Torremolinos, Spain

We arrived in Torremolinos, a lovely beach town on the Mediterranean, yesterday afternoon after a glorious morning/lunch hour in Granada.

La Alhambra, a United Nations´World Heritage site, was over the top. Amazingly beautiful. (As I wrote earlier, this was my third visit, but I hadn´t been since 1986. The site has definitely been lovingly restored over the past 21 years.) My mother said, ¨When you spend a half a day seeing something like this, you realize how much of your life has been wasted.¨ I have to agree. Every inch of the place was designed to please the eyes (walls covered with intricate plaster carvings in Arabic, inlaid wood ceilings, and to-die-for tiles in a multitude of geometric patterns), the ears (channels of water run throughout the complex, which provide soft, soothing background noise that isn´t noise at all...more like music), and the nose (fragrant flowers--abundant roses and jasmine--and herbs--we especially liked the lemon thyme). An inscription in La Alhambra reads: "Give alms to this blind man, Madam, because there is no bigger sorrow than being blind in Granada.¨ The Alhambra is definitely a feast for the eyes, and we said how happy we were that Los Reyes Catolicos, Ferdinand and Isabel, didn´t raze the place when they conquered Granada in 1492. Even they must have been awed by its beauty.

Our tour guide, Nils, is a Spaniard whose father is Swedish and mother is French. He grew up in a small town in the south of Spain, and his love of La Alhambra is reverential. He started the tour by taking us to the Generalife gardens, where the soothing sound of water can be heard throughout the area. Nils explained that the Moors believed that water was very spiritual and was present to remind the palace´s tenants of their spiritual nature. (Steve said he thought that they had a high regard for water, since it was such a limited resource.) According to Nils, the gardens gave them a place to think, to be, and to hear God. On the tour, I was also reminded of the Japanese art of Feng Shui, where water is an essential element to incorporate into your living environment.

As we walked through La Alhambra, I couldn´t help but think of quilts. Each and every tile design would make an amazing quilt design. I took a million pictures. (Okay, maybe not a million, but a ton that I´m going to share with my fellow quilters when I return home. I´ll post some here, too.) Nils also talked about how geometry wasn´t so practical back in their day. It was more of a spiritual quest, with theorists trying to make sense of their world.

The views from the castle, which is what La Alhambra was, were stunning. As Nils said, it was a view fit for a king (or sultan). It was nice to be royal for a day. We climbed back onto the bus to make our way to downtown Granada. Mother, Casey and Aedan found a place to hang while Blair and I walked over to see the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabel. Unfortunately, we got to La Capilla (the chapel) during siesta. All was not lost, though. The acoustics near the Cathedral were very good, and street musicians were out. We heard a trio of guitarrists who gave me chills. I´ll post a clip of them playing on youtube when I return home.

We also found a guy who would write your name in Arabic for 1 Euro. I had my name, Aedan´s name, and my Aunt Joe Ann´s name done. (Joe Ann is a calligraphy expert, so I knew she´d love this recuerdo.) Blair asked me how I knew the artist wasn´t writing ¨You are full of it¨ or something worse. I said that I didn´t know, but the calligraphy was beautiful regardless. When we stopped at a little shop not far away to buy some other goodies, the shopkeeper said ¨Denise¨. I looked up shocked and asked him how he knew my name. He pointed at the writing. I showed him the other two, and he sounded out Aedan and Joe Ann. So, I guess the writing is the real deal. I´m glad, because I´d hate to give my Aunt Joe Ann a present that says ¨Curse you, American heathen.¨

