A Trip To Spain

Had the pleasure of visiting Spain for 8 days in the mid 70’s. We stayed along the Costa del Sol in the city of Marbella (SW of Malaga). From the Mediterranean Sea shore we could just make out the Rock of Gibraltar. It was too cold to go swimming in the sea or the pool and looking back on my pictures most of us were wearing long sleeves or jackets. I’m thinking it was Sept. or Nov. that we were there. It was a company sponsored trip so there were about 15 couples and we all knew each other and two of the couples were our very best friends, which made the trip that much more special and enjoyable.

The shopping was very unique in the small towns. Due to the buildings and houses being very close together and the streets being so narrow, you couldn't tell a place of business from a residence until you opened the door! Where there were no sidewalks, the doors to the businesses and residences opened directly into the street. I, myself, opened several doors to residences until I figured out that the public should only go into the "open" doors. Usually the doors to restaurants and taverns remained open during the day and it was not unusual to see a donkey or two tethered right outside the door. Sometimes a donkey had to be pushed aside in order to enter an open door. A lot of the streets were cobblestone or broken bricks or packed earth and they were closed to motorized vehicles because of the walking tourist business. Donkeys, horses and bicycles were allowed.

Very few locals spoke English, and if they did it was very broken English and it was a hoot trying to negotiate a sale price on items of interest in these shops. At one point, on the way to the Alhambra Castle, we decided to stop at a very small town and look around. We all kind of went in different directions and I ended up by myself in a little ceramics shop. I found what I wanted and proceeded to pay for it. The two people in the shop could speak no English whatsoever and I spoke no Spanish. So I took out all my Spanish money and held it out to them and they picked out what they needed (or wanted)! I had no idea what any of the money meant or how much it was worth. I was treating it like “play money”. My husband had gone to the bank earlier in Marbella and exchanged US money for Spanish money, then gave me some. So if I got ripped off in this little town it was of my own stupidity. But thank god they didn’t take it all.

We had rented a small car to drive up the Sierra Nevada mountains to Granada, Spain to tour the Alhambra Palace - and by small car….I mean small car. We were only able to get 4 people in it (barely). The high mountain roads in this area were very narrow and scary. We laid on the horn every time we approached a curve and kept the horn going until we were on a straightaway again. Other drivers on the road were doing the same. There were very little, if any, guardrails on these curves and the drop offs were tremendous. We actually saw wrecked cars at the bottom of some of these drop offs and ravines. Anyhow, a few hours and several “heart attacks” later, we arrived at the Alhambra and it was a sight to behold. It’s huge and some of the columns and walls inside are hand carved with intricate detailing. It was beautiful.

Just a little history here:
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella lived here at the time Christopher Columbus cameto them in 1492 for permission and money to sail to the “new world”.

On the way back down the mountains, we stopped at another small town in the hopes of finding something to eat. We were starved but it seemed like the town was deserted! Drove around for awhile, knocked on a few doors and finally found a policeman who could barely speak English. We made it known that we were hungry. I won't go into detail, but this whole communication process was hysterical. Anyhow, the policeman kept saying fuutbal, fuutbal! He took us over to a small building with a locked door and knocked. A man hung out the upstairs window and the policeman speaking in rapid Spanish conversed with the man. The man upstairs kept shaking his head "no". Finally the policeman convinced him to come down and open up. We did not know what was happening; were we being arrested because we were hungry? We all went inside and discovered it was a small restaurant. It had been closed for the day, along with the entire town, because "football" was on TV. Evidently when football is on TV there, it's a holiday! The man and his wife reluctantly cooked us a meal and we were on our way.

We did a lot of sightseeing along the Costa del Sol in our small car and sometimes we’d be driving along and see a run down old castle out in a cow pasture. We’d park alongside the road, climb a fence and go check it out –with our cameras of course. Our entire group also went on a few organized tours of local castles, which was a lot of fun. I didn’t realize how many castles were in Spain, but I guess that’s what the rich land barons lived in back in the medieval times.

Another tour our group took was on a hydrofoil-boat from Marbella, Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangiers, Morocco in Northern Africa. For some reason, I declined this trip because a few others had said they were going to rent some horses and ride up into the hills for the day. Horses? Oh yeah, I’m there! I actually passed up a trip to N. Africa to ride a horse! I had a great day riding that horse, the weather was beautiful and at the time I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate to do . . . at that time! Looking back, I cannot for the life of me wonder why I chose a horse over a once in a lifetime trip to Africa. It was only a day trip – but still!!!

Plus, those that went to Tangiers got to ride camels!!!! OMG! I am stupid!

Bull fighting is big in Spain and being the animal lover that I am, I did not want to watch this sport. However, realizing what I had passed up in Tangier, I decided to go with the thought that I would watch it, loathe it and never again go to a bullfight, but I needed to see for myself what it was all about and how it was done. For all those animal lovers out there – Don’t Go!

I saw 7 bulls killed that day and it was not pleasant. They have a couple different ways to finish off the bull and I will not go into detail, it is too gruesome. Believe me, the bulls don’t stand a chance; it is a one-way ticket for them. After watching the first bull get killed the only thing I wanted to see was a matador get gored. It was on the last or next to last bull of the day and sure enough a matador was caught by one of the bulls horns and tossed up into the air several times before he ever touched ground again. OLE! That also was a gruesome and scary sight and the matador had to be carried off on a stretcher. But the bull? Oh yeah, he was killed. It wasn’t a fair fight.

Toward the end of our stay in Spain I went shopping with the intention of buying an oil painting from a local artist. The biggest shopping attractions for most of our group were leather products, silver and oil paintings. I had gone through many shops in the week we spent there and so far I hadn’t found any oil painting that said “buy me”, until the next to last day of our vacation. We happened upon a great little street that was full of artist displays and there was not one, but two paintings that I just HAD to have. One was of the faces of 4 older Tangier men wearing turbans, blended together through their beards. The other painting was of a gypsy mother and son sitting on a street curb looking desolate. Finally the artist came out to see if we needed help and he spoke perfect English. Come to find out, he’s from California and graduated from UCLA. Imagine that! So much for a local artist. We bought both paintings and learned that he had painted the mother & son and it hung in his own house for several years, but after a while it depressed him too much. His wife did the other painting and she has had showings in NYC. These oils were not framed and I had to roll them up and carry them home on the plane with me. The problem was the mother & son was 4’ x 4’, the Tangier men was somewhat smaller. It was a job making sure they weren’t destroyed on the trip home. I had them framed here at home and I still have both paintings today, and yes the mother and son are depressing, so I hang it for a year then take it down for a year.