Spirit of Granada - Blog

Just been booking a flight back to England and noticed on the Ryanair site that East Midlands was listed as a destination for flights from Granada! I’d heard rumours that new locations in the UK would soon be flying into Granada but this was some time ago and I haven’t seen any annoucements in the local press so this took me by surprise. Anyway after a little digging it appears flights from East Midlands commence on 20 Feb 2007 and the flight time is quite a convenient one in that you aren’t flying at a ridiculously early or late time of the day.

Anybody who has had to endure my company on the golf course will testify that I can hardly be termed anything other than completely useless but I do enjoy the game and since moving to Spain I’ve actually played more regularly than at any time in the last 10 years. The weather makes year round play possible and the scenary at most golf courses is staggering which makes the game much more enjoyable (especially to someone like me who gets to see every corner of the course as I hack around from one bush to the next bunker). Within an hour of Granada there will soon be 4 golf courses to choose from.

Furthest afield is the great course in Antequera. There’s so much water on this course I tend to take my trunks with me but I can still appreciate that it is a superb course. http://www.golfantequera.com/index.php?ch_lang=eng

Closer to home is the Granada Golf Course. Its more conveniently located but not as good, in my opinon, as the Antequera course and is actually more expensive to play. Two new course open in Granada over the next year; one to the South of the City (Santa Clara) and one further North (Cubillas) which should offer the visiting golfer plenty of choice and make the packages offered by the clubs more attractive to play.

I’ve just read in Spanish Insight that a lot more international flights are being scheduled into Granada.

Blue Panorama plans to fly Granada to Rome and Lisbon from May/June time and Ryanair is apparently scheduled to start Dublin and Glasgow in May with Frankfurt and Milan starting at the beginning of 2007. I’ve just checked Ryanair’s web-site and I can’t see the Dublin or Glasgow flights listed……does anyone have more information? If the above flights materialise it will be great news for the city but not so good for my wallet as the wife loves Rome and its shops!

We’ve noticed a growing number of young professionals moving from the UK to the area who take advantage of modern technology and effectively work remotely for the majority of the month and commute back for the odd day or week when necessary. I can think of five people who have moved here in the last year who do this and its all possible by the ever improving network of communications.

If you live in a town and your phone exchange is compliant you’ll be able to get Telefonica Broadband http://www.telefonicainenglish.com/ or a similar service from another provider. Whilst not yet as cheap as in the UK you can still get a 2mb connection for under £30 per month. If you’re not lucky enough to get broadband via your phone then you may have line of sight to a large aerial perched on a nearby mountain which can beam you wifi broadband. Whilst not as cheap as a telephone line connection its cheaper and quicker than the third option which is broadband via satellite which is expensive to install and use but this is a small price to pay in my opinion when it provides broadband speeds to a computer or small network in a remote area. I use a satellite broadband system and its reliable, fast enough (512 down/128up) but I am limited to the amount of data I can upload/download in a month which certainly cuts down on all the dodgy downloading!

The availability of broadband effectively anywhere and with more and more people working from home it really is making it a flatter world and when you add SKYPE (www.skype.com) into the equation and the ability to make free or v cheap telephone calls throughout the world I think it will lead to more and more “white collar” workers making the move. (As a type this I’m looking at the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance, its close to 70 degrees in March and I’m going to take a break in a bit to take the dog a walk in the 1,000 acres of olive trees that are bang outside my front gate).

We were in Malaga for the day recently and when paying for a round of drinks we were invoiced for our tapas. I subsequently discovered that Granada is one of the last places in Spain where tapa is provided free of charge! (is this really true….does anyone know any different?) To be honest I don’t know how the bars make any money - order a small beer and up turns a plate of stew or ham free of charge.

For those of you not in the know tapas are small portions of foods, both hot and cold, served in bars and bodegas to accompany a glass of wine, sherry or beer. They are served in most bars before lunch and again before dinner. Tapas were invented in Andalusia and the word literally means “to put a lid on” or “cover” and stems from the time when a small portion of food was served on a saucer to provide a cover and protection from insects for the drink.

Some of our local bars pride themselves on serving a different tapa dish with every round……and when its hot in summer and the beer is flowing I’m up for the challenge! So what dishes are normally served as tapa? Well the list is endless but includes serrano ham, iberia ham (salt cured and thinly sliced), olives (on their own and sometimes stuffed with herbs, garlic or anchovies), prawns and other shellfish, fried fish, pork loin, meatballs, croquettes and tortilla.

