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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 4, 2019 10:09:55 GMT 2
We are off for a couple of days in Granada. We have tickets for the Alhambra tomorrow. It is 35 years since I last visited the Alhambra. Back in those days you simply turned up and bought a ticket. No more. The online booking is very keen to sell a guided tour. We hate being shepherded around. With great difficulty I got us tickets (unguided) and our slot is 11.30.
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Post by Scrubb on Feb 5, 2019 5:18:23 GMT 2
I hope it was very enjoyable, and very unguided, Baz.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 6, 2019 23:39:11 GMT 2
Back from our visit to Granada. We had a great hotel just off Plaza Nueva. It was in an old building so it had charm and character. Also being solidly built you didn't hear the guests in the next room.
Of course you go to Granada to see Alhambra. We walked up and thought we had left plenty of time to check in for our slot. But bureaucracy has run riot. I booked online about 6 weeks ago. I got a 3 page document headed: This is not a ticket. I don't know why not as it had all our details on it. Then came another document headed (falsely) Ticket. This was another 3 pages including all sorts of information such as you had to hold the hand of a child of less than 8 years. Also you mustn't give staff "any tips or gratifications".
We walked up and got to the entrance and showed our Ticket but this was not enough. One of us was allowed to go through to a window where the real ticket was issued. Mrs Faz went, armed with our passports. I was held back from accompanying her. Anyway she triumphed and came out with 2 slender tickets which we had to show many times.
Of course the palace is wonderful. Shame about the Chinese family with 3 children under 8 who ran around screaming and whose parents did not keep hold of their hands. There were a lot of people in the Alhambra and this is February. I wonder what it is like in July.
I don't rate Granada highly apart from the Alhambra. Yes, there is the Albaicin old quarter and the Cathedral and the gypsy women with sprigs of rosemary and the occasional guitar music. But, like Venice, there are now just too many tourists. We felt a surge of pleasure when when got back to La Herradura and our view of the sea.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 13, 2019 19:53:25 GMT 2
I just posted about our visit to Seville - and Proboards lost it. I got an Oops Error message but they didn't volunteer to write my post again. Now I must go to the kitchen to do my duty.
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Post by OnlyMark on Feb 14, 2019 3:46:33 GMT 2
Us old Granada hands know there is a computer terminal, like an ATM, hidden away to the right of the ticket booths where you can pick up the actual tickets you've booked and avoid the queues.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 14, 2019 11:08:45 GMT 2
At Granada there wasn't a queue but just an irritating extra step. I have no idea why we weren't told of this computer terminal to print out the actual ticket. Anyway the extra step (which seems unnecessary) only added a bit of time.
Seville was another matter. Certain persons on the Pot said that booking tickets for the Alcazar would not be necessary in February. Au contraire. I stood in line for 45 minutes before getting tickets. The good news was that as pensioners in the EU we paid only 3 euros. Visitors after Brexit will be paying much more.
We liked Seville a lot (much more than Granada). We stayed in the Hotel Simon which has a certain faded charm as you enter through a covered courtyard and our bedroom had tiled walls and stained glass window and small chandelier. Lots to see round the town.
A thought. Are there any Chinese left in China? Granada and Malaga and Seville were swarming with Chinese. They haven't discovered La Herradura yet.
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Post by OnlyMark on Feb 15, 2019 19:44:08 GMT 2
I do recall someone saying when they'd been the queues were small, but no mention of February. Plus I think he mentioned he once had to walk round for an hour and go back. You would have had to queue anyway if your card didn't work. Good job you're not old.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 18, 2019 11:08:21 GMT 2
We are going up into the mountains for a couple of days. I hope it won't rain in Lanjaron.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 20, 2019 17:57:00 GMT 2
We returned this morning from our trip to the Alpajurras. Thanks to onlyMark's guidance we avoided staying in Orgiva but took the bus another 15 minutes up in the mountains to Lanjaron. This is a great little town, mainly a long stretch of road with short side-streets. We were about half along the town down one of those side streets staying at the Manolete Hotel. This is named after a famous bullfighter and supposedly there are artefacts relating to him but we saw none.
