Happy guests

The week before Easter - Semana Santa - we had paying guests in the shape of Nicola and Guy from London, who found us on-line. The weather was changeable and it was a bit cold at night, apparently, but like everyone else who's stayed so far, they loved it:

Nicola e-mailed me with this:

"We had a really great time at the house in Juviles. We thought the house was very nicely done and liked all the little touches such as guidebooks, cookbooks and DVDs...
...you mentioned the walk to El Fuerte; we only did it on the last day which is a shame as it was a spectacular view which we could have enjoyed with a book and a picnic every day!!"

Don't know if they had a camera with them when they went to the Fuerte, but the last time I was up there I took these. Above is a random bit of landscape (that's digital cameras for you) and below right is a hazy view of the village from the footpath. The Fuerte itself is the very limited remains of an old Moorish stronghold; an important fortress that once dominated the area and provided a refuge when the pesky Christians tried to persuade the Muslims to eat ham sandwiches and worship the Virgin Mary. There's only a few stubby bits of wall left, although a water deposit remains, and the walk and the views are great. In warm weather up there, the scent of wild herbs, particularly thyme, is lovely.

Easter in Berlin

Just for a change, we went somewhere other than the Alpujarra for Easter Weekend. Namely, Berlin. As this is casasierra and not berghaus, I won't go in to detail, but it is a fantastic city and I'd recommend it highly. We stayed in funky Prenzlauer Berg, not far from the Fernsehentum (pictured), ate currywurst and marvelled at the astonishingly efficient public transport system. I drank lots of beer, and managed to half forget our wedding anniversary.

It's the first time in almost three years we've been abroad to somewhere that wasn't the Alpujarra. Simultaneously, someone else was staying in our house in Juviles, and paying us money to do so, hurrah. A few more bookings and we can spend more time in interesting alternative places. On the other hand, I can't wait to get back to Granada in late June. God, it's more than twelve weeks away....

Spanish food on British telly...

Tomasina Miles is very posh and incredibly enthusiastic, and has a fetching gap between her front teeth. She won Masterchef and now owns a Mexican restaurant in London called Wahaca (she clearly doesn't trust English-speakers to pronounce Oaxaca without help, but as it's in Covent Garden all her guests will be American, probably, so she may have a point). Now she's touring Spain to talk about and cook food for Channel 4. Last night's first show narrowly missed the Alpujarra - she was in Almeria, cooking not Almerian dishes like olla de trigo or gurullos, but paella. From Valencia, the traditional rice producing region 300 miles away. Oh, and ajo blanco (she insisted on calling it "white gazpacho") from Malaga, 125 miles in the other direction. This wouldn't have annoyed me had the show not made such a big thing about travelling around the country to discover authentic local specialities. She did correctly identify salmorejo as a dish from Cordoba, but she prepared it in her kitchen in England and we didn't get so much as a glimpse of the Mezquita. Then it was off to Huelva for jamon de bellota and a matanza, which was a bit more fun, what with intestines having the fecal matter squeezed out of them before they could be turned into sausages. As with most depictions of rural Spain, there were lots of incredibly fit old people running around killing and cooking things at an age when most self-respecting British people are dead, or at least suffering from Alzheimer's. Next week she's off to Castilla for saffron, but what's the betting she prepares a Basque fisherman's stew while she's in Toledo?

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/a-cooks-tour-of-spain/?intcmp=homepage_box2

Anyway, despite my criticisms I think you'll enjoy it if you love Spain and food. When it comes around to buying the book of the series, though, don't. Get Sam and Sam Clark's Casa Moro instead.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casa-Moro-Cookbook-Sam-Clark/dp/0091894492

I shot this horse

The last time we were in Juviles I took this shot of our neighbour's horses drinking from the water trough at the side of the lavadero. This is about 100m from our house, along Calle Altillo. From this point, if you turn left and head up the hill, you're on the GR7 long-distance walking route that takes you through magnificent mountain scenery until you reach Trevelez, the highest village in Spain, after about two hours walking. If you turn right and walk down towards the main road, you get to the rather less magnificent municipal bins. Annie thinks this horse looks like Hitler, which is a little unfair on the poor beast, but I can see what she means.

Now the blog's a blog

I've been using this site for the past year or so as a free and easy way to maintain a presence for our Spanish house on line - i.e., not like a blog at all. Now however, we have a permanent, bi-lingual site at www.casasierra.co.uk with lots of information and photography (including a picture gallery to which we'll be adding shots on a regular basis) and the links to contact us, book or check availability. That'll be our main selling site from now on. You can still find most of that stuff here too, but I think I'll start making this blog a bit more bloggy. Hence the conversational tone.

So today we have guests from London arriving at the house. They were on an early flight to Almeria, so they should get to Juviles about lunch time, assuming they stop to do some shopping at Eroski in Roquetas de Mar on the way. Also assuming they don't get lost.