So, Spain....I have raced here, passed through, flown over, but never travelled and experienced the sights, sounds, smells, culture, sangria, paella.......bulls balls and inticacies of this beautiful country.......I was long overdue a taster!!
My travelling partner for the duration was a bit of a let down to be fair, I felt like I was tailing in an unspontaneous workaholic....which in all honesty, I was. But never the less, I tried to get around and see as much as is humanly possible in the duration of the week and enrich both our lives and senses completely.
We landed in Malaga, spent the first night there absorbing the Easter madness in the city before heading to the Picasso museum bright and early on the first day. In the afternoon, we headed due north east to Ronda, an ancient wee town, made famous for it's bull ring and ancient connecting bridges. Man this place was sweet......again, I was desperate to see a bull fight (when in Rome and all that) as it was the start fo the season. I just wanted to hurl myself into everything traditionally Spanish, but my travelling partner prefered to keep his sights firmly in his narrow box....so far dink-um on that score....I settled for a magical tour of the bull ring and let my imagination go wild!
Onwards to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.....a little altitude and two amazing nestlings in the mountains called Pampeniera and Capileira. These little villages were the epitamy of Spanish tranquility, small white houses with tiny terracotta tiling perched on the side of some of the most beautiful basin like surrounds in the world. We unpacked our bikes and hit the trails. I had been told a heap about the trails in Spain and all the whispers were true...this terrain aint like no other, it's red, like the dessert and rocky central. 
In the heat of the day, I didn't take to happily to the climbs, but some of the descents were wicky wicky wild wild west!! The one thing I will rememebr about these villages are the rugs, the beautiful viubrant rugs that the locals made, if only I had more room in my travel bag!!
In the heat of the day, I didn't take to happily to the climbs, but some of the descents were wicky wicky wild wild west!! The one thing I will rememebr about these villages are the rugs, the beautiful viubrant rugs that the locals made, if only I had more room in my travel bag!!
So, with the mountains behind us, we headed to Granada. I was so excited to see the actual Sierra Nevada resort, as this was once the host to a World Cup. Unfortunatly, at this point, me and my now certifiably boring travel partner had fallen out, he wasn't dealing too well with being away from work- his distinct lack of spacial awareness had lead him to stoving our hire car into a bollard (at a hefty cost), he had fallen asleep at the dinner table one evening and puked his guts up for the duration of another evening which could be attributed to a weak immune system - probably stemming directly from his lack of eating pretty much everything outwith his key safe foods - to add to that he was transfixed on his blackberry inbetween blinks. How someone can prefer looking at a mobile phone screen instead of enjoying and absorbing vibrant abd beautiful surroundings is completely beyond me. Anyway, it was really starting to wear thin by this point....so I just cruised the resport by myself and boy am I glad I did. It was minus a million degrees and snowing...but it had the air of a cool place about it for sure!
On the second to last day, we hit Seville. We toured the famous bull ring and finally got more than a large whiff of Sangria! About time too.....in the midst of the Easter celebrations, the city was ALIVE! And so was I...totally buzzing from the sun and colour and music. This is a heftily rad city and one which I will revisit for sure WITHOUT my dull travel partner!!
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