Hello to you all from sunny Estepona. Sorry if we've been a bit quiet on the blogosphere of late. We left Cádiz recently and have been in Estepona for a week or so for some Costa del Sol warmth and sunlight, catching up with friends and preparing for the final part of our journey through Spain. To be fair, we've been quite lazy by our standards - for sure we've been out walking most days on one of our route marches, making time for our daily coffee and less frequent tapas and meals out, but in terms of getting involved with events here we've been pretty lax. We even managed to miss Carnaval - not that we intended to - we simply didn't hear a thing albeit the marina is at the other end of town. A shame as we'd like to have seen a bit of that.
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| The fabulous Taberna el Puerto |
While we've been here there's been some sad news: Paco de Lucia, the great Flamenco guitarist from nearby Algeciras has died, age 66. He was world famous and renowned for modernising flamenco and bringing this art form to the wider world. He won the Prince of Asturias Award in 2004 for Arts. Algeciras has declared a 2-day mourning period for him. Check out: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26351251
Andalucia Day
And 28 February is Andalucia Day - a national holiday for the folk of Andalucia to mark the date of becoming an autonomous state. The Andalucians were out in force today enjoying a sunny paseo and many bars and restaurants were packed with locals taking advantage of a work-free day. We went out for dinner at our fave restaurant de la Mar and the nearby marina was absolutely heaving. Great to see!
Jerez - European City of Wine 2014
And, last weekend, Jerez quite rightly won this coveted award as it was recognised by judges that the jerezanos (Jerez folk) enjoy sherry (fortified wine) as part of daily life - it is part of their culture and we saw evidence of that during our recent stay there. So well done Jerez - salud!
On the long & winding road ...
And so, the inevitability of the back end of our gap year for the middle aged(!) approaches and with only 3 weeks left in Spain (depressing, eh?) a fair bit of my time has been spent researching and booking hotels and apartments for the push homewards. So, the final part of our trip is:
Seville - 4 nights (to include a trip to Cordoba)
Cáceres - 3 nights (to include a trip to nearby Trujillo)
Salamanca - 3 nights
Madrid - 4 nights - (to include trips to Cuenca, Segovia and Toledo)
San Sebastian - 2 nights - for beaches and tapas! Then over the border to ...
Biarritz - 2 nights - where we pick up our car and drive through France to Dunkirk via Mick's cousin Claire.
If all goes well we should be back in Dunkirk by late March where, after a few days preparing the boat for the crossing, and weather permitting, we'll sail for the UK.
But its not all over: I've got the opportunity to experience Semana Santa (Holy Week, or Easter) in Malaga with Cathy, the lovely American we met in September at the Rioja Wine Festival. Sadly, her friend Janet, won't be with her so it'll be me and Cathy (God help Malaga!) for a few days which, as you may recall, is one of our favourite places in Spain so I'm really looking forward to that and, even more so, to spending it with another hispanophile. If you thought I was obsessed, Cathy's passion for all things Hispanic knocks me into a cocked hat!
And its not only party time for me: Mick is going away on a boys' weekend to - wait for it - Ibiza! Can you imagine being a fly on the wall ... not a pretty sight!
So, that's our news. I'll update you from Seville and other places en route home so, until next time, please slow time down so I can stay here longer!
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