This blog is more like a journal for those that know us and want to know what it is like being retired, living in Spokane and traveling here, there and everywhere life takes us.
Thoughts on Spain from Janice: Today is our last day in the country of Spain. Joel and I have decided to do what ever we feel like today as it's our last day. For me it will be organizing our suitcases, making sure that we leave nothing behind, have a special Spanish lunch or early dinner. Joel will do what he does best as well as the beach is calling his name one last time. I have done everything I've wanted to do, so doing just this is great for me.
Ah Spain! What made us choose this location to come all the way from the west coast of the United States to the south eastern part of Spain? It was a total of a 11-hour flight. I must really like to travel if I'm willing to spend that much time in one small seat on a plane. Well that's the answer to the question. We do love traveling together and to experience other cultures. And adding to that the area we choose here in Spain has miles and miles of beaches. Warm weather, relatively warm water, and sandy beaches. Well two out of three is not bad. The beaches had many pebbles and a little larger rocks in many places. We could still walk the beach, but needed to either wear our sandals or carefully watch where we walked.
Some of the favorite memories I will take from here is the enjoyment that each Joel and I felt about being in this location. Many days we did no more then walk the beach, lay and read, swim a bit and go out for a bite. The warmth soothed these aging joints, etc. This seems to be important as people get older. We feel the extremes of temperatures more.
I'm not as much a lover of Spanish food as I thought I might be. I was disappointed here. Grant it, I'm not too much of a fish eater and they serve a lot of fish here and a big variety of shell fish. I also thought we'd walk into places and hear a lot of Spanish music. There were absolutely NO places we walked in that had music other then maybe a local radio station that played music from the U.S. This was a disappointment.
The sights were wonderful, we loved our road trips with the rental car we had for awhile. I especially liked the little hill towns. I liked walking around up and down the very narrow streets poking my head in the shops [Joel would immediately go find a bench]. I spotted some places that had varieties of spices and will be coming home with spices that are hard to find in the states or very expensive. I bought quite a bit of saffron. Just about 1/3 of the price from the states. What I also enjoyed was going into some of the old buildings and imagining what it might have been like 1,000 or so years ago.
As much as I like entertaining, I managed to have 2 different couples over for tapas and had fun with that. I try not to put other peoples names on our blog, but you know who you are, and we really enjoyed your hospitality to us in your adopted town. Thank you and we hope to do the same if you choose to come to Mazatlan some day.
I was able to dabble in art while here. I took pads, pencils, water colors and instruction books and studied and painted or drew what I saw. I really enjoyed this. I also continued to collect more Sea Glass from this area. Joel even found me a coveted deep blue piece of Sea Glass that I will use as I will be trying my hand at making Sea Glass jewelry that I’ve collected in Mexico and Spain. I’m hoping that Irelands seashore will also have some treasures for me on it’s beaches.
Every city and country we've been to has it's pluses and minuses and overall, we were very happy here and feel a bitter sweet about leaving Torrox, Spain. I don't know that we'll ever return as there are so many other places to explore. However, one never says never. Adios Espana!
Thoughts on Spain from Joel: I have thoroughly enjoyed Spain and the Costa Del Sol. It has been relaxing with occasional bursts of history and sight seeing. Two places I always wanted to see were the Alhambra in Granada and the Kasbah in Morocco. We got to visit both of them. We also got to see white washed hill towns and multiple tapas bars. I enjoyed being able to go into a place around lunch time and order drinks and free or very cheap tapas, (appetizers). Often three or four of these made a nice meal at minimal costs. I found myself comparing Spain and our adopted country Mexico. Spain appears to be what Mexico will be like in 30 years if they choose to progress. The European Union has resulted in Spain leaping forward. There are many of the same problems, but Spain seems to be addressing them. Their road system is first rate and they have crime, but they actually make arrests for the crimes. They have corruption, but also make arrests and publicize them. One thing I noticed is that the Spanish are getting more European and often it is hard on first look to tell the difference between a Spaniard, and Englishman, or a German.
With the European Union making citizenship common there are now, over a half million English, over a half million Romanians, and many Germans living permanently in Spain. Just on the Costa Del Sol there are 40,000 English with their own newspapers, clubs, etc. Their expatriate community is much more organized than the smaller U.S. and Canadian expatriate community in Mexico. There are very few north Americans here. The cost of living here is lower than the U.S. Some things such as wine, beer, and some meats are cheaper than Mexico, produce is about the same. Gas and rents are higher than Mexico. That being said, both places are much more affordable than our state of legal residence, Washington. We will be heading for Ireland and from what we are told their cost of living will be as bad or worse than Washington state.
