Tag: Andalusia

Yes….I am here on my own

A whistle-stop tour through Andalucia – One day in Seville

As with all whistle-stop tours, I guess, there is very little time to stop and soak up all the sights and plant the memories of each place and this is particularly true of our day in Seville.

I do have two very distinct memories. The first was a visit to the Plaza de España, built to showcase Spain’s industry and technology at the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and restored in the noughties. It is in the form of a huge semi-circle with a moat, criss-crossed by four bridges and with a fountain at its centre. What struck me most were the fabulous blue tiles covering almost every surface, including the bridges and the four alcoves which represent different provinces of Spain (look out for the photo of the Jaén alcove).

Following our visit to the Plaza de España, we were dropped off in the centre of Seville to have some lunch and visit the Cathedral. I see from my diary that I had a very pleasant lunch of shrimp tortillas and croquettes with another passenger before we made our way to the Cathedral. We didn’t have much time, you can tell that I didn’t stop to take any photographs. After a rather hurried visit we tried to leave but kept getting lost and arriving back at the entrance, the trouble with this being that it was a one-way system and they wouldn’t let us out! We came across three others from our coach and together spent twenty minutes, increasingly panicking, trying to find the exit. When we finally got outside, the main group had left and we had to hurry through the streets until we caught up with them at the Golden Tower just in time for a boat trip up the Guadalquivir river (which we had seen a couple of days before when we were in the mountains outside Baeza).

After our run through the streets, the river trip was pleasantly cool but we then had another rather hot walk back to the coach and we were off once again, this time to Jerez. It will be no surprise to learn that we were met at our hotel – the Sherry Park Hotel – with a glass of sherry.

Yes….I am here on my own

A whistle-stop tour of Andalucia – Ubeda, Baeza and on to Cordoba

I am only just picking up the second leg of my tour, having been mired in my own and family health matters, various household emergencies and trying to improve my input at the creative writing course that I attend.

So, back to Andalucia…….

Despite the hectic day at the Alhambra and the evening watching some even more hectic Flamenco, we were up and on our way bright and early. Our first stop was the small town of Ubeda, which is a World Heritage Site. We were met by a local tour guide who took us around the town. A quick check of the Andalucia Tourist website (www.andalucia.org) tells me that there is so much to see in this town but my main memory is of a large square with a church at one end. This is the Holy Funerary Chapel of El Salvador del Mundo. It is the interior of the church with its breathtaking golden altar which sticks in the mind. I don’t think I have never seen its like anywhere else that I have visited.

Our next stop was in another World Heritage Site, Baeza, where we stayed overnight. Another single visitor and I had a rather unsuccessful self-directed tour as we found the cathedral closed and a little train, which thought would take us for a tour around the town was not running. The highlight of the afternoon appears to have been the Kit-Kat ice-cream, which we discovered at our hotel.

Next morning we set off from Baeza for a tour of some of the local countryside. We drove up through a Natural (not National) Park to a stop atop the hills with a view of the Guadalqivir River and visited a small town (name unknown, I’m afraid). We returned to Baeza to spend a second night and left for Cordoba the next morning.

Ubeda and Baeza are both in the Province of Jaén, which is an are known for its olive oil and so we stopped en route for a tour of an olive oil museum, including tasting and a chance to buy some of the delicious varieties grown there.

After rather a strange lunch at a motorway services (omelette sandwich – shouldn’t have worked but did!), we continued on to Cordoba and a brief tour of the walled city.

Next day we went on a walking tour of Cordoba, I discovered the Mezquita, which I was surprised to find even more beautiful than the Alhambra. Constructed as a mosque in the 8th century, the Mezquita was developed throughout the following centuries by Muslim rulers until it was appropriated by the conquering Christian army in the 12th century and then re-dedicated as a Catholic cathedral in the 13th century. It has been designated as a World Heritage Site since 1984. I found the interior absolutely breathtaking, especially the beautiful lines of the structures from the Muslim era.

After more walking and a spell back at our hotel to escape the afternoon heat, we were dropped off to make our own choices of restaurant for dinner. As the temperature gradually cooled, I joined with some of the other lone travellers and sat outside a restaurant, watching the world go by and enjoyed shrimp salad with lettuce, broad beans, tomatoe jam and a curry sauce, followed by calamari, prawns and chips and finally a light mousse. Then it was time to return to our hotel to prepare for another prompt start, heading for Seville.

Yes….I am here on my own

A whistle-stop tour of Andalusia – Granada and the Alhambra Palace

Phew!  I have been caught up in Christmas and all its arrangements and the aftermath of general lethargy in January. I have decided to ease myself back by concentrating on a whistle-stop tour of Andalusia which I enjoyed in 2013.  It was both excellent and exhausting and I don’t think I could repeat it now!  But it gives me the opportunity to break a fortnight into easy chunks and an excuse to show a lot of photos.

Sometimes, I see a place on TV or amongst someone else’s holiday photos and I know I have just got to go there.  It was looking at a relative’s photos of their visit to the Alhambra Palace in Granada that made me want to see it for myself.  However, in addition to Granada, I was going to visit Ubeda, Cordoba, Seville, Jerez, Cadiz, Chiciana de la Frontera and Ronda.

Granada and the Alhambra Palace
We arrived via the airport in Malaga, which is not so far from Granada.  The tour started as it meant to go on.  We hardly had time to settle in at the hotel, when we were whisked off for a walk around the city centre, visiting the cathedral, which was formerly a mosque (a recurring theme).  I also made a brief visit to the hotel’s rooftop bar and caught a view of the snow, still on the peaks of the Sierra Nevada in early May.

The following day was our visit to the Alhambra.  To call it “a palace” is rather selling it short. I’m looking at the huge visitor guide that I was given and remember that it actually comprises several palaces. Between them, they were everything I had hoped for.  Set on top of a hill and looking down on Granada, the building was started by Muhammed Al Ahmar in the 13th Century as both a fortification and a palace. The Comares Palace and the Palace of the Lions, filled with more elaborate and beautiful decoration were built during the reigns of his successors. In the late 15th Century, Granada was captured by Catholic monarchs. Isabella and Ferdinand undertook extensive repairs and renovations, although I must say that I saw more beauty in the earlier parts of the building. Charles V commissioned a palace which was to be named after him In 1870, the Alhambra was declared a National Monument and, after more restoration in the 1920s and 30s, it was designated a World Heritage Site in 1984. Here are some photos, I cannot say exactly which part of the palace they are but just soak up the magnificence!

Coach visits were allocated to either morning or afternoon and, unfortunately, our slot was in the afternoon.  As we walked round it became hotter and hotter and I missed the visit to see the palace’s gardens, choosing an ice-cream and a sit down instead.

This day wasn’t finished, though, as we spent an exciting evening in a bar (built in a cave), on top of another of Granada’s hills, watching and listening to traditional  flamenco dancing and singing.  I have written the word “passionate” in my diary!

So I had already achieved what I came to see but there was so much more to experience over the next couple of weeks. We left Granada early the following morning, heading towards Ubeda……