La huerta de Espana

I will try to remember everything from my trip down the eastern coast of Spain.

On Monday we left Barcelona in our convertible for the drive to Valencia, which took between 3 and 4 hours. The whole time the sun was shining and we passed endless vineyards (the Penedes region that we drove through is the wine-making area of Catalunya) and olive trees and orchards. After arriving in Valencia, we walked to the Plaza Ayuntamiento, the Plaza de la Reina, and the Plaza de la Virgen by the cathedral. I had actually been to the latter plaza when I went to Valencia in March, although I did not spend much time there--it was taken up with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary that was to be covered in flowers as part of Las Fallas.

We ate dinner in the medieval area at a restaurant called El Rall, where we ate fantastic paella of chicken, rabbit, prawns, langoustine, mussels, and lots of vegetables. The next day, we had breakfast at a little pastry shop and walked to the Royal Gardens outside the Museum of Belles Artes. I liked the museum a lot. It was small and almost empty, so it was like having it to ourselves. It is mainly Spanish art and has some Velazaquez, Goya, El Greco, and Ribera.

We drove that day to Alicante, a seaside resort town. We passed tons and tons of Valencia orange trees along the way. We walked along the marina to the beach, which was quite full of English tourists. My dad and I hiked up to the Castillo de Santa Barbara 166 meters up. The castle was very cool and the views of the Alicante bay were absolutely amazing.

The next day we drove the 3 hours or so to Granada. The first thing we did was go to the Alhambra. It was more amazing than I had anticipated, because in addition to the incredible palace (similar to the one in Sevilla) it has some of the most stunning gardens I have seen in my entire life. There are roses everywhere of every kind, and super tall cypress, and beautiful flowers of every kind. I thought it was incredible. There are tons of pictures but I won't be able to upload them until I get home.

The other unexpected thing about the Alhambra besides the gardens is how HUGE it is. We were there nearly four hours exploring everything. So we did not leave until about 8:00 at night, just in time to find a bar to watch the Barcelona-Chelsea game. It was great getting to watch it with a big crowd of people. Barcelona scored in the second minute of injury time at the end of the game and the place erupted with cheering, my own included. It was just great.

After the game we wandered over to a Moroccan hole-in-the-wall for dinner. I was not all that impressed with the place, which was surrounded by creepy homeless guys. (As I waited to order, this guy on the ground next to me rubbed my leg--ugh!) It did have good lemonade though. There is an evident Islamic influence in Andalucia that is a really interesting complement to the Catholic Spanish heritage.

The next day was Thursday, so after spending the morning walking through the old part of the city to the cathedral, to the university and to the Alabaicin, or Arab quarter, we drove to Malaga, the city from which we caught our flight to England. Overall I had an excellent time, as I knew I would, and got to see more of Spain. It was a great farewell.