Tag Archives: travel

my weekend in ronda

24 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary, friends

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Where to start? It was quite a whirlwind weekend with lots of new experiences and chance encounters. Also lots of tapas and wine, lots of walking and talking, and lots of fun. Though I think my favourite moment was sitting on the Parador terraza late on Saturday afternoon watching the rooks clowning around over the gorge, sweeping past us and then, suddenly clapping wings to sides, they’d abruptly pause in midair before plummeting downwards headfirst letting out a gleeful shriek, then catching an upward current and doing it all over again. Their obvious joy was infectious and a delight to watch.

This whole adventure came about when new friend and soon to be semi-annual Sevilla resident Kathy Oler invited Peter and me to visit the pretty white village of Yunquera. She and her husband Walt had been planning to go there for the day to visit a couple who were living up in the mountains and running their own olive oil biz. This morphed into an overnight trip when I was able to find a charming B & B in Ronda that didn’t cost a fortune, and so off we went…

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weekend in ronda

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary

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Here I go again… this time off to Ronda for the weekend, as part of my 20th anniversary in Spain celebrations. I almost can’t believe that the last time I was in Ronda was six years ago (!!) when buddy Craig was here visiting and we went on a Magical Mystery Tour. We stopped off there for lunch after a hair-raising drive up (and I mean UP) from the coast, on our way home. That was before Twitter and Sevilla Tapas existed, so you can imagine that this time I am going to arrive with plenty of suggestions for great places to eat and interesting places to visit.

The idea for this trip came up the other day while out having lunch with Kathy and her husband Walt, whom I’d met a few weeks ago while – you guessed it – out having tapas. We struck up a conversation in the bar and have been hanging out ever since. And so Kathy mentioned that they were going to visit a small privately managed olive grove near Ronda on Saturday and invited Peter and me to join them. This has turned into a weekend overnight stay, which is as long as I’m comfortable leaving Azar on his own, and I’m really looking forward to it. Found a (hopefully) nice B&B online, but we probably won’t be spending much time there anyhow. And I think for this trip I’ll leave the laptop at home and just take the iPad.

So okay, follow on @SevillaTapas and @azaharSevilla if you want to see what we’re up to, though there will no doubt be a full report here early next week. Off to meet Kathy and Walt!

wednesday

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in sevilla, spain

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A few images from today (click to enlarge).

Peter and I did a little research sightseeing for Seville Concierge, going to a couple of places we’d never visited before, then we stopped by a new wine shop (possible client) and after that had a quick bite at Dos de Mayo before doing some shopping on the way home. I’d started the day with an early morning blood test and impromptu chemo port cleaning, and so ended up being out and about from 9-5, and then I had my weekly class with Agustín. Which has put me a bit behind in my social media work, but right now I just want to put my feet up an RELAX. So I think I will!

But I wanted to say hi to you guys first. What did you do today?

my granada apartment

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in culture, fiestas, food & drink, social media, spain, travel, trips, twitter, work

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So tomorrow I’m going to Granada and this is where I’ll be staying!

As with my recent day trip to Córdoba this trip to Granada will be part of my 20th anniversary celebrations but will include doing some research for my own websites and also for my friends at veoapartment.com. Markus very generously offered to split the cost with me by providing the accommodation, and well, just look at it! Small and perfect and in a dead-centre-of-town and easy-to-get-to-everywhere location. I couldn’t be happier.

At first the plan was to just stay overnight but it turns out that not only is it Feria in Granada this week, but also Corpus Christi, which is apparently a huge deal over there. Seriously, even more than here where they spend weeks erecting a couple of elaborate arches for a 3-hour procession…

Anyhow, I now have two nights in Granada! So I’ll be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow (it’s a three-hour train ride) and will spend the day meeting old Twitter buddies John (aka @benzo8) and his wife Gale. I’ll also be meeting a new Twitter friend and travel writer Molly (aka @piccavey) and possibly also with fab photographer Fred Shively during my stay. Peter is also coming but will be taking a later train tomorrow because he has an English class in the morning. He’ll also be leaving earlier, on Wednesday evening, because Azar really can’t be left on his own for more than one night. Still, it will be a nice break for Peter, and he can also help me with some of the research stuff. Win-win!

If you want to feel reallly envious check out the veoapartment “apartment tour” video of my fabulous get-away place here…

Granada Plaza Nueva Studio Apartment