This part of the journey was reminder of just how big Spain is as we motored for mile after mile without meeting any other traffic or without passing through towns or villages. The road just kept grinding endlessly on in an easterly direction in a way that reminded me of the tortuous journey through Andalusia in a clapped out Ford Escort in 1986.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Almagro, Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Culture, Extremadura, Life, Olives, Spain, Trujillo
Sixty years ago Benidorm, although not a fishing village as such, was still a modest beach side community, a place of sailors, fishermen and farmers who patiently tended almond, olive, carob and citrus trees. Early visitors would have looked out over a double crescent of virgin golden sand and rolling dunes that stretched out in both directions from a rocky outcrop that divided the two beaches where Benidorm castle is believed to have once stood.
Hopefully we are on the countdown to overseas travel but until that happy event happens I continue to trawl through the archives. On 16th May 2006 I was on a golfing holiday in Spain…
We were staying on a modern holiday complex and we got chatting to the man next door.
He introduced us to the hierarchy of Spanish property ownership; first of all there are the owners and they are top of the pile, and then below them are the guests, these are the people who are using the apartments as friends of the owners and this is where we fitted in, and right at the bottom (actually some way at the bottom) are the renters, who are common people who can’t afford overseas property investments and don’t have friends who can either.
Posted in Beaches, Europe, History, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged British ex-pats in Spain, Costa Blanca, Dehesa de Campoamor, La Zenia, Spain, Torrevieja, Villamartin
When it comes to taking pictures I like doors, statues, balconies and washing lines, Kim on the other hand likes people pictures so I thought I might share a few of them with you.
This one was taken in the delightful Spanish town of Almagro in Andalusia. Two ladies taking an evening stroll and had clearly forgotten their sunglasses…
Posted in Europe, History, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Almagro, Avila, Caceres, Chinchon, Ciudad Rodrigo, Cuenca, Flamenco Dancing, Madrid, Mérida, Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Santiago de Compostella, Segovia, Seville, Spain, Toledo, Trujillo
We set off and it soon became clear why we needed both precision and good fortune because if we had thought that the previous street had been narrow this one made it look like a six lane highway!
First of all it was necessary to negotiate a dog leg gate that was barely wider than the car and we all had to collectively breathe in so that we could squeeze through and after that the street narrowed down still further and I needed delicate keyhole surgery skills to manoeuvre through 90º bends and past carelessly parked cars and iron bollards strategically placed to impede progress at every turn.
Posted in Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Carmona, Culture, Europe, Life, Motoring, Photography, Spain, Travel, Travel and tagged Andalusia
Even though travel restrictions are easing I am not yet minded to risk it so I still have no new stories to post so I continue to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
In October 1977 I was in Benidorm on the Costa Blanca in Spain. I know that it was October but to be honest I cannot be entirely specific about the date so I have just chosen one at random.
Posted in Beaches, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Alicante, Benidorm, Benidorm in the 1970s, Costa Blanca, Don Juan Benidorm, Freddie Laker, Los Pelicanos, Spain
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 5th May 2011 we were in the Spanish town of Trujillo which I am happy to declare one of my favourites in all of Spain.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Extremadura, Francesco Pizzaro, Hérnan Cortés, Lima, Mexico, Peru, South America, Spain, Spanish Empire, Trujillo
In the first few years of the 1960s, in the days just before and then during the Freddie Laker days of early package holidays, my grandparents visited Benidorm in Spain several times.
For people from London who had lived through the Luftwaffe blitz of the 1940s and the killer smog of the 1950s they applied for passports (which was practically unheard of for ordinary people) and set out with pale complexions on an overseas adventure and returned home with healthy Mediterranean suntans and duty free alcohol and cigarettes.
or
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Childhood, Europe, Food, History, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Barmeston Road Catford, Benidorm, Benidorm postcards, British European Airways, Costa Blanca, Freddie Laker, Horizon Holidays, London Transport, Robertsons Jam, Spain, Valencia, Vickers Vanguard, Vladimir Raitz
Almagro is an old town that was once much more important than it is today, two hundred and fifty years ago it was for a short time the provincial capital of La Mancha (1750-61) but religious decline set in during the reign of Charles III and it fared badly and suffered damage in the Napoleonic and the Carlist wars.
Eventually it was eclipsed by its neighbour Ciudad Real and it settled down to become the quiet provincial town that it is today on, not being unkind, a secondary, less important, tourist trail. We came upon Almagro quite by chance and chose it for a one night stop-over. We stayed for three!
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Almagro, Castilla-La Mancha, Postcards, Spain, Spain UNESCO
Finding a castle to visit is not difficult in Spain because, according to the Official Tourist Board there just about two thousand five hundred. For comparison there are eight hundred in the United Kingdom and whilst France claims roughly five-thousand this figure includes a lot of questionable small Chateaux in that number.
My blogging Pal Brian has some interesting observations on French Chateaux and I think you might be interested to visit this post and then more of his site…
Chateau Saumur … a love-hate experience!
When or if you come back click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
Posted in Europe, History, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Atienza, Avila, Belmonte, Cathedrals, Consuegra, Europe, History, Jadraque, Literature, Manzanares El Real, Sigüenza, Spain, Spain Castles, The Castillo de Almodóvar, Torija Castle, Travel, World Heritage and tagged Alicante
Have Bag, Will Travel 