SPAIN ON STRIKE!!!

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Let’s see…we were in Northern Ireland during the Maze Prison hunger strike, in Istanbul during a coupe, proudly in Amsterdam for the ‘Ban The Bomb’ peace marches, France for the riots on Bastille Day and now we can add the “National Strike in Spain” strongly protesting the efforts of the government to stop the country from spiraling into economic purgatory. Really enjoying a very nice bottle of special Granada area gold medal award winning wine…we did forget to buy food to sustain us through the strike, but thank god we remembered the wine!! Its been a day thin on food as most everything is closed for this seemingly popular strike. The only way we have been able to eat today is to go to the bars that are open and order a drink which comes with a free tapas! Actually not a bad way to enjoy the day and now we are perched on our 4th floor balcony eating the nuts I put in my pack at home and washing them down with this very nice bottle of wine.

It wasn’t all party time today. We earned some of our drinks and tapas with some long uphill walks into the Sacramonte area where the Roma and so called hippies of today live in a series of caves. Its low rent housing, but the views are million dollar types overlooking Granada and the foothills and plains leading away from the Serra Nevada Mountains (2nd highest range in Europe no less). The hike was all the more interesting as the temperature hovered in the high 20’s…very nice given the early fall we left at home.

We also visited one of Spain’s largest cathedrals which is also one of only two Renaissance churches in Spain. Quite impressive, but didn’t compare to the brilliance of the adjacent Royal Chapel where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel are buried. They apparently spent 25% of their wealth to create a home for their remains…from a financial planning perspective this would be unadvisable, but I guess when you are considered the founding parents of present day Spain it makes some sense.

Funny what happens to tourism when a country goes on strike. Everyone in the industry denies that its going to happen so travelers make their plans, such as purchasing expensive tickets to the Alhambra. The next day the tourist awakes to find that everything is closed and their valuable in demand tickets to the Alhambra are just so much garbage. We met just such a New Zealand couple today…while drinking beer and eating tapas. They were not told of the strike by the tourist board and found out this morning that they have to apply to the Spanish Government for a refund for their tickets! So they decided to spend the day as others were on a drinks and tapas crawl! When we met them at 4pm they happily acknowledged that they were basically blotted and that the sting of the Alhambra fiasco had essentially diminished proportionately to their drinking!
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For tonight, I guess it will be chocolate and cashews for dinner as everything is closed and there are no tapas bars in range of our little hotel across from the Alhambra. Every business in town has strike posters all over the windows. For us the Alhambra should be open tomorrow which is the reason we came to Granada in the first place (though must say the drinks and tapas are pretty good here!). Booked the tickets on line a couple of months ago to make sure we could get in (a problem), and just dumb luck that the strike wasn’t called for Sept 30th!!

Pick up our car Oct 1st and will be fun to see where that leads us as we have made no plans for the week. Please note you can click on the photos to enlarge.

Cheesy Train Ride in Toledo

Guess I could have called this entry ‘Holy Toledo’, but then.........mmm, no...don't think so.

We sit here on a high speed train heading south from Madrid to Granada on a 4.5 hours trip (just pulled in and out of Cordoba), that will take half the time returning from Sevilla in a couple of weeks when we ride the super fast AVE (travels at something over 200kms/hr). It’s difficult to compare this ride with the cheesy tourist train we putted around Toledo in yesterday. After a couple of nights and a long, lovely warm day in Toledo, we were still no closer to seeing some of the views made famous by El Greco in his paintings. Sure the town was a gem… but we really wanted to see the views! Having given up our 2nd day in Toledo in order to transit south before the national strike tomorrow (Sept 29th), we missed what would typically have been our opportunity to really walk the outlying areas, something we enjoy doing on our travels. There is a brilliant walking trail along the river and across several old Roman built bridges well below the ramparts built by the Moors in the 1200’s to protect themselves from wandering Christians (history would prove them right!!). The city is built above the cliffs on the inside bow of the Tajo River which of course provides water protection on 3 sides and is classic to the time. You find the same set-up all over the ancient world. There is a large protective wall complete with double barrel gates on the landward side and gated entrances at the foot of bridges crossing the river at several points. We walked much of this yesterday and did see the classic sites in the city, but hey…no views! So against our better senses, cause we really hate touristy things, we bought ourselves tickets on the last train at 7pm and told ourselves, “heck, nobody here knows us”. So hats pulled low and sun glasses on, off we went! Well...hate to say it, but it was actually pretty good…no doubt better to look out from than to look at as we crawl by. We exchanged pleasant greetings and waves with all the little kids and their parents along the route and the views were pretty darn good too! Just goes to show you…I’ll have renewed respect for those tourists at home who crowd on to the big horse drawn wagons. I still won’t quite get it, but I’ll know that on the wagon that there are also some travelers who have convinced themselves, “heck, no one here knows us”! But I’ll know you cause you’ll be the ones with your hat pulled down and your sun glasses on even if its cloudy!




So far we have seen mostly Spanish tourists, however, we expect that to change as we head south towards the Med. With little English spoken, I’m pleased that I learned a little of the language. People tend to smile and treat you a bit differently when they know you are sincerely making an effort. If nothing else, it breaks the ice and I’m pretty sure that they all think to themselves…he must be Russian!

So tomorrow will be an extra day to wander in Granada perhaps up into the Roma areas of the upper city where the views of the Alhambra are exceptional and many of the gypsies still live in caves, perhaps as was the case in Capadoccia. Granada is a city of some 300,000 souls, but most of the areas of interest appear to be fairly central. After recently studying the history of the Alhambra in some detail (guess I was bored one day) I’m pretty excited to see this gem that took approximately 150 years to complete before it was lost to the Christian armies from Castile in the late 1300’s. Weather has been great, in the upper 20C range, and we are having a blast!!! More later…

Erin...there are Magnum Bars here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bits and Pieces

The past few weeks have been busy in a good sort of way. A long weekend taken to play tourist in our own town...one day of the weekend spent walking along the water and through town racking up 20kms and a stop in the pub! Another long weekend to celebrate a 60th birthday with close friends while camping at Miracle Beach and just enjoying the time visiting. In between work has been in peak form as it is at this time of year with everything ramping up in the north for the ice road season. This weekend we both used some recovery time while Annie kicked a cold and I fought it off.

There has been little time to sort out travel stuff of late, so after some exercise and tea, it was time to get organized for our coming jaunt to Spain and Moroc. We sorted through the details and divided paper work as Annie is departing in 5 days for Amsterdam and I will follow a week later heading to Madrid. If all works as scheduled, I'll arrive there at noon and she has a cheap flight down on EasyJet that will have her arrive 50 minutes later...not bad! We will meet at the TI in Terminal 1after I clear passport control. Then a short hop to T2 where we can find the metro into downtown Madrid and a bus down to Toledo where we will have a room waiting in a small hotel. There should be time for a walk, a glass or two of good red wine and a few tapas before crashing. Have been working on Spanish, and it will be fun to see how that goes...spoken like a Russian!! But I'll make the effort:)

Tonight we are all out for a Greek dinner together as Erin flies out early Tuesday morning to TO to return to school. While difficult to leave her pal Jordan, she will be back for a month at Xmas. After that she will complete her Masters by April...the time will fly by as there is so much to accomplish in just 8 months.

While that's about the whole story for now. Next posting should be made from Spain...3 weeks of living in a different environment...can't wait!