We have enjoyed interacting with the Spanish and English on the Costa Del Sol. A couple of other difference between the Spanish and Mexicans. You occasionally see beggars in Spain, but they aren't Spanish. Also, street vendors, beach vendors are non-Spanish. This is due to a pride factor. Spaniards pride also leads them not to seek tips for the services they provide. I have learned to appreciate the Spanish, but I still love the Mexicans of Mazatlan where we live, warts and all. The next communication will be from Ireland. As always "La vida es buena". Spain was a great place to celebrate or 20th anniversary!
(Tangier Is a city in the North of Morocco on the Mediterranean sea, 11 miles to the borders of Spain, Tangier is also known under the name of Tangiers and Tanger in French, the city counts a population of about 669,680 (2004) census, Tangier lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, It is one of the most important Moroccan cities, and has a very rich history and geographic location, the city of Tangier is the capital city of the Tangier-Tétouan Region.)Copied from the internet.
We woke up at to catch a bus for out tour to Tangiers. We picked up many people along the way and made our way to the ferry terminal to take across the GibraltarStrait. From loading to unloading this was about an hour trip where we were greeted by our tour guide. Mr. Hassan
As we loaded the Tangier tour bus, we toured through the local town being given much of the history of the area eventually getting us dropped off for a walking tour.
We entered through the Bab Kasba, Kasbah Gate. Kasbah means fort. Janice had asked me to take her to the Kasbah, but I don't think she meant to the fort. The Kasbah was originally built as a fort in 1315 to protect the city from pirate attacks. It functioned as a fort into the 1800's. In the 1950's it was a big night spot for the rich and famous of Europe and in the 60's became a hippie colony. It has now been turned into residential and market quarters. The doorway Mr. Hassan is standing in was the home of Heri Matise in 1912. The streets in the Kasbah are narrow and winding. It is hard for a non-resident to navigate without getting hopelessly lost. We knew we wouldn't get lost because the same vendors kept popping up no matter what direction we turned. The streets were purposely designed this way to confuse an invader in case they breached the walls they would still have trouble on the streets and could be picked off one by one.
All the different naturally colored yarns use to make the beautiful carpets.
No one carpet is the same, none of my photos did the carpets justice. They are magnificent.
We had a nice lunch in a restaurant in the Kasbah. There was traditional music from a robed band. After lunch we were taken to a rug design store where we were shown many beautiful rugs which they said were so tightly made that they only needed vacuuming every two years. Janice loved the rugs and went with the salesman to price a rug for shipment to the U.S. or our home in Mazatlan. They would have been happy to have it packaged and shipped for us including insurance for only $5500.00. Janice came to me to help her get out of the conversation with the salesman and I had to break the news to the salesman that I had left our credit cards in the safe back in Spain. They said we could make other arrangements. He then said they would sell it to us for $4,000.00. Needless to say, we left without purchasing the carpet. On the way out the owner approached us and asked us to make an offer. We left without a purchase.
After the rug store we were taken to a spice and herb shop. This turned out to be the Moroccan version of a wild west medicine show, We were shown plants and herbs that would do everything from remove wrinkles, restore your youthful sexual vigor, or cure every ailment known to man. There were no FDA labels. Janice was interested in buying some Saffron. They showed her a small baggie of some twigs that they said was pure saffron and only 6 Euros, $9.00 US. They would give three bags for the price of two. A good guess is that three bags would have weighed a total of about 1/4 ounce. Again we did not purchase. We did end up purchasing a Muslim round hat (beanie) for Joel and a Moroccan National Team soccer jersey for Joel. When Joel re-grows his Santa’s beard this fall and wears his Muslim hat he might become known as the Mazatlan Iman. Janice bought a beautiful red Caftan with gold embroidery and two bracelets. Janice did all the bargaining on these items and ended up paying well under a third of asking prices on all.
Some pictures from the market area. I was too busy negotiating with other vendors
to get pictures of all of them trying to work their deals on us.
