Arcos de la Frontera, Spain - October 28-30

Arcos is one of the more famous Pueblos Blancos and was a destination I was very excited to get to. The old town of Arcos rests on a vista surrounded by mountains. There's a lot of uphill walking and its easy to see how it was a good strategic location for centuries. My friend Brandon had recommended a hotel called La Casa Grande which he said had amazing views. He was right. This picture basically sums up our time in Arcos:





We were only there two nights, but we fell into a pattern I really think I could get used to. Both days we walked around the city, went to a restaurant called La Carcel for lunch, took a nap, went out to the store to buy jamon, cheese, and wine, went to the pastry shop to get sultanas (big macaroon-type sweets), and went back to the room. Then we set on those chairs, drank our wine, ate our jamon and cheese, and went to sleep. That easily turned into a full day.

This is the view from the parador in Arcos which is also perched on a cliff. Our balcony is I believe just behind the yellow building.



Both nights at 5:30, a big flock of sheep was herded down the path along the riverside just below the cliff. This made us curious about what was down there so we decided to take a walk down to the valley below and get a little different perspective.



That white building in the middle next to the smaller non-white building was the hotel. It was quite high up.

Unfortunately we aren't very smart and decided to do this walk to kill time for lunch...which meant we did it around noon, the hottest time of the day. The walk back up was steep, hot, interrupted by a snake crossing the path, and left me looking like this:



That night we repeated our jamon, cheese, and wine plan only to be interrupted by an incoming storm. It made for some great scenery, but forced to head inside.



We were followed by a little grasshopper that flew around as we tried to corral him and lead him outside.



Eventually we caught him and ushered him outside. It says a lot (in a good way) about Arcos that that was the most exciting thing that happened on both of our nights there.

Cadiz, Spain - October 27-28

We were initially going to do two nights in Cadiz, but after some rearranging only ended up with one. I don't know what we would have done with a second day to be honest. Cadiz is allegedly the first place in Europe to be settled, but after a long time of prosperity went into a long period of stagnation and is only know coming back. Apparently their Carnival is the best in Spain, but when we were there, there wasn't much going on to speak of. We were museumed out and kind of at another in between point of our trip where we just weren't feeling it. We spent our time walking around the city and taking in the views.




Boats at low tide.





We took in sunset on a jetty that went way out to a closed fortification.



Great views, and a good dinner, but not much else to do. Midway through the day we decided to duck out on an early bus the following morning to our next destination.

Gibraltar - October 26

Gibraltar is weird. I had never had much of a desire to go, but it fit into the trip so we made a day trip out of it from Tarifa.

Walking across the border to what seems like a totally different world is a strange experience. Especially when your walk is delayed 15 minutes because a plane has to take off from the runway that cuts directly across the road into town.



We walked briefly around the city. There was a quirky cuteness to it, but mostly just a very odd place. A mix of Spanish and English. Lots of shopping which apparently lures tourists and Spaniards. Fast food. We opted for fish and chips and shepherd's pie at a pub. How very authentic.

But of course we really just came to Gibraltar to see the rock. I used the last of my euros at a poor exchange rate to buy our tickets for the tram that goes up to the top of the rock.



It's kind of small and kind of scary, but apparently safe enough.

In case you weren't aware, there are monkeys on the rock. Lots and lots of monkeys. The guys in the cable car talk about the monkeys. The books talk about the monkeys. But it's still kind of weird when you take a step out of the cable car, and there is a monkey sitting there. Enjoy our many pictures of the monkeys.







Of course the monkeys aren't universally loved. They are all kleptomaniacs and love human food. You are told many times not to feed the monkeys, but of lots of people apparently don't listen. So the monkeys have learned that bags have food so thus they should steal bags. Unfortunately we didn't really think about that before buying some biscuits at Marks & Spencer. I spent the time paranoid that the monkeys were going to sneak up behind me and after one particular me aggressively I spent the rest of the trip walking around with the bag protected like this:



There are more than monkeys. The views are obviously incredible. You can see why this was such an important strategic position for over a millennium.



That's Africa.



When you get to the top they hand you an audioguide filled with information. It was interesting to hear some of the history and see some of the methods the Gibraltans used to survive in somewhat adverse circumstances until making peace with Spain. Due to a knee injury and lack of interest, we didn't walk down to see the siege tunnels or other sights figuring that the view from the top was sufficient.

