Spanish Castle Magic

Yesterday we took our second trip to Malaga. Last time we had decided to leave a tour of the Alcazaba and Gibralfaro Castle until we had a complete day to spend, so we headed straight for the Alcazaba only to be greeted by the worst words; "Cerrado Lunes". Fortunately this only applied to the Alcazaba, so we instead to the long trek up the hill to the castle instead.

The castle itself wasn't particularly interesting, but the views over Malaga and the surrounding area were breathtaking. It was built when the city was under Muslim rule in the 14th and 15th Centuries, and was certainly a superb lookout point (the name comes from the Arab for "hill" and the Greek for "lighthouse"). We had a great view over the sea, towards the mountains and of the city's cathedral, bullring and port. It was incredibly hot for a December day, but the wind at the top of the rampart made for a real difference in temperature. Back down the bottom, it was warm enough for us to eat lunch in the sunshine before heading off to the Museo de Artes y Tradiciones Populares.

I had seen an article about this museum in the local English language paper. It is in a building that previously housed the Victoria Tavern and it displays the day-to-day life of the people of Malaga, both working and middle classes. It's very well done, placing as many objects as possible in "room" settings to give them a more realistic feel.

On the recommendation of our host, last week we took a trip out to Ronda. It was a long bus journey and we had to catch the 7am bus to Marbella. As we travelled back inland, the sun rose over the sea making Marbella oddly picturesque! Having spent the last few months in mountains I think I may have started to take the scenery for granted, so I made sure I enjoyed every minute as the bus swerved around the mountain roads.

Our first stop was the Plaza de Toros, Spain's first purpose built bullring still in use. Inside was also a museum detailing the history of the bullfight, although I would have appreciated a bit more information about the fight itself. You could walk almost throughout the whole building, including onto the ring itself and into the paddocks. We watched one girl training a horse for a while with an amazing disply of balance - riding without stirrups or reins. The bullring also had displays of riding gear and an exhibition on duelling with swords and pistols.

Ronda is a town cut in two by a gorge, across which the Puerto Nuevo links both halves of the town. The bridge provides some of the most spectacular views of the trip so far, miles and miles of mountains. It was incredibly relaxing - like Villefranche-du-Conflent, I could quite happily revisit Ronda just to sit out in the sunshine. I'd also like to return to try and find a decent restaurant. After the worst meal of the trip (and I didn't think I'd say that after Marseille) we went in search of the Bandit Museum.

Lots of tourists come to Ronda to take in the views, but the locals obviously want to get in on the act. There are a huge number of museums for such a small place, many of them seemingly set up in people's houses! The Museo del Bandolero is no exception. It's a very impressive collection of bandit memorabilia, from costumes to birth and death certificates to comics and videos. I'm not sure I learnt too much from the museum, but it was good for just a couple of Euros.

For another couple of Euros we visited the museum under Puerto Nuevo. The small exhibition explained how it took several hundred years for technology to catch up to the design of the bridge and how important the bridge has been to Ronda's development as a town. It also gave us a better view of the ravine itself. Then it was back to the bus station and the long journey back to Monda.

Unless I have the time and the facilities in Paris or Amsterdam I suspect this will be my last update until I return to British shores. As much as I am looking forward to returning home, I will miss Monda. It's a wonderful little town in a really beautiful area. It's the sort of place I can imagine living. Maybe I'll return one day.

Picture This

Darren's uploaded lots of new photographs from La Fonda, Figueres, Montserrat, Malaga, Marbella, Gibraltar and Monda for you to view. And Blogger is providing me with a nifty little slideshow function on the sidebar which I'll probably use for pictures of our latest location.

Yesterday morning we went for a walk. Christina took us and Matt - an American WWOOFer who has been with us for the last week - to a spot from where we could walk to a lovely view over Marbella and of the sea. At first the sea and sky blended seamlessly, but eventually we got a very faint view of Gibraltar and Morocco. Tomorrow we are taking a day off to go to Ronda, a town about 60kms away which is apparently a very nice example of an old fashioned Spanish town. It is also home to the oldest bullring in Spain.

Enjoy the photos!

Take The Long Way Home

We spent yesterday on British soil once more! Being this close, we felt the need for a visit to Gibraltar. We caught the first bus out of Monda to Marbella, then another to La Linea. Watching the sun rise during the journey, the big rock came into view. As we got closer the Atlas mountains of north Africa also became visible. Once in La Linea, we walked over the border and across the runway of Gibraltar airport into the territory. We then walked through the town to the cable car which took us to the top of the rock.

