Vernon and Celia in Spain

Iris Garden

May 132010

We paid our second visit of the year to the Iris Garden at Marnes, nestled under the Sierra Bernia Mtns. near Benissa, and this time the flowers were out in full bloom. The colours were stunning and the scents from both the irises and roses were wonderful.

The garden was created by an English couple as a hobby and is now a business that involves creating new hybrids and selling irises throughout the world. As Christine Lomer says, “Marnes is our little bit of paradise on earth and we invite you to come and enjoy the panorama of the mountain landscape, the peaceful gardens and the iris blooming season.”

Valencia ‘fallas’

No Responses »

Mar 182010

On 17th March, we visited Valencia with our friends Ingrid and Colin to see the annual fallas celebrations.

Las Fallas is undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain. What started as a feast day for St. Joseph (Dia del Padre), the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day celebration involving fire.

Las Fallas literally means “the fires” in Valenciano and the focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots – huge paper-machè and plaster statues. They are extremely lifelike and usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The ninots are crafted by neighbourhood organizations and take almost the entire year to construct. Many are several storeys tall and need to be moved into their final location at over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes. The ninots remain in place until March 19th, the day known as La Cremá (the burning) when all of the ninots are set on fire at midnight.

Another important part of the celebrations are the parades of festeros, who are part of the neighbourhood organisations who have built the fallas, bringing to the cathedral flowers, which are used to create a huge effigy of the Virgin Mary. Thousands of people of all ages take part in these parades, all dressed in their beautiful fiesta costumes and carrying bunches of red, white or pink carnations. See all the photos of the day in the gallery.

The celebrations generate national interest and there were numerous TV cameras filming the proceedings, a live broadcast into the midday news on Spanish TV from the cathedral square and 2 helicopters circling the square outside the city hall as the mascleta (‘fire crackers’) went off at 2pm. The processions bring the centre of Valencia to a halt and the streets were thronged with thousands of Spanish people. Every bar and restaurant was full to the brim and there were hundreds of stalls which had set up in the streets to sell cheap mementoes, churros and other fast food and drinks.

Almond blossom time

No Responses »

Feb 262010

A little later than usual this year, the almond trees in the Jalon valley are finally out in full blossom. The valley is covered in a magnificent carpet of pink and white as far as the eye can see, contrasting with the green of the olive trees and the black of the vines, which have yet to start budding after having been pruned hard in the autumn. We drove through the valley today, marvelling at the depth of colour and the fullness of the blossom, yet to be blown away by the high winds we’ve been experiencing recently.

We drove on to Calp and walked around the huge Ifach rock and sat outside a cafe and enjoyed lunch in the sun.

Walking in the mountains

No Responses »

Feb 102010

View from El Mirabo - 700m

Today we went walking in the mountains near Benichembla at the top end of the Jalon valley. The instructions for the walk were not very clear and we missed a turning within the first 5 mins.

Having re-traced our steps, we were then chased by a dog guarding an old cattle shed and Celia was nipped on the leg. We then took another wrong path and after a further 15 mins. decided to give up (we noticed later that the walk was compiled in 1995 and it did say some of the landmarks may have changed!)

As we didn’t fancy going back past the fierce dog, we cut through some orchards where we came across evidence of a lot of recent wild boar activity – it would just have been our luck to be attacked by one of them as well! We eventually found our way back to Benichembla and retired to a bar for a well-earned beer.

El Tossalet viewed from far side of Valle de Almadich

Determined not to waste the day completely, we drove up into what we dubbed some time ago our ‘secret valley’ and traced the far end of the walk. After a picnic lunch at 500m, we climbed to a ridge where Celia stopped to rest, whilst Vernon scaled the peak we had been aiming for, El Mirabo (700m). The view from the top was breathtaking, well worth the climb, and he could see right down to the coast and, if the weather had been clear enough, out to Ibiza. Close to where we had parked the car was a ruined finca dating back to Moorish times and on the way back down the mountain, a weasel ran across the road in front of us.

F1 GP practice at Cheste

No Responses »

Feb 042010

This week the F1 GP teams came to the Cheste circuit near Valencia to try out their new cars and give their drivers a chance for some practice before the start of the new season. We joined a partisan crowd of 30,000 on the last day to watch Alonso setting the fastest lap time, Schumacher familiarising himself with the Mercedes and Button driving for McClaren for the first time. The Williams, Sauber and Renault teams were also out on the track in the winter sunshine.

It was an exciting day – our first experience of seeing F1 cars ‘live’ – and the speed with which they took the bend at the end of the pit straight was awesome. You can read the official story of the day on the F1 web site.