Swins 2010 2011 tour, where are we now?: Saturday 9th April 2011, Camp Reina Isabel, La Zubia, Granada. ( I think I'm falling under it's spell?)

Sierra Navada ski resort

(writing on Sunday and all pics are at the bottom)
Set off on Friday morning just about on time as planned, i.e. one hour late at 10:15 am. We (SWMBO) had previously decided that we would take the “pretty” route across the Gado and Navara mountains, she however would not drive so she could take in the scenery. I must admit it was scenery with a capital “S”, the Peak District in the UK? Eat your heart out.

So we (I) drove north out of El Parador toward Enix and Felix, (sounds like a couple of cats) on the A391 and then onto the A3040, both fairly minor roads but provided stupendous views. They are great motorcycling roads but that is in the past now, I'm afraid. The plan was to check out the three campsites in the Granada area to see if there were OK and also if they could be used, sometime in the future, to get the 5er on a suitable site.

Well we checked out two because the one in the actual city of Granada was basically impossible to get to as the city fathers have decided to rip up most the city roads for a new tram system and getting anywhere was a nightmare. The poor old GPS was having a nervous breakdown because a lot of the streets were closed and others were being used as one way but in a previous life had been one way, the “other” way. The traffic was horrendous and as we were foreign and therefore judged to be fair game, no one and I mean no one, would let us out at junctions.

Before that we had called in at Camp Altos, north east of Granada and as the name suggests it is rather high in the mountains, beautiful views but just too quiet and definitely no go for the 5er, also getting anywhere from it on a cycle would be beyond both our capabilities. So on to Granada as described above until we arrived at this campsite, Camp Reina Isabel, which is small, Moorish in style with a great restaurant, ACSI, and about 2 miles south east of Granada. Guess what the predominately nationality is here, yep, German, even the male receptionist was an Erick!

As it's ACSI it's €15/night inc. electric which makes it almost twice the price of Roquetas but as a base for getting to see Granada et al it's pretty near perfect. You could cycle in but the road does not have a cycle track and is rather busy, as a bus stops right outside the site, it's a no brainer. The facilities, showers, toilets are excellent but the fact that the only bar on site is closed for refurbishment is a bit of a bummer. There is a Dias (supermarket) only about a mile away so that's a quick drive/cycle for necessities like bags of ice for the beer and G&T's.

Speaking of which that's what we did last night, the last of the pies, vegetable soup, followed by cold beer and G&T's for SWMBO, while we watched Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford, no he was in it silly, one of our most favourite films.

So we spent our first night, since we were courting and her mother thought I slept in the car when we went to Cornwall, under canvas. OK we had nice airbeds and better sleeping bags but it was snug and we both slept soundly.

We are going to the Flamenco dancing tonight as SWMBO has so decreed, bus picks us up and 8:30 pm outside the camp and returns us around midnight, €28/head, dinner extra. Of course as I have only shorts and track suit bottoms, which are frowned upon, I will have to get a pair of decent trousers sometime today.

We were initially going to stay for a couple of days but it now looks like 4 or 5 nights as today is walk into La Zubia village (shops are open) and then down to Dias and the shopping mall and then Flamenco. Tomorrow is going to be a trip up to the Sierras, Monday shopping in Granada, Tuesday will be the long awaited visit to The Alhambra and probably leave for Cordoba on Wednesday. Now the camp sites have to be paid for in cash and as it's €3/day for Wi-Fi, which I'm loath to pay, I'll need to transfer some money from to bank on to my Caxton card or get hit with the stupid charges Nationwide now apply.

The camp is about ¾ full and and although the facilities are good they are not many and sometimes there are queues for the two washing up places so you have to wait, in your trap as it were and as soon as you see some kind of break in the traffic, make a run for it and elbow your way in. Of course if you are behind an Erick forget it as they will spread all their stuff to take up both positions.