We met Mother, Casey and Aedan and walked down to La Plaza Nueva for lunch at Doner Kebap Nemrut. For 6 Euros each, we got a lunch special that included a chicken (or beef) gyro, french fries, a chilled mug of Mahou beer, and a piece of baklava. YUM! Tasty food, a lovely outdoor setting and interesting conversation made it a memorable lunch. We got back to the bus at 3:10, and everyone except Steve and a couple of the girls from Alaska were on board. I wasn´t worried about the girls, because one of their adult leaders knew they were on their way, but I was worried about Steve. He´s usually very prompt. We´d seen an altercation (loud arguing, finger pointing and almost shoving) among some gypsy women while we were near the Cathedral, and I wondered if he hadn´t been spirited away by gypsies. (Casey said that the gypsies don´t watch soap operas here, so they create their own.) Instead, Steve had lunch in a local bar, and he said, ¨You know how it is when you´re in a bar and someone wants to tell you their life story and you´re too polite to tell them you´ve got to go and that you don´t speak Spanish very well? Well, that´s what happened. Lo siento. (I´m sorry.)¨ For the record, I think Steve speaks Spanish quite well for someone who only had it in high school. I can´t believe he remembers as much as he does, but then again he´s a very smart guy.

From Granada, we drove two hours west to Torremolinos, which is on Spain´s beautiful Costa del Sol. (Sean Connery, the real James Bond, has a house up the road in Marbella.) Our hotel has a pool, so, of course, Aedan wanted to jump in. It wasn´t as cold as the hotel pool in Granada, but it was pretty darn cold. I yelped when I hit the water, and a gentleman who was sitting on the side of the pool laughed. He said that he was from Madrid, and the water was even cold for him. We started talking, and I found out that he was holding his 9-month-old son, Francisco, while watching his 8-year-old daughter, Laura, swim. I told him that I´d lived in Madrid for a year and that I was still crazy about it. He seemed pleased.

We got ready for dinner and made our way down to the hotel´s buffet. Quite a spread. I ate my fill without an ounce of guilt. One of my students said, ¨I didn´t know we were going to lose weight on this trip!¨ I said, ¨Didn´t you know it was a Spa Study Abroad?!¨ We have been walking our legs off...literally. It sort of reminds me of ¨The Secret Garden¨. Remember the sickly boy who goes out to play with the other children, and little by little, he becomes healthy? That´s what´s happening with us. My calves are rock hard. My thighs and glutes are slimming down from the constant up and down stair climbing. One of the travelers injured her leg back home, and she said this trip has been the best physical therapy she´s ever had. I told her that she ought to ask her doctor to prescribe an annual trip to Spain instead of regular PT. (It would probably cost less.)

After dinner, which we had with Gary, Mother and Casey, we walked down the hill, about a 10-minute straight shot, to the sea. Some other Palo Altoites were already there picking up pebbles and shells. We laughed and said that when the airline asks us if we have rocks in our suitcase, we´ll be able to say yes truthfully. We walked back to the hotel, uphill, where we ran into Kim and Mariana, who were plotting a trip to Ronda, a two-hour bus ride north of Torremolinos, for the next day. We enjoyed a bebida and watched a young (3ish) Spanish girl dressed in ropa flamenca tipica (polka dots galore) hold forth on a mini stage. Precious.

Today, we spent the whole day hanging out at the beach. We met a lovely British couple, Susie and Tony, who have lived in Torremolinos for more than 20 years. I had a cup of coffee on the beach, and I said how happy I was to be drinking Spanish coffee again. Tony said, ¨It´s the best in the world. It´s one of the reasons I live here.¨ He said that he had at least four cups a day. Aedan said, ¨And I thought she (meaning me) was bad!¨ I don´t blame Tony at all. Truly, Starbucks wishes its coffee tasted so good. Tony and Susie are planning a trip to Florida soon, and I invited them to visit San Antonio. I told them they could probably get an inexpensive fare on Southwest Airlines. I hope they decide to make the hop over the Gulf of Mexico.

Mañana, we´re off to Sevilla. This trip is going by way too fast. After two nights in Sevilla, we´ll head back to Madrid. Some will stay only two nights there, but the rest of us will have seven nights. Can´t wait, but it feels like we already need to start planning our next visit over. Anyone want to join us? :)