VIVACIOUS, DRAMATIC ANDALUCIA

FLAMINGO

I am a great fan of travelling and have been to a number of places but a visit to Spain had never been on my wish list. I did not know much about the country except that it was called Espana and was also known as the Iberian peninsula. I knew about the Spanish Armada and the Spanish Inquisition,  about its bull fighting, stylish matadors and the beautiful foot tapping gypsy dance filled with elan, colour, direct eye contact and gusto- the Flamingo. Had heard of its artists Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Gaudi and also about its Oranges and Olive oils.

PABLO BLANCA-WHITE VILLAGE

My daughter took us to visit Andalucia for a holiday with them and that was my entry into an altogether new world of discovery. Incidentally, this is also the area from where an Italian by birth, Christopher Columbus set sail to find the Indies and actually found America. Spain is a big country and Andalucia is situated in the South Coast of the Iberian peninsula. The beautiful calm and warm Mediteranean sea as well as the huge Atlantic ocean form its border on two sides. The small British territory of the famous Rock of Gibralatar is also located in this area.

Andalucia has  eight provinces, stretching from the south-east to the south-west of Spain, each province is named after its capital city: Cadiz, Cordoba, Jaen, Huelva, Almeria, Malaga, Granada and Seville. After reaching Malaga on 17th July, we drove to Marbella and were delighted to see that the beautiful motorway showed us an amazing landscape of the Mediterranean sea on one side and one could see vast stretches of beautiful mountains on the other side. Marbella is an immensely popular town, but before I proceed further let me tell you that in the Spanish language when you place two L’s together then the pronounciation of the two ll”s becomes "Y.” "R” is usually silent, Marbella is therefore pronounced as Mabeya. I wish life could have been simple and words could be pronounced as they were spelt. Oh, never mind, I guess these are the mysteries of the evolution of languages and phonetics and spellings, and then if everything gets simplified then what challenges would be left for us in life….Just wondering!

                                         
                         NARROW BEAUTIFUL ALLEY AT MARBELLA

So coming back to Andalucia, there is a lot of Moorish influence in its grand and spectacular buildings. Moors were a mixture of Berbers(ethnic group-inhabitant of North Africa) and Arabs who crossed into Spain from North Africa through the Straits of Gibraltar and occupied the peninsula  for more than seven centuries, dating from 710 a.d. when they first landed. They conquered the entire country, but soon withdrew to the southern part of the peninsula, where they established the towns of Cordoba, Seville and Granada. They left behind a legacy of architectural landmarks at the Alcázar castle in Seville, Córdoba’s Mezquita Mosque-Cathedral and Granada’s Alhambra palace.

  SALVADOR DALI CREATION

The beach at Marbella was beautiful and as we walked towards the beach  we went through a spectacular park dotted with the work of Salvador Dali placed all along the route. It was an open air museum and art was available for everyone to admire, literally, ”by the way”. Having had our fill of the Mediterranean sea and eating enough of almonds and peanuts freshly roasted by the wayside, surprisingly sold at the same price, we went on to explore Plaza de los Naranjos or the Orange Square in the old town of Marbella.  

PLAZA DE LOS NARANJOS

It was a very beautifully laid out geometric square filled with the Naranjo trees laden with the golden orange fruit. There are small restaurants all along the square where one can eat the local Tapas to ones heart’s content and drink Sangria the golden fruity drink with wine for more delight. The entire square and all the lanes leading away from it are beautifully cobbled. After enjoying an open air dinner with local performers playing Spanish music, eating "Gambas pil pil" and "Patata Bravas" amongst many other wonderful dishes, after paying "pagar" we walked into the charming cobbled alleyways.  Incidentally "pagar" the word which means "pay" in Spanish is used for "salary" in Marathi. Influences of invaders!

IN FRONT OF A CHURCH

As we walked down the cobbled alleys, I noticed that the very narrow alleys where one could barely stretch out both the arms together were maintained very clean. The quaint little shops in the alleys sold beautiful white dreses and souvenirs. As we wandered down lanes, bylanes and alleyways, we came across many beautiful Churches dotted all over the place. It reminded me of the many little temples that dot our gallis of Chandni Chowk.  Although the Church doors were closed, there was space in front of the Church to sit down and rest for a while. We had to literally pull ourselves away from the Old Town and make plans for the next day.

CHURCH AT MARBELLA

Next day we visited Sierra de Mijas. It is a lovely village on top of a mountain and one can see the Mediterranean  sea from the top of the mountain. At the foothills of the mountain by the sea is another village called Fuengirola. There were so many tourists that day at Mijas that traffic was diverted away from the town and free shuttle coaches were provided to park and ride. The view from this lovely boutique town was to die for.

