Sunset

A beautiful sunset to celebrate one year and one day married.

Last two days

We had the roof of the yurt open last night, which was beautiful, though the brightest stars were out of view. The moonlight was bright, casting heavy shadows, making the nighttime scene eerily like a dim, silver daytime.

The air was cool last night and we comfortably and peacefully slept under our duvet, waking at half seven, the light stirring us an hour and a half earlier than usual.

We have two more days and two more nights. Tonight we'll have our last dark yurt night and we'll open up again for the last night, to wake us early, ready for our drive back to Seville. The moon is growing so I imagine the night will be even brighter.

Not sure what we're doing for the next two days. Probably taking advantage of the climbing temperatures to do nothing but laze around in the shade, reading, swimming, eating and chatting. My idea of heaven.

Thought I'd share a photo of where I am when I write, so you can see. This is my internet hotspot!

Little things

A big black sow wandered past our breakfast table yesterday. Jasmine, the neighbour's pet, is apparently very friendly, but she seemed more interested in snuffling out some delicacies for herself than making friends.

The dogs still bark, the birds sing and the roosters crow all day.

We had the additional tones of a local man driving around in circles shouting into his loudspeaker - melones, melones! Rich, sweet and fat! But obviously in his toothless Spanish accent, which I'm getting better at understanding. I'd say I'm up to about eighty percent now, at least, when I know the context, like in the caves we visited yesterday - a must for anyone into natural beauty, geology or cave paintings. Cuevas de la Piletas, I think they were called.

Anyway, off to continue my morning of reading and listening to cow bells, after chatting for a while to the lovely nutty French man who owns this place with his calm Irish wife.

Love to all.

Little things

A big black sow wandered past our breakfast table yesterday. Jasmine, the neighbour's pet, is apparently very friendly, but she seemed more interested in snuffling out some delicacies for herself than making friends.

The dogs still bark, the birds sing and the roosters crow all day.

We had the additional tones of a local man driving around in circles shouting into his loudspeaker - melones, melones! Rich, sweet and fat! But obviously in his toothless Spanish accent, which I'm getting better at understanding. I'd say I'm up to about eighty percent now, at least, when I know the context, like in the caves we visited yesterday - a must for anyone into natural beauty, geology or cave paintings. Cuevas de la Piletas, I think they were called.

Anyway, off to continue my morning of reading and listening to cow bells, after chatting for a while to the lovely nutty French man who owns this place with his calm Irish wife.

Love to all.

Gibraltar

Slightly baffled by Gibraltar with its worst of British culture, mixed with Spain, slightly Hong Kong-ish and a bit of very wealthy British.

I didn't like the high street or the food on offer - fish and chips, pie or nasty fast food. The rock itself however was amazing, beautiful, full of history...and a huge amount of walking. Monkeys, tunnels and caves. Photos another day.

Having dinner right now in the posher bit, so will sign off...

Eco info

So, I've found out a bit more about what we have here.

The composting toilet actually smells delightful. Rather than using the regular expensive specialist compost, they use sawdust from a local carpenter, which smells of pine and fruit, mixed with huge bags of cheap potting compost. The brand of the toilet is Biolan. Lights are solar powered where possible, though everything is hooked up to electricity too. It looks like the water for the shower and sink is heated by gas, with a gas tank round the back of our shed. Incidentally, there seem to be acres of wind farm round here too, though I'm not sure what they power.

The yurt itself cost about 2,500 euro, but required a floor. It is raised on wooden stilts and breeze blocks, with little wooden steps going up to the door. Inside, we have a double bed and other furniture and it feels very strong and sturdy. The only problem, apparently, is water. They have monsoon type rain here in winter - which explains how the acres of arid corn-row olive groves of further north have been replaced by the lush green vegetation in these parts - and so they expect to have to wax the outer cover at some point and probably replace it eventually too.

