Sent: Apr 21, 2010
Yes, Yogi Berra always said it best.
While traveling down the road today, I felt in some ways I was back walking the Camino de Santiago again. While walking, we’d see some village up ahead of us rising up on the hillside with its church always at the apex, looming mightily for all to see God’s might silhouetted against the sky. There was usually some unidentifiable object mixed in the picture which was a different color or shape that caused it to stand out as opposed to blending in with the rest of the picture. We’d walk for hours with each step bringing us that little bit closer until we had the cartoon light bulb moment: “Aha, so that’s what it is.” Today as I zipped down the road at 65 mph that aha moment came in a flash. I’d see it, and then moments later I knew what it was. What took us a day to walk, we now covered in less than 30 minutes. The views of Andalucia are just as glorious as those of the Camino. It’s been a visionary delight. But those visions change quickly when motoring down the road. There’s no time to let them ease their way into your consciousness.
We got away from the gently rolling hills into more rugged landscape. We climbed into the Subbetica mountains. The peaks ranged upward to about 5,000 feet and we bobbed and wove our way up and through them all the time surrounded by a change in soil type. Gone was the rich fertile bottom land. Now we had rocky soil. Goodbye Oranges. Hello, olive trees. I thought orange cultivation was wide spread, it does not even come close to olive production. The groves went literally for about 75 continuous miles. Each hillside all around us was entirely filled with olive production. Olive Cooperatives producing olive oil dotted the landscape. The production is so vast that it boggles the mind. The groves are designed in such a way as to take into consideration the varying terrain, to minimize erosion, and they look like a patchwork quilt. It looked like my grandsons had fun tossing down different sized squares, rectangles, and other odd shaped sections to see what different types of designs they could develop. It’s pruning time in the groves and they’re burning all the clippings. What with the wet weather we’ve had, there was as much smoke as fire, hence a pall of smoke covered the valleys. Still, we’ve had a few days of good weather, much appreciated not having to carry the umbrella around all the time.
It’s only a 90 minute drive from Cordoba to Granada, but it took us all day as we took a cultural route which brought us to some old Moorish towns where their influence could still be strongly felt, in architecture, cuisine, and those reminders of struggles past, the citadels. The fortress at Alcala la Real was particularly impressive. They are lovingly restoring it, and have video, audio and displays to make it come to life, better than I’ve ever seen. My favorite display was of the individual whose job it was to see that the Moorish, Jewish, and Christian merchants all got along and dealt fairly with each other. Where is he now that he is really needed.
We stopped in one town to have lunch and had a difficult time finding a restaurant that was open before 1 p.m. It was 12:50 and they wouldn’t serve us. A Doris Day, Rock Hudson movie blared out from the TV, and I must say, she sounds a lot better in Spanish when you can’t understand everything she says. We walked around a bit and found another at 1:15 and they didn’t open until 1:30. Now, I’m getting hungry and tired and want food. Finally, we found one that opened at noon, and they were doing a land office business. Germans, Brits, French, Spaniards, and even two Americans had lunch there. Now I admit that I’m no businessman, but somebody should get a clue.
We arrived at our hotel and it’s just spitting distance from the Alhambra which makes it nice. No driving for our time here. We walked around a little last night, but were both very tired so came back early ate our picnic dinner at a decent hour and hit the sack We’re having our big meal at lunch. You can find a menu of the day at most restaurants. Much cheaper and it’s the whole deal: starter, main course, desert, bread and a drink. All for around $10- $11. What we don’t need is two big meals each day, so we’re finding a market, buying some bread, cheese, lunch meat, drinks, and yogurt. That makes for a good breakfast before we leave the hotel, and a light snack in the evening.
I talked to the reception about what time the Alhambra opened in the morning, and she said that it was probably all sold out. Most people get their tickets online, come in groups, or through a travel agency. My travel agent never said anything about that, I may have to fire him when I get home. But, she said, I could line up in the morning, since they usually had a few tickets for same day visiting. I felt like it was game 7 and I didn’t have tickets. The ticket office opened at 8 and the Alhambra at 8:30. She suggested I get in line an hour early, so when I woke up at 6:30, I got ready and was there by 6:45. Turned out to be a good move, since I was already 20th in line. By 7:30 there were a couple of hundred people in line. I have no idea how many of them got in, I got my two tickets and came back to the hotel, got Carol and we went in as the gates opened.
While not overemphasizing the matter, this was the one thing that did not live up to the luster we expected. It may very well have been our own expectations that let us down. We did enjoy it, and after talking about it, we knew we were glad we went, but the karmic thing just didn’t pan out. I remember it as being vivid in color when I saw it in 1967. All fountains were in working order and all rooms were open. I walked through it in relative peace and left very impressed. Carol has seen photos of it all her life. Learning Spanish, she often saw photos of it and remembered it as being more colorful than it was today. The one thing she REALLY wanted to see was the lion fountain, and it was totally dismantled. There were several groups of over 100 per group. The books said that with the size you never felt overwhelmed, and that was not the case. It was utter chaos trying to find a spot to see, to take a photo, or just to try and envision what it must have been like to live there in the time of the Moors. There is major restoration going on in many of the rooms, and it just felt like a work in progress. But, again, I stress that we did enjoy it, it was just a letdown which is unusual for us. We’ve traveled enough to try and avoid those types of expectations.
We’ve been lucky the last few places we’ve stayed since they have elevators. However, I did get my “Oh, yeah, I’m in Europe,” awakening when we stayed at a pension and were told that the room was on the second floor and they didn’t have an elevator. No problem, I can lug the suitcases up one floor which I did, only to be greeted with the signs “1st floor.” That’s my “Oh yeah,” number. The first floor is the 1st floor UP. Our room was on the Americanized 3rd floor. I knew that, but it’s like my Spanish vocabulary. You forget when you don’t use it and then get a quick slap across the face, like my mother used to do when I sassed her as a kid. That woman has the quickest right hand I’ve ever seen. If she were a man, she could have been a champion boxer. They’d never have seen it coming. I never did, until afterwords. Then I had another of those, “Oh yeah, that’s what happens when I have a smart mouth.”
Morocco looms in the very near future. No expectations, we’ll just let it happen.
Carol and Jim
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