The Sensory Excursion

Yikes... that was a long time to wait for internet access! Just not all that available in the places we´ve been -- which mainly consisted of small towns hanging off the sides of mountains accessed by narrow mountain roads described in one guide as ´¨slithering¨ along the sides of mountains... Tell me, would you want to drive on a road described as slithering? Yeah, me neither and I was in constant danger of swallowing my lips each time I sucked my breath in as we rounded a hairpin turn. But that´s a thing of the past. Now it´s: hey, no guardrail? eh, whatever...

The towns themselves are -- well here I am, already, lacking a good enough word to sum up, as if one good word could ever do it, comfortable rooms with down comforters (it´s cold up there) and meals including wild mushrooms and nutmeg dusted crocquets and fine wines and dozens if not hundreds of tapas -- and the village fountain, all exquisitely tiled and water the best I´ve had in a long long time...

But let me tell you about the Spring flowers! Scarlet poppies exclaiming along the roadsides, in almond orchards and meadows, in billows of wild borage and magenta and purple somethings... I decided they´re saying NOW! And then there are the bowers and cascades, the mounds and blankets, banks and billows and sprays of every shade of yellow flowers -- even a bright yellow thistle I´ve never seen before... And a wild oregano with a sky blue flower...

And I saw a bird that, if I only saw one bird in Spain this would be the one I´d want to see -- and I didn´t even know there was such a bird in all the world! Large, it is, with vividly striped black and white wings and an orange belly and chest -- a long curved bill and a crested head... I have to call it the oompa loompa bird because I can´t think of its name, though... the Spanish name is Abubilla... I have it written down in my journal... It flew up right in front of our car (on one of those above described mountain roads) -- a bit of weaving ensued...

We had really good gelato twice today in different towns... And no ham... no pork products at all... Yesterday we had pork for all three meals -- it´s a way of life here and fairly unavoidable... I remembered the ham sandwiches for breakfast from my last trip here and the comida del dia at lunch is usually pork something... and all the tapas... but then there are the fine wines... I like to think of it as balance... Oh, and with the ham sandwiches for breakfast are huge glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice and ohmygod the best coffee... Yes, balance for sure...

A couple more days here on the coast then we turn the car in and take the train to Granada for the rest of the trip... Well, train to Madrid and spend the night there and then fly home from there on Wednesday the 15... It´s all going fast -- it´s all going slow -- time has no meaning...