You open the door and roof (as with the toilet shed) when the sunshine is not on them and close them when the sun moves round. This keeps a good temperature. Even with daytime temperatures of high 30s, the yurt was deliciously cool at night and still is, though mid afternoon, yesterday, we needed to put the fan on inside. Outside in the shade was cooler, with a light breeze. Apparently in winter it only needs a small heater to keep it warm enough in subzero temperatures. These are Mongolian yurts and so designed for extreme cold and extreme heat.

Now I've relaxed a bit, I don't mind the bugs or miss the air con. The air here is fresher and less humid than in the cities. The hum of background noise is soothing, even the odd distant aeroplane mixed in with donkey chatter, cow bells, birds and chugging farm machinery...and still the roosters with their poor sense of timing!

Isn't life wonderful?

Amazingly, we have wifi. Though only at a special table near the main house.

I wanted to share our peace, after yesterday's minor trauma.

We arrived to find some pictures on our bed that almost had me in tears, drawn by our friend's daughters who stayed here a few weeks ago, welcoming us and wishing us a good stay. I was so touched!

It was hot, so we dipped in the pool before dinner, a late swim around 8pm, technically our son's first swim, and so refreshing.

We ate late last night at a local bar, full of extremely noisy but friendly locals. The waitress enacted various animal sounds and impressions to aid her spoken menu, her soft and gently enunciated accent causing us both trouble. For only 5 euro we had a light dinner of two tapas each - octopus salad, and a tuna pasta salad for me, with chicken thigh and chips, and a potato salad with garlic mayonnaise for the man, plus peach juice for two.

While it was hot in the yurt last night, it cooled quickly and we realised why we had sheets AND a duvet. Usually I hate pitch darkness, but last night it felt safe, as if I was held in the womb. The circular dark cosiness, with the weight of the duvet, muffled sounds of dogs barking and maybe even the odd owl. This morning we slept late, the darkness of the yurt keeping us asleep as long as we needed, until I slowly became aware of some belated roosters, still crowing now, the dogs still barking in the distance, birds singing, doves cooing and the occasional lamb bleating, along with incomprehensible Spanish voices and a tractor or two.

I sit at our breakfast table waiting for breakfast, in the early morning sun, my fleece taking the edge off a pleasant chill. We are awaiting toast with tomatoes, jam, ham, cheese and eggs, plus fruit salad and a teapot full of organic loose leaf tea, with, yes, soya milk for me!

I've attached photos of the views from our yurt, the bathroom window and of our little home for the next week. The shed is our shower, sink and composting toilet, the bark for which smells deliciously of strongly scented woods. I must ask what they are.

Road closure

So our main road is closed, which means we have to find another route. I thought it was a blessing in disguise, as we found a reasonable restaurant in which to have lunch, but it seems I was grossly mistaken.

We bumped into a family of total crazies. To be fair, I thought they were rather odd when we came in, no smiles, sitting in silence in the corner, a woman, her seven-ish year old son and her over-sun-wrinkled mother.

I took my mobile phone out, which incidentally is not connected to any kind of network, so I could use my translation app, and as they left, she waited for my man to leave to get something from the car, charged towards me, and, waggling her finger in my face, accused me of damaging her grandson and killing my unborn child with radio waves, by using my mobile. I calmly thanked her and explained that I had read plenty research and did not believe the danger to be that serious.

"You do not BELIEVE" she said, as if her beliefs were somehow more rooted in fact, stepping closer to me and sticking her finger in my face.

I said I found her very aggressive and she repeated that I was killing her child. I asked her to leave me alone.

She disappeared around the corner, I'm assuming, to pay, and then she returned to attack again, this time with her early 40s daughter and child. I asked again for them to go away and leave me alone. The daughter rather childishly muttered "Leave me alone" in a whiney voice, presumably meant to be me, as they stormed out the building, presumably oblivious to all the other customers' phones and the wifi flowing throughout the whole complex.