Snake Charmer
After we left the Kasbah we were taken on a bus tour of the rest of Tangier. We were shown the residence of Malcom Forbes, the summer palace of the King of Morocco and the American legation building. The AmericanLegationBuilding was acquired by the U.S. in 1777 as Morocco was one of the first nations to recognize the independence of the 13 colonies. The building is now the only building on the U.S. National Historical Landmark overseas. It was the U.S. embassy until 1956 and now functions as the U.S. Consulate. We then went to the Tangier beaches which were some of the most beautiful we have ever seen. There were lots of people on them enjoying the sun and sand. As Tangier is the northernmost tip of Africa, one sie of the city borders the Atlantic Ocean and One side the Mediterranean Sea. Being this is on the strait of Gibraltar these beaches were originally headquarters for Barbary Pirates that made shipping hazardous in this area. We were shown a beautiful cave on one of the Atlantic beaches that was used living quarters.
This lighthouse is on the furtherst point north in Africa.
We had a cup of the traditional mint tea here enjoying the sights.
On our way back to our ferry to return to Tarifa, Spain we drove by many Umbrella Pines, trees that had tops that looked like and umbrella. We caught our ferry back to Spain and cleared Spanish customs around and started back to drop off everyone. We drove by the Rock of Gibraltar and hopefully some of our pictures of it turned out. There were many stops before we reached Torrox and finally arrived home after tired, but happy for our first experience in Africa.
We came to Spain for a number of reasons, but of course top of the list was the culture. To do this, we would need to see more of Spain then here in the Torrox area. Our travel agent told us of a group going to Cordoba for the purpose of watching champion Flamenco dancers from all over Spain. This sounded great and we signed up.
We were picked up in a large bus. Our guide, Rosario and three others were on the bus. We were given assigned seats. With only a few of us on this large bus this seemed strange. We then made about five more stops and before we finished there were about forty travelers. There were around 30 Spanish people and maybe 10 English speakers, English, Scottish and us. At our last stop we picked up a second guide who spoke over the bus' speaker system for about 20 minutes in Spanish, but there never was an English translation. We decided this might be quite an adventure and another motivator to take our Spanish studies more seriously.
We arrived at our hotel in Cordoba after in the evening. The hotel was called the Eurostar and was a good hotel. We learned another new thing. When we went into the room none of the electricity worked. We found our guide who showed us that we had to put our room card in a slot and leave it there; then the electricity worked. When you take the card out of the slot when you leave the room, all electricity goes off. Quite a savings for the hotel from lights, air conditioner, TVs etc. being left on. At we met in the hotel dining room where we were served a beautiful meal. After dinner we got on the bus and were driven to close to the old town of Cordoba. We arrived a little after We had been given a schedule with the music and dancing starting around and the last performances scheduled for This couple knew right away we would not last the night.
Same picture taken at night and then during the day.
We crossed into the old city on the Roman foot bridge. We later learned that the bridge pilings had been put in by the Roman's around 100 A.D., the arches were from the 1500's, and the bridge top was from the 1990's.
Roman Bridge
We crossed the river and reached the "Mezquita". This is an extraordinary old cathedral with quite a history. Originally it was the site of a Visagoth Christian church from the 6th century. When the Muslims conquered Cordoba in the 700's they built a huge mosque on the site, 70% of which is still intact. In 1236 A.D. the Christians conquered Cordoba and then built around the mosque and the cathedral became part of the complex. There is a huge courtyard leading into this complex. We saw it both lighted at night and then the next day in the day light. This is definitely worth seeing.
We had been given a map of the old town and where the various Flamenco venues were. The city was full of people walking on the narrow streets. It was well lighted and the crowds were in good humor. We could tell that many had come to party all night. We finally found our first venue in a large square. The crowds were so large it was hard to get close to the stage. We saw performances by a female dancer and then a group of three male dancers. The vision wasn't the best but we enjoyed the architecture of the old city and this square. We then wandered down the street and spent almost an hour watching a show at a costume store. This was a fashionista's dream come true. The models, costuming, and action was of a high professional caliber and Janice probably could have spent another hour there. We then went back to the large square and took an ice cream break. We then walked to a venue that was in the courtyard of the Mezquita. Again the crowds were so large we didn't get the best view or sound. About we decided we were done and after about 10 minutes found a cab back to our hotel.
