Spain – The Chicken Scratches

Barcelona, Spain (13-18 April 2018)

by Pat & Ray WhydeApril 18, 2018June 6, 20220

Time to move on to our next adventure! Step One: drop rental car off at the Valencia-Estacio Del Nord train station (the easiest rental car drop off ever! Hardest thing was finding out how to get into the parking lot). Step Two: board the 13:50 train to Barcelona-Sants. The train trip was comfortable and the views of the coast as we approached Barcelona were beautiful in a back yard kind of way – always interesting to see the parts of a city that is relegated to the train lines. At some points, looking strait down from the window, all you …

Southeast Spain (09-13 April 2018)

by Pat & Ray WhydeApril 14, 2018June 6, 20220

We rented a car again and drove from Nerja to the La Manga Club in southeast Spain, just east of Cartagena. The drive from Nerja was both uneventful and boring – the area was covered with plastic tarps covering massive agricultural plots, many of which looked like large factory farming sites growing tomatoes and artichokes. (West of Nerja the scenery is much prettier.) One of our friends we met in Singapore, Jane (Jane’s Singapore Tours), recommended we stay a few nights at one of her family’s apartments at the La Manga Club, in the Murcia Region. The first full …

Nearby Nerja, Spain ( April 3 & 6, 2018)

by Pat & Ray WhydeApril 10, 2018June 7, 20220

On April 3, Pat and I decided to hike to an old sugar mill and aqueduct, a couple of miles outside of Nerja. We had visited Museo Nerja the day before which inspired this hike. The museums display on both the mill and aqueduct was enticing. We started early and planned on getting breakfast on the way. Unfortunately, we kept putting it off until we were outside the city and there were no more cafes! The last thing we passed, as we got to the town border, was a grocery. Sigh. So we picked up a couple of snacks and …

Nerja, Spain (23 March- 09 April 2018)

by Pat & Ray WhydeApril 9, 2018June 7, 20220

After leaving Ronda, we drove to Malaga to meet up with our friends Jim and Mary Jane. We had a few hours before our friends arrived so Pat and I had time to walk down to the Med and walk the beach to enjoy the views, fresh sea air and gather some sea glass. After our meet up we took a bus to Nerja where we would stay for the next few weeks and enjoy the Easter Week festivities. Because we had been in Nerja two years ago for Christmas, this was a much different visit since we already knew …

Ronda, Spain (20-22 March 2018)

by Pat & Ray WhydeMarch 22, 2018June 7, 20220

Getting from Lisbon, Portugal to Ronda, Spain proved more difficult than we expected. Trains or car rentals aren’t as easy to arrange when crossing this particular border. We didn’t plan on an air flight but that’s what we ended up with, booking a flight to Malaga, Spain, renting a car and driving to Ronda. It turned out it was a fun drive from the airport through the countryside and into the mountains. Our first introduction to Ronda at home was a Windows logon screen with a spectacular photo of the New Bridge in Ronda. Later we were told what a …

Location: Spain. Subject: Tile Work

by Pat WhydeJanuary 22, 2016October 26, 20220

Whenever I travel, one subject seems to get stuck in my camera lens, figuratively that is. In France it was fleur de lis. In Bali it was temple offerings. In Cambodia it was stone carvings. In Melbourne it was graffiti. And in almost every place it’s food markets and food. This December in Spain I found another subject – tiles. Tiles on the ceiling, tiles along a storefront, souvenir tiles, tiles in the Alhambra. No matter where I looked a tile was looking to be photographed. Here are some of my images without captions (although Ray will fuss about this). …

Spain for Christmas 2015!

by Pat & Ray WhydeJanuary 17, 2016October 26, 20220

Last Christmas season found us in southern South America – Patagonia. This was our first trip to this continent so we thought what a great place to spend both Christmas and New Years among the mountains of Chile. Ice cold glaciers filled in for snow covered trees. Good friends of ours in Charlotte decided to spend a year traveling around Europe. Their first 5 months was along the Costa del Sol in Nerja, Spain. They moved into their apartment in November. When we heard of their plans we tentatively asked them if they would like some company in December. I …

Granada and the Alhambra (December 2015)

by Pat & Ray WhydeDecember 17, 2015October 27, 20220

Pat and I went to Nerja, Spain, to celebrate Christmas with Jim and Mary Jane Vergin, our friends from across the street in Charlotte, NC. When Pat and I moved to Singapore, they decided to spend a year overseas in Spain, Ireland, and Germany. Nerja is located on the Costa del Sol and the apartment they rented is only a short walk to the Mediterranean Sea. It is also a short bus ride (about 2 hours) from Granada, the home of the Alhambra, a former Moorish fort/palace, with its first structure being built in 889. The name means “Red Castle”. …