For an extra £1.50 (yes, that is good old sterling) we also got an audiotour which gave us a very interesting potted history of Gibraltar. Most importantly however we got to see the monkeys! The Barbary Macaques are famously the only wild monkeys found in Europe, and they were very entertaining. We particularly enjoyed one small ape tucking into a pineapple, and tried not to laugh too much when another stole a tourist's bag, took it out of reach and studiously unzipped all the compartments before leaving it when no food was discovered inside.

Back in the town, we had a pub lunch before hopping on some of the local buses to guide ourselves to the southernmost tip. We alighted at the 100 ton gun where we had the museum all to ourselves to investigate. We then continued south to Europa Point. Unfortunately the weather had really turned against us at this point and we could only just make out Africa across the surprisingly narrow strait of water.

We used our remaining time to peruse the many "duty free" shops on Main Street before walking back over the frontier into Spain. Then we discovered that - once more - we had misread the bus timetable and missed our planned bus back to Marbella. By the time we had gone to Estepona and then to Marbella the last bus to Monda had long since departed. A taxi worked out cheaper than a hotel or hostel would have done, so another €20 taxi fare was spent. I think I'm going to start taking photos of all these bus timetables...

How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?

I like getting a night train. There's something magical about going to sleep in one place and waking in another. There is also something incredibly English about going to Malaga. We had a slight change of plan in who we were staying with. We are in a village called Monda which is a fairly typical southern Spanish village - to our eyes at least! Our host is Christina, an Englishwoman who has lived in Spain for over 20 years, so her opinion is somewhat different. I like it here a lot though. We are staying at her house in the village and travelling to the land each day which is about 30 minutes walk. This is quite a departure for us - firstly the feeling of "going to work" and also being near some civilisation. We can go to the pub at night here! We're also just a few minutes away from buses to Malaga and Marbella and lots of places inbetween.

The land is on several levels and is dotted with orange trees. We've been digging up new plots for the most part to plant in. I think Christina sells some of her produce but most of it is for her own use. We normally get a lift up and walk back when we're finished. On our first walk back we stopped to read a sign about some local walks when I heard a squeaking coming from the nearby bins. I knew it was going to be more trouble than it was worth but I just couldn't resist such a distress call. A plastic bag was writhing in one of the bins - I fished it out and there were two newborn puppies inside. Darren thought he had seen a vets in the village so we carried them back with us.

It turned out there was no vets. We tried to call some local dogs homes - one that spoke English said they had no room and the others we simply couldn't converse with. Christina was unable to help as she was busy. Without any way of feeding them they were not going to make it through the night. We couldn't keep them in the house and unfortunately this story simply could not have a happy end.

On our first day off (last Saturday) we took the bus to the city of Malaga. The city was not at all what I expected it to be. It's probably true what they say - all that most tourists see of Malaga is the airport. Which is a shame because it's a lovely little city. It's nice and manageable to walk around and there is lots to see including 23 (I think) museums. Our main reason for visiting was to see the Picasso Museum. I've never been much of a studier of Picasso's work, but - like the Dali Museum - it was interesting to see some of his less famous work and how he came to Cubism. It makes it a little easier to understand. We had fun improving our Spanish as none of the titles were in English. Not that Picasso always makes it completely obvious what he's painting!

We thought about visiting the Moorish castle grounds but decided to leave it until we had a full day to appreciate them. Instead we went to the Interactive Music Museum. It wasn't bad althoughall of the explanations were in Spanish so we probably didn´t get anywhere near as much out of it as we could. We did however see some of the Rodin statues which are currently displayed on the city's streets including The Thinker.

The weather has mostly been beautifully sunny, but today has been wet and very windy. Instead of kick our heels at the house, we took a bus to Marbella. What a horrible place! OK, it's probably not improved by the weather (which was distinctly drier and warmer than in Monda), but it's a fairly soul-less town. Dali has some good sculptures which was the highlight of our day. You can tell that Marbella is where the wealthier tourists go - it's full of designer(ish) shops and restaurants selling lobster for 75€. We wondered round, got the cheapest meal we could without resorting to McDonalds and came back.

Food Glorious Food

Sorry, I've got some catching up to do haven't I? Let's start with our final week in Catalonia.

The one thing I most wanted to do was visit the Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres. About 2 hours north of where we were staying, we decided to visit on a weekday in the hope that it wouldn't be too busy. If Saturdays are busier than I'm very glad we went on a Thursday! There were a lot of guided tours and school trips which was a particular nightmare when they stood in front of a piece you wanted to view. However, it is a fantastic place to visit.