The next morning we got up around had discovered the room had a large bathtub, so took a hot bath. She enjoyed this luxury as large bathtubs are a rarity both in Spain and in our Mexican home. We then were given a buffet breakfast and after got on the bus to tour Cordoba in the daylight. We again were dropped off by the Roman footbridge and walked past the Mosquito. We walked by the Alcazar, the old palace of the rulers and then around some of the old city wall. Our guide then took us through the old Jewish quarter. We saw an old synagogue that dated from the 1100's, Maimonides, the Jewish physician and philosopher was from Cordoba and this was where he worshiped before he was driven from Cordoba along with other thinkers and philosophers after fundamentalist Muslims took over from the earlier more tolerant Muslim rulers. Before the fundamentalists took over Cordoba was one of the largest cities in the world with over 500,000 people. In Roman times there had been around 100,000. We continued to explore the narrow streets of old Cordoba. The streets were purposely narrow and houses high to create shade canyons. As the temperatures were around 100F, 38F these canyons were welcome as breezes also would funnel down them. After about two hours of wondering our group was released and we had three hours to look over the city ourselves. The first order of the day was to sit down and have a cerveza and vino. After a nice break we walked through much of the old city marveling at the architecture. Finally we sat down in an air conditioned cantina and had tapas and drinks until it was time to catch our bus.
We returned to the hotel, picked up our luggage and then returned to the Costa Del Sol, letting people off in the reverse order they had got on. The Flamenco part of the tour was disappointing, but the city of Cordoba is great and we enjoyed the atmosphere and the history, Our group was personable and one of the Scottsman named Tom was a fountain of history as he had been there several times before, In spite of some translation problems we enjoyed our Spanish fellow travelers as well as the English speakers. Our biggest complaint was the bus had very little leg room, which for two tall people like us didn't make the bus part as enjoyable. We arrived back at our home in Torrox around and were glad to get home. Home sweet home.
Had I known there was glass to be found here on the coast we would have been looking from the first day we got here. In 3 days the following picture is what Joel and I have found. Can you imagine the journey this glass has been on? Whose hands it has been in? How many years before it arrived to the Mediterranean coast?
According to the information below, my cobalt blue sea glass is 1 out of 200 - 300 pieces to be found. I'm jazzed. I have now a few semi-rare sea foam green. I guess next I will be learning how to make sea glass jewelry.
...Just where do the colors of beach glass come from? Sea Glass is simply old glass products that were thrown in the sea. If you think about it, the common colors of sea glass, Green, Brown & White are in wide use today......Rarer colors of sea glass are pieces that the color has not been made or used commercially for many years.
While I have broken the colors into rarity categories, it is a general rule and not to be carved in stone (or glass!) as certain colors can be found more readily in some areas. For Example, lavender glass can be a rarity in areas Abundant in Maine & Canada but hardly ever found in the islands. Next time you're in an antique shop or flea market, look at the glass items and see if you haven't found a piece of glass this color!
My Jewelry section is broken up into the following categories of rarity.
Very Common, Common to Unique - White, Green, Brown found in most beach combing locations through out the world. Unique colors are Greens Browns and Whites glass with age, thickness or patterning.
Treasure Chest Colors - Those pieces of glass that are so unique and usually maintain a pattern or shape of the original source (i.e. bottle stoppers, marbles, embossed glass pieces, pattern glass, old glass tiles
Common Colors to Unique
Green Glass comes in a wide range of shades and hues. Heineken bottles, Rolling Rock, and lots of red wines come in green bottles still today .There is a wide variation of green though and common green generally refers to a kelly green. Older green glass could be considered Unique if bubbled or patterned, embossed or textured.
2 In 10 Pieces Of Sea Glass Found Will Be Common Green
Brown Glass is also an old and new color. Budweiser beer and lots of others come in a brown bottle, but I've also found old clorox and Lysol bottles (yes kids, Clorox did used to come in a glass bottle as did everything else!) with the imprinting still on them.
3-4 in 10 pieces Sea Glass Found Will Be Common Brown
White - well that can come from just about anywhere from a new soda bottle to an old pane of glass. You can usually determine how old your white glass is by the thickness and any markings or bubbles. Many angular shapes of sea glass are white pieces (maybe because it was once window glass from a storm wrecked cottage or auto glass from off shore dumping and reef formation.)
4 In 10 Pieces Of Sea Glass Found Will Be Clear or White
Somewhat Rare To Rare
These colors are not in wide use today so there is no new source for them but they were used widely in the past.
Sea foam Green - While the most common source for this lovely shade of light green glass was most likely an old Coco Cola bottle made in various parts of the world. The shades vary from a light seafoam green to yellow green to light aqua's. Transport was difficult so many of these bottles were manufactured locally, hence the color variations in old coke bottles.
