Our year out started in Spain, mostly because we had the wonderful opportunity to stay in my Dad’s partner’s house in the beautiful village of Frigiliana whilst I finished my last month of work. Big thanks to Kaleidoscope Trust for their flexible working policies and for Angela for generously letting us stay!
We flew out to Malaga on 2 March and hired a car for the first ten days. The day after our arrival we headed for the hills, for our one day of extravagance: driving up to the Sierra Nevada ski resort for a day on the slopes. We got up super early to make the drive over so we’d be there in time for the lifts to open – we shouldn’t have bothered as some kind of problem meant that they didn’t get them spinning until nearly 11am! But once we could get on the snow we had a great day, there was a dusting of powder and clear blue skis. With a tight budget for our year out we won’t be able to afford many ski days but it was lovely to have some time together on the snow.
Then I settled into a routine of small early morning explorations around Frigiliana before logging on for a day of work. Emily’s niece came to visit for a few days, so the two of them got to do some longer hikes and a via ferrata before the three of us headed for a day of exploring the spectacular Alhambra in Granada.
Frigiliana is an almost unbelievably perfect village of white houses and cobbled streets, scattered up a hillside with views down to the sea a few miles away. It was really lovely to get to stay with Angela in the gorgeous home she has created – over the last year she’s fully renovated the lower of two white houses in the old part of the village, making a stunning and light-filled home.
The El Castillo hill sits above the village. It soon became a favourite for a pre-work early morning walk or jog, via the rocky path which heads straight up past Sammy the donkey in his stall, invariably disturbing a small group of ibex on the castle mound.
Around Frigiliana the mountains of the Parque Natural de las Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama stretch into the distance. Emily got to explore several of these on solo hikes when I was working (coming back looking quite ragged with some good stories a couple of times!) We also managed to hike the highest mountain in the area, the Pico de Cielo, together one weekend – a lovely and fragrant walk filled with wild thyme, rosemary, chamomile, sage and lavender. My Dad came to join us part-way through the month and it was lovely to spend some quality time with him before we head off on our travels.
Mostly the weather was fab, with lots of sunshine. Our second weekend it rained but we managed to use some of the poor weather to explore the Cueva de Nerja down the hill from Frigiliana. Without a doubt the most impressive cave I’ve been to, it is huge and full of impressive stalactites and stalagmites. It was inhabited by ancient humans for thousands of years up until the bronze age, after which it was forgotten and covered over, only being rediscovered by some locals in the 20th century.
Our third weekend we drove up the coast to meet up with our friends Katie and Maria, their daughter Amalia and dog Metta. Katie and Maria used to live round the corner from us in Salford but now split their time between Maria’s native Benidorm and living near Katie’s mum and sister in Scotland. We arranged to meet midway between Frigiliana and Benidorm, spending the weekend in the seaside town of Mojacar, a holiday town that was surprisingly quiet off-season. We had the long and sunny beach pretty much to ourselves.
Our final day in Frigiliana I got up at 5am as I wanted to hike the El Fuerte mountain above the town before logging on for my last day of work. It was a slightly spooky trip up in the dark, especially when my head torch picked out the glowing eyes of a group of ibex watching me from above. But it was also magical seeing the full moon reflecting off the sea in the distance and watching the first rays of daylight start to appear as I headed up.
We left Frigiliana on 28 March to start our Interrail adventure. My Dad kindly dropped us off at Malaga station to get the train to Madrid. I learned an important lesson – don’t try to use the train to go camping in Spain! As we plan to camp for some of our European travels we had brought along a mini camping stove and had made a special trip to Decathlon in order to purchase a small canister of gas for it. Apparently you are not allowed to take these on the train in Spain and it was confiscated from me – not sure how you are meant to go camping in Spain if you’re not travelling by car or bike.
Apart from that, our journey to Madrid was uneventful and we arrived at lunchtime. We had a nice afternoon exploring the surprisingly compact city centre on foot before queuing up for free entrance to the Reina Sofia Art Museum (you can visit for free between 7-9pm every day). We had to queue for about an hour but it was definitely worth it to see some impressive 20th century art, including several famous Dali paintings and Guernica by Picasso.
Using the excellent Happy Cow app, we also found two fab vegan cafes to have lunch and dinner, including one where we got to try vegan calamari. Not sure what it was made of but the texture was very realistic! We stayed in the cheap and basic Downtown Hostel. Not the greatest night’s sleep in a 12-bed dorm room but it was conveniently located near to the station for our early morning train to Barcelona.
After the compact and chilled Madrid, Barcelona was a bit of a shock to the system! It was heaving with people and nothing seemed easy or straightforward. We managed to stash our large bags at a left luggage facility so we could explore for the day but the city is so spread out it’s hard to know where to start. We admired the outside of the Sagrada Familia but, with the cost of entry over 30 Euros, decided not to venture inside.
We really wanted to see the Park Guell but once we got up the hill to it we found that you need tickets to enter and they were fully sold out. We still got to enjoy some nice views over the city from the adjacent non-ticketed park as we had a picnic lunch. Then we walked back into the city, past some attractive Gaudi designed buildings, to wander around the Gothic Quarter. We had a lovely and cheap(ish) meal in a Moroccan-style cafe tucked away in the old Jewish quarter. Then it was back to the Placa de la Sagrada Familia to see the famous cathedral lit up and to collect our bags before heading to the port to catch our ferry.
Practicalities
Accommodation:
- 2-28 March: Frigiliana at Casa Angela
- 16-17 March: Mojacar at El Palmeral Playa
- 28-29 March: Madrid at Madrid Downtown Hostel
Transport:
- Flight from East Midlands to Malaga
- Rental car whilst in Frigiliana
- Train Malaga – Madrid
- Train Madrid – Barcelona
- One day travel pass covering underground and buses in Barcelona
Food:
Mostly self-catering but we ate out a few times in Frigiliana and we ate at Oveja Negra and Santa y Pura in Madrid (both excellent vegan cafés) and Salterio in Barcelona.
365 days of adventure 