their wood fires and grill fresh fish right there as ordered in the restaurant. There were also a lot of trees along the beach filled with colorful and noisy parrots. The condo building we stayed in had its own little cafe. Each day we would have a meal there and try a different Spanish dish. One night for dinner I had Rabbit and Mushrooms in sauce and Denise had Meatballs and Gravy. Of course both with fries and beers.
As we prepared to leave Torremolinos the rain started again. We made it to the train station heading to Malaga Airport and then to Lisbon for the day before a late flight out to Miami. We were torn between wanting to stay more and knowing our visa was expiring and we had to leave. I can’t say we headed home since we didn’t have a home. Before we started this trip we moved out of the condo we had been in for 8 years and put our things in storage. While in Torremolinos we worked with our realtor to secure a furnished 6 month rental in Jupiter. When we landed in Miami it was late so we had reserved a hotel room for the night. The next morning we took the 2 hour Tri-rail train ride from the Miami airport up to West Palm Beach where we picked up a rental car to head to our rented apartment, which for various reasons we could not get into for another week and that is another story unto itself. We ended up back into a hotel and then stayed a weekend with our Realtor until our apartment was ready.
We have been back for just over 2 months and already are talking about wanting to go back, to do a different Camino path, at a warmer/dryer time of year. Maybe we will do the Camino Portuguese. This path either starts in Lisbon or the option to start in Porto. If starting in Lisbon you can go by the city of Fatima. We had been there a few years ago but it would be cool to do on a Camino.
We still do not know what we will do for a place to live. We now have 4 more months on our lease to figure something out while we wait out the coldest winter in 10 years in southern Florida. All of our stuff – cloths, kitchen things, etc.. – are in the storage unit and for the most part we are living day to day. We have gotten back to our church and to beach volleyball (when warm and dry enough) and now the gym. In the mean time we hope you enjoyed our pictures and our story.
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