Tenerife

View from Villa Maspalmeras

Here is a link to the fotos from our latest trip (José and I). We took advantage of a long holiday weekend to visit Tenerife in the Canary Islands. I’ve now been to 4 of the 7 islands and hope to get to the other 3 soon.

a day in Aranjuez

Just posting a link to photos from José’s and my trip yesterday to the World Heritage city of Aranjuez. It’s a small city on the southern edge of Madrid province about a 50 minute commuter-train ride away. It’s famous for its royal palace and beautiful gardens. It was actually my second time there having gone with the boys 3 or 4 years ago. And I enjoyed it as much this time around. Expect for the heat. (Yesterday was unusually hot).

Easter week in Cáceres

José, the kids and I spent a great week visiting with José’s family during Holy Week. First we spent a couple of days at his father’s in the foothills of northern Cáceres province and later we headed to the south. We stayed in the medieval town of Trujillo but spent most of the time at his sister’s in a nearby village. She was hosting the Trocolada, the 3rd annual gathering of all the cousin. A lot of Family!
But then again, last July I subjected José to my family’s annual reunion which dwarfed his.
Photos: Torremenga, Trocolada, Trujillo, Guadalupe

Fuerteventura

I finally got the pictures posted from José’s and My trip in March to the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries. With all the craziness surrounded K’s accident, hospitalization and followup treatment, posting had fallen way down the priorities list.

still celebrating

As promised the birthday celebrating has continued all month. I followed up my party from a couple of weekends ago with a little getaway this past weekend. José and I met up in Palma on the island of Majorca in the Balearics. It wasn’t exactly tropical what with the horrid wind storms that hit all of Spain, but at least it was much warmer than Madrid.
Palma itself is quite nice and retain many things from its glory days as the capital of an independent kingdom. And though all of Majorca generally gets overshadowed by its little sister Ibiza, I would recommend it very highly.
Photos

holiday trip

D, José and I spent the Christmas/New Year’s period traveling and had a wonderful trip. We rented a car and drove first to José’s hometown of Badajoz in western Spain’s Extremadura region on the Portuguese border. We arrived in time for Christmas Eve lunch and then had a chance to meet up with some of his friends for drinks before the big family dinner at his mother’s house with his parents and sisters. We finished the day off with drinks at his friend Zaira’s house.

Christmas day was pretty much devoted to eating and more eating. The next couple of days we made day trips: first to Elvas, Portugal with his mother and sister, Mariló, and later to Mérida in Spain. Elvas is basically just across the border and is a fantastic old medieval town crowned by three fortresses, one of which we toured. We saw the town and did a bit of shopping before winding up with sweets in one of the ubiquitous pastry shops. Mérida, on the other hand, is dedicated to ancient Rome. With José’s cousins Trini and Bea as guides we visited many of the Roman ruins including the theater, amphitheater, bridge (the longest in existence) and temples. After tapas in a couple of great bars we browsed through the National Roman Antiquities Museum.

After bidding our goodbyes to all the family we headed farther south seeing some villages in Badajoz province, in particular Zafra which was pleasant. Especially the charming restaurant which dished up wild hare stew for lunch.

We then ventured into the Andalusia region, specifically Huelva province. We had intended more or less (no very defined plans for the entire trip to be honest) to see the Sierra de Aracena National Park, but the weather was terrible with extremely limited visibility. So we spent the time in two of the park’s villages: Jabugo, famous for producing Spain’s renowned cured hams, and Aracena, not famous but should be for the amazing caves and grottos below the mountain on which the village sleeps. We spent a morning on a guided tour of the caverns with their numerous stalactites and stalagmites and stunningly clear lakes. Unfortunately photos were not allowed so y’all will just have to go see them for yourselves. You won’t be disappointed!  From there we went to Huelva city. Big and not beautiful. Just your basic port city. We looked around a bit, had lunch and moved on. To the resorts along the Atlantic coast: La Antilla, Isla Cristina and Ayamonte. 