A lot of older white glass however, had a greenish tint and depending on thickness and whether bubbles are present, could be an old piece of rarer glass. New glass of this shade is still used for wine bottles.
50 In a 100 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will be Sea foam Green
Cobalt Blue - there were many items made for this; Phillips Milk of Magnesia, Noxema, Bromo Seltzer, even Alka Seltzer used to come in a tall blue glass tube. Many medicines and even poisons were bottled in cobalt blue glass. The magical like quality of blue glass is why it was used for medicine and why you still get that thrill finding one. Among the most desirable of sea glass colors considered lucky as it is very lucky to find one now.
1 In 200 - 300 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will Be Cobalt Blue (Dark Blue)
Lavender - I find quite a lot of lavender and this glass has a neat history. You see the chemical used to make glass white (glass in its raw state usually has a greenish tint to it, like an old coke bottle) well, this chemical came from Germany.
When W.W.I broke out the chemical could no longer be used and the replacement chemical that was used turned glass lavender over a period of time. IT's kind of neat to think when you find a piece of this color, you can date it!
Lavender glass is abundant in some areas and non existent in others.
True purple glass is much rarer. In our English Sea Glass collection, it averages one in 5000 pieces as true lavender glass was reserved for the Monarchy (showing Royalty) and for the Bishops in the church.
1 In 300 - 500 Pieces of Sea Glass Found Will Have A Lavender Hue
-
Rarer Greens - Can range from Deep Aqua Greens to Emerald Greens. I have some pieces of deep aqua green that are so dark, it is hard to tell what color they are. Most of this glass is very thick, so the theory holds it is most likely older glass (as new glass is very thin in most applications)
Light Blue or Cornflower Blue-
Light blue was used before printed labels were adhered to bottles. Made with the same cobalt chemical as the darker glass. The product name was embossed on the glass and this was easier to read on a lighter color glass. When printed labels started to appear, the color of the bottle went darker.
1 In 500-700 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will Be Light Blue (Cornflower Blue)
Lime Green - A glass I have yet to find an exact original source (pictured here is a modern Blenko bottle) for but believe to have been used in beverage bottles in the mid1900's) can be found in some areas but non existent in others. This may be because the soda or beverages that used this glass were local and not national companies . Most lime green glass is not thick so it indicates that it is a more relatively modern glass source, yet localized to certain areas.
1 In 500 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will Be Lime Green (Chartreuse)
Extremely Rare Colors
Red & Orange - Red is the hope diamond of sea glass (or riptide rubies TM - a coin I have termed for the most desirable of sea glass colors). One of the most common sources for ruby red glass was made by Anchor Hocking Glass Company for both decorative household items and in a 1950's Schlitz Beer bottle (bottle bottom pictured here with sea glass piece & Bottle with label). I've been told there used to be a brewery on Long Island that made a beer called "Red Bottle Beer" and that you used to be able to find lots of red glass up there, As for other shades of red glass I can only think of running lights on boats (you know - red right return) or decorative household glass which in itself is a rarity because gold was actually used as the compound to turn glass red.
Orange was also most likely from an old decorative household item. In the tons of sea glass I have personally collected, I have only ever been fortunate to get 5 pieces of orange.
Pictured here (left) is a Borden Milk bottle that could have also been the source for this lovely red glass!
1 In 5,000 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will Be Ruby Red (Anchor Hocking Glass)
1 In 10,000 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will Be Brilliant Red or Orange
Gray - Could be old leaded crystal or new tinted window glass.
Teal & Aqua
- Very desirable this shade of glass on one of the rarest. Teal or turquoise is an older source. I have several old seltzer bottles from NYC that are this great shade. Deep aqua glass could have been a Ball canning jar or insulator used on electric poles in the early 1900's. Decorative glass like stained glass and house wares could also be a source.
Milk White, Jadeite, Opaque Blue- A lot of these glasses were made by fireing in the mid 1900's mostly for household items (dishes etc..) but there were some commercial uses of the opaque white glass. I have a half of an old ball jar lid liner that is milk glass.
1 In 1000 Sea Glass Pieces Found Will Be Deep Aqua (Turquoise)
I hope you have had some success in finding glass yourself.