The entire museum stands as a piece of art. The experience begins with the outside, decorated with Dali's symbolic eggs and bread rolls and the statues in Placa Gala i Salvador Dali. Once inside you are greeted by the open courtyard containing what Dali considered the biggest surrealist monument in the world - it's almost a compilation of pieces by both himself and other surrealist artists. There is then the stage area, dominated by a massive backdrop of his beloved wife Gala. Dali's love and passion of his wife oozes out of almost every room in the museum. The museum also contains the Mae West room - along with the famous Mae West lips sofa, other pieces have been arranged so that, when viewed from high up a long way away (or in this case up some stairs through a concave lens) the face of Mae West is created. There are actually very few of Dali's most famous works in the museum and it's interesting to see where he started and ended rather than just the things you already know.

On our final evening in L'Ametlla del Valles we visited the restaurant we had been working for over the last month. It would have been easy - having looked forward to this meal for 5 weeks and already tasted (albeit in a much more rustic form) what the chef and his staff could do - to be disappointed with the meal. However, disappointed we most certainly were not. Every course surpassed our expectations. We were first presented with appetisers of veal tartare and tuna sashimi. For starter Darren had foie gras cannelloni and I had a wild mushroom stew. My main course was veal cheeks and Darren had the Butifarra - a traditional Catalan sausage which absolutely astounded both of us for it's complexity of taste and velvety texture. We were then served a delicious lemon and ginger drink to cleanse our palettes before dessert - figs and red berries of toasted bread for me, pumpkin pie for Darren. We really were incredibly impressed. This is food which deserves to be eaten and enjoyed, and I really hope that La Fonda goes on to be as successful as it should be.

It was time to move on. The following evening we left Lluisa to catch the night train to Malaga from Barcelona...

Calendar Girl

I've been having a play with Google Calendars. Have a look at the new little device on the right there, and let me know if scrolling down causes you any problems. It keeps crashing IE here, but it might be this computer!

The Incidentals

It’s been a bit weird at this WWOOF. I really love the area, being so close to Barcelona, the restaurant, the house and our host Lluisa. But it’s a difficult time for her as the restaurant is not doing good business. This is demoralising for everyone involved, including us. It’s also meant that Lluisa has had to go to lots of meetings and hasn’t been able to guide our work. So we’ve ended up doing a lot of weeding - it’s often the safest thing to do on someone else’s land. Lluisa herself has said the vegetable patch has started to resemble a Japanese garden! But there's only so much weeding you can do, and we're seriously running out of ways to occupy our time. We feel a bit like we're imposing and that we're not earning our keep which is not a great feeling, but Lluisa still seems happy for us to be here.

Lluisa's is quite a cautionary tale. Her original vision was to work in the kitchen and garden herself, but she spends most of her time doing business and trying to promote the restaurant which she doesn't enjoy and doesn't feel she is particularly good at. She recruited a head chef, and he is absolutely brilliant. Maxi is originally from Argentina, and I think he was working with some top, top chefs before coming here, partly for a less stressful life. It’s unlikely I know, but if anyone viewing this blog is in Catalunya over the next few months, come to La Fonda in L’Ametlla del Valles as it’s a really wonderful restaurant with a very talented chef in the kitchen. We can’t wait to be proper paying customers before we leave – every time we go in for our meals with the staff we have another look at the menu. I've really got my fingers crossed that things improve over the next few months as it's a fantastic project and I'd hate to see it close.

We have managed to get a few other jobs done. Last week we harvested the olive tree and got a huge haul. Sorting cut this down to about half, but we still think there is about 10kg. They’ve all gone into a bin of water which we had to change twice (without touching or spilling any olives, not easy) and then changed for salt water. Hopefully they’ll be edible before we leave – I don’t really like olives but I still want to try one! Our favourite job of the week is to collect things for the restaurant on a Thursday morning. It’s surprising just how productive a small piece of land can be. We pick peppers, tomatoes (if they ever ripen), aubergines, courgettes, lettuces, spinach and figs, as well as basil, rosemary, thyme, chives, mint and various flowers (some for decoration, some for cooking).

Last week the weather had turned quite a lot colder - cold enough for Lluisa to light the fire! This week has been warm enough in the sun for us to work outside in T-shirts, an instant indicator that we are English rather than Spanish as they’re already wrapped up in winter coats. It's cold at night though, especially in the caravan. We've got three duvets on the bed, and it's a real struggle to get out of the cosiness in the mornings. And my tan is fading fast!