The first was very deserted being just a small seasonal spot but we found a great hotel open and with plenty of beachfront rooms available. It was a bit chilly but not too cold to enjoy an evening and then a morning stroll along the sands. Isla Cristina being a bigger place with year-round residents had more to offer. But we passed on most of it and just went to the beach for a while during the afternoon. Ayamonte however was great and one of the highlights of the trip. A nice sized little city on the coast where the Guadiana River, which divides Spain and Portugal, hits the ocean. The city was very pretty and very lively. And the weather was ideal. Finally. It made it great to explore the pedestrianized old town and have lunch at a terrace cafe on the main square.

After Ayamonte we continued along the coast into Portugal’s Algarve region. We really only spent time in two cities there: Tavira and Faro. Tavira was my favorite of all. We hadn’t actually planed to stop there but as we drove by we spotted a beautiful old town capping a hill encircled by a river and couldn’t resisted seeing it up close. A great decision. It also had some Roman ruins in addition to the mostly Arabic old town. And the people were friendly (and cute). Faro at first sight seemed unappealing being a large working city. But after finally finding a hotel (much harder than anticipated) we discovered the old walled inner city and the pedestrian shopping area just outside it. All the food we eat there was really good as well.

From Faro we headed inland to the Alentejo region to the north seeing mainly the towns and cities of Almodôvar, Beja, Estremoz and Évora having already seen Elvas which is in the Alentejo as well. Other than the day we drove over the mountains through fog so thick we could barely see the road, we saw some beautiful sights in the Alentejo. Évora which is a World Heritage site is of course the crown jewel of the region but the other locations were just as nice for my money. Besides, you can only spend so many consecutive days seeing castles, cathedrals and forts before you just want to go to the mall. And Évora was the next-to-the-last place we saw, so some of its magic is perhaps lost on me. But then again Estremoz was the last and I loved it. There is a lot to be said, I suppose, for unexpected surprises. Much like Tavira and Ayamonte before it, stopping in Estremoz was a completely last second and not at all regrettable decision.

All in all, a fantastic road trip executed just the way I like them, drifting along spontaneously. But I think I’m good on ruins and historic sites for a while. At least a week.

Photos: Badajoz Province, Huelva Province, Algarve & Alentejo

La Vera

Last weekend I had a chance to meet José’s father José Luis during a weekend visit to his house. He lives in a small village in the La Vera zone of northern Cáceres province, the opposite end of the province from the the village where we meet his mother a few weeks ago.
It was a lovely visit and we also got a chance to see several of the other villages of the La Vera zone as well as the ‘city’ of Plasencia. And as Friday was a national holiday, we were able to spend several days there. Photos

Gran Canaria

Finally getting around to posting about the weekend I spent in the Canar Islands a couple of weeks ago. Actually just one island, Gran Canaria. I went with Jose to celebrate his birthday along with some friends of his who live there. We spent the first day in the capital, Las Palmas, the only big city on the island. And it is a typical large tropical port city.

The next couple of days we went down south to Maspalomas and took in the beach and resort life. We also swung back into Las Palmas on Saturday aftenoon for a Manga/Anime convention. It was quite and experience.

And on Sunday we ventured into the mountains in the interior to see some of the typical, isolated villages.

