Troglodytes, Tango & Dali - Guadix to Figueres
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2008
1
26
43
Trip End
May 13, 2009
Figueres,
Spain
Sunday, July 20, 2008
It's a beautiful sunny day and for once everything goes right (only a little sunburn, I don't get lost or freeze to death) and in a few hours I'm sunbaking shirtless on the peak, along with lots of other people, including cyclists with their bikes - it's the highest mountain in Europe you can ride up as there's a bike trail to the top (most were pushing their bikes the last bit).
On my way south a couple of months ago near here I had seen fantastic rock formations and road signs saying something about troglodytic towns so as I am not too far away I drive to Guadix, about 60kms from Granada. The landscape is dry and barren and there are large outcrops of rock on the valley floor, many with houses built in to them. I stay at a "troglodyte" hotel - the bedrooms, dining area, etc are all built into the rock. The owners tell me they are holding an outdoor barbecue that night, so after freshening up I go to the dining area, and seeing a group of people sitting at a long table speaking in different languages (a couple of whom have Australian accents), who I take to be the other guests from the various rooms
Clouds over Mulhacén
. I sit down at the head of the table and start chatting with them and they all seem to be involved with motorbikes. What I have come across in fact is a dinner being held by a racing team of Yamaha, who are out here for a week testing new motorbikes that are being released shortly - there are an Australian and a Spanish works rider, mechanics, PR people, etc, and I have inadvertently gatecrashed their party. They are very welcoming though and I end up eating with them, drinking their champagne and wine, etc so a jolly night is had by all.
Near Guadix there are other places of interest so I spend a couple of days in the area: there's an place called Gorafe which is full of megalithic tombs sitated along the edge of a deep valley, and a fabulously sited castle called La Calahorra, which was one of the first Italian Renaissance style castles built outside Italy and the first in Andalucia.
Further along, towards Almeria on the coast there is the Desierto de Tabernas, the only desert in Europe. I arrive there at sunset and it's very dramatic and surreal in the low light. The landscape is similar to some of the deserts in the southern US and has been used to make spaghetti westerns for many years.
I continue on my way north to Valencia, where my friend Rafa and his girlfriend Laura live (I met him on a camel trip in the Moroccan Sahara). They are incredibly friendly and generous and I have a great time there with them. Valencia is a very interesting city - apart from the older quarters it has a new area with all these stunning modern buildings, including the Palacio de las Artes (a theatre/performance centre), which rather looks like a fish.
Talking about food, Valencia is the home of the paella - I ask around for a recommendation and go to the Restaurant Riua, which specialises in rice dishes
Peak of Mt Mulhacén
. The most traditional form of paella is made with chorizo and rabbit, but there's some other interesting alternatives, so I end up having pimientos y bacalao (peppers & reconstituted dried codfish) for first course, then a paella of langostinos (a type of small lobster) and cauliflower (sounds a strange combination but very good), washed down with an excellent Valencian wine.The other specialty of Valencia is orxata (horchata in Spanish). I have drunk it quite a few times in Barcelona and Sitges but it comes from Valencia and the best is found here. It's a milky drink made from a plant called chufa (also known as tiger nut in English), which is a sedge grass with tubers underground, from which the milk is made. Apparently it was widely used in ancient Egypt and introduced by the Arabs into Spain, and now is virtually only grown around Valencia on the edge of city. Rafa and Laura recommend me to go a specific bar, from where you can actually see the fields with chufa growing. Next to almond milk it's my favourite drink on a hot sunny morning for breakfast with a pastry.
After an enjoyable time in Valencia I head up the coast for the Sitges Tango Festival. I came here for the first time last year, then had a week's break around May, and here I am again. Last year I met a number of people here, and I have also met other people at various tango events around Europe who I know are coming here, so it's great to meet them all again, and it ends up with a group of us hanging around together quite a bit.
The festival lasts 5 days and the days go by in a blur - there's a beach tango every evening around 7, then you go and have a shower and change for the formal milonga which goes from about 10pm to 2am, then there's an all-night milonga on the beach promenade which finishes around 9am, then a quick breakfast and off to bed, then repeat.
I stay an extra couple of days to catch up on sleep (and get my car serviced) then go up to Figueres, in the far north-east of Spain bordering France (taking a little detour for lunch and wine-tasting to Penedes, where most Spanish sparkling wine is made)
On top of Mt Mulhacén, highest mountain in Spain
. What's brought me up here is the Teatre Museu Dali (Dali Museum) - Dali was born in Figueres. I spend several hours in the museum (formerly the town theatre but destroyed by fire at the end of the Spanish Civil War) amazed at the extraordinary variety of his artistic endeavours and at the sheer amount of stuff he produced (I have only included a few photos). After all this surrealism (example: Napoleon's Nose Transformed into a Pregnant Woman Strolling Her Shadow with Melancholic amongst Original Ruins), I expect to be having funny dreams but thankfully I continue to sleep soundly (still catching up on lack of sleep from Sitges :).So, after all this surrealism I hop in the car and in a few kilometres I'm through the border and back in France, heading for the fairy-tale castle city of Carcassonne.