And I notice, they choose to pick on the most vulnerable person, as a group, armed with their 'facts.'

I'm still shaking from the unspoken aggression in their bodies and wish I'd been more composed than I was, but I suspect no amount of discussion would have prevented that reaction. They were little angry bombs waiting to explode at whoever got in their path.

I hope I never meet anyone like them again and I feel incredibly sorry for that poor child, having to live with people like that.

Oh, and don't worry, I'm fine. I just needed to write, get it out of my system and leave behind this horrible experience.

Albaycin and Alhambra

A final walk round Albaycin, already in the low 30s, and I notice adverts galore for chi kung, tai chi, yoga, pilates, dance and singing classes. Plus a health food store or two set among the many bars, tapas joints and food shops. This is definitely the part of Granada I'd live in, if I chose to live here. High up with fantastic views, cobbled streets and only a 10-15 min walk from the centre, though somewhat more back up again!

The Alhambra, yesterday overwhelmed my senses. The Generalife gardens, with mazes of evergreens, cross shaped irrigation systems, fountains and ponds with lily pads. The air was alive with the sound of swallows and heady with the scents of hundreds of roses, scents I'd never previously associated with natural sources. The air was balmy in the morning, hot in the sunshine, and cooler in the shade.

We saw the baths, the complex and ingenious irrigation systems that covered the whole complex, designed to supply hundreds with the calming sounds of running water.

There were squares designed purely for contemplation, longer than they were wide, after business or prayer, fountains trickling, cool marble floors and shaded terraces.

The palace itself filled my eyes with such a multitude of multi-prism carvings, gold, arches, columns, tilings in orange, green, black and blue, that they didn't know how to respond. We saw the bedrooms of two sisters, with their own marble courtyard and fountain, connected, as always, to the complex pathways of irrigation and other waterways.

The lighting was beautiful in the palace, in some places lit by eight-point star shapes cut out of the ceiling, creating a dancing dappled effect on the floors and walls.

I'm still not sure what to make of it all, my mind having taken in a month's worth of beauty in about seven hours. Truly a place I'd recommend spending a whole day visiting.

For now, this is me. We're leaving Granada today, bound for a yurt in a national park further south. Hoping to hit the beach and get some swimming in...

Just two pics some of you will have seen - one from the palace in the Alhambra, one from it's gardens. I promise there will be more in a few weeks!

Mezquita de Cordoba

Overbearing Catholic splendour and glory, organ pipes, gold carvings, statues of pain, peace, succour, nurture, agony, suffering and beatitude. Rows of pews for the faithful to uncomfortably perch. Incredible richness of design.

Muslim arches and columns casting patterns of light and dark across the smooth and empty marble floors. Doors of gold that lead...where? Geometry, design, order.

Stained glass windows, bright colours, flowers, geometrical designs, pain and peace interspersed. Muslim and Catholic combined, reminds me of the cultural heritage of the little boy growing within me.

The cool within these walls makes it difficult to recall the heat outside...

Granada relics and impressions

Ooh, I didn't sleep well on my first night here and I think this might have been the relics.

Basilica de San Juan de Dios is beautiful. Peaceful gardens, a hospital for the vulnerable and poor. There is an inner chamber, fully lined in gold, with various relics of hundreds of saints - teeth, skulls, bones, even a piece of diaphragm. His tomb, the founder of the hospital, is central. I notice a tiny painting of the Virgin with her son, the same as one we have hanging in two of our childhood homes, right next to a piece of Saint Columba - the church I went to as a child. I don't like the feeling in here. It fills me with a sense of anxiety and suffocation, of fear of something unknown. My night, later, will be filled with the same feelings. I can't help wondering why the girl on reception likes working here, daily taking countless visitors into this room.

The rest of the Basilica was being renovated and we peered down from the balconies at the machines, under a plastic sheet, cleaning the floor below, all the statues also covered in dust sheets, looking for all the world like floating ghosts.

