| Glenn's Alhaurin El Grande Journals 6-09-02 & 6-10-02 Today George was taking us on a driving tour around the surrounding area. This driving tour was more off road than on road as we took all of the back roads to get from village to village. George was very familiar with these paths as he used to run a tour business taking people on dirt bikes through this part of the mountains. This was our first chance to see the "real Spain", as George put it. We were now out in the back country and seeing life as life was really lived. Most of the houses that we passed were farm houses that were some miles from any local village much less a decent size town. Most of the farm houses did not have running water so they would have to take their jugs up to a location on the hill where spring water would flow freely. The water from the springs was cold and clean. We even tried some. The scenery from the top of the mountains was spectacular. You could see as far away as the coast, including Malaga, and the Sierra Nevada's, including approximately where Granada was. To say the least you could see for miles. We didn't take any pictures today due to the slight haze out in the distance but we enjoyed the views that we had. We even stopped into a small village of less than 2000 people for tapas and drinks for lunch. We spent all afternoon driving around before returning home around 7:00 pm, just in time for the next parade to start. There were more parades and celebrations to be had tonight but we decided to stay in. We could hear the bands playing and the rockets blasting from our place so why go into town to hear them even better. Erin had a chance to read while the boys watched some Formula 1 racing on television. We sat down for dinner around 10:30 pm and my mom called around 10:45 pm. (We had e-mailed ahead of time to arrange a time for her to call. We were going to chat on the internet but since we were at George's she decided to call instead.) It was nice to talk to my parents in person as this was only the third time in 3 months that we had been able to. We even tried to locate Erin's mom but to no avail. Maybe next time!! We finally went to bed around 1:30 am as this was becoming our normal hours anyway. 061002 We had no specific plans for today and George had a few chores to take care of so today was going to be a "take it easy" day. We were planning to head to Granada tomorrow so enjoying the "comforts of home" for one more day sounded appealing. Erin and I went into town to take another look around and take some photos while we were here. I also got a chance to get another haircut!!! Yeah!! You never know when you will get a chance to get another haircut. I had my hair cut short like I used to have at work but Erin still prefers for me to let it "grow out", whatever that means for a balding guy. I always feel like a new man after a good haircut. While walking around town we found a video rental place that had English movies. Erin loves movies, and had been deprived during these past 3 months, so we rented a movie for us to watch later that day. After returning home we watched the movie we had rented (Bridget Jones Diary) and had lunch. We then sat out on the balcony to read and get some sun before heading back downstairs to clean up for the day. George had taken care of his errands earlier in the day and had just returned from providing English lessons before we started to prepare dinner. George prepared a fantastic home cooked meal for us tonight including chicken and rice. (I know we both can't wait to get home for some home cooking!!! We do miss that, and Mexican!!!) After dinner we relaxed and called it an early night (around 1:00 am) so we would be rested for our travel day tomorrow. |
| A beautiful fountain in a quaint little piazza in Alhaurin El Grande.. |
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