Photos

Cáceres

Since we were already homeless, so to speak, D and I decided on a little trip this past weekend. Really just a day trip on Saturday as D had his once-a-month-Catholic-youth-day activity on Sunday. We opted to go to the city of Cáceres in the Extremadura region to the west. It’s very close to the Portuguese border and was really too far for a day trip, but we managed. And I finally got to drive one of the micro Mercedes Smart cars I’ve been wanting to drive since my first trip to Europe.
Despite our many excursions out of Madrid, we hadn’t really been west. We were quite surprised to discover that the west is quite green, even the western part of Madrid province. I had got accustomed to the tans and yellows of central Spain.
As for Cáceres, it is one more of Spain’s World Heritage Site cities maintaining a well preserved historic center enclosed in ancient, fortified walls. The city is all honey colored stones, mostly roughhewn with fine detail work accents. There are tons of old palaces and mansions. We explored a few, did some shopping, had a great lunch and returned home. Photos.

an island in the sun

I spent the past weekend celebrating my birthday with a little getaway to Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. Although the islands are part of Spain, they are much closer to Morocco off the Atlantic coast of Africa. And Lanzarote is the easternmost and thus closest to the continent.
I chose Lanzarote mainly because it was one of the cheapest flights I could find. (Thank you easyJet.com). Yet it turned out to be a great choice.
In general the island reminded me of Arizona what with the desert landscape, cacti, volcanos and dark lava-rich soil. But of course there was that ocean, visible from practically every point on the small island. I suppose it is what southwest Arizona will be like when California finally falls into the Pacific.
I started out very early Friday morning and arrived to the hotel around 9 am, thanks to the Canaries being and hour behind the mainland. So I had the full day plus Saturday and Sunday morning. Getting to the hotel was a bit problematic. At the airport, I decide to rent a car (another good decision) as ground transport was a bit limited. And although the village or Puerto del Carmen where I stayed, is just south of the airport my hotel was near the far end in the old town. I did not know that and spent a lot of time roaming around the main tourist area near the large beach asking if anyone knew of the hotel. Of course, hardly anyone did. But I did finally arrive and was very pleasantly surprised with the hotel itself and the location. Not on the beach but facing the marina and the old town shops and restaurants. And as I don’t care much for beaches, that was fine with me. The only problem with the area, and Lanzarote in general, was that someone forgot to tell them they are part of Spain. The whole place is set to cater to the English, Irish and German tourist. I had a lot of difficulty finding non-British food for example. And who wants that crap. Even in Britain they have enough sense to eat Indo-Pakistani. But I did eventually find nourishment. And a least the British do breakfast right. Except that bean thing.
Puerto del Carmen is a lovely little village to walk around, and I did. But I also got in the car and explored the southern half of the island. It’s pretty small. I visited the bluff, beach area at Papagayo on Friday arriving just as the sun was setting. I had planned to get there a bit earlier and enjoy the nudist beach a bit, but was unaware that getting there entailed driving down a bumpy dirt road for about 4 or 5 miles. But it was nice and serene. And the drive over the mountains to get there provided some lovely vistas and a surprise visit to a little cemetery in the hamlet of Femes. I stopped to take some photos of the valley below and pulled into what I thought was a church’s parking lot. Seeing that the door was open I decided to peek in only to discover that it was a small, walled cemetery. And there was a family there change flowers on several of the tombs. It was actually quite interesting.
After, Papagayo I spent a little while shopping along the sea front promenade in the adjacent town of Playa Blanca. It was cute if touristy. And the island of Fuertaventura was looming across the channel with its peaks stabbing the night sky.
On Saturday, I took in two of the recommended natural sites: El Golfo and Timanfaya National Park. El Golfo is an oceanside volcanic crater that has been half eroded away leaving a semicircular cliff of black lava rock with an emerald green lagoon at its center. It was very nice and there is a quaint little village at its side.
Timanfaya on the other hand, was absolutely amazing. The park encompasses the area of the islands last volcanic eruptions in the 1700s and 1800s. It is all volcanic craters and lava fields stretching out to the ocean. Just spectacular! And the lava just below the surface makes for some exciting activities. At the tourist center you can witness twigs thrown into a hole bursting into flames or water poured in shooting back up immediately as a geyser, all from the ground’s heat. And the restaurant there grills on a pit heated by the lava. (The pork chops were fantastic)! And I got to ride through on a camel to boot.
All in all the trip was great and a lovely present for myself. And I have photos to prove it.