Saturday, April 18, 2015

Nerja, Spain

Day 3, 4 and 5

Well, with all signs of jet lag out of the way
and a new found appreciation for the Spanish lifestyle
we packed up the car and headed to Nerja.

The drive kept us all pretty quiet.
I am sure we were obvious tourists to passing cars,
with all of us so busy wrenching our necks from one side to the other...
"oohing and aahing" 
at all the beautiful landscapes that seemed to appear like magic at every turn in the road.

The road to Nerja is one of mountains,
olive trees as far as the eye can see,
and bridges upon bridges linking up the rugged terrain.
Stunning!

Nerja, which is apparently a holiday destination for people from a variety of countries
is very much about beach, food and relaxing.
We also quickly realized that the place we had rented on VRBO
was part of a complex that consists probably of vacation-only properties.
And we learned that they rarely rent out for such a short stay
so were not quite prepared for some of the amenities lacking in the apartment.

But, all part of the road trip travel mentality!!
You just ....figure it out and deal.

Nerja, Spain

We were so enamoured by our drive from Granada that we did not really put the pedal to the metal
so we arrived towards the end of the afternoon.

We had already planned on cooking our own meal with some local foods
and enjoying dinner on our large and lovely terrace with a nice bottle of local Spanish red.



Plus this was our first opportunity to buy up some of those FABULOUS tomatoes...
green and red, somewhat striped and oh sooooo sweet and delicious!!
We had a feast of tomato and zucchini ribbon salad, fresh bread and roasted chicken!

It was such a nice change to sit under the open sky and eat our lovely meal
sipping some incredibly cheap but delicious Spanish wine.


The view was appreciated and the solitude was quite nice after our busy few days in Granada.
The weather was not beach-worthy weather but we were okay with that since we were not parked in this location for long and had no intention of handing over our very white Canadian bodies to the spanish sun.




The walk down to the beach was a short pleasant path through beautiful gardens.
Of course the girls adopted a "leg-up" pose for photos,
something we saw many young girls doing at the Alhambra when posing. :)
Why not?


So, make note of three Canadians walking with sweaters and coats
and the two on the left who were actually Europeans in bathing suits....
hmmm....I had been told that you should not wear sandals unless you want to be spotted as a tourist.
I wonder about the bathing suits?

Oh, and the beach is a stone beach but the stones are these beautifully polished and worn down stones that are so soft to walk on and incredibly smooth.
Of course I collected a handful to add in to my pottery that I knew I would be buying when we left Nerja. (you will have to wait to see that)

So, Nerja is home to some famous and amazing caves that were discovered by 5 boys in 1959.
One of those "boys" opened up an open-air restaurant named Ayo's on Burriana Beach
which was located just below us.
His specialty?    Paella, of course.

It was such a fabulous spot to stop for lunch!
We all loved it, cheap and the Spanish version of all you can eat for 6.50 Euros.

As I mentioned earlier, Nerja is home to spectacular caves.


I placed an arrow in the far right image so you could get a sense of scale.
That was a person viewing the caves from a higher landing.
In the middle is Andy, happy to step in for a photo "op" given that the girls were getting most of the camera time. :)


The caverns apparently stretch for approximately 5 kms
and are all basically made up of giant stalactite and stalagmites.

It is a beautiful testimony to the the statement  Nature is the Best Artist.

We held on to these images as we piled back in the car and buckled up on our way
to Alicante....
We were also looking forward to our planned stop in the small village of Nijar.
In Nijar the girls had big plans to purchase some pottery to bring back with us....
Andy was just hoping there would be a good spot to park himself for some serious people watching.

See you in Nijar!!!

8 comments:

  1. Nerja looks and sounds amazing. No wonder so many Irish couples get married there!

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  2. Breathtaking!
    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. It looks fabulous Donna! The caves are so gorgeous and your accommodations look very nice. It's a beautiful place to visit.

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  4. It amazingly beautiful how those white buildings look. You were so brave to drive! We drove in England and that was scary, so I liked that we were able to go so many places in Italy by train.

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  5. The view was fabulous, I'm amazed you were able to visit and leave the patio!

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  6. I can only imagine what it must look like in person. That first image I could just camp myself in for weeks! So glad you had such a wonderful time seeing your daughter and Spain. xxo

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  7. Lovely, Donna. The hillside of white buildings is enchanting. I especially like how you captured it in the evening. Something one doesn't see often, but which is very interesting. You all look like you're having a great time. Wonderful memories you're creating. Hugs, Nancy

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  8. Lovely day and night views of beautiful whitewashed Spanish buildings, I'm envious once again.
    My friends have driven quite often from here to Southern Spain, a journey I would love to make someday. I was tickled by the comment above about being scared of driving in England, there are much more hairy routes in Spain and Italy.

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