Sep 20 2016

A few more gems in Spain

Based on what I had heard and read of the history and architecture, I thought Seville and Cordoba warranted several days’ stopover each for our first visit there. I was not disappointed! But what a treat to discover a couple of other little gems – and these are the ones that make us want to return one day…

Before I tell you about them, let’s go back to Seville and Cordoba. For the last few days, they have predicted a deluge due to a huge band of rain covering the whole of Spain the day of our journey to Seville. Rain itself doesn’t worry us, but it is more the fact that it hasn’t rained in Spain for months and even walking across the road feels incredibly slippery so the roads are going to be absolutely treacherous for the first few hours until the build up of oil and rubber has been washed away. Luck is on our side again. We got up early enough and made it to our hotel in Seville an hour before the downpour.

Seville didn’t disappoint. It is so green! Orange tree lined streets, avenues, squares, orange trees everywhere. The oranges hadn’t turned to orange yet – I can imagine how stunning Seville would be a few weeks later. We take the bus to town as we are staying outside the city centre, always a great way to see a bit more and get a better feel of a place. On our first day in Sevilla, the queues to get into the Alcazar or the Cathedral are so long, I’ll try again another day I thought, but didn’t. We enjoyed the lifestyle of Seville – there is something about this place that makes you want to wander the streets, sit, enjoy the architecture and greenery and watch the world go by. There is an elegance to this city.

Plaza de España, Sevilla

Sevilla, Spain

What are those cute smileys on the pavement in Sevilla?

Cycle paths in Sevilla!

On day 2, we take the train to Cordoba – that way we don’t have to visit the town in all our riding gear on.

Walking into the Mosque-Cathedral, also known as the Mezquita, in Cordoba was totally awe inspiring.

Very brief background courtesy of wikipedia, the site was originally a small temple of Christian Visigoth origin, the Catholic Basilica of Saint Vincent of Lérins. When Muslims conquered Spain in 711, the church was first divided into Muslim and Christian halves. This sharing arrangement of the site lasted until 784, when the Christian half was purchased by the Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman I, who then proceeded to demolish the original structure and build the grand mosque of Córdoba on its ground. Córdoba returned to Christian rule in 1236 during the Reconquista, and the building was converted to a Roman Catholic church, culminating in the insertion of a Renaissance cathedral nave in the 16th century.

Once inside the Mezquita, I switch off the audio guide as I find it too distracting – I just want to take in the majestic grace of those columns, alone, without anyone in my head and wait for the various tour groups to move away a little. I first just stand then slowly walk around admiring the elegance, balance and sheer beauty of those pink marble columns topped with sturdy double arches and enjoying the indescribable serenity of this place – until I walk along the outer nave off which there are over 30 small chapels – each small chapel dedicated to a different saint more opulent, sometimes more garish than the other. What a contrast… It feels brutal, to have done that to this once stunning simple mosque, and the cathedral’s baroque choir especially nearly seems grotesque to me in comparison. I do not mean to offend anyone, just my personal feeling. Interestingly, the dual arch system, as seen in Roman aqueducts, enables the distribution of the weight along the many arches, allowing thinner elegant columns. I cannot put in words how stunning the prayer hall is and the feeling that envelops you.

Prayer hall, Mosque-Cathedral, Cordoba, Spain

Mirhab, Mosque-Cathedral, Cordoba, Spain

Mosque-Cathedral, Cordoba, Spain

What a treat to discover, as I peer down from the top of the Alcazar, that there is an event going on at the Royal Stables next door. I go and investigate: there is an annual equestrian fair at the Royal Stables in Cordoba starting tonight for 3 days. Entry is free today and we are allowed to watch the competition. The horses are stunning and the ‘trainers’ very dapper in their skin tight trousers, and white shirt, waist coat or silk polka dot cumber-band and sombreros. We are mesmerized as the ‘trainer’ shows off his horse’s skills to the judges. Guiding the horse with a very long lead, the horses gallops in circles then figures of 8, at some amazing speed until the horse is brought to a sudden stop. And this second part is what fascinated us: the ‘trainer’ seems to be feathering the short rope he is now holding, as if it were a bow and he were playing the violin. One certain stroke, and the horse moves one step forward, another stroke, it moves one or two ears. We didn’t get to find out what all the competitions were about but what we felt privileged to have been there at this time.

