Vantastic Voyage

We left Ana’s friends house the morning of the 2nd after we had some time to catch up on some sleep and clean her house before heading out. We had a nice send off from Ana and her family and as we drove away we were blown kisses and waves by Ana and her mother from outside their apartment windows. We were Madrid bound and managed to make it there by nightfall on a Saturday. The beauty about rolling into a city on a Saturday night is threefold. First, you don’t have to pay for parking if you don’t get in too early. Second, since every city I have ever been to does not require you to pay for parking on Sunday, you can sleep in and not worry about getting a ticket or being towed. Lastly, it’s Saturday night in the city, so it’s always lively, all places are open later, and the vibrance adds to your enjoyment of the place when you are ballin’ on a budget (which we very much are).

San Jeronimo el Real in Madrid, Spain

 

Museum of Ham – Madrid, Spain

El Retiro – Jardines del Buen Retiro de Madrid

Toledo, Spain

This particular night we did not do too much exploring as we were still out of whack from our into the morning New Years celebration festivities. We woke up the next morning and found that we were sleeping outside of a huge park which we had wanted to see and conveniently just near the entrance to a library that had some nice bathrooms. We spent the day in Madrid and managed to visit a decent portion of the city. While not as densely populated as NYC, there was a striking resemblance to the number of options you had for eating and shopping throughout the areas we walked. To me it was mind numbing and I struggled to understand how all of the businesses are able to survive. I have had this feeling before when traveling to different places and being overwhelmed by the selection, but underwhelmed by their offers, prices and ambiance. I can’t help but think that many of these shops and eateries we pass would not be there long after we leave. I’m sure there are some insightful statistics out there that would answer this mystery in my mind.

My favorite thing in Madrid, the Ham Museum (Museo de Jamon)…guilty. This chain of bar/restaurants throughout the city had me beside myself with their 90 cent ice cold beers and tasty 1 Euro cured ham and cheese sandwiches. They threw us plates of smaller ham sandwiches and sliced chorizo just for buying beer. This I feared would cause alcoholism and obesity for me if available on a daily basis. There are many things to do and see in Madrid as both a tourist and a resident, it was a very beautiful city. For the Ham Museum to rouse the most excitement in me has led to a realization or two.

 It was on to Cordoba thereafter and just before reaching the city we stopped at a small garage in a random town along the way. Asking if they were open and explaining our problem with one of our tires that has not retained air, led the young apprentice to directing us to drive in the garage for a look. An hour later, we had a properly repaired tire and nearly complete tire rotation for 20 Euro. Cordoba was also beautiful and the day ended by heading to the outskirts to check out some ruins before moving towards Granada. We approached the ticket counter after hiking up the hill and heard a chicken clucking just inside the entrance, which we would find out moments later while rounding the corner that it was the worker practicing his clucking quite intensely. He looked at us with surprise as we snuck up on him and we found it quite amusing. He informed us that the site just closed minutes before and would be the next day as it was a national holiday. He recommended we see a couple of cities on our way to Granada – Baena and two villages Zueros and Luque and that we did. We would head to Baena that night and upon reaching it, we would soon enter a labyrinth we would desperately be seeking an exit for.

Roman Bridge of Cordoba

Catedral Mezquita De Cordoba

Streets of Cordoba

Cordoba, Spain

Somewhere in Spain
As we pulled into the edge of the city, there lay a field of tightly packed white walled houses with brown tiled roofs that ascended with the natural landscape to the hills’ peak. Drawn in by the well lit city and curiosity to find a good spot to park for the night, we headed deeper into the belly of the beast we would soon discover we were in. The streets were old, tight and options were very limited as you started to climb the hill. Mac is 2.5 meters high and 2 meters wide. We chose the path to ascend when there was a choice in the road before us. We realized later that our options became fewer and fewer. It was like reading one of those choose your own ending books – flip to page 117 if you want to press forward, page 84 if you want to turn back. Except there was no way to turn back, we had to press on and up the hill. The streets seemed to narrow as the tension was building from the steepening incline of the landscape and pressure from locals driving behind us to move our asses forward. Though Mac climbs slow, especially on a steep hill, we would not have been able to muster the power in 2nd gear up these streets, nor would that been a comfortable speed if we had that kind of power. We were completely entrenched in the hillside with little to no options and no visibility to where we were going. There was no place to pull over and let others pass or to gather our thoughts, get our bering and look at a map to see where the hell we were headed. We crept along the path eventually losing the ability to chose a direction either because there was none or that the only other option available was an impossible turn or that it was simply too narrow for Mac to squeeze into. We had to pull our mirrors in and sneak between cars parked half way on the small sidewalk and halfway into the thin alleys without scraping our car along the wall on the other side. Nerves were already high, arguably with Ratha more than me at that point, when we were faced with a car coming down the tight and steep alleyway as we were trying to reach it’s crest. Behind the oncoming car there was another car, a hairpin turn up the hill to the left and another narrow alleyway to the right that a car was trying to squeeze out of and behind the oncoming vehicle. We had nowhere to go and cars up our ass. We stopped and they were backing up ever so slightly as to open a gap to the alleyway to the right. The small car that had been waiting to squeeze through nearly hit the oncoming car as they just snuck behind them. We pushed forward up the crest and swung the car to the right which we then discovered was a steep descent. The van was too long and could not make the turn. We were on the edge of and ascending and descending hill doing tiny reverse and quickly shifting into first gear again to edge ourselves safely through the passage. The tension and stress were high at that moment and the pressure was mounting from the cars waiting for us to slip through. With Ratha providing the last confirmation that Mac’s rear passenger side was clear of the wall to the right, we made it over the hump and down into the alley. We were desperate to get the hell out of there and with our gears doing most of the work and our now desperately needed and useful brakes, we slipped around some more tight turns, through more narrow alleyways and out the other side of the mountain where we had entered the city with sighs of relief. Intense.

