Andalucia Road Trip Days seven to ten

I've always wanted to go to Granada; the Alhambra has been calling to me for many years. So we put together a road trip that combined  rural adventure with city excitement. Our first stop was Casa Rural Las Chimeneas in the Alpujarra range of the Sierra Nevada mountains just west of Granada.

Intrepid travelers, we set out  from the Murcia airport in our rental car, with a poor excuse for a map, sketchy  directions, and a tempermental cellphone.
GPS? not for us!! Muy machismo! 
After an hour on the highway we found ourselves completely lost, heading for Almeria on the southeast coast.Spain has the only desert in Europe and I think Almeria is at its core.

click on the picture to see the set!

A bright note though, once we had our map and were headed toward Mairena, we happened to drive by Tabernas, where, from the highway you can see an Old West movie set. Yes, this is where all those good old spaghetti westerns were filmed! Casa Rural las Chimeneas, Mairena

Four hours later we arrived at our destination,  the tiny mountain village of Mairena. We were greeted by David, who with his wife Emma, fell in love with this town 12 years ago and  built a beautiful life around their inn. I think David took pity on two exhausted travelers, and also didn't want me to have to deal with too many stairs; so he set us up in the casita, their two bedroom apartment. The casita was comfortable, roomy, full of antiques, and every window had an amazing view down the valley toward the sea (and Africa!). The inn has a restaurant where we had breakfast and dinner each day. The food was authentic to the region and delicious. This is an area that attracts hikers from all over the world, and all of the guests were here to enjoy  the sights on foot.Our days were spent:

Walking the grounds, where we ran into a herd of goats and ate fresh figs, grapes and almonds right off the trees.

Deeelicious!

Working out at the Geriatric Gym!

What a hoot, it seems many of the towns have these playgrounds for adults.

Relaxing with a good book or Sudoku puzzle!

Touring the castle at Calhorra,

a Renaissance castle inside a Moorish fortress facade. Amazing! Scenes from Dr Zhivago have been filmed here, as well as a Spice Girls video!

We met up with Rob and Sue, a very nice couple from England, and the four of us did our best to parse together our guide's Spanish and hand gestures!

Attending a fiesta in a the neighboring town of Valor. The townspeople put on a pagent celebrating the Reconquista, the recapture of their town from the Moors. It was colorful, loud, and wonderful fun!

David, our innkeeper, a professor in his previous life, entertained and educated us on the history of the region. On our last day in Mairena, he took a group of us to a church in the little town of Jubar that, over the years, has served as a mosque, a synagogue, and is currently a catholic church.

Recently, during renovations, the workers discovered very old frescoes which they are in the process of restoring.

Our time in Mairena was truly magical! This is just a snippet of what we experienced.

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