While on one of our walks about villages for lunch one day Joel had a plate of Paella. This has to have been his favorite meal to date, so when we read of a cooking class being taught on Paella Joel asked if I'd like to go knowing how much I've enjoyed previous cooking classes on trips we've taken and the wanna be "foodie" I am. I signed myself up on the promise I would blog about my experience and fix Paella for him. Well, the blogging I can do know, but I'm afraid cooking paella for him will come when we get back home to Mazatlan.
It happened to be the two gentlemen that own this bungalow we are staying in are the guys that taught the cooking class, are from Seattle and have lived here in Torrox Spain for about 9 years. Their names are Arthur and Christopher. They have a home set up on a hill in Torrox Pueblo and the class was conducted there.
There were 6 of us in the class and we all met at the home of Christopher and Arthur high up on the pueblo of Torrox. For about 45 minutes Christopher gave us a lot of information on Paella. What it is, what it is not. What type of rice to use, the origin of paella and dispelled a few myths of this dish.
We were given a list of ingredients, and as a group needed to decide on what we wanted in our Paella. We were then given a certain amount of money and our assignment was to go into the village and negotiate the purchasing and decisions on how much to buy with the money we had for the ingredients. No small tasks with the varrying of taste, but the end result all proved to be, well more about that later.
We then took a stroll through the pueblo stopping at different homes of elderly people that were selling a few pieces of vegetables and fruit brought in from the farm that the family owned. We would then continue to go to small little tiendas (stores) that had very basic supplies.
We would be up what we needed and continued to the next store, all the while being informed of the history of Torrox. We went up and down streets, up and down stairs finally winding our way to a wine and olive oil co-op. We then toured this co-op (picture above) and saw first hand how the small growers would bring in their truck loads of olives, some small, some large. From the beginning of the process to the very end where we were brought into the warehouse stocked with pure (melt in your mouth like butter) olive oil. The flavor was light and not at all strong or bitter that we get in the states or Mazatlan. The price is unbelievably good. A 1/2 gallon of this suberb olive oil was aproximately $10. At the end of our olive tour, there is also like I said part of this co-op is wine. We sampled 2 different types of wine, sweet and semi-sweet. The semi-sweet would be compared to Ice Wine at a fraction of the cost. I purchased 2 bottle of the semi-sweet for a 1/5 of the cost as the same size Ice Wine cost us when we traveled through Canada. I'm not sure those bottles will make it back to Mazatlan for our wine tastings. Sorry group!
Our last stop was at the local butcher. There came the hardest decision, what kind of meat and/or fish did we want in our Paella. Let me just say we ended up with Chicken, Rabbit, Shrimp, Squid and Chorizo pictured below.
Butcher showing the rabbit, and yes head is still attached here.
Ingredients in hand, we walk back up the hills and stairs to the casa of Christopher and Arthur to assemble the ingredients and prepare to cook the Paella. We each had a station and proceeded to clean and chop all the vegetables, the meat, clean and cut the squid and then begin.
Shown here is our only male that joined us and is shown preparing the squid. Next is the meat all skinned and chopped ready to cook. The stock was pre-made but was basically a chicken broth. I won't give you a list or recipe for Paella as this recipe cost me $75 dollars and the experience was priceless. These two men conducted a first class course all the way. I don't know how many of you reading this will make it to the Costa del Sol, but should you, this is a must do for every one. I will also put their contact information, website, etc. at the end of this as they also have rentals available in Torrox.
Shown here is Christopher putting the finishing touches in his Spanish Sangria, shown here with red wine and some other special ingredients.
Right before sitting down to our feast a picture is taken with the 6 of us that prepared the entire meal and an additional lady that joined us for the lunch only. 4 were from Australia, 1 from Sweeden, and 1 from England and myself from the US/Mexico.
So as I try and describe our meal, I want to mention that one of the assignment were for one of the group to make Sopa de Ajo Blanco (Chilled Garlic Soup). We started of with bread freshly made along with the pure olive oil from the co-op we visited accompanied by this soup. It tasted very good and I will be making this again. It of course has a strong garlic taste and is creamy. We then served ourselves the Paella along with a green salad. I steered clear of the squid, other then one bite. I honestly could not tell the difference beteen the rabbit and chicken. Another meat that shares the taste of poultry. The rice that is used is essential and the flavor and texture was a tickle for the taste buds. It was a gastronomic delight and yes, I will make this again. Remember, the ingredients can be varied somewhat, so even though there was not to much difference in the flavor of chicken and rabbit, most likely that will stay out of my next Paella. The guys surprised us with a small sample of the semi-sweet wine and their out-of-this-world flan. note: I thought I made the best flan, sorry, these two have me beat.
