Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

Off to Blighty very soon but just for a week, and somewhere there will be snow: England or Scotland or here while I'm away.  Certainly Mulhacen will be white when I return, according to the forecasts. Time to swap summer and autumn clothes in the wardrobe and consider the bedding arrangements!

Our lovely friends have returned to Suffolk but gave the granero its first visitors and I think they liked it quite a lot!   Together we had a super walk above Trevelez, ate much good food (tagines, paella, Marissa's soup) and drank some excellent stuff...how lucky we are to know such special people.     As for the building, the windows are done so we are watertight, and the carpenter did a great job restoring the old chestnut door, so we can breathe a sigh of relief and  not fear winter rains. 

More anon, on my return :)

We've just done a great 2-day trip with some friends to a few bodegas (wineries) further east towards Almeria.  As they went by car, they carried all the boxes of wine and we worked our way round on the VFR, enjoying some spectacular views and winding roads (of varying quality!).  We went via Trevelez & Ugijar to the Andarax & Padules area, ending up in a delightful village named Almocita where we got a shared Casa Rural, supper and morning coffees for 25 euros each.  All clean, the food local 'Patatas a lo Pobre' and delicious, and a sweet village  to walk round, scented with jasmine.

Coming back we took a tiny road outside Cherin to the Embalse de Benina (amazing but poor road surfaces), then climbed the fabulous hill road to Murtas, round to Lobras and Timar and finally back to Trevelez.  Any keen biker with the ability to manouevre bend after bend and not fazed by shingle or potholes, should do this ride, it's so good.  Not many petrol stations (Cadiar is OK) so go fully-fuelled with some water.  We all had excellent tostadas in Cherin, coming from the east and just before the dodgy bridge, none of your plastic cheese there!  With more tea/coffee etc we paid just over 8 euros for four of us.

It's good to be home though...time to prepare for our clash with the French tomorrow in NZ, for tango at Che Buenos Aires in Granada on Monday, our great friends arriving Tues and El Dia de Hispanidad on Wed...never gets boring here does it?!

:)