Road trippin' to Granada

Hola again from Spain!

After holding off on a new post last week, I've got lots of stuff to share this week!  A week ago we spent lots of time working, with a couple of days trips to Cadiz and Zahara thrown in... Then we've spent the last 5 days on the road in Granada and Jaen a couple of hours to the northeast of us here in Estepona. Granada is the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain (falling to Isabella & Ferdinand in 1492), and home of all of the political and religious institutions in the region at the castle and palace complex of the Alhambra. After spending two days in Granada, I rode my bike 70 miles north to Jaen, where I met back up with Norma who had driven up and checked into the local Parador :-). Jaen is the Olive Capitol of Spain (and effectively in the world), with the landscape dominated by vast groves of olives carpeting all but the most rugged mountain slopes.

So... A few details about out trips! First, we spent a day in Cadiz, the historic home of Spain's Navy since the time of Columbus.  The old walled city is essentially still intact, with narrow, winding medieval streets, as well as renaissance era plazas and merchant palaces,

and one of the grander cathedrals we've been in too.There's even a remarkably complete Roman theatre that's been unearthed as an archeologic exhibit in the middle of the old city. Here's a sketch of the cathedral... 

Later in the week we drove up into the mountains north of us to visit two exceptional examples of the region's "Pueblos Blancos," or white towns- Zahara and Grazelama.  Each is a beautiful example of densely arranged, white-washed stone buildings sited for their naturally defensive topography. 

Absolutely gorgeous places, and great for sketching too!

Next was our big trip to Granada and Jaen. This past Monday we drove the roughly 3 hours northwesy to Granada, and settled into a greatly little hotel downtown. We spent most of Tuesday wandering the Alhambra complex on the hill adjacent to the city center. The Alhambra is a wonderful mix of military citadel, Moorish palace, renaissance era palaces and monestaries, and Moorish gardens... All spread across about 50 acres of land on a bluff overlooking the city, and surrounded by either cliffs or the still existing 12th century fortification walls. Amazing!

On Wednesday, Norma drove up and checked us into the Parador de Jaen, one of Spain's network of historic properties adaptively reused as premium hotels.  This one is in a 13th century Moorish fortress on a bluff overlooking the city of Jaen, about 70 miles north of Granada.  While Norma settled into our very cool room (with a view!) and did some "remote" work, I rode my bike up through the millions of acres of olive groves and over the Sierra de Jaen Sur to Jaen-- a fantastic ride with gorgous scenery!  

On Thursday, after a great beakfast at the Parador, we drove out to the rennaisance era city of Baeza, about 20 miles northeast of Jaen.  Baeza is a UNESCO World Heritage site renounced for its architecture & urban design (I am here on sabbatical, and I really am working while wandering around the landscape!).  In addition, we booked a tour of an olive oil production facility to get a bit better idea of where all these olives go--- there are litterally millions of acres of olives here!  The tour (and tasting of olive oil) was facinating, and made some of the economics of the local landscape much more apparent.  The olive industry is deeply rooted here, and accounts for approximately 40% of the world's olive oil production-- and it is very time and labor intensive, but still remakably sustainble in such an arid landscape.

After our tour, we had lunch in Baeza, and then drove another 10 miles to Baeza's twin city Ubeda, also a World Heritage listed site.  Both Baeza and Ubeda were well worth the visit, particularly for someone like me with a keen interest in the history of urban design.  Each incorporated many of the urban design ideas developed in rennaisance Italy and heralding back to Roman & Greek precedents (particularly formally organized public plazas focusing on major public and religious buildings). 

On Friday, we spent the morning exploring the old city of Jaen, including some incredible Arab baths thatveere still in active use until the 19th century...

after that, we  returned to Estepona by way of La Herredura, a small costal town that is reminicent of the central California coast... 

So... That's about it for a bit, as I need to get back to sketching ;-)

Cheers!