Alhama de Granada

Another fantastic sleep last night, not sure if we are still catching up from the red eye over, if it is the red wine, or the sound of the waves, but whatever I hope this keeps up.

Andre once again came through and found us a Carnival going on in Alhama de Granada to visit today.   

Main Highway that follows the coast

Tunnels along the main highway

 Our first stop was at a Moorish castle that we really just ruins, but great views.  We were the only ones there, except for a shepherd that was moving his sheep through, you could hear the bells on the sheep coming from far away love that sound  Lots of great photo ops here.

abandoned Moorish castle

Moorish's Princess???

Alcaucin

View from abandoned castle

Mountain pass

Next stop was at the carnival.  What a fun day.  Jacinthe would have loved this carnival, it was like Halloween on steroids.   Men, women, children all dressed up, many in team costumes for a competition, very fun.  

Feeding royalty?

The knights must all be in the tavern, their horses are waiting!

All type of costumes here, Pirate, Nurses, Cartoons, Medieval

We first walked around town because of course we were a little early, things were just getting started.  A beautiful small town away from the shore way up in the mountains.  It was about an hour drive from where we are staying in Nerja.  The town is built right on the side of a gorge, which gives some beautiful views.  Many tiny cobblestone streets, and steep hills, not so much fun for driving.  We pretty much covered the town and then came across the sign for tourist information where we finally got a map. 

Narrow cobblestone street, PS this is a driving street

Old ruins at bottom of the gorge

View of the gorge where we took our walk, follow the path behind the falling down building with the horses behind it through the beautiful almond trees in blossom

Church square

Caverns which was used as a prison/dungeon

Old abandoned church

Countryside with grape, olive & orange trees

Tourist information recommended we take the 2KM walk through the gorge to the lakes, which we did .  A very pretty walk, and we came across about 50 people dressed as pirates heading to town.  We figured they all walked from their home town to Alhama de Granada for the carnival, I told Andre it reminded me of the Disney Cruise pirate night.  At the end of the walk you come to a nice lake that had many ducks, another great photo op.  Then is the walk back to town, some beautiful views from the gorge of the town, and then of course up the huge hill from the gorge back into town.  

Almond trees in bloom

View of the city from the gorge

Pirates on the way to Carnival

Lake at the end of the gorge

Next stop we are hungry and find the town square is now packed with people in costumes.  Many food vendors are set up with very long lines, but then we found one that was selling potatoes and had seats, so we are good.  I grabbed the seats, Andre came back with what he said was a potato with everything.  This is a huge backed potato done in an oven outside, toppings were tuna, ham, olives, cheese, beets, carrots, corn, tomato sauce, sour cream, and not sure if I missed something.  Very yummy, I guess traditional, and the two of us had plenty for lunch for 4.50 Euro.  We only heard one other couple speaking English all day today, we were definitely the minority.

Potato with the "works", no we have not picked up a third person, Andres Spanish got us 3 spoons!

Following the carnival we headed out of town to find a Roman bridge and Arab baths that Andre knew were nearby.  He knew they were nearby, but where exactly?  (no Amazing Race for us)  We did eventually find them after a bit of backtracking.  First stop were the Arab baths, amazing how warm they were.  There was a hotel here that is now closed, but there is one bath that is outside the gates that the public can still get to.  Being Sunday afternoon there were a few people there, and we didn’t have bathing suits with us so just got to feel the water.

Moorish hot spring baths

Next stop was this beautiful old Roman bridge that is no longer used.  We walked over, and just thinking of who could have passed over this bridge and all the history is amazing.  Both of these last two stops are really off the regular tourist track, hard to imagine what is around that we never hear or will know about.

Roman Bridge

On our way back to town we saw a farmer on the side of the road, so we stopped and picked up some avocado from him, sweet potato, and a couple of lemons. No English here, and he really wants us to buy some of his honey, but he only had huge jars, and fresh eggs but we just bought eggs yesterday.  He has his grandson with him as well to help, love shopping this way.

Picked up some vegetables and fruit on the drive home, just like the fish mongers at home!

We are now back at the apartment.  Have finished off a bottle of red wine that we started last night, along with some olives, bread, pate, cheese and crackers.  Not sure how I am going to take off the 10 pounds I need to before golf season. 

Hors D'ouvres on the balcony

Andre is now getting supper ready, we have played a couple of games of cribbage, but still not scores to report.  Tomorrow our day will be spent getting the internet connected, Andre needs to plan the upcoming week-end, and I am back to work.  Already loving it here, and can’t believe we still have 5 weeks to go!