CHAPTER 19. SPAIN PART ll

Spain, Part I (#4) ends as we leave Granada in early June of 1975. We drive east over mountains, some desert like, and after our picnic lunch beside the road it begins to rain, and continues most of the afternoon. Near Murcia we try to go thru high water flowing across the road, and the car stalls. Glenn is able to push the small car back out of the water, and then we find a road around it. As we near Elche we see groves of cherry and lemon trees, and get a room in the Hotel Huerto Del Cura, a Parador affiliate set among date palm trees. The room, and the dinner, are very good but more expensive than most Paradors, however, they give us a passport wallet that we still use.

Driving north along the coast we see the pretty Alicante harbor and many more orchards of fruit and citrus trees, and truck gardens, as well as beautiful seashore. We have a nice lunch of seafood paella in Valencia and look around town a bit, but are put off by the mad mad traffic. The afternoon brings more rain showers, but not as bad as yesterday, as we continue north to Castello and a nice room at the Mundoro Hotel. We dress up and drive nearby to the vacation home of acquaintances from Sacramento to see our friend, Alba Kuchman who is staying with the Nolans. They have a beautiful house in Benicasim high on a hill overlooking the sea. Alba has a bad cold, but we have a drink and a light supper with her and the Nolans. It is a very enjoyable evening, and we don’t get back to our hotel until after midnight.

We drive back to Nolans’ with the intention of taking Alba and her son, Ken, with us to Barcelona, but she is still ill, and decides to go later by train. We have a nice drive up the coast, with only a few drops of rain, arriving at the Hotel Cristal by late afternoon. After a short rest we walk around some and decide Barcelona is a nice city. Back at the hotel we have a call from Alba that they have arrived OK by train, then we have a good late supper in the hotel restaurant.

When we walk to Alba’s hotel in the morning she is not feeling well enough to go out, so we take Ken with us. We go to the gothic quarter and the cathedral, which we find interesting but not exceptional, the Maritime Museum is very interesting, as is the replica of Columbus’s Santa Maria. After a delicious lunch at Los Caracoles we enjoy strolling musicians as we walk back by Alba’s hotel and on to ours. In the evening we have a wonderful and inexpensive dinner with Alba and Ken at La Cullartes then walk along the Ramblas to our hotel.