Yesterday, when we arrived, it was 32°C and putting the tent up, hindered more than helped by SWMBO, was tiresome to say the least. She has obviously not cottoned on the concept of toggles and instead just tied all the tiebacks in knots, so what took me 15 minutes to do by myself took half an hour and lots of sweat with her “helping”. But then she came into her own. Tidying and finding places to put things and then when she found that the tent has an inbuilt shoe rack, she was almost overcome with ecstasy, and the next two hours was spent putting various items in said shoe rack, well anything but shoes. She then found two pouches in the bedroom of the tent and I had to bring her round with a wet tea towel.

I must admit the thought of packing this away, driving 100 miles to Cordoba and putting it all back up again is not something high on my list of enjoyable experiences.

Walked into the village and walked out again, that's about it really, not much to talk about, mind she still managed to take a million pictures.

Not quite as hot this afternoon and we decided to go and find me a pair of suitable trousers for the Flamenco, managed to get a pair of Chinos for €6, discounted at the Sol supermarket, result! OK they do not quite fit but I can just get them on and they'll be fine if I can lose about 5 kilos before 8:30pm, I will be taking my track bottoms for a quick change if things get iffy. Also got some food shopping in for Sunday, I think we are OK for B&W, so one less thing.

Went for a cycle ride along some tracks south of the camp site, I thought Tricia was following me and ended up about 4 miles away, turned round and she's not there, nobody told me about her, I can't wait until tomorrow, how can I know, nobody cares, I can't wait until she calls me, she's not there! If you are old enough you will recognise those lyrics, if not, too bad.

“Well no one told me about her the way she lied (always)
Well no one told me about her how many people cried
But it's too late to say you're sorry
How would I know why should I care
Please don't bother tryin' to find her
She's not there

Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked
The way she'd act and the colour of her hair (blonde)
Her voice was soft and cool
Her eyes were clear and bright
But she's not there”
“The Zoombies, Greatest hits”, 1974, “She's not There”.

Anyroadup, slight panic, has she fell in a nettled ditch? Abducted by a gang of Senegalese dark men? What about the camera, did she have it? All these thoughts rushed through my mind and quickly out again, as I cycled back and forth along all the tracks she may have taken. Got back to the site, she's not there, nobody......no, no, no, let's not start that again. Jumped in the car and drove back intending to cover all possible or probable routes she may have taken, found her as she was cycling endlessly round the shopping centre, she'd found her way home then.

A few tears from her and bruises around the head from me and instead of putting her bike in the back of the truck I told her to cycle back as I might scratch the Navara's paintwork with her cycle pedals, bless.

Dinner of chicken, potatoes, carrots, peppers and cauliflower, who said camping is a simple life?
So we went to the camp gate and low and behold the minibus turned up only 5 minutes late to take us to the Flamenco night, picked up some others on the way and we were finally herded to the pub/restaurant where it all took place. About a hundred people were in a long room with a small stage at the end of it.

Now the last time we had seen Flamenco was at Marjal campsite and involved a midget. This time it was the real thing and the three acts of 2 x 3 women and a bloke were I guess real Spanish. SWMBO took another thousand pictures and when I reached for the video it was sans battery, I'd left it in the car. Other thing was instead of Germans, this time it was Japanese and as soon as the dancers appeared everyone of them held up a camera, hundreds of them, all at once, bet none of them was a German Zeis, I hope our shot of them doing this comes out OK. 5 of the women dancers were pretty good and then the grandmother, who had to be 80 got up, mind she could play the castanets pretty damn good, a lost art I think.

The bloke looked as if he'd been on prozak for most of his life, gormless but loud would be my bet for him. Then a quick tour of the night time city sites, Alhambra at night was spectacular, and back to Ramone our maniac driver to get us back to La Zubia, if we survived because he drives like a mad man. You know in those American films when the guy is driving and he is talking to his passenger for about 30 seconds at a time, not looking at the road?