Royal stables, Cordoba, Spain

Puente Romano, Cordoba, Spain

Torre de la Calahorra, Cordoba, Spain

We could have stayed for a flamenco show that evening, but we decided on rather going to a friend’s favourite local tapas bar in Seville for dinner. Queues again and as I ask Anthony whether we should stay and wait, we get chatting with a couple behind us, Paul and Wendy, and end up sharing a table and the next 3 hours with them!

Our third day in Seville ends up being an ‘admin’ day. Bike maintenance check, tighten the chains, washing and drying, blog update, photo upload, emails.

We have given ourselves 3 days to get from Seville to Santander where we are catching a ferry back to the UK. We decide to make good progress on the first day, about 450kms, to give ourselves enough time in case of breakdown to get to our ferry in Santander in plenty of time. So I look for somewhere around Salamanca, and stumble across Salvatierra de Tormes thanks to rave reviews of a 10 roomed hotel there. This village has a long history as the medieval coats of arms testify but it’s more recent history is very most unusual: most of the houses were bought up by a hydro company building a dam back in the 60s expecting the village to be submerged and forcing all but a few tenacious villagers out. But the dam engineers miscalculated and the village never flooded. Now presumably because the company never wanted to admit their error, they have always refused to resell the houses to the previous owners or to anyone, so only the handful of residents who held out still live there. You arrive in the village and you immediately feel like it could be a movie set. The roads and pavements are immaculate but many houses are crumbling down. There is obviously a lot of pride in this village.

Salvatierra de Tormes, Spain

We eventually find our hotel. What an oasis. Beautiful garden out the back, birds are chirping, the internet is working and the most incredible kitchen is awaiting us. For a whole €10 each , we had a 3 course meal, where the entree was the size of a main course, the mains were first class, and the price included a litre of red wine and a litre of bottled water. And that was not all, at the end, we were given a half litre of some type of Baileys and another half litre of a most tasty home made green ‘eau de vie’. It was funny to see the villagers coming to the restaurant with their own barbecue and meat, with the hotel providing salads, drinks, plates etc. The bbq was brought over and left in the garden and restocked with fresh meat half way through their dinner. We were in the heart of the village. One of the gems.

Leaving Salvatierra de Tormes, Spain

The ride to and out the village was gorgeous – our kind of country. Our biggest surprise was Cantabria. This part of Spain is so green, hilly, gorgeous riding roads, tiny stone villages. We are heading to San Vicente de la Barquera for the night – great spot chosen by Anthony.

Heading to San vincente de la Barquera, Spain

San vincente de la Barquera, Spain

Iglesia de Santa Maria de los Angeles, San vincente de la Barquera, Spain

We have given ourselves an easy ride on our last day to get to Santander where we are scheduled to spend our last night in Spain before catching the ferry back to the UK. The route we have chosen takes us through many tiny villages, past are numerous small sandy coves. We are so pleased we have the time to spend a few hours in Santillana del Mar. Yes, despite the tourists, which we remind ourselves we are part of!!! We admire the many camino pilgrims we see along the way – this region is hilly!!