We've eventually sorted out our final home for the year. After contacting many places in the south of Spain, one person replied to say they didn't need anyone, but that they had friends who were thinking of taking on helpers. I spoke to Natalie yesterday and we're booked in as her and Mark's first WWOOFers! They are based near Estepona in Malaga. We're going to go to Barcelona tomorrow to book our overnight train. It's all fairly mysterious as we could only talk briefly over a bad line so I'm quite excited (and Darren's rather apprehensive!).

Barcelona

Our first stop on our latest trip into Barcelona was to see it’s most famous landmark – La Sagrada Familia. I visited Gaudi’s unfinished temple to the Holy Family a few years ago, but Darren hadn’t been so I insisted that we go. In any case it’s worth returning to see the additions that have been made. It’s fantastic to see such a work in progress – we’ve seen a few cathedrals and churches so far on our trip (unavoidable in Western Europe) but they are all old buildings. We opted for an audio guide which was a wise idea as there is so much detail already in the church and obviously a lot to learn about the project’s past and present. I like the fact that as different people work on different parts they use Gaudi as inspiration but bring their own style to the piece. Darren seemed torn as to whether they should have continued with the building or left it as a tribute, but Gaudi himself spent the last years of his life drawing up detailed plans and making models (many of which were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War) and I don’t think he would have wanted it to remain unfinished. The thing that struck both of us most of all was not just the scale of the completed sections, but how big the thing will be when it is eventually finished! I wonder if we’ll ever get to see the finished article in our lifetime…

We then hotfooted it to our new local pub to catch the end of the Everton v Liverpool match (and a scandal it was too!) We then checked into our hostel just down the road – it wasn’t very secure so we kept our small bag with us for the rest of the evening. Back in the pub we found some decent seats at the bar and stayed there to watch the footie results come in, the Aston Villa v Man Utd match and the rugby. There were again a lot of opposing supporters (are there no Saffy bars in Barca?), but the atmosphere was definitely not as friendly this time around. It was a tense and exciting match though – the South Africans deserved to win the tournament and our boys can be proud. As we’d planned an early start the next morning we grabbed a pizza and returned to our dormitory.

Often when we arrive at a new WWOOF we like to take a peek at our hosts bookcase for any English books. The only English book here is a 10 year old edition of Lonely Planet’s guide to Spain, so I’ve been studying it and one of the first places that stood out was Montserrat. The Serrated Mountain is home to a monastery dating back nearly a thousand years and the Black Virgin, a wooden sculpture of Mary that brings pilgrims from far and wide. It gets it’s name from it’s unusual shape, and on a clear day you can apparently see as far as Mallorca. Unfortunately this view was not for us on Sunday, but it was well worth the trip in any case.

It took us quite a while to get there due to line closures and difficulties working out which ticket to get and how to get it out of the machine (European train stations seem to be a bit temperamental when it comes to British credit cards). We arrived around lunchtime and grabbed a bite to eat before taking a very steep funicular up to Saint Joan. From there you can walk to the top of the mountain at Saint Jeroni, but being short on time we decided just to stroll back to the monastery via the vestry and viewpoint at St Miquel. I’m glad we didn’t choose to walk up as it was very steep!

Back in the village (as well as the monastery there are a few gift shops, restaurants and hotels), we thought we’d better take a look at the monastery, although it wasn’t what had originally inspired us to visit. We were very pleasantly surprised as the church was very beautiful. The courtyard looked quite new and polished – a lot of it has been rebuilt over the last 150 years. We decided not to queue for a close up of the Black Virgin, and instead watched people filing past from the pews. Inside was equally ornate with a lot of small multi-coloured chandeliers. They were preparing for a ceremony so we couldn’t view the front of the church close up as it was cordoned off. On our way out was a peculiar little room filled with gifts sent in thanks to the Black Virgin.

Our combined train ticket included entrance to a multimedia exhibition about the lives of the monks which we had a quick look around but didn’t really have the time or patience to view everything. We had a final look around the gift shop, and left for our train. The journey home was another event. We had to wait for the connection back into Barcelona, and arrived at Barcelona Sants just a little late for a train to catch the last bus from La Garriga. So we took the next train to Granollers to catch the last bus from there. After waiting nearly an hour we eventually deciphered the timetable to work out that the last bus had actually been three hours earlier! It took us another 30 minutes to get a cab, thus negating the financial reason for staying in Barcelona in the first place. Live and learn as they say…