Spain is Fantastic

Been a bit remiss with the blog for the last few days so will try and catch up below without boring too many readers with too much info.  We have been in Spain a couple of weeks now and are all just loving it.  We had visited before in 2005 with a short trip to Barcelona and had enjoyed it - beginning to wonder why it's taken us so long to get back. 

We pushed on from Gibraltar after only a couple of days and berthed the boat at a place called Benalmadena just a few miles west of Malaga - Scott’s birthplace!  The Mediterranean was flat calm and we had to motor the whole way.  The marina is huge and both it and the surroundings are what you would picture for the Costa del Sol - very built up, plenty of tourists from Northern Europe and package tourism everywhere.  It was however a good base for the next few days.

Sam and Scott said goodbye to Andy and Lars, the last of our Atlantic crew members, over the weekend and then did a major clean, polish, wax of the boat before heading off to Seville on Monday (12th May).  They spent the day getting to Seville using local transport and had a great time just relaxing and taking it real easy just grabbing buses and trains whenever and wherever they could.  It was great to travel this way with Sam - no doubt he will be off doing this sort of thing on his own in a few short years.  Nic, Calley and Heather flew in at the same time from Paris and we all met up in the evening at a hotel.  It was a joyous reunion and everyone is glad that we are all back together again after almost a month apart.  In that time Nic and Calley have had their own mini tour visiting New York, Copenhagen, London and Paris and taking in many of the sights.  They even managed lunch on Mothers Day in the beautiful Jules Verne restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower. 

The gang,s back together

We all met up at the hotel around 9 o’clock at night, and following the tradition of the locals we went out for a dinner of tapas immediately to eat, drink and generally catch up.  It was a great evening and set the stage for the next few days.  We got up and hit the streets for a local breakfast and then wandered around the city gazing in awe at the buildings, the tree lined streets (there are orange trees and Jacaranda trees everywhere) and stopping only to sample some of the amazing food on offer.  We started to take siestas so that we could stay out later at night and enjoy a late meal.

Typically Spanish Mediterranean Europe

Seville must be one of the most beautiful and charming cities in the world.  It is just captivating from its architecture to its food to its handsome and friendly people.  There is so much to see here given that it was originally Roman, then Arab, then Spanish.  The history is all around you and its pretty overwhelming.  In fact when you visit its only possible to skim over unless you spend a significant amount of time here.  Even so it is really interesting and enjoyable just to wander the streets taking in what you can and visiting a couple of the sights.  Its beyond our capability to offer a worthy description so you will have to go and see for yourselves.  We have posted a few photos which will give you some idea.

Plaza De Espana

Futuristic Metropol Parasol

Everywhere you look is amazing

After a few days in Seville we all travelled back to Benalmadena and managed further trips to Malaga and a hill town called Rondo.  We had always imagined Malaga to be a bit on the industrial side and the outskirts are a bit on the modern urban side but there is a beautiful old city which is equally spectacular to Seville although on a much smaller scale.  In addition there was a fantastic Picasso Museum housed inside an old restored building which used to be a Royal Palace.  Picasso was born in Malaga.  It was great to show the kids the museum and get their impressions of the works some of which were, to us anyway, pretty out there.  Great display though.

Orange trees are everywhere in the city

The town of Ronda is just spectacular.  Its a hill town about 50kms inland from the coast.  Just the drive there is amazing as you leave the coast and climb into the hills of the Sierra Nevada the countryside gets more rugged and small white hill towns dot the landscape.  Ronda consists of an old town and new town (should read old town and older town), which are separated by a deep ravine across which run three old bridges.  The architecture is stunning, the views unbelievable and the food as usual, sensational.  The weather was gorgeous while we were there which made the day perfect.   Its certainly a world away from the busy Costa del Sol and although there were plenty of tourists walking the streets the season has still not ramped up to “high” to make the numbers uncomfortable.

The gorge at Ronda

The girls in Seville's Alcazar

We left Benalmadena the day after our Rondo trip and headed east to another marina near Almunecar.  Again we had to motor due to a lack of wind.  Very nice marina and we used this as a staging point to visit Granada and say goodbye to Heather.

We are lucky that as of yet the huge numbers of summer tourists have not materialised however we are sure they are not too far away.  Just now we are enjoying the relative peace and quiet and trying to get used to a different type of cruising.  It is very different from what we have been used to in the Caribbean for a number of reasons.  

This is everywhere

There are almost no transient yachts to be seen along this coast at the moment.  Not sure why that is.  All the yachts we see are moored in the marinas and look like they are based out of the particular marina rather than cruising.  So far we have stayed in marinas most of the time and this seems more like the norm.  Certainly this south east coastline is pretty exposed if the weather blows up and since we are looking around onshore it means leaving the boat for extended periods of time hence the marinas are a safer bet.  When we get to the Balearic Islands we should be doing more anchoring.

The weather is the other big change.  It is usually warm during the days and cool at night but certainly not tropical.  Today its even raining.  We have also to take much more notice of the weather - in the Caribbean it was always 15 to 20kts easterly whereas here it changes direction and strength.  Saying that though it is relatively calm most of the time in summer.

All in all everyone is thoroughly enjoying the change from the Caribbean and being in Europe and Spain.  Anyway, it must be sangria time.