Well I can forgive that because having driven a lot in the States the roads are predominantly long, wide and straight. We were driving on narrow, winding, cobbled lane lanes in the middle of town with people on each side and he is talking to our female guide in the next seat and taking both hands off the wheel to remonstrate with her now and again, how he didn't decapitate the passers by with his wing mirrors I'll never know.

As it was approaching midnight we both had the thought of being locked out and sleeping rough, but this is Spain, I mean we were walking through the side street in Granada at 11:35 pm and people were just opening their menus in some of the kerbside restaurants.

We were told we would be dropped off back at the camp about midnight and began to immediately worry about being locked out, refer to the last sentence, this is Spain, stuff doesn't even start until then.
Back at the tent it was a couple of games of knock out seven, (me 2-0) G&T's and then bed, bit cooler tonight.

Sunday 10th April 2011, Granada CRI.

By God those air beds are comfortable thoughbut, both lay there until 9:15am and if it wasn't for the Germans AND French running around shouting at each other as they were packing up to leave, and the fact I was dying for a pee, I wouldn't have gotten up at all.
BTW if anyone is actually reading this it will probably be Friday 17th April as at €3/day for internet I cannot bring myself to cough up the money.

Looks like another sunny 30+ day and we plan to get the bus into Granada and then do the tour bus thing, perhaps get a break on the Alhambra tickets and pop into there for the afternoon session, who knows?

At the moment SWMBO is in her little heaven as she tidies things, moves stuff around so I can't find it anymore, sweeps out the tent and does some hand washing. All the time she's got this blissful smile on her face, most of the other site residents think she's away with the fairies, they'll never really know, I live with her and I don't.

The views from here are fantastic, the sheer magnificence of the snow capped Sierra Navada mountains looking down majestically on the city of Granada spread out below them, dominated itself by the historical Alhambra placed high at the north of the city. At night the mountains are picked out by the lights of the chalets and ski lifts projecting a hypnotic scene against the inky backdrop of a Andalusian night sky. By the cringe! Where the hell is all this coming from, mustn't be drinking enough and suffering from dehydration?

I mention earlier, that SWMBO likes at least two of everything, one for the wash, one to wear is her motto. So as we have only one bath towel each, mind I only use a large hand towel for my morning shower, but that didn't stop her from buying a couple more because we were “going on a trip”. I don't mean the big trip, I mean this little one to Granada and Cordoba.
So anyway I end up with a new black towel and you know what happens when you use them for the first time, even if they've already had a quick wash, yep, they don't dry you and they leave little bits of themselves all over your body. So I come out of the shower and I'm so covered with black dots that if this were the middle ages I would have been thrown on the nearest hand cart. I remember once coming back into the changing rooms after thrashing Alan Swan at squash and there's Gary Kent bending over, naked and picking at his, well, thingy I guess. “Er.....Gary, er...steady on, what are you doing man?” “New towel mate”. Enough said.

So, gets to 12 o'clock and we just manage to catch the 12 o'clock bus at 12:16 and after paying the princely sum of €1.30 the bus takes us into the centre of town. Armed with my €1 map purchased from the site shop, which at any other place is free, we quickly get lost looking for the biggest attraction in town, the Cathedral. After a few abortive turns and some swearing and shouting from SWMBO we find it and also the start for the city bus ride. Always worth doing these, a cheap way to get the main attractions of the city in your head to be able to plan to give them a real visit later in the day. Cheap! €18 each for a bloody bus ride! However, the ticket last for two days so we will be back tomorrow, no problemo matey.

Had some lunch which was a “racione” of Habas beans and cured ham, although it was marked as tapas at €1.50, a “racione”, which is what Tricia asked for or rather agreed to, means a full meal of them with a small baguette, so not €1.50, make that €11.50, how many beans to you get in a tapas, two?

