A Tale of Two Cities

Last weekend we drove to Nerja, another city on the Costa del Sol about 40 kilometers west of Malaga. As it was just the weekend our trip to Torremolinos, the differences between the cities could not have been more apparent. To borrow liberally from Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of tourism, it was the worst of tourism. It was the age of wise development, it was the age of foolish development was the epoch of cultural exploration, it was the epoch of the packaged tour, it was the season of rain it was the season of sun, it was the spring of friendship, it was the spring of family reunion.

Nerja is a lovely jewel whose geography has saved it from the fate that has befallen Torremolinos. That is, it is nestled among some very steep cliffs and the beaches are really coves, rather than wide flat expanses that lend themselves to great hulking high rise hotels. Thus, it has retained a wonderful character where people travel to experience a relatively authentic Spanish city. In contrast, Torremolinos makes little illusion about being anything other than a beautiful beach where foreigners can vacation with little to no interaction with the locals.  

We traveled to Nerja to meet friends from England. John Cole is married to Ian Ratcliffe’s (Tom’s very good friend from Darden) sister Jane. We haven’t seen them in nearly 10 years. They have children the same age as ours, and in the same order. Zoe and JT were thrilled to have English speaking friends and the children got along beautifully. It was a vacation for all of us as they entertained themselves non-stop during our entire visit.

Unfortunately, both Friday and Saturday were intermittently rainy. We made the best of it by taking the opportunity to visit the Nerja caves on Saturday morning. We took the audio tour and really enjoyed it. The caves were vast and with many beautiful formations. The most stunning was a 32 meter column in the center of a gigantic chamber called The Hall of Cataclysm. Over 8,000 years ago an earthquake hit causing parts of column to collapse. Apparently, there are cave paintings also, but they are in much smaller chambers and one has to take a spelunking trip to see them. By Sunday the weather turned and the sun finally shone. Zoe, Tom and I all swam in the Med. It was much, much colder than in September, so it was in fairness a very short swim, but wonderfully refreshing.

We ate some wonderful meals and JT ordered gambas pil pil which is basically shrimp scampi at each of them. Zoe and Georgie (short for Georgina) had a little dinner party one night. We went into Nerja central town for dinner and the only available tables required a configuration of 2 from our group sitting separately.  It was a nice place and we didn’t want to subject anyone to a couple of 8 year old boys--even our extremely well-behaved lot J, so the girls sat together.  As you can imagine, they felt quite “grown-up” and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. (I thought of my friend Jana living here while learning Spanish as I passed a language school in the town center).

Sunday afternoon we went to an amazing paella place on the beach. Apparently, it was once regularly featured in a Spanish tele-novela. They alternated 3 paella pans, each 4 feet wide and stirred with paddles. The chef’s shin guards” made of cardboard stuffed into his socks. The place had at least 80 tables. Paella was 6 euro and one could take their plate back to the paella pan for a refill. Given the Spanish tradition of Sunday lunch, the restaurant was quite busy. We were told that the wait is really exciting in the summer as there are a lot more people and the restaurant has no queuing system. Even better, it’s an all cash establishment. It was a perfect ending to a very fun weekend and the children were really bummed when it was time to leave their new friends. 

Torremolinos with Tante Gisela

Spain celebrates October 12^th (Columbus Day) as its National day. This year it conveniently fell on a Friday giving us a 3-day weekend. The timing was even more perfect as we had already arranged to meet my Aunt and Uncle from Germany in Torremolinos, a city along the Costa del Sol very close to Malaga.

We booked travel by bus as it is enjoyable and simple. Knowing that the students would take advantage of the holiday to leave town, we purchased tickets in advance. The extra time we had allowed for traveling to the bus station via city bus evaporated when Zoe forgot her ear buds and went back to fetch them. What a difference 10 minutes makes. JT and I watched an empty bus pass a minute before Tom and Zoe caught up with us. When the next bus arrived, it was nearly full. It seemed like everyone who had a 5pm bus out of Granada was on our bus. With luggage, there barely room to stand. With each successive stop everyone was shoved together tighter and tighter and the driver would yell, move back. I was having flashbacks to the Beijing train station on a Friday night.

Fortunately, we arrived with 15 minutes to spare and our bus was actually a little late getting into the station. The trip itself was uneventful with the exception of the 30 minute break in Malaga. As the hotel was only 5 minutes from the station, we asked the new driver if we could collect our luggage (as we planned to just catch a taxi) and oddly he refused. The rest of the passengers had disembarked just minutes before. Generally, people are quite helpful in Spain. Not always effective, but helpful and with the best intentions. This man was clearly an exception.

Upon arriving, the hotel made a great first impression. We booked an apartment, which was in a much older apartment-style building located near the rear of the property. The hotel’s open air bar was quite close and it was playing loud music. We couldn’t figure out how to start the air conditioner, when Tom noticed a sign on the back of the door stating we’d have to pay by the day which we were happy to do both for the coolness and the white noise to drown out the music. But after inquiring, we learned the system was “off” for the season.  It turned out that the rooms in the main building, which were less expensive and much newer, had fabulous ocean views. I would have gladly traded off the extra space for the view.