According to Agoda (through whom we booked) the hotels has a restaurant. Being the end of winter this was closed (and I wish Agoda would make this clear). Our room was comfortable enough, even too hot, and the water in the bathroom was also hot. On the first night we were there two other rooms were occupied; last night only one.
The problem about arriving in Lanjaron on a Monday in winter is that the restaurants are closed. As soon as we arrived I went out in search of a place for dinner. I walked west as far as the roundabout (Mark will know this) and east as far as the church. By now it was dark and I didn't venture further but this is a good section of the centre of town. Restaurants all closed; hotels closed too (thought yesterday we did discover hotels presumably with restaurants at the far west end near the tourist office). However I spotted a light down a side alley which turned out to be an open tapas bar. I went in (this was just after 7 pm) and there were 2 old men sitting silently at tables with a drink and an old man behind the bar. I asked if he had food and he gestured at a menu. Yes, there was food provided you liked pig. He admitted with some reluctance that the bar was open until 10 pm. Goodness, how Spain has changed. The very first time I went, hitch-hiking round Europe as a student, I arrived in Madrd and stayed in a pension; dinner in the evening began being served at 10 pm. I went back to the hotel and we bathed quickly and returned to the bar. The meal wasn't exciting but it was food. When it got to 9.30 and we were the only people left we paid and left.
Yesterday we had a good explore of the town and surrounds. There is a Moorish castle built on a peak just outside that looks most forbidding. According to the leaflet we read the castle's Moorish army leader, when the Christian forces were besieging the castle, preferred death to dishonour. However the leaflet didn't say whether he died in a last stand against the Christian army or whether he jumped to his death from the walls. We continued for a walk through the "park" and back and to the other end through the lovely old quarter. We would have done more but we were both suffering from leg pains.
One thing I did was pay a visit to the Honey Museum. I arrived at the entrance and saw the opening hours in winter were 10 to 3 pm. As it was 2.45 I went in. The woman behind the counter glared. She had obviously been trained in the old Soviet Union. Was it closed? I asked. Yes. Well, there was still 15 minutes to go so I ignored this. I went and stood at the counter and watched her put dribbles of honey in little plastic pots. After a bit of silent battle of wills she said I could taste the honeys set out in bowls on the counter. This I did. I can tell you that the honey produced in these mountains is excellent. I tasted chestnut, orange, 1000 flowers and one other I didn't understand. They all tasted like honey. I thanked her and left, not having paid the 3 euro entrance fee (because it was closed). On the way out I passed a series of posters giving all the information I would have been given if I had paid the 3 euros. My Spanish is negligible but I understood as much as I needed to. In brief the workers do all the hard labour while the royal family simply lays about producing hundreds more labourers.
The Noah's Arc (I give the English translation) delicatessen/café that Mark recommended was closed. Peering though a half raised shutter I could see that works were going on inside. Sorry I missed it. Last night we searched for dinner but it is not yet the holiday season so the choice was small. In the end we ate at the Bodega Gonzales. This seemed a haunt of expats and Mrs Faz listened in on the table next to ours but didn't have much to report. The two women, she said, were artists of some kind. My feeling was that one of the men was a school teacher. We enjoyed the food and the welcome, much better than the previous night.
So we returned to our temporary home in La Herradura. We had caught the 8 am bus, too early to have breakfast in Lanjaron, so we were looking forward to coffee here - only to discover the water had been cut off. Indeed logging on to the computer we even got an email from our landlord warning us of this. But hold on, he wrote the water cut is for tomorrow, all day, so what we had today is presumably just rehearsing so they know which taps to turn tomorrow. Since the water is forecast to be off until 8 pm this will disrupt Mrs Faz making a curry. I think we should go out to eat.