Now SWMBO has been berating me about not walking much, but as my broken toes are now healed I mentioned that we should walk back, yeah right, 4 miles in 32°C, two hours and many detours later we arrived back at camp at 6:15pm and she is set to kill me and, “I'll not do that bloody walk again”! Now it's Sunday, so nothing is open shops wise to buy cold beer, ice etc. but just 1Km from home there is a Repsol station and I remembered that they all sell booze. I'm typing this at 6:45pm with 1 litre of San Miguel already under my belt with another one expected very soon, may be an early night and more to the point, no work tomorrow.

Just done the washing up and leaning against the Navara when this guy, who turns out to be called Tony, a nice guy, walks up asked me, in English, how long I was staying here. I was flabbergasted! First, he spoke English and have did he know I was English right off the bat? Took me a while as I'm probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer on occasions, to figure that standing next to an English registered car, chances are it gave him idea.

Poor bloke was just on holiday for 2 weeks in his 15 year old motorhome and was busily driving round Spain and Portugal seeing what sights he and his wife had time for.
Played Doms and I lost in the last game on the count, not a proper way to play. Bacon, cheese and veggies for me, remains of last night fro Tricia. Then watched most of Blade Runner with......by ourselves, accompanied by some some beer and a nice bottle of local wine, cast adrift to bed about 11:30pm.

Monday 11th April 2011. CRI and a slight change in plan.

Hello Mother, hello Father, here I am in, camp Granada, camp is really entertaining and I'm sure we'll have some fun when it stops raining.
Recognise that and you must be over 55.

The new consensus is, i.e. SWMBO has changed her mind (she got €200 for it as it had hardly been used) and we are now not going to Cordoba because, 1, all the packing and unpacking, 2, She wants to stay longer in Granada and 3, we just can't be arsed.

So today the great cycle tour of Granada (without the very steep hills) is planned where we will follow a tributary of the the Rio Genil and then follow the river itself up to the north of Granada, then across to the west and return. I personally think we will be lost after about half an hour so God knows where we may end up, I think I'll take the GPS. Honestly the problem is this bloody €1 map we got here it got something all cartographers would cringe at, a rolling scale. So everything at the bottom up the map is larger than those bits at the top, brilliant!

Stop press! Just had another conversation and all that above is going to happen tomorrow, not today as was my original suggestion, of course I am completely in the wrong and she had said this was the plan all along, stupid of me.

So it's bus in, see a few more sites then Red tour bus to the Alhambra and back.

Monday, later on.
6:65pm and we are back at camp. The original plan was Granada for the Alhambra and then Cordoba for a couple of nights, Cordoba now mealy a dream now and guess what? The bloody Alhambra is booked up for 4 days in advance and as we are not waiting until Friday, that's gone aswell. FFF'YFF. We got the 11 am bus at 11:08am and it was decided to walk up, and the operative word is up, to Albaicin, the old Moorish part of town on the hill where we were shown on our evening walk as part of the Flamenco night, full of cobbled street and SWMBO had visions of small narrow streets filled with little nicknack shops. Plenty of the streets but very little of the shops, I heard my wallet practically singing in my pocket.

On the way up she kept on wanting to go to the loo every 10 minutes, it was like having a small child with me. Got to the top and stopped for a coffee and it took ages for the guy to bring the bill after repeated requests, so I left €2.80 on the table and left, normal a coffee is about €1.20, so OK and a bit of a tip. Walked away and “Señor, Señor!” Called me back because I was 20 cents short, stupid bastid. Found St Nicholas church at the top for the view in daylight.

The night view yesterday was better but then most things look nicer at night, if I'd bared my bum and stuck a lighted candle in it at half past ten in the evening, that would probably look better than a daylight version, do you think?

Back down into town to catch the Red Bus up to the Alhambra for the disappointing news and then back on the bus back down again. Luckily the €18 ticket was good for two days, one less thing.
Tricia wanted to visit a park and perhaps take in the Science park, so it was back on the free bus and we got off 6 stops later for coffee cake and a stroll round the park, the Science park was of course closed. The it was “That bloody walk” again, must be getting fit.

