Spain, Our first trip, January 2001

--writing from internet cafes (except in Mojacar)--

--Becky writes unless noted by Marilou--

--Marilou takes most of the photos--

Sunday, Jan. 21, 2001

Howdy all,

Our flight to Madrid from Atlanta was smooth. Arrived at daybreak, Friday 19th. Took a taxi to the station where we would catch the train to Almeria later that day and checked our baggage there. Then we took the Metro (subway) to The Prado Art Museum in Madrid. Checked out the European and Spanish art there for hours. After that we walked to the city center and had coffee and a snack. It was afternoon now and most shops were closed. Lots of people out walking. Madrid is a clean pretty city, at least the downtown area that we saw. I've read that it's not very old as European cities go. And since this is our first European city, I'll take the book's word, it certainly looked older than anything in the States. Lots of statues around and up on the buildings. At dusk many lights came on highlighting the buildings and important stuff. Pretty. The main streets are wide boulevards with trees along the sidewalks and often there are garden areas in the middle of the divided roadways.

That evening we took the Metro back to the train station to wait for our train to Almeria. It was Friday, Marilou's birthday ... one of the most different she has ever had! We caught our train that night at 11:00 PM. We had been up for over 30 hours at this point. Very tired by now. We had a sleeper car and slept till we got to Almeria at 7:30 Saturday morning. Almeria is in the southeast, near the coast. We walked around some near the station and had breakfast. Then taxied out to the airport to get our car. We drove to Mojacar (ma-ha-kar), about 30 minutes southeast of Almeria. The Spanish are sensible folk and drive on the right as we Americans do.

This is where we are now, at the timeshare. The manager of the resort is letting us use her computer to write these emails. Mojacar is a very old small moorish village on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. One of the few true moorish styled villages left in southern Spain. It's hard to find a map of Spain with Mojacar on it, it's that small.

The old part of the village far up the hill has streets that only very small cars can pass through, therefore there's mostly people on scooters and on foot. A church from the 1560´s sits on the hilltop with the village built in levels below it. Originally, this church was a mosque when the moors lived here. There are now shops mixed in with the homes throughout the winding streets, which makes it very easy for the folks who live here to walk to do their shopping. And one's leg muscles get quite a work out on these hills. Most all the buildings are whitewashed and many have flowering vines growing on them. Many cats wonder around. Some let us pet them. Our "home" is high on the hill in the old village and we can see the Mediterranean Sea which is about three miles from our balcony. Have spent the past day exploring, eating, and napping ... getting used to the afternoon breaks they take here in Spain. This could be the way the whole world needs to run. --grin--

Mojacar is in the province of Andalusia, where the arabian horse of that name was bred and the guitar was invented. The flamenco music style comes from Andalusia, too.

We have found plenty of folks who speak English well and most who speak it enough. Between our little Spanish and their little English we are getting along great. And we are learning more Spanish.

Hope all of you are doing well. We are.

More another day.

Becky & Marilou

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Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001

Howdy all,

In the past few days since our last message we have traveled almost every known road within 150 km of here ... and some unknown roads, as we usually find and don't mind going on the roads less traveled. (There's a book in there somewhere!)

This region is arid. There are areas in the countryside where under low, large, screen covered structures citrus fruits are being grown. The blue Mediterranean Sea is almost always in view as the land slopes fast to it. Today it was very windy, producing large waves out on the water. Saw Pink Flamingos and other birds wintering here in the south of Spain. The temps have been warm during the day. There are many mountain ranges all around, the tallest ones near Granada are snow capped.

We've made plans to leave Mojacar Saturday. We'll drive north to Murcia, leave the car and catch a train to Barcelona and get there about 8:30 at night. We'll be staying in a hostel in the city near the large train station.

The food here is great. We've made new friends and to thank them for being so kind to us we are taking them out to their favorite restaurant Friday night for Moroccan couscous.

That's all for now ... going for supper ... hungry.

Love to you all,

Becky & Marilou

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Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001

Howdy all,

Got to Barcelona as planned, after riding the train for several hours. Have been really busy since we arrived here. This is a wonderful cosmopolitan city with mountains hemming it to the sea. The city is not too large and full of art. All our Spanish learning of the past week is of little use here. Barcelona is in the province of Catalonia where Catalonian is spoken. While similar to Spanish it is influenced by French, too. The people are nice and understand our smiles of confusion.

On Monday, in a rental car, we drove up into the Pyrenees Mountains. Stopped for lunch at a village restaurant about an hour north of Barcelona where the waitress spoke no English. Catalonian is just enough different that we were unsure of some of the items listed on the menu. Luckily, of the 2 young men sitting next to us, one was the local English teacher at a nearby school. He helped us order. We then had a great conversation with him and his friend. He was excited to practice his English speaking with Americans and we were able to get wonderful information about the forest area we were heading towards.

Further into the mountains, we walked though several villages built in the 1200´s, which the English teacher said were worth the time. These places are still being inhabited. Seeing modern people in medieval structures creates an odd feeling. Driving around for those two days we saw some of the large snow covered mountains of the Pyrenees, more new birds, a Dali museum in Figueres, and lush valley farmland. We found a beautiful 4 star hotel in Olot (u-lut) in the mountains for a steal at 11,450 psta = $65 US. Stayed overnight there.

Back in Barcelona now, its Wednesday 31st. Taking in as much of the city as possible today. We leave in the morning to fly to Madrid and then on to Atlanta and home. :-(

Hi folk. Marilou here. What a great place. I want to come back here soon. Saw the Dali Museum yesterday. Weird dude. Lots of fun. Wanted to see the only toy museum in Spain, but it was closed for exhibit change. It reopens 2/15/01 so if we aren´t home, you know where we went. Going to try to hit as many museums as possible today. I´m sure we´ll be worn out. Maybe we can sleep on the flight back over. I didn´t sleep on the way over at all.

Becky saw a whole forest of cats near the harbor today. People leave food on paper for them. She said they looked very well fed. I went to a souvenir store while Becky was writing the first part of this note. I think the guy would have sold me the store if he could. He of course promised good price. Who knows?

Wish we had teleporters to get us back and forth in seconds, but then everyone would come to Spain and it wouldn't be the same.

Much love,

MK and BW

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