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Post by OnlyMark on Feb 20, 2019 19:39:12 GMT 2
I did wonder what might be open as regards restaurants. I've walked the full length of that high street no end of times and due to it being a lot more in the tourist season when we go, there are usually innumerable places to stop off. Shame really. It's great in the Spring as the weather warms up. I've never been there this time of year though. The Moor who captained the castle chucked himself off the walls, so I heard, as did several hundred soldiers.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 24, 2019 11:09:37 GMT 2
It is our last full day in La Herradura. We'll got for a walk in the hills behind the town and then get the car ready. Tomorrow morning we'll start the drive north in leisurely fashion. We are catching the ferry on Wednesday from Bilbao, a 28 hour crossing to Portsmouth. We wish for calm seas crossing the Bay of Biscay.
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Post by OnlyMark on Feb 24, 2019 12:44:58 GMT 2
Have fun. Maybe a bit late now but there is a road in the west that heads north from Seville, on Google Maps it's designated as the E803 for the first part, that goes through Merida and north and it misses out Madrid completely and ends up on the north coast at Gijon. At Salamanca head right to Bilbao. It's a lot nicer than going up through the middle or, for that matter, in the east. I've done it a couple of times and there are plenty of nice and interesting places to stop off en-route. Wave to the left at Slowcoach when you pass north of Caceres.
I'm sure you've got your route planned though.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 24, 2019 14:01:40 GMT 2
Yes, we have our our reservations made. It is not an exciting route we are following. Indeed there will be dull stretches. I just wanted the most direct route. Next time I'll ask your advice.
Now, what do you know about Trang in Thailand? I want to take the overnight train from Bangkok and then work our way north. Ideas?
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Post by OnlyMark on Feb 24, 2019 15:58:02 GMT 2
Try the botanical garden. Tranquil and interesting.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 24, 2019 17:22:00 GMT 2
Try the botanical garden. Tranquil and interesting. Yes, I had noted that. I hope I cope with the walkway. The last one I went on I got vertigo and chickened out.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 25, 2019 10:09:22 GMT 2
Time to pack the car and start on the way home. We are doing it slowly: 2 nights en route, a night on the ferry and a night in Portsmouth (because the ferry gets in late). Back in chipping Sodbury on Friday.
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Post by Voy on Feb 25, 2019 16:27:30 GMT 2
Bon Voyage !
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 26, 2019 20:01:43 GMT 2
We spent last night in Valdepenas, only because it was in the correct place for breaking our journey. It is not worth visiting. Tonight we have stopped outside Aranda de Duero and we have had a good walk round this small town and along its river (the Duero becomes the Douro when it crosses into Portugal). Lovely place to wander. We saw a stork nesting on top of a church.
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Post by Baz Faz on Feb 28, 2019 19:36:08 GMT 2
We spent last night on the ferry, About 3 hours until we dock at Portsmouth. We are spending the night there. Back home tomorrow.
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Post by shrjeff on Feb 28, 2019 20:26:48 GMT 2
hope the crossing is calm...
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Post by Baz Faz on Mar 1, 2019 20:31:00 GMT 2
Back home safely. The crossing was mostly calm, just a bit choppy after we left Bilbao and entered the Bay of Biscay. Having a shower was all right; it was drying my back holding the towel with both hands that was awkward. We sailed on Brittany Ferries so-call economie ferry as opposed to the cruise ferry we came out on. The cruise ferry had a small outdoor pool which, of course, was not in use in winter. Also it had a couple of entertainers - we didn't go to be entertained. The restaurant on the cruise ferry was meant to be superior - certainly the menu read well but the food disappointed. We preferred the cheaper ferry.
We docked at Portsmouth at 8.45 in the evening. I don't know how we would ever have found our way to our rental property without satnav. The apartment was big, had secure parking and was cheaper than a hotel.
So, back home. A look at the calendar reminds me I have a dental appointment on Monday and Mrs Faz is off on a family visit on Tuesday. Normal life resumes...
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