The hotel itself was quite popular with the packaged tour crowd and it seemed the great majority of people were on the full board plan ala cruise ship, except here alcohol was included. Most of the guests were retirees from England and Germany, some from Spain. The plus side of the “resort” was its daily activities, which were quite popular with the kids. Each day the hotel offered some kind of exercise, weapon oriented activity: archery, pistol or air rifle, game and a movie or show. Tom showed his true Sagittarian colors by scoring the most points in archery and air rifle. With Tom present the “cruise director” let JT try his hand at archery and air pistol also.

We found my Aunt after some initial confusion as their room was registered under my Uncle’s legal name, not the one I’ve always used. Actually, she found us. It’s been just over 10 years since we’ve last seen them. Zoe was just 4 months old. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. Mostly that consisted of lounging by the pool in the warm sun, punctuated by quick dips in the freezing pool…which was colder than the Mediterranean itself.  It’s hard to feel self-conscious about your figure when you’re surrounded by 60 year old women in bikinis and 65 year old men wearing speedos. Europeans are not afraid to show some skin, no matter what shape their bodies and seem equally unconcerned about skin cancer as they all baked themselves for every possible moment that the sun shone.

Unfortunately, Saturday night we awoke to the sound that every parent dreads, especially when in a hotel, that of loud retching.  Of course Zoe had spaghetti Bolognese for dinner and chose the sink instead of the toilet in her delirium. Let’s just say it was a rough night. We weren’t sure if it was flu or food poisoning, but both Tom and JT had eaten some of her dinner. Knock wood, enough time has passed that it looks like the rest of us have escaped unscathed. Sunday we spent keeping Zoe quiet and well enough to travel home. Suddenly the bus didn’t seem like such a good idea. She did manage to make the trip without incident and by Monday was well enough to attend school. 

A Weekend in Madrid

While in Spain, we are committed to exploring Andalucia and other cities within striking distance. Madrid is high on our list of “must see” cities, so last Friday the kids played hooky and we drove there. Our “hotel” turned out to be an apartment overlooking the back of the Museo del Prado, arguably Spain’s most important art museum. It was also just a block away from the Retiro, the Central Park of Madrid. The apartment itself was spacious although a bit worn, but the best part was its two huge garden terraces.

We planned Saturday lunch with one of our classmates from Darden, which left a lot of touring to squeeze into a short amount of time. Tom suggested the open-top red bus tour as a good method to discover the city, so we did that first. Unfortunately, they’ve replaced real guides with recorded audio and we found the kid’s version far more entertaining than the dry adult version. It accomplished the task of orienting us to the city and its key sites, however. For dinner, we went with a traditional tapas experience, standing up outside. The selections were more meat and less seafood based (than Granada) and delicious. In Madrid, everyone seems to speak English fluently and I found that people pretty much responded to me in English whenever I spoke. So we tried having Zoe talk instead and everyone responded to her in Spanish. So they were either being nice, or she is speaking with a nearly native accent.

Saturday morning we headed to the Prado. (Several times we mistakenly referred to it as the Prada, and had people rib us about ending up with expensive designer goods). We opted for the audio tour and despite wanting to limit ourselves to 2 hours, had difficulty leaving. There were so many amazing paintings and let’s just say the red bus tour folks could learn something from the Prado about the elements of an interesting audio tour. Hands down the kid’s loved the Hiernonymous Bosch’s painting, ”The Garden of Earthly Delights. It’s such a fanciful and wacky painting that it’s hard to believe it was done in the 1500s…it looks like a Surrealist work. I realize now where Dali got his inspiration.

Then were off to Alfonso and Mercedes’ house for lunch. They entertained us in Argentine style with a wonderful barbeque lunch. Their children attend an English school in Madrid and all the children got along very well. It was such a relaxing and wonderful meal that we were all reluctant to end it and head back to the hotel. Given how late a night we'd had on Friday and the fact that we were still stuffed from lunch, we decided to call it night.

Zoe wanted to visit the Palacio Real and JT the Retiro so we saved both of those for Sunday. Unlike Granada, Madrid does not have siesta and most things are open Sunday. The Palacio Real was amazing…the amount of gold was stunning. I spent so much time admiring the ceiling paintings that my neck was sore the next day. The décor was over the top opulent. Much of it was completed while Spain was at its height of its power. Zoe’s really loved the throne room and exclaimed how easily she could live in that one room alone. Oh if only one could grow up to be a princess!

The activity JT chose was specifically to take a boat ride in the Retiro. Sunday is a very festive day in the park, with many families having picnics. Street performers set up shop near the entrance to the boat pavilion to catch families with children. In addition to musicians, there were puppet shows, magicians, jugglers, and bubble blowers to watch. The boats are wooden row boats, with heavy wooden oars and it was comical and somewhat telling to watch Zoe and JT trying to row in tandem. They started with rowing us in circles and graduated to where they were able to work together quite well, with some frustrating points in between. Despite being a chilly morning, by the time we were on the water it was warm and sunny and when JT was rowing alone, he was sweating from the exertion. Afterwards we all enjoyed an ice cream cone. Unfortunately, it was time to bring the weekend to an end and drive back to Granada. 