Early morning, San vincente de la Barquera, Spain

Looking back towards San vincente de la Barquera, Spain

Santillana del Mar, Spain

Claustro de la Colegiata de Santillana del Mar, Spain

Cantabria is definitely an area we would like to return to one day. A great way to finish our Spanish trip. We get to our hotel in Santander in plenty of time, having checked the arrival route to the port for tomorrow morning – time to pack for our ferry trip now and relax. Ha, that was until we got a little surprise… I get our ferry tickets out and then ask Anthony why it says that our ferry leaves from Bilbao?!?! Haha, how did that happen? We will never know, but once again on this trip, we have been reminded that we may have been a little too relaxed about our trip ‘preparation’ this time… Oh well, it only means we have to get up extra early tomorrow to do a 100kms journey instead of only 2kms!!

– Anne

Sep 12 2016

Video

A397 twists and turns to Ronda

Sep 12 2016

A great day’s ride to Ronda

Our last day stationed conveniently in Algeciras before we start our journey north, we are off to Ronda. Although the quaint village of Ronda is now Andalucía’s fastest-growing town – it overtook Córdoba in the big three Andaluz tourist attractions, behind Sevilla and Granada – at least we have been promised one of the best motorcycling roads in Spain so we set off early on light bikes, having left all panniers behind. The road is good, the bends endless as we start the steep ascent to this historic town 2400ft/730m above sea level. We are glad we deliberately decided to go on Monday, suspecting this would be a popular biking road on week ends, like the Mount Glorious road outside Brisbane, where we live. It is such a perfect biking road, it attracts too many speeding bikers – so we avoid it at week ends. Interestingly, that evening, a local we chatted to referred it to a ‘racing track’ – our feeling exactly. No wonder we saw these signs all the way up to Ronda:

Found on all the twisty roads in Andalucia

Fantastic scenery along the A397 up to Ronda, Spain

Old Moorish Ronda sits atop a Jurassic limestone cliff, on the edge of a gorge carved by the Guadalevín river, the altitude providing great natural defenses. It saw turbulent times. The Arabs conquered Izna-Rand-Onda, today known as Ronda, (and most of Iberia) in the year 713 and the city eventually became a mini Moorish kingdom. The Moors divided southern Andalucía into five distinct districts. The Moors were continually fighting among themselves, and the volatile ethnic mix in the mountains resulted in much rebellion and conflict. The Christians eventually won it back in 1485. By then, frequent crossings of the city required a new bridge to be built.

Puente Nuevo, Ronda

Plaza de la Duquesa de Parcent, Ronda, Spain

Ronda, Spain

Around Ronda, Spain

Ronda is also famous as the birthplace of modern bullfighting, when in 1726 bullfighter Pedro Romero broke away from the prevailing Jerez school of horseback bullfighting and founded a new style in which matadores stood their ground against the bull on foot using a muleta We have come across many posters plastered in the streets of various cities advertising bull fighting. Not for us, even if it is a local cultural tradition.

We are usually quite ‘slack’ tourists, in that we do not make sure we visit every famous site in a place. I am the one who typically does the research before visiting a place and deciding where we’ll go, making a rough note of what I want to see or what would be of interest to Anthony. I often leave Anthony on a bench somewhere while I go off alone, and we usually just meander through a town or region seeing what we might stumble across and simply enjoy in the atmosphere of the place, people watching and often chatting with locals. And we always read up more on the region later! The history of Andalucia is certainly complex and fascinating.

I didn’t know that chapter 10 of Hemingway’s “For Whom The Bells Toll” novel drew on events that occurred in Ronda in 1936 during Spain’s civil war when a mob threw 500 people, allegedly fascist sympathisers, into the surrounding gorge from the bottom span that holds the main arch of the New Bridge.

Ronda is definitely a beautifully scenic town. And while the road up was scenic too, our return ride back to the coast on back roads, the A369, was simply divine. So many tiny white villages hugging mountain tops and cliffs such as Atajate, Benadalid, Algatocin and Gaucin. We make numerous stops. This is our kind of riding – stunning scenery, windy roads, no traffic and all that with the greatest riding and life partner – we are so lucky we enjoy and appreciate the same things in life.