THE SEA FROM THE MOUNTAIN AT MIJAS

The next day we drove to Rhonda which is a Pueblo Blanca or a white town. It is a lovely little town situated on top of a small mountain where all the houses are uniformly white with brown tiled roofs. This town has a deep gorge over which is located Puento Nuevo or the New bridge. When we entered the town in our big eight seater Volkswagon we saw a formidably narrow steep street which seemed to be the only road that went to the New Bridge. There were no signboards and not a single person on the road as it was siesta time. As soon as we spotted a person who looked like a local we asked him if that was the road to the Bridge and if our car would go through. The local person profusely explained to us the route in pure Spanish with enough gestures but left us looking as bewildered as we had been to begin with. A couple of cars soon appeared and went on that narrow steep mountain road which also had a right angle turn to the left. Seeing those cars going on that road,  we quickly followed suit. Once over the bridge we saw the Moors Castle which is not open to the public, but went into its garden and ventured into the water mine which is a ticketed place for tourists. It is quite interesting to note that defence of a settlement has always been on the minds of settlers, therefore we find settlements on hilltops and in those places from where invaders would be visible and defence of their lands would be easier from a vantage point. Rhonda in addition to this castle and New Bridge also had water mines called Casa Del Rey Moro.

NARROW ROAD TO NEW BRIDGE-RHONDA

As we went down the round shaft of steps into the Water mine, (reminding me of our own Qutab Minar with its circular steps), the descent looked quite daunting as, often the steps were uneven. The saving grace was that there were places where one could sit down for some respite before proceeding further. There were 200 steps down the shaft. Once we reached the bottom of the steps we could see a beautiful view of rocks and clear water. The climb up is not all that difficult and we soon emerged out into a little cafe with a wonderful view of the beautiful town, serving excellent Sangria and some local Tapa. The neat little garden laid out in the Moorish pattern is not as old as the 14th century, it was created a century ago in 1912. These strategically located hilltop castles are all over this region, they are  perched protectively above towns with their long, impregnable walls still intact almost 1000 years after they were built.

LILY'S AT BENAHAVIS

On the way back we visited Benahavis, a very beautiful, modern golf village with amazing villas sprawling across a lovely vista. There are seven Golf Courses in this small town. We ventured into its old town area and found an extremely cute and friendly Tapas bar called Lily's. It is owned and run by Lily and her daughter. It was very cozy with Lily's little four year old niece running in and out of the place making it all a very pleasant and happy dining experience. The food was divine. Incidentally Benahavis has the highest concentration of restaurants in the region and the cuisine is excellent.

RHONDA FROM CAFE

The next Pueblo Blanca village that we visited on the next day was Arcos de la Frontera. The drive to this place was from Seville(pronounced Seviye) and it was a beautiful canvas of nature at its best. There were vast plains as far as one could see which was filled with bright yellow sunflower. Sunflower is cultivated here for extraction of oil. Further on, we saw olive trees being planted, a few grape vineyards too were sighted but orange trees were few and far between.

  

NARROW 2 WAY ROAD TO PLAZA DEL CABILDO

Arcos de la Frontera is dramatically positioned on top of a rocky limestone ridge  from where a sheer cliff plunges down to the river Guadalete. The view from this point called the Plaza del Cabildo is breathtaking as one views the river and the rolling plains filled with plantation. There was a narrow cobbled steep street that leads up to the sandstone castle, the Castillo de los Arcos, located  at the Plaza del Cabildo. At this Plaza is also located a Church built in 1530. This church was also closed during siesta hours and opened only at 4pm.There was a roadside taverna and cafe on that very road which was open to two way traffic.

CARS GO UP THIS ROAD

Arcos De la Fontana was declared a national historic-artistic monument in 1962, because of its exceptional architecture and impressive location.

It is said that this settlement was founded by King Briga who was the grandson of Noah around 2000 B.C. The Romans who also ruled this land called it Arx Arcis which means Strength in height.

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                                          14TH A.D. CHURCH & VIEW FROM TOP.

Andalucia is also well known for its wonderful cuisine. Every village or town has a number of Tapas bars located close to each other. Seating is mostly outdoors which gives a very festive look to the entire place. Food is very fresh and every dish brought to the table is freshly prepared and brought as soon as it is cooked and ready. The dishes  come one after the other and not all together.

Siesta is rather sacred in this part of Spain. every shop, house, is shuttered and closed and no local person ventures out in the sun. Almost everything is shut from 2 to 4. Most windows had heavy drawn curtains, some had shutters. When we had reached Arcos, it seemed like a town devoid of human beings until we sighted a couple walking down the steep mountain. They reassured us that people do live in this town and life would begin at 4 pm.

SIESTA FROM 1415 HRS TO 1800 HOURS.

Our next stop was the capital of Andalusia-Seville. This is a big city away from the sea. That will follow as a sequel to this. This one was all about the villages and lovely little towns.