Friday, August 22, 2014

La Zubia y Granada (Part One)

We have been in Spain for 5 weeks now and I have been quite remiss in posting any photos of our fantastic digs in La Zubia or the city of Granada.

As I have said before, we have won the home exchange lottery once again.

La casa

La piscina

We basically live outside when we are at home.  We are only in the house to sleep or to fix a quick meal in the kitchen.  As you can see the patio is a lovely place to nap, read and swim.  Oh, I almost forgot.  It is also an excellent place for happy hour!

A very RUDE snack!

We are in the pool a LOT!

 The pool noodle whisperer.

 I could float around like this for days.

While the Lopez family is driving about Squamish and Vancouver in my dinky little Mazda 3, we are riding around Spain in their swanky 2014 Range Rover!

Our sweet Spanish ride.

Downtown La Zubia.

La Zubia is a cute little town.  It is a suburb of Granada, which is only a 15 minute drive away.

The menfolk of La Zubia love to gather on stone walls in the mornings and evenings 
to shoot the you-know-what.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains border everything in this area.  No matter where you look, they are looking down at you.  Hiking trails into the mountains are just a stone's throw from the house.

We hiked high into the hills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains behind La Zubia one morning.

 The view coming down from the Sierra Nevada Mountains near La Zubia.

Drinking my morning beer on the streets of La Zubia.

The minute we landed in La Zubia 3 weeks ago, the Lopez' took us out for a beer to celebrate our arrival.  We used our Spanish phrase book extensively throughout the conversations with our new Spanish friends.  And guess who left the phrase book behind at the bar?  Hint:  It wasn't me.  We finally returned to the bar a few days ago to see if the book was still there and it was!  Thank you La Zubian bar tenders for hanging on to it for us!

Granada is a beautiful city.  It has many interesting buildings, plazas and public spaces.  I haven't taken nearly enough photos of Granada.  I must rectify that transgression before we leave Spain next week.

Fun fact:  Did you know that granada means pomegranate in Spanish?  Neither did I!  The pomegranate is represented well in this city.

 There are lots of bars and restaurants in this city.  And we have been to many of them.

The custom of serving a small dish of free food with every drink MUST come to Canada!  We've eaten at a tapas bar called Poë a few times now.  The last time we were there Joe and I shared 3 beers along with 3 tapas.  Our bill?  A mere 6€.

 Arab market in the Albacín neighborhood.

 La fontana.

Granada at night.

As with every experience, it is the people you meet who make your trip memorable.  We met Andrés and Sabra one evening at the San Nicholas Mirador in Granada when we went to see Alhambra at sunset.  They were selling Andrés' lovely hand-made silver jewelry.  Joe didn't have enough cash in his wallet, so they kindly invited us to their apartment a few days later to see all of their pieces.  I swear, the Spanish are some of the friendliest people on earth.  Just look at those smiles!

Such lovely people.

We have loved living in Spain for the past five weeks.  We plan to savour every minute of our final week in this amazing country.






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