Tarifa, Spain - October 25-27

Tarifa is the Southernmost point in continental Europe...and is a very strange place. It's the new preferred jumping off point for trips to Morocco and because of its location is a big destination for summer trips and windsurfers. It's filled with expats which makes it very different than the rest of Spain in the sense that food options were varied and not very Spanish and restaurants closed at 9 rather than opening at 9.

All of this means that in the offseason the city is pretty dead. We weren't really there for sightseeing, which is good because there isn't any sightseeing today. Most of the restaurants had odd hours if they were even at all and the beach was largely empty.



It's always a trip to see Africa across the sea.



Fortunately we found a relatively new hotel that had excellent deals because it was the low season. Casa Blan+co was a unique and well appointed place that was very comfortable for all the downtime we had. Ali liked it because it had a canopy bed.



It also had a mini-kitchen with a fridge and burners which is something we grew to appreciate by the end of the trip. And it had a nice view of the main square.



Unless we go from Spain to Morocco I'm not sure why we will ever feel a need to go to Tarifa again, but it was a relaxing couple of nights for this part of the trip and a more enjoyable way to get to Gibraltar than staying in either Gibraltar or La Linea as we had originally planned.

Ronda Tidbits

For a smallish town, Ronda is actually pretty hip. One of the things I remembered from my first trip was a bar that had beer taps on each table so you could pour your own pints and pay by the liter. Overall, Ronda had some of the better restaurants and tapas that we found anywhere in Spain.

One of our favorites was a place called El Lechuguita where nearly every good sized tapa was under a euro. Their house specialty is a large romaine lettuce leaf topped with a oil and a special ingredient. Very simple but very tasty. We also went to a restaurant called Almocabar which had incredible salads which we were both craving on a very hot October day.

Unfortunately, wherever there are trendy restaurants, there are always disappointments. Tragabuches is a well know, highly acclaimed, Michelin starred restaurant. Of course we couldn't afford to eat there. But Tragatapas is their affordable, inventive tapas option. I was looking forward to it. Since the prices were a little bit higher than other places, we decided to order a couple of things to test the waters and make sure it was worth it. We ordered candied red peppers and an order of olives that came in...a sardine can. I understand going with unique presentation, but having the server open a sardine can at the table to present our food didn't exacly get me excited. The peppers were fine, but nothing unique or delicious enough and led us to think that maybe they were actually just purchased in the sardine can. The olives on the other hand were absolutely terrible. They were extremely bitter and barely edible. And these are olives. I'm not sure how you screw up olives in Spain, but they pulled it off. Ali was not pleased.



The fortunate thing with tapas is that if there is a letdown, it is only one stop of many rather than a disappointing dinner and plenty of other places in the area offered some surprisingly delicious food that was comparable in quality and flavor to some of the pinxos in San Sebastian.

Ronda also has a surprising number of interesting sights although they can all probably be done in a little over a day. Ali went into the Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor while I decided I was churched out and waited outside.



Interestingly, the towers of the church are said to be what William Randolph Hearst hoped the main building at Hearst Castle would emulate.



You can see the similarities.

Our second day there we took a slightly off roadish paths around the city walls to see the Moorish Baths to kill some time before lunch. On the way there, we passed this little burro and this picture is one of Ali's favorites.



On a 90+ degree day, the burro had managed to find the only shade anywhere in sight by hiding underneath the tiny tree.

Finally, Gonzalo, one of the employees at the hotel, (who also operates a rental house (www.rancho-rojo.com) in the country side that looks beautiful and would be a great place to base yourself for driving around and visiting los pueblos blancos) saw Ali's passport and mentioned that there was a bar in town run by a Connecticut native. Sure enough, we went to Huskies Bar later that night .



Seeing all kinds of American sports memorabilia made me a little bit more at home even if there was soccer on the TV and they told me they wouldn't be able to get the Yankees-Angels playoff game.

For a town of 35,000 people, there's a surprising amount going on in Ronda.

Ronda, Spain - October 23-25

Ronda is the largest and best known of Andalucia's Pueblos Blancos. It rests upon a hill and a large gorge cuts down the middle of it. The hilltop setting provides amazing views of the Sierra Nevadas.