We all said our good-byes, exchanged email addresses and off we went 9 hours later. As I mentioned, here is their website http://www.spain-vacation-holiday.com/index.html Here you will find rentals, cooking classes and entertaining ideas.
By the way, Joel did get some leftovers of the Paella. He's a happy man!
Janice and I have rented a car and spent Saturday and Sunday exploring Spanish Hill towns. Contrary to what we had been advised, it was cheaper to rent a car here than over the internet in the states. The car we rented is a Chevrolet Motiz. It is small with a five speed stick shift. It gets around 40 MPG which is fortunate as gas is $7.50 a gallon. We drove 483 KM, 300 miles in two days and used just over 7 gallons of gas. A couple of comments on driving in Spain. The first is that as gas is so expensive, everyone drives small, fuel efficient cars. There are very few oversized pickups, SUV's or RV's. The roads feel much safer as a result. Also, Spain has an awesome road system. In 300 miles of travel to the hill towns most was four lanes and when it was two lanes it was well maintained. There were no traffic signals, just roundabouts, so mileage was lot better due to not stopping and starting often. It is too bad that the US is just starting to learn about roundabouts.
On Saturday we drove to the hill town of Mijas, pronounced "me haas". This was a small city of around 7500 people. It has hillsides covered with whitewashed homes. The downtown was blocked off due to their annual international festival. Parking was scarce, but we found a spot at the bottom of a hill, the spot was so small, Janice used her feminine charms to convince a young German man to turn our car around in the small space we had and point the car uphill. While walking up to the festival we ran into a long line of donkeys waiting to be hired. The town had a lot of narrow winding streets with a lot of shops that Janice enjoyed. The international festival had booths from all over the world including the US, Mexico, Cuba, Senegal, Uruguay, Viet Nam, India, Germany, Bulgaria, etc. We enjoyed a large plate of assorted barbecued meats from Uruguay, sangria and cerveza from Spain, and perogis from The Ukraine. We sat in a plaza and watched dancers from a dancing school. We shared a table with a couple from Wedgewood, England who now live full time in Spain. We went on one last pass around the festival and ran into a group of dancers, dancing their way through the streets of Mijas. There were colorfully costumed and Janice took some great moving pictures of them. Our last stops were at the US booth where we met the US Counsel form Malage. We then noticed the Mexican booth where we talked to a young woman from Culican who was studying at a university in Malaga. We bought a Cerveza Pacifico from her. As it was sunny and hot the Pacifico went down well. Of interest to our Mazatlan friends, the Pacifico cost 2 1/2 times the Spanish and German beer offered. We drove home and got back to Torrox around . We had driven about 170 KM, or around 105 miles.
(Pictures from Mijas)
On Sunday we got up early to drive to Ronda which is 156 KM, or around 97 miles away. The drive was beautiful through olive groves, spectacular ravines and picturesque ruins. Ronda is a town with a lot of history. The original city is perched on a high bluff on all sides. The old town is attached to the new town by a bridge that straddles a huge ravine. The old town is the old Moorish town that was finally captured by the Christians in 1485. We visited their Bull Ring as was recommended by Rick Steves. This was where modern Bull fighting was invented and the rules codified. Before that bull fighting was considered on the same level with WWF in the US. Part of the bull ring was a museum of bull fighting and also a large collection of antique weapons. We were able to tour where the bulls are kept and the runway where they enter the stadium. We had some wonderful tapas and then continued our walking around Ronda. We also went through the LaraMuseum. This was very eclectic comprising weapons collections, old uniforms, US movie lore, and tools of the Inquisition. After you see the tools of the Inquisition you wonder what kind of mind could even have the faintest feeling they were doing God's work? I can see nothing in the teachings of Jesus that could have justified this! After this we were in need of refreshment so walked down a long hill and enjoyed some great sandwiches. This was in the actual city of Ronda and was very busy. The long walk up the hill took us by the church of Santa Maria and The Mondragon Castle, the home of the ruling family. After about six hours of wandering this beautiful city and seeing the views from the high perch we drove home. Joel drove for the first time as he was unsure if he could drive a stick with his arthritic ankle. It worked fine. We arrived back in Torrox around 6:30 and were totally exhausted due to it having been very hot and sunny.
(Pictures from Ronda)