Stunning Andalucia, from the A369

Loving the road along the A369

Algatocin, Spain

Gaucin, Spain

We get so used to living wherever we are, we sometimes forget to mention the small things. It occurred to me today that we haven’t mentioned all the olive groves we have seen traveling through Spain and especially in Andalucia. We have walked through them, admiring their gnarled trunks and fruit laden branches. And we have been surprised at the steep terrain on which olive trees have been planted as shown on some of our landscape photos – way too steep for any automated or machine harvesting. We eventually saw people harvesting, up small ladders leaning against the tree. Olive harvesting is obviously an important source of income across Spain from seeing the number of old and new groves especially in Andalucia, it made me want to know about the industry. Spain has been cultivating olives since Roman times and is now the world leader, producing 44% of the world’s olive oil, twice as much as Italy and 4 times as much as Greece. It turns out that the Andalucia Regional government tracks every commercial tree with its own GPS coordinate and is monitored by regional officials for EU subsidies. These olive trees apparently produce better fruit and oil in poor rocky soil and craggy limestone cliffs than they do in rich, fertile earth.

And how could I not have mentioned food before?! The food in Spain has been fantastic. Always so fresh and tasty. The seafood and olive oil in particular. One tiny mussel and you taste the ocean. And the ham – I have been feasting on it for breakfast. We were lucky to find a very small local tapas bar in Algeciras which we went back to 3 times!! The first time, all 4 chosen dishes were new to us. The 2nd time, we chose our 2 preferred tapas from last time and 2 new ones, the 3rd time we did the same again. I am definitely getting a taste for those tapas. Loved the Pedro Xemenez reduction over the slices of tender beef – it tasted like a blend of thick sweet balsamic vinegar and port. And the Spanish olive oil is like nothing I have ever tasted! We’ve had some drizzled on a simple slice of toast, on roasted vegetables, on chips/crisps even!! This olive oil tastes of sunshine. I wish I could bottle-record it for us all to taste anytime! It was interesting to see what every table had in a small petrol station/cafe we stopped at recently.

On all the tables in roadside cafes in Andalucia

Seville and Cordoba next!

– Anne

Sep 10 2016

Video

Streak and Storm visit Gibraltar

Sep 10 2016

An unexpected journey

Yes, I know, I may be accused of plagiarising part of a movie title, but there is an element of truth in this statement. If you recall the end of the Anne’s last blog, she mentioned we changed our travel route. When we made the original plans for southern Spain, I was sick and Anne had to make decisions on where to go, but sensibly made refundable hotel bookings. While in Granada, and after Toledo, we were looking for something a little different to yet another famous historic Spanish town teeming with tourists, so I suggested since we were so close, Gibraltar. This location would also allow us ride the A397 from San Pedro de Alcántara which we had been told was a great motorcycling road by a friend.

While accommodation in Gibraltar was prohibitively expensive by our standards, we found that Algeciras across the bay was very reasonably priced compared with all the holiday destinations along the coast from Malaga to Estepona. This is probably due to the unseasonably hot weather in early September which seemed to have attracted more tourists to the region.

So why Gibraltar some may ask? It just seemed an interesting location that we were close to, had never visited and seemed a little different to the historic places we had visited, or planed to visit in the region. Our first glimpse of Gibraltar came as we breasted a rise on the A-7 heading for Algeciras, towering over the surrounding low hills, an imposing sight.

While we are using Algeciras as a base for four nights, Anne felt we should travel on Saturday 10th to Gibraltar. No particular reason, it just seemed right. Over the years we have always followed our intuition even when we don’t know why. While Gibraltar is only 20 minutes by road we had heard of potentially long delays at the border, so we approached with no expectations of how long this crossing process would take. The approach, with the ‘Rock’ stands tall in the distance growing larger as we approached.

Approach to Gibraltar.

The border crossing was easy, see Borders and Crossings for details, the next step was to cross the runway! With the shortage of land in Gibraltar the only place to build a runway was across the access route to Gibraltar so both road and air transport share the same ground.

