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Report 1079: Andalucía Revisited

By davidx from England, Winter 2004

Trip Description: From 1989 to 1994 I visited Andalucía for a week each year in December. Then, for reasons given on the first page, I didn't feel able to go there. Ten years later I changed my mind. I would revisit my favourite city in the area and do a first time trip to Doñana area and the Sierra de Aracena.

Destinations: Countries - Spain; Regions/Cities - Andalusia

Categories: Hotels/B&Bs; Art Trip; Sightseeing; Walking/Hiking; Independent Travel; Single Traveler

Patio de los Leones, Alhambra, Granada

In 1989 I had been off work with a degree of depression. I knew that I needed some real peace, found an advertised 'flight only' to Lisbon to be full, and found I had a choice between the Algarve, Malta and Andalucía, about all of which I knew little. I took a book from the library on each and was entranced by what I read about inland Andalucía. I returned to the travel agent's and booked.

Over six years I had three trips on my own, two with one colleage and one with another. I had visited the cities of Málaga, Córdoba, Granada, Sevilla, Cadiz and Jaen. I had visited Ronda, Grazelema, Zahara, Arcos, Cazorla, Baeza, Ubeda, Carmona and Gibraltar. I still had plenty to see.

Then in December !994 I was in Granada, walking down with my friend Iain from the Alhambra when a group of Gitanas descended on 'us.' I put 'us' in inverted commas becuase they actually descended on Iain, told him what a lovely long life he would have and treated me just as though I weren't there. It didn't mean much to me at the time. Less than three months later I was close to death with heart problems.

As I gradually recovered, I was glad to start travelling again, with my wife, Pam, with my now late ex-colleague Ian [not Iain] and on my own. One place I flatly refused to go was Andalucía. This was not fear of Gitanas but the feeling that the contrast between what I had previously been able to do and what I could now do would be profoundly depressing.

However by 2003, in spite of some splendid holidays elsewhere in Europe, I realised that I was falling prey to a sort of Andaluca deficiency, akin to the sort of Scotland deficiency that hits me whenever I am too long away from that wonderful country. There is only one cure for those ailments.

I bought the Rough Guide to Andalucía and started to plan.

The photo on this page is the only one from a previous trip.