MI Travelers: From Spain to France and back again

Planning might have made this portion of our trip more efficient, but we have had a great time. Once again, making friends and good weather a priority, we decided to forgo more time in England where it was pouring and cold and head to Spain. We decided to fly to Malaga, where 10 days later we would meet our friends, Kevin and Cindy Garrison. We took a very early morning flight from Gatwick to Malaga. (Mark was convinced that we would be the only people at the airport at 4:30AM and was shocked when we encountered countless other sleepy individuals.) We arrived there around 9:30AM and after much confusion picked up our rental car and headed up the Spanish coast.

Alicante, Spain

Our first stop was Alicante, a lovely beachside community where Amy hopes to live this coming fall while attending the University there. It will be my turn to be jealous should her plans work out. Alicante is an ideal town, with a lovely old theatre, lots of cafes, shopping, the beach and friendly people. It has a curious hill right by the beach that we didn’t have time to climb. However, in our short time there we did manage to get around quite a bit.

Monserrat

Monstrol

The next day it was north toward Andorra, one of the smallest countries in Europe. We didn’t make it all the way there but spent the night in a lovely town called Monstrol, just outside Monserrat. I had heard of Monserrat but always thought it was in France. Although we saw the monastery from the distance, I kick myself for not taking the time to go and visit it. Hopefully there will be another time.

Monserrat in the bright sunshine

Monserrat Monastery

Solsones

We loved Monstrol and Solsones, another Catalunya town we visited on our way to Andorra.

Dam on the way from Spain to Andorra

Mountain lake near Spanish-Andorra boarder

Andorra is a small country tucked between Spain and France in the Pyrenees mountains. It is extremely mountainous and consists of a few valleys cutting through the hills with numerous ski chalets.

The flags of Spain and Andorra

Andorra also seems to support itself by offering duty free shopping. We had lunch, a bit of a walk, a pastry and bought a postcard and stamp that we mailed before we headed out the other side to France.

Andorra mountains

Through Andorra, now in France where the weather is looking better

Attracted by what looked like a shortcut on our map, I directed Mark to take a local French road through Col du Chioula (altitude 1430m) rather than the highway to Carcassonne. The views of the Pyrenees were amazing; the road was windy, steep and anything but user friendly. (As I write this we are now flying over the Pyrenees---white capped, rugged and seemingly untouched up here at 30,000 feet. Mark asked me to mention that he is happy he is not driving there now!)

Carcassonne

We reached our destination: Carcassonne around 7:30 on 29 April. We were a little stressed since the B&B we had booked said that the innkeeper was only there until 7PM. Having left Andorra before 4PM, we thought we had plenty of time to get Carcassonne—that was before we headed off on the local French road. Happily we found the B&B without too much trouble, the innkeeper was there, and Mark was relieved to park the car knowing he had two days without driving.

Carcassonne

Old Carcassonne castle at night is exquisite. We left behind the bad weather we experienced in Andorra earlier in the day and enjoyed Carcassonne bathed in moonlight. The following morning we returned to explore the old town in earnest. Unfortunately, the bad weather had returned, but we made the most of our time in Carcassonne and loved every minute of it.

This is SO true. Mom and Dad are spending your inheritance.

We had two lovely meals at Restaurant La Trivalou, just down the road from our lodging (Les Florentines, the first night and Cote Cite, the second). One of the highlights of traveling is meeting interesting travelers: we met a lovely couple our first night at La Trivalou from Devon, England—Jan and Stuart. On the second night we met another fun couple, this time ironically from Issaquah—Theresa and Don. Our only regret was missing our rendezvous with Linda and Andy Redfern who we had hoped to catch up with in Carcassonne.

Lot, France

Clarice the mule who lives down the road from Monique and Denis

Monique beautiful then and now

Denis, gourmet chef

After two days in Carcassonne, we continued 4 hours North to the Lot to spend four days with Monique and Denis. Monique has known me since I was a child; I love her dearly. I marvel at how much we have in common. As always our visit with her and Denis was far too short. Denis is a great chef and kept our bellies full while Monique made sure we were entertained.

View from Monique's backyard

Southern France abstract

But it was soon time to hit the road again so we could be back in Malaga to meet Kevin and Cindy Garrison, friends from Issaquah on Sunday evening, 6 May. Early Friday morning, we bid Monique and Denis farewell and headed toward San Sebastian, Spain. I wanted to take a quick peek at Northern Spain and I am so glad we did. It is absolutely lovely. We took a quick detour into St Jean de Luz, France and a little hike to the beach nearby.

Near St. Jean de Luz, France

We actually bypassed San Sebastian and settled just down the road in Zarautz, Spain for the night. It is a small beach town with a quaint downtown and a marvelous stretch of relatively deserted beachfront. We made the most of our short stay there with an evening and morning walk on the beach.

View from the beach in Zarautz, Spain

Zarautz beach in the morning

Cordoba patio

Cordoba dancers

Our drive the next day was a long one: from Northern Spain to Cordoba. I fell in love with Cordoba when I visited there in the 1970s. I am happy to say, it is still lovely. We arrived in an intense storm but we were blessed by finding La Sociedad de Platernos Taverna, a restaurant founded in 1868 where their staff and manager, Manuel Bordallo, helped us find a hotel. This was no small accomplishment since we arrived in Cordoba on the weekend of Cordoba Patios.

Cordoba Patio

Once a year, Cordoba has a competition for the most beautiful patio (terrace). Serendipitously we were there during the festival and saw some magnificent patios. Later in the week we returned with Kevin and Cindy to visit Cordoba's Mezquita (Mosque). This spectacular building includes Visigoth remains, Roman marble columns, a Moorish architecture and a Renaissance Catholic nave. The Mezquite's double horseshoe arches made of jasper, onyx, marble and granite are utterly impressive. In the 10th century the mosque was the second largest mosque in the world. For the last 800 years the Mezquita has been a Catholic church.

Cordoba patio

Cordoba Mezquita

Captivating architecture

We made it to Malaga on Sunday evening to join Kevin and Cindy for a week. We stayed at a Crown Resort condo in Calahonda, about 30 km south of Malaga. We made the most of our Southern Spain time with visits to the picturesque town of Nerja (on the coast 25 km north of Malaga), a day in Cordoba, one in Granada, one in Gibraltar and one in Ronda, as well as the Pileta Caves.

Alhambra summer palace

Alhambra garden

Alhambra's Moorish artwork

Steve and Jan: A Melbourne coupe we met in Granada

Gibraltar with Morocco in the background

Gibraltar's barbary apes

Ronda: Spain's oldest bullring

Mark is happy with his own ketchup

Nerja beach: Pristine and not crowded!

Paella in Nerja: this must be heaven!!

Cindy and Kevin are looking forward to their paella in Nerja

The Pileta caves have to be one of the most awe-inspiring sites we have seen on this trip. Located outside Ronda, in the hills, Pileta is a privately owned cave system that has Paleolithic cave drawings that are 25,000 years old. There is also pottery, animal and human bones that date back to a time before the last Ice Age. Our guide is the grandson of Jose Bullon Lobato who found the cave system in 1905.

Fish from Pileta

Horse from Pileta Cave near Ronda

After a week in the Calahonda timeshare, Kevin, Cindy, Mark and I drove to Seville to spend a few days. We left the lovely warm weather behind and drove Northeast to Seville and into a heat wave. Seville seems to have a church at every turn. The Moorish influence is also present in the Seville Alcazar. Christopher Columbus departed from the port of Seville. It is a town steeped in history and a perfect place to end our all too short stay in Spain.