I like the rest of Granada, especially the Moroccan roads full of the smells of incense and shisha, lined with brightly coloured baggy trousers - of which I am now the proud owner of one pair - colourful glass lamps, girls in dreadlocks.

In the old part, Albaycin, where we're staying, up a series of steep cobbled streets, we arrive at a kind of terrace with the most beautiful views of the Alhambra and the snow peaked Sierra Nevada behind. I sense a longing for snow as I stand in the heat, gazing up at their white coolness. Again, photos will have to wait.

I hear clapping and guitar playing, voices singing in accompaniment, and I see a group of tanned, dreadlocked 30 somethings, sitting cross-legged around a tree.

We finished that day with more tapas, again cheap and very filling.

Carmona necropolis

Photos will have to be posted at a later date...

Caverns, caves and ladders to the underground - no H&S here, delightfully un-British - paintings on the walls (2,000 years old), reminds me of my mortality. Smells of thyme, lavender, pine and rosemary, intense heat with a warm wind, the edge taken off in the shade.

Later in a bar across the road, we order tapas, again. Very cheap enormous portions - salad for me, steak and chips for the man. I ask what 'aguacate' is, in one of the salads, to be told it's a tropical fruit. I will later find out it's avocado! My Spanish is again good enough to order my salad without onions. This is very satisfying. The food is good, the waiter gentle. The bar is full of old men and flies, with dated walls in white and terracotta tiles, out of the 80s, only the flat screen TV on the wall above us out of this century.

We also visited a vast cemetery outside Seville, but, aside from the million plus inhabitants and shanty town compactness of some of their 'habitation' versus the space of the weekend houses (mausoleums), it was just hot and not noteworthy. On to Granada!

Carmona

Beautiful little historic village, sounds of a bleating solitary lamb, doves and swallows, intense heat heightened by white washed walls.

Menu del dia, only 11 euros, spinach and chickpeas with cumin (a Cordoba speciality apparently) followed by calamari with salad and a huge slice of melon. All delicious and amazing value.

We climbed the castle, with much huffing and puffing on my part, lugging my growing belly around, to see fabulous views; and we walked many narrow twisting cobbled streets. We also visited the Parador, amazing or historic buildings converted into hotels, to see the most amazing view a cafe has ever offered me, accompanied by friendly geckos and more delicious fresh orange juice.

Seville

Hotel wifi!

Sitting in bed in the sunshine. 28°c here today. Bought a summer hat yesterday to protect my scalp, very cheap, market stall. It was also rather hot, but deliciously so, yesterday.

The first night we were kept awake by a 12 foot Virgin Mary with her child, being carried back and forth past our window, on the padded heads of about 15 men, but last night I slept like a log.

Orange juice is amazing here, as are tapas, which seem to be only source of food anyway. We had a 40 euro posh meal, then a 13 euro cheap dinner, both equally tasty!

Spanish here is spoken as if everyone is an old toothless woman, a bit like Losinj old ladies in black with wrinkled faces speaking Croatian. Takes some getting used to!

Architecture is amazing, Seville is very beautiful. We did an awful lot of walking yesterday, so contemplating driving out of town today to check out a cemetery and some old towns.

But first, brekkie. Yummy toasts with delicious jams, a kind of cold tomato mush, delicious on toast, fresh orange and tea with soya milk. delicious. :-)

Right. Off to wash my hair in our huge double shower.

Time

I've been experiencing a total lack of me-time and far too much work over the last month or so, which seems to be culminating this week in a mild panic and sense of (unfamiliar and unwelcome) stress.

I'm aware I've been slack at posting here, and wanted to say that this won't change for a while.

Please expect a complete absence of communication and response from me until the end of June - that way, you'll be pleasantly surprised when/if I do respond.

In the meantime, rest assured, from this Saturday until the end of June I will be enjoying myself and totally chilling out.

Enjoy June, everyone!