Mom and Dad come visit (Week 1)

First, apologies for not updating the blog in a timely manner (Amy is going to update the photos).  Now, the details you´ve all been waiting for.  Mom and Dad were here visiting us the March 12-26.   I rented a car for them out of Malaga (it was significantly cheaper and allowed me to go climb in Malaga the weekend after Mom and Dad left).  So I went down there on the train Sunday afternoon, stayed with some friends from Valdepeñas who go to university in Malaga capital and rented the car Monday morning.  Drove the 3.5 hours back to Valdepeñas in time for work.  Tuesday morning Amy and I woke up at some insane hour and drove to Madrid to pick up los padres.  Since Mom and Dad weren´t too tired and because Dad wanted to see some castles we decided to go directly to Segovia to see one of Spain´s most impressive castles.  We drove back to Valdepeñas in time for me to go to work.  

Wednesday we slept in and headed to a castle called Calatrava la Nueva.  The castle appears to have been built in the 1100s and later passed into the hands of the Knights of Calatrava who fortified it further and passed it on the the Order of Calatrava.  It was used until the 1800s when it was abandoned.  We wandered around there until it closed and then headed to Almagro, a little town with a bunch of old churches and convents.  Wednesday night we went out for some tapas and Enrique joined us.  

Thursday we headed to Ubeda and Baeza.  We saw the sights and especially enjoyed the church tower in Baeza.  On the way back we stopped by the Cimbarra to see the waterfall.  

Friday the real fun began.  We packed our bags and drove down to Cordoba.  Saw the Mezquita and the castle there.  The Mezquita is the old Mosque with beautiful arches. With the Christian reconquest a cathedral and chapels were built inside the original building preserving parts of the original Moorish architecture.  We continued on to Seville and found a hotel on the city outskirts (I had intended to stay in a hostel in town center but they had never followed through on the confirmation and it slipped my mind.)  We enjoyed walking around Seville that evening visiting the Plaza de España and the old Jewish district.  

Saturday we visited the Alcazar (the castle palace) and the Cathedral. Then we went to visit Amy´s señora (Who she lived with during semester in Spain).  After our visit we headed down to our casa rural on the coast south of Cadiz.  The beach town of El Palmar is a little surf town.  Apparently during the winter they actually have surf but despite the lack of waves there were still a lot of people in the water with surfboards.  We were here two nights and enjoyed our own little house (a short drive from the beach).  

Sunday we went to a baptist church in Rota.  Rota has a US military base so there is an English speaking presence.  We actually were following direction to a different baptist church I had found on the internet and ended up at a this other English speaking baptist church with the same service time.  Sunday afternoon we walked around Cadiz and headed back to our casa rural to relax for the evening.  

Monday found us heading to Gibralter.  We took a turn off for the Punto Paloma beach and succeeded in finding the beach after going through a small military base and trying a couple of dirt roads.  This part of the coast is where you can really see Africa the clearest.  We drove to Tarifa next and ate a whole bunch of churros.  When we got Gibralter we took a guided tour and saw all the sights real fast and then had our fish and chips in town center.  I think I was most impressed by the seige tunnel which was dug to place artillery facing the land border with Spain during the American Revolution when Spain and France tried to take Gibralter from the British.  Leaving Gibralter we backtracked slighted and headed up the road to Ronda.  We turned off onto a smaller road to take the back way to Igualeja (the white hill town where we had another casa rural).  The road was windy and steep, weaving its way up and down the steep mountain hillsides passing Cork trees with their red trunks exposed after the harvest of cork.  We ended up in some little town where after studying our map we decided to backtrack a few kilometers and turn onto a different road.  This turned out to be a mistake as going straight would have taken us directly to our town (but our map was wrong and we didn´t ask for directions).  People in Spain are incredibly willing to give directions and in some small towns it turns into quite a lengthy discussion with maps drawn and everything.  Anyway, our road soon turned to dirt and got quite rough.  But luckily our Ford Fusion rental car had more ground clearance than most sedans and the steep parts were down hill so drive wheel traction wasn´t a problem here.  We asked directions in the next town and realized we were off track and weren´t going to arrive in town by the back way (it was dark now).  We cruised out to the main road and entered Igualeja on the well marked, recommended road.  Our casa rural was awesome.  It was a older home in town with three small floors, patio on the third.  The town is on a hillside with mostly pedestrian streets so we had to leave the car up the hill a little ways and walk our bags down.  The town was such a typical small town.  The people (mostly older people) were very friendly and helpful.   The region is a chestnut growing region,  they also grow some almond trees which were in blossom.

Tuesday we hiked up the hill above town to find the caves.  It was quite a steep hike but the caves were rewarding and completely uncommercialized.  After going to the meat co-op and buying really cheap meat we had a delicious midday meal.   That evening we drove up to Ronda and saw the cliffs, gorge, and bridges and then went to Setennil de las Bodegas which is another white town.  This town is impressive beyond just being incredibly white because it is built into the cliffs with numerous cave homes and cave restaurants.