October 6, 2010

Well, being here could be the best of both worlds! I’m watching British TV and touring interesting country…off the beaten track…ALWAYS managing to find another “road not taken” (by many).…

Yesterday I went over to the city of Lorca, which is an easy forty minutes away. My French friends had been there and gave me some helpful hints about parking and getting around. The GPs did get me to my selected location, so I easily found parking. At the TI I learned that the archaeological museum (my first choice to stop at) is closed until November. Right next door I popped into San Mateo church right there, but there was a service, so I kept exploring. The TI was actually in the Casa de Guevara o de las Columnas, but to see this wonderful old Palace, I had to enter by the front door. The TI info says that the palace, built in the 17th century, represents one of the best examples of Lorca’s civil Baroque architecture. Only the first floor was open, as well as a side room which contains the fittings of an old pharmacy, so that was interesting. Some of the artifacts were an old IV bottle and a sterilizer for needles, etc.

Also nearby was the Artisan Center with a variety of interesting crafts from all over Murcia. There was a lot of pottery, so, of course, I took lots of pictures there! The prices were quite reasonable, so it is a good thing that I have three more Ryanair flights, or I would have been tempted to buy something.

High about the city is the Lorca Castle, called the “Fortress of the Sun”. Luckily Anne and Daniel had told me it was a challenging walk; there is parking up there, so off I went. Well, the road WAS another challenge…tight and narrow. It is usually one way, but they are doing work on the exit road, so a few cars did pass me. The castle was declared a Historical and Artistic Monument in 1931. It has been very well maintained and/or renovated! “For centuries it was the border between Muslims and Christians. In fact, the old cistern has become a small museum about the religions in the area.

There were not many people there, so it was really delightful to walk around and see it all. There were actually two separate towers on either side of the Castle. Other points included information on the water system, the Alchemist area, and the bakery. The bakery was found in 2000, and they renovated one to what it was, and the other is as they were found. I thoroughly enjoyed it all! To exit, I opted for a dirt road I had noticed over to the side. Once I got down, it took some time to find the road back, but at least no one pushed me off to the side of the little narrow road up!

On Thursday Karen arrived at the Alicante airport after a long trip via Denver and DC airports to Madrid with ten hours airport waiting time. We stopped in Lorca at the artisan shop to pick up a vase for Kathy’s birthday.

On Friday, we did some errands (gas, cake at market, etc.). In the afternoon we decided to go the beach, but UNFORTUNATELY we weren’t in the water ten minutes when Karen was stung by a jelly fish (medusa in espagnol)! We got out asap-well, actually, I was out first splashing and trying to scare off any other nasty critters, because I wanted to scare off the critter! We stopped by Jean’s as we were told that she is the “go to” person for misc. supplies, and her granddaughter had been stung. She scraped the bite hard with a credit card, and luckily got one of the stingers out, which made it much easier for Karen, who was in a lot of pain (like a 100 bees, she said!). We got home, and minutes later Kathy next door came in with her mobile. She had already heard the news and ended up calling Victor, the pharmacist, to get advice on the best thing for Karen to do. (She had already taken some Benadryl.) There is a small pharmacy here in the neighborhood, so we went to get something called Insect Bite (pronounced Insect Bitie), which helped to relieve the pain. We went over to the birthday dinner party at 7, and with a few glasses of champagne, she was feeling better.

Dinner was lovely! TONS of food! Morrocan lamb stew, chili, chicken pie, curried chicken, couscous, and tossed salad followed such wonderful appetizers of dates wrapped with bacon, an antipasto type plate of hams, cheese, and olives, and figs (high) wrapped with Serrano ham and goat cheese! Desserts were vodka mixed with red jello, food kabobs, and the chocolate tarte/cake we took. Kathy said we’d have to come back tomorrow for the left-overs! We met Val and Don, the fourth couple that they had gone on their trip with earlier in the week. What wonderful gracious people they all are! Kathy included me as part of the birthday celebration, which was very nice!

Tonight, Sunday October 10th, we are in Granada after a 2.5 hours trip through more mountains and very interesting country. It rained some of the time, so we hope that it will be nice tomorrow, as we are going into the Alhambra for the tour!
I´m having some trouble posting to the blog, so I´m not sure when I can add any pictures for a while.... Buenos noches, amigas e amigos! :))