Ola Donkeyhoty

In every sense of the word, this was a really great trip. I cannot think of one single thing which I would have changed or did not enjoy entirely. At the very outset I have to say that our hosts Bill and Paivi, were just amazing and outstanding in their hospitailty, even to ceding their bedroom to us in the house they are renting in Manilva! They are great company and we enjoyed both the excursions we made to various places as well as the times we just 'hung out' in the house on the days when the weather was not so good. It is hard to select highlights but our trip to Seville was terrific as was, of course, Granada but we also saw some great 'gems' in the smaller towns such as Ronda, Mijas, Ubrique and of course, Estepona, Malaga, Marbella and Jerez as well as our trip to Gibraltar. That is only a snapshot so it was a very full menu. Although MAC had had a brief acquaintance with Spain on a business trip some years ago and I had visited a couple of places while at sea...

We got up early, despite MAC's grumbling. I was concerned about the airport shuttle which seemed rather small and there were warnings about the fact that if it was full you would have to wait 20-30 minutes for the next one. So we were down in the lobby and checked out on a cold morning at 7.30 a.m. and the next shuttle was nearly full when it arrived but we managed to get on it with our bags. The trip to the airport was longer than we thought but we arrived at Terminal 1 after about 10-15 minutes and went to check in. We were reminded about getting to the gate early to allow for MAC's 'random check'. After check-in we went to the VIP lounge allowed by our Priority Pass from UNFCU. The lounge was huge and very comfortable with all sorts of food and drink available. It looked out over the airport which, this morning was bathed in sunlight. After spending an hour or so there, we made our way to the gate which was some distance away in the 'A' section. MAC went ...

We had a leisurely breakfast and then requested the car at 11 a.m. I had tried to check in for our flight back to US but it would not let me check MAC in as she had been selected for a 'special random check' by the security authorities. The night before, we had decided to abandon the flight we had booked with Iberia from Granada to Madrid at 5 p.m. that day and instead book the AVE train from Antequera to Madrid. Despite trying to let Iberia know that we would not show up for the flight, they did not seem very responsive or interested.  So, we loaded the car up again and set of for Antequera. There was a fog or smog hanging over the city and surrounding hills. We passed on the way, the peak called La Pena de los Enamorados which plays a special part in the development of the area we were approaching. We arrived at Antequera and found the place of the archaeological remains called the Dolmens. These are underground prehistoric burial chambers. We parked and went to ...

Wikipedia has of course much information about the Alhambra which is too much to write in this post but for those who would like to know more here is the Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra Professional photographs of the Alhambra are available at:  https://www.alhambradegranada.org/en/info/galleryofphotographs.asp This is a selection of the photographs which I took. Cypress of the Sultana  (the seemingly dead tree on the left of the picture) Cypress of the Sultana  (Ciprés de la Sultana) in which, according to the legend, Boabdil's wife used to meet a knight of the Abencerrajes family. This triggered the death of the people of this noble tribe, whose throats were slit. All the above photos are of the Generalife Gardens Photographs simply do not do justice to this place but the above give some i...