Highlights of the Grand Tour de la Retraite... pt 1

more photos to come...
and in no particular order:


- St Hilaire's magnificent romanesque church in Melle, one of the Patrimoine stops for pilgrims on the Chemin de Santiago route
- hearing larks in the fields around Numancia, Spain
- the roadsides packed with spring flowers and the abundance of the red poppies
- Madrid's haberdashery shops

- watching bored Spanish teenagers in the old theatre in Amalgro having a lecture on the plays of Lopa Vega - fiddling with their mobiles, chewing gum, eyeing each other up, giggling in the back row, just like anywhere else!

- Orihuela: meeting Michael's oldest Spanish  friends and their family, and eating the Orihuelan speciality arroz-with-a-crust

- soft sand and shallow, crystal clear sea in which to swim, at La Zenia

- Miguel Hernandez and the camino de Santiago... everywhere!

- storm clouds over Canigó  
- blue sky everywhere else!








- cooking paella at home, with Sierra Nevada sunset
- rich & garlicky seafood in Casa Emilio at Salobreña
- my favourite.. seiche à la plancha in the Café de la Paix in Prades... rich & garlicky seafood... hmmm :-)     

- Cordovan Patios - Fiesta de Rejas y Flores - A bit like the Brighton Artists Open Houses, the route maps take you to courtyards full of massed pelargoniums, tinkling fountains, blue pots, white walls, lemon trees, painted plates, trailing greenery, ferns and la casa des vecinos - inspiration to plant pink bougainvillea and red geraniums de lièrre in my French garden.

- staying with Jill & Alan (near Niort, Deux Sèvres) and marvelling at their plans to cycle the Camino, and thence to Morocco!