Back to Dias to load up on BAW and then dinner, cribbage, me, and “Groundhog day”, well half of it until SWMBO fell asleep. During the night I heard some rustling (for me to hear anything while I'm sleeping is highly unusual as I could normally sleep through an earthquake) in the front of the tent, anyway it's a bloody cat nibbling at our food!

Didn't the cats, they're all over the place and of course when SWMBO decides to feed them with some choice bits of salmon, which I warned her about and got “Stop being so cruel”. So what do the said cats think, must be food in there! Thing is they ate some of the speciality bread that SWMBO had just bought from Dias for a picnic on Tuesday, so now it's “If I see one of those little bastids I'm going to shoot it with my air gun”. Don't mess with SWMBO's food.

Tuesday 12th April 2011, CRI and the plan is a drive up to the Sierra Navada, as sierra means mountains I'm not putting that in, it's like saying Boutique Shop. Then a bike ride along the river tracks and an “expensive” meal at the renowned camp restaurant.

The run up the mountains was spectacular, just look at the pictures, no commentary needed.
By the time we got back, we left late to start with, it was 4pm so the bike ride was chucked. She was feeling tired and had a lie down and said was was not bothered about eating tonight? EH?
Oh forgot to mention it. As we ere driving away the bloody cats suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to get into the tent!

We covered the entrance with smelly insect spray and that kept them out, although one did try again last night.

Eventually we wondered up to La Zubia village and found this great unpretentious, I mean what does the word mean? Using it is pretentious in itself for God's sake! So we went into this small Spanish cafeteria and had a fantastic four course meal of mainly fish and king prawns, BAW and she absolutely shovelled it down, most of my bits aswell. “I was a bit peckish after all!” Peckish, peckish! She very nearly ate the tablecloth, Hells teeth!

Tent, rest of “Groundhog day” with Phil Murry, no he was in it silly, bottle of Spain's finest €3 vino, care of Dias and bed, well airbed and sleeping bag. The only real problem is getting out of them and standing up in the morning. When I was 20 and doing this, jump out of bed no probs and on with the day, now struggle out of sleeping bag and spend 5 minutes trying to get off my knees and onto my feet, it's just too hard.

Wednesday 13th April 2011 and bye, bye CRI.

Up at 6 bloody 30 because those flaming cats tried to get in again at 5 am and I couldn't sleep in case they got in and, and, well I don't know, perhaps started reading my Kindle or logging on to the internet, I don't know, but I couldn't get back to sleep on the strength of it.
Said this before and it's still true; “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function”.

So managed to make enough noise and by 8am she up, “What's for breakfast, is the tea on?” Makes my romantic heart all a flutter.

SWMBO drools in her sleep, mentioned it before I know, but last night she forgot to brush her teeth and had ate a bag of liquorice, her pillow was practically black this morning.
So both up and two hours later we are all packed up and both are knackered, it's quicker packing the 5er! Then back “the pretty” route again, and it was. Do you know in 4 days she has taken over 500 pictures and 9 videos, who does she think she is Spielberg? The 93 miles took 5 hours because the ups and downs and twisty bits were mostly done at 25 mph with the constant click of the bloody camera and “STOP! STOP! Go back, I've just seen a mountain goat!” “Did you get his good side?” was met with a clout round the ear.

So we are now back in the MS, it's 8pm and 21°C and I'm typing this while she is “naming” all the photos( mountains 1, mountains 2.........mountains 375), don't accept an invite to dinner any time soon, also, don't think there will be Doms tonight.

Thursday 14th April 2011, RDM and now we are back it's wash day.

Good thing is she wants to use the machine in reception block and as there's hardly anyone here, no queues, one less thing.
Last night it was “Gatica” and we are running out of things to watch.