Ready for takeoff, Runway 09/27

The ‘Rock’ now towers almost vertically it seems from the motorbikes some 426 m (1,398 ft) above us as we head to the eastern side. One can understand the trepidation the various forces that besieged Gibraltar over time would see in their approach from sea level. For those interested in Gibraltar’s history I suggest looking at ‘History of Gibraltar’ on http://www.wikipedia.org.

The east side is sparsely populated and the only road winds between sea and soaring mountain, traffic is light and we glimpse the remains of fortifications and tunnel entrances that honeycomb the rock. We travel southwards and come across the Dudley Ward Way tunnel, which connects the east and south of Gibraltar. The tunnel was built by the Royal Engineers who built many of the 55km of tunnels that exist inside the ‘Rock’ that in WW2 were capable of supporting 16,000 troops. The Royal Engineers had been in Gibraltar for hundreds of years and a statue to them can be found off Main Street.

We emerge near Europa point to see the Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque. The only one in Gibraltar, built for the 1,000 muslims living here. They are part of such a diverse ethic history which includes Andalusian Spanish, Genoese, Maltese, Portuguese and British.

Europa point seems so close to Africa which is clearly visible, such a small gap for the Mediterranean Sea to be connected to rest of the world and why Gibraltar was such an important Naval base in its time. We see a memorial to WW2 Polish Prime minister Władysław Sikorski who died in air crash in Gibraltar on 4 July 1943. This was our second link to the Polish war effort in WW2 after our stay in Saint Jean de Luz with the evacuation of Polish soldiers after the fall of France in 1940. It has been interesting to read up on Polish involvement in WW2 after the fall of Poland in 1939. Sometimes we spend more time reading and researching on what we have seen after each visit than before!

Lighthouse at Europa Point with Africa in the background.

Two slow speeds at Europa point.

As we approach the centre of town, we start to notice people dressed in red and white, Gibraltar flags appear at windows in the apartment blocks we pass. Today, 10 September, is Gibraltar’s National Day commemorating Gibraltar’s first sovereignty referendum of 1967. We learn that in the past the day has had a more political focus, but nowadays there is more of a party atmosphere. Now we know the reason of Anne’s intuition for coming today.

Support your National day, wear red and white.

Spain still wants the return of Gibraltar to Spanish sovereignty after over 300 years. It is ironic that the original British/Dutch invasion in 1704 was on behalf of the Austrian claimant to the Spanish throne in the war of the Spanish Succession. It will be interesting to see where Brexit leaves Gibraltar, especially with the comments by Spain’s acting Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo recently on joint sovereignty.

We wander the streets in the older part of town where people and even their pets are dressed in Gibraltar’s colours of red and white. The main street meanders through the town, we notice an interesting mixture of UK names such as Marks and Spencer and other stores whose names reflect the diverse origin of the inhabitants.

British, Gibraltar and Chelsea FC flags.

A patriotic Gibraltar inhabitant.

While being whisked up to the top of the ‘Rock’ by cablecar, one gets a new perspective that is not possible from sea level. There has been a large amount of development westwards with new apartment blocks, but no skyscrapers. A breathtaking series of views and a large number of Barbary macaques, monkeys to the uninformed, await us. We have been warned they like food and spectacles. So I walk around without mine as a precaution. I will have to look at the photos for a clear picture of what I saw!

Why we go to the top of the mountain.

Monkey business at the top of the rock.

We are on top of the world!

Our departure is delayed by waiting at traffic lights for a large jet to take off. Probably the only place where this occurs. We are glad we decided to come here to see and learn a little about Gibraltar.

Waiting at the traffic lights for a plane to takeoff!

– Anthony

2slowspeeds

Loving life – Turning Dreams into Memories

A few more gems in Spain

A397 twists and turns to Ronda

A great day’s ride to Ronda

Streak and Storm visit Gibraltar

An unexpected journey

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