Narrow street in Baena 

Baena, Spain
We managed to find a spot on the edge of town where we had previously entered and slept there for the night. Spaghetti and wine were in order and we were pleased to run into a parade for the town the next morning after sleeping in. Had we not run into our little escapade on the hill and found a level spot in the city center, we were confident it would have been smack in the middle of the parade that would have caught us by surprise. This parade did actually occur and it was nice to have the ability to walk to it instead of wake up inside of it.

 We since have worked our way to Granada, met a nice French couple and a guy from England named Dave with his dog Arthur. The night we met would be the second night we would sleep above the city in a national park, the first night we would be woken up by officials at 2AM telling us to leave. We were also told to remove the fire we had set earlier, but were able to strike up another one with success two days later in Santa Fe. We visited the city of Granada and also spent a half day in Sierra Nevada, later to find out that we were driving atop Europe’s highest roadway. The three of us were happy to hear Mac’s accomplishment (Mac was equally astonished by the feat). We had some great opportunities for some Maction shots (Maction = Mac in action) which we hope you enjoy.

Granada, Spain

Zuheros, Spain

Hanging out in the french couples van.

Alhambra – Granada, Spain

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada 

Campfire in Santa Fe, Granada

 We were then in search of a mysterious hot spring Dave had mentioned in passing but had not gone to himself in Santa Fe. We were unable to locate it the night we left Granada (7 minutes away) and were lucky enough to run into a car of local old men who told us to follow them down a series of unmarked dirt roads before hitting a fork and follow their waiving arms to the right. What we would find is an abandoned olive tree farm that was littered with vans, trash and a couple of people who never left the area after arriving over two years ago. Some might call them hippies, I am not quite sure as we didn’t interact with them, but the constant pounding of music from a genre I am unable to quickly locate on the internet threw me off. A constant boom boom boom boom boom pause… computer noises….boom boom boom boom boom…. All day. All night. We contemplated what activities could be done under that kind of condition, being surrounded by blaring sound that did not deviate from the aforementioned example. I think Ratha’s facial expression that looked like she had completely checked out from planet earth may have been the most likely scenario. It was an interesting scene where we found 3 pools, some awesome waterfalls we indulged in, local families, a good number of nudes, mountain bikers and dirt bike enthusiasts. There were a couple of vans that pulled in that appeared to have stages that popped out of their monster vehicles, ready for an endless trance party. Luckily, the only one that was playing music at all throughout the night would be the individual playing the mind numbing sounds from the crude living quarters he had established. Our highlight of human interaction here would be on arrival, when we met a nice young Polish couple that gave us some resources for free camping in Europe (www.furgoperfecta.com). They were driving one of the few VW LT’s we have seen thus far and they seem to be a bit of a rarity at the moment. Their’s is an 85’ which they painted themselves that they named Le Tigre. Mac was in good company.

Santa Fe – Granada

Hot Springs in Santa Fe

Le Tigre and Mac

Feeling a bit cleaner after the hot springs. 

We decided to press on to El Chorro, Spain and got our first bit of internet in 8 days. This area has numerous rock climbing routes, via ferrata and is a beautiful and sunny place to me the majority of the year. We are at our first paid stay here at The Olive Branch, where Magnus and I stopped but didn’t stay our last time through in June. The owners are a family who have moved here from the UK and set up a nice and cozy operation offering camping (tents available), van camping, and rooms. They have a pool and offer 2 optional meals for a good price. This stay set us back 7 Euros each per night and dinners are 8 Euros per night. It’s been 8 days since a shower, Ratha was pleased to have one, as was I, but the sulfur bath took away from the satisfaction of a shower a bit I will admit. Time is moving a bit quickly and Morocco is calling our names. Hopefully we can get a little climbing in if the weather holds tomorrow.