Throughout history there have been three bridges that cross over the gorge, but the most recent Puente Nuevo is the largest and most ambitious. On our first day there we climbed down a path into the gorge to see it from the bottom up.





One of the cities sights is an old passage that goes down to the river in the gorge and was used to get water when the city was under siege. It provides a little different perspective of the gorge.



The town itself is pretty picturesque as well. Something I remembered from my one night there on my last trip is that it has amazing sunsets.





Ronda is also home to Spain's oldest active bullring (since 1784) and is considered to be the birthplace of modern bullfighting.



The best preserved Arab baths in Spain are also in Ronda. After spending an afternoon in a recreated Arab bath in Cordoba, it was interesting to see the layout of a real one.



While in Ronda we stayed at the Hotel San Gabriel. The former residence of a nobleman, it is very well appointed and includes a wine cellar bodega. Although it does not have views of the gorge and the surrounding scenery, the atmosphere and amenities were excellent and the service was more attentive and sincere than pretty much any other place we stayed on the trip and the price was much more reasonable than the parador and other accommodation with views. Highly recommended.

Granada, Spain - October 20-23

There's too much going on in Granada to lump it into the best of post. After visiting in 2006, Granada was one of the cities in Spain I was most excited to return to. I remembered it having a very cool vibe and lots of free tapas.

At this point of the trip we really started focusing on cool accommodation. Spain is cheaper than Italy in general and the fact that we were out of high season helped us find some really good deals. In this case, the highest rated place on tripadvisor were the Muralla Ziri apartments. It was a little out of our usual price range, but after exchanging emails they offered a bit of a discount. It seemed worth the splurge. And after arriving, it certainly was.

This was the view we were greeted with upon arrival.



When the storms cleared it was even more impressive.



We were located in the Albaicin (or Albayzin), one of the best preserved Moorish Quarters in Spain. Tiny, steep roads are surrounded by the typical whitewashed buildings of the south of Spain. The area has a reputation (at least in the guidebooks) for being a little seedy and slightly dangerous at night. We never felt uncomfortable trudging aimlessly around though. It is a unique place that seemed mostly occupied by 20-somethings best described as "alternative." Midway up the neighborhood is a large plaza and a few blocks away a mirador filled with the locals smoking and playing music. It provided for some great views.



It's hard to see in the pictures, but it rained on and off the whole time we were there and the mountains behind the Alhambra behind us were filled with snow. It was quite a stunning sight.



Of course we went to the Alhambra which is an incredible sight. It's located high up on the hill above Ali here.



Pictures of the architecture and design don't really do it justice, everybody should really see it at least once.

The yellow building right in the middle is our apartment. We didn't have access to the balcony, but we are the window right below it.







Granada is also (rightly) famous for being one of the last bastions of tapas. You order a drink, you get a tapa. Accordingly, the drinks are a little bit more expensive than elsewhere in Spain, but still only about E1.50 for a beer. Tapas range from nuts or little sandwiches to things a bit more filling:



You could make a meal out of one tapa in some cases. This is not to say they are always good (the picture is posted more for its quantity than any memorable quality, although I think it was pretty tasty) but they can be pretty filling for the price of just one drink.

Because it is such a ritual there, a bar can't really skimp on the tapas for fear of alienating the locals. Some places have really creative well thought out tapas. We did the tapas crawl until we were stuffed fell asleep to this every night.

Cordoba, Spain - October 18-20

We can be honest about this: you go to Cordoba to see the Mezquita. The Jewish area that surrounds the Mezquita is cool to get lost in, but altogether Cordoba could easily be done in a day. That said, we had two nights, and while we were ready to go at that time, I was also surprised at how much we were able to find to fill in the rest of the time.

Our extremely reasonably priced hotel was located directly across from the big doors that lead into the Mezquita.





The Mezquita itself is awesome, but interior pictures don't really do it justice. It's an extremely odd and interesting building to see. A little secret is that it is also free before 10 everyday because there is a service going on. It's a good deal, but it also meant that by about 10 a.m. we were done with our plans for the day.

We took some time to wander and found a couple of nice plazas and a few interesting turns within the Jewish quarter. We also went to Arab baths to relax in the afternoon.



We came across old men playing a card game with others watching on. Something we didn't see enough of during the trip.



And we decided to continue recreating statue poses.



By the time we left we were more than ready to go, but Cordoba had a few more surprises than I remembered.