An Unexpected Playdate

When we left the US we were very tight on luggage weight and space. Each child was allowed to bring one special toy. Zoe chose an American Girl doll, and JT his stuffed polar bear “Polie”   This past week we invited Zoe’s friend Clara to lunch at our apartment. Since lunch is the main meal of the day, we had to vary from our typical PB&J to serve what we would normally eat for dinner. We decided on fajitas as it would be something that we might typically eat at home and would give Clara an opportunity to experience something new. She wasn’t a fan, but she was gracious about it. The moral of that story is stick with pasta.

After lunch the kids were playing out on our little patio and somehow Zoe ended up tossing Polie over the wall into our neighbor’s patio. Three sides of our patio are walls 5 floors tall and the 4^th is a set of cabinets about 8ft tall and 2.5 feet deep. We weren’t really sure that the patio on the other side even belonged to our apartment building, but the kids knocked on some doors and determined that it was mostly likely apartment 1C.  Since no one was answering 1C's buzzer Zoe wrote a note signed 1B and stuck it in 1C's mailbox. There was a lot of gnashing of teeth and “what if” scenarios being played out by the guilty party (Zoe), but JT was being a very good sport. That night, when I returned from dropping z at swimming Polie had come home. Our neighbor in 1C wrote us a note saying that our little Bear had a lot of fun playing with her cat on the patio, but alas, it was time for him to go home.

Trial and Error with Tapas

Granada is a student’s paradise as tapas are free with the purchase of a drink.  Generally, the freebie is the house specialty and we’ve been served such delicacies as pulpo (octopus), paella, olives, and fried eggplant.  Tapas here tend to fall into several categories: grilled, fried food, stews or seafood. Occasionally, chicken appears on a menu, but mostly the meat is beef or pork. I have yet to see a green salad on any menu. Tom and I try to limit our intake of fried food, but Zoe and JT love it.

When we arrived in Granada, we instituted a tradition of eating Sunday lunch out. This allows us to sample the regional cuisine and we picked Sunday since it’s the only day that we eat “dinner” at the same time as the rest of the population. Normally restaurants open at 8pm and when they do they are about as full as they would be for a four o’ clock early bird special in New York City-- most diners arrive at 9pm and leave at 11pm.

We haven't quite cracked the code on how to order properly. Before I wrote about not ordering enough, but usually we have the opposite problem. Tapas tend to be quite small, but the size of a racion can vary considerably from restaurant to restaurant. Because we like to sample different dishes, we generally avoid ordering porciones (the larger size) but sometimes we forget to tell the waiter. 

Based on positive trip advisor UK reviews, we tried a restaurant a little off the beaten path in the San Anton district. The décor was quite traditional and the restaurant had some interesting antiques, including an old AM radio where the stations were marked with the names of Spain’s major cities. In this instance the waiter was very kind and stopped us after we ordered 4 dishes and a soup saying that we would not be able to move if we ordered more. He was right, the food was fabulous, but rich and a bit heavy. By the time our last dish arrived, we admired it and sent it back to the kitchen so we could take it home.

Today, we had a repeat of that experience. It’s the final weekend of the 2 week long patron saint of Granada festival and many people from all over the province travel to the capital. In the central area, tents selling the bounty of the fall harvest including dried figs, dates, nuts, agricultural products, sweets and some fruits that I was unable to identify. It’s been raining since Wednesday, so there is a lot of pent up demand. We stopped at a place with some outdoor seating that looked lively and ordered a round of drinks.  It soon became apparent that there was only one waiter to serve some 15 to 20 tables. Waiters do not make tips so restaurants err on the side of having too few of them, but this was extreme. The man was so busy, he was literally running at times. So when he finally came to our table we ordered in a rush and forgot to mention we wanted the small sized portions, so he defaulted to the large size. This time we ended up bringing two nearly untouched plates (out of 5) home.

The other night Tom and I went out for a celebratory anniversary dinner. The restaurant, Alacena de los Monja's, loosely translates into the Nun’s Kitchen as it was set in a former 16^th century convent. The bar upstairs was modern with interesting art and the restaurant was beneath in a brick cave-like setting similar to a wine cellar. Arriving at 8:30, we were of course the earliest. The food was amazing. Here traditional Andalucian ingredients were used to create playful dishes with a modern twist. The most delightful dishes were the appetizers. One offered phyllo dough stuffed with pureed, spiced eggplant and served with a honey mousse. Bacalao, or salted codfish dishes generally are amazing too. This version was a warm salad with orange slices. We made the mistake of ordering coffee and ended up staying up to the wee hours of the morning while the caffeine wore off.

For the next couple of weekends we are traveling to see friends and family in Madrid and Torremolinos, respectively.  But for our next Sunday lunch in Granada we are going to tap into the city’s Arab roots and try either Middle Eastern or Lebanese food. We’ll be sure to provide a full report.