In the interests of science and research I will endeavour to rank the tapa of Granada over the coming summer. I’ll keep you posted.

Ethan and I went over to Fen’s house yesterday to upload some data on the computer and cut up some beams for firewood. When we’d finished, filled the car with the cut beams, and had the compulsory cerveza we started to wonder down the hill to the car (I only had one beer by the way!).On our way a couple of old spanish guys seemed to be staring a little and having a chuckle at us. Now I’m used to people staring and laughing but its normally women doing it but I still thought nothing of it. Until I got to the car and realised that it may have been because I was covered in dust from cutting the beams, had a petrol can and a chainsaw in one hand and a Sony Vaio in the other! Unlike beer and olives I don’t think people are used to seeing this particular combination together in this neck of the woods. Saw the funny side on the drive home and had a blazing open fire with the beams from the remains of Fen’s kitchen.

We had friends over from Sheffield last weekend and spent Saturday morning wondering around Granada when we literally stumbled across an exhibition by Polish artist Igor Mitoraj that literally dominated Carrera de Genil and Plaza De Carmen.Now I’m a bit of a philistine when it comes to art but I loved the massive bronze sculptures.I was so impressed I did a little bit of reading up after getting home. Igor Mitoraj (born 1944) is a Polish artist born in Germany. Mitoraj’s sculptural style is heavily rooted in the classical tradition with its focus on the well modelled torso. However, Mitoraj introduces a post-modern twist with ostentatiously truncated limbs emphasising the damage sustained by most genuine classical sculptures.The exhibition is on until 26 March and if you are in Granada before then I would highly recommend a visit.

As people who know me will undoubtedly testify I’m not the most patient person in the world. I was therefore worried about the impact the so called “manana” culture of the Spanish would have on me when we moved over; would my blood pressure boil over or would I learn to live with it?Well first of all I’ll confirm there is definitely a difference in the pace of life. Whether it’s ordering tiles, waiting to get the phone connected or even trying to organise a fishing licence there is no rushing the Spanish. You quickly come to realise that this is how they live here and you adapt and accept it because the flipside of the laid back pace of life is that there are very few voices raised in anger, no road rage and no pushing in at queues.My acceptance of the culture sneaked up on me and it was only on a visit back to the UK that I really noticed the difference. In fact I hadn’t even got back to the UK….it was on the flight back when some prat was shouting at the air hostess for not letting him drink the alcohol he’d brought on board.

It’s started to get a little warmer now (up to 16 degrees yesterday) and I’m already looking forward to going back to Aquaola in the summer. I’ve never been that much of a fan of water parks…..tended to find them to be a bit shabby, packed and noisy. Well this all changed when the kids dragged me off to the waterpark that is literally built into the side of a mountain 10 minutes outside of Granada city centre. We went 4-5 times last year and every time the weather was fantastic, the views of the Sierra Nevada are tremendous and the rides are superb. We never had to queue for more than 5 minutes to get on any of the rides/slides and there are plenty of shady palms to hide under and escape from the kids for a couple of minutes.http://www.aquaola.com/home.html Entrance for a family of four will cost circa 35 euro’s but you can take you own picnic, beer etc and sit in the shade whilst the kids tire themselves out on the attractions if you don’t fancy hurtling down a 150 metre slide thinking I’m too old for this.Great fun.

I spoke to a friend at the weekend who I hadn’t spoken to for 5-6 years who had tracked me down through Friends Reunited. He’d seen from my Friends Reunited posting that I was living in Granada and wanted to know why?

I told him that we’d decided in late 2004 to go and live overseas as my main job was flexible regarding location and Granada came 2nd on our list of favourite European cities after Barcelona. We’d discounted Barcelona for 3 reasons; firstly the property is too expensive, secondly I needed to go back to the UK a lot for business and the flight opportunities from Malaga/Granada were better and lastly the kids would have grown up speaking Catalan which wasn’t going to be as useful as Spanish. I told him we’d travelled a lot over the years and chosen Granada because:

• It was a fantastic city full of culture.
• Had a low cost of living.
• Was within striking distance of the coast but still felt like the “real Spain”.
• Was an easy drive to Malaga, Seville, Cordoba and Almeria; and was surrounded by beautiful areas such as the Sierra Nevada, the Alpujarras and the Poniente Granadino.

When we’d finished chatting my friend said “wow you should have taped that conversation and stuck in on the web-site”. I’m not sure the world is ready for a 45 minute conversation full of whaffle and “do you remember when’s…” so I’ve cut it down to 200 words and posted it here.