Ryanair might be a shower of agressive, money-grabbing, geographically-challenged chancers, but they do have their uses. At the end of March they're introducing low cost flights between Granada and Bologna. You'll be able to travel between two of Europe's most beautiful university cities from about €20 each way. (Plus of course the hidden extra charges for checking in, bringing a suitcase, breathing etc.) More to the point, some of the most sophisticated people in Italy will easily be able to reach our lovely house and rent it for less than €300 a week, or 625,000 lire in old money. For once the two airports are even relatively close to the cities which bear their names - less than 15k in each case. I only wish I had reason/opportunity/time to flit between two of my favourite places on a regular basis.
Benvenuti i bolognesi!
Ryanair might be a shower of agressive, money-grabbing, geographically-challenged chancers, but they do have their uses. At the end of March they're introducing low cost flights between Granada and Bologna. You'll be able to travel between two of Europe's most beautiful university cities from about €20 each way. (Plus of course the hidden extra charges for checking in, bringing a suitcase, breathing etc.) More to the point, some of the most sophisticated people in Italy will easily be able to reach our lovely house and rent it for less than €300 a week, or 625,000 lire in old money. For once the two airports are even relatively close to the cities which bear their names - less than 15k in each case. I only wish I had reason/opportunity/time to flit between two of my favourite places on a regular basis.
Ross offends abuela shock
The local press in Granada is doing its dinger today because Jonathan Ross, recently back in his BBC job after the Andrew Sachs affair, has been insulting old ladies in Conchar. Ross was doing a phone interview with a British resident of the town, who joked that he was building a wall to keep out the supposedly randy eighty-year old lady who lives next door. The presenter suggested that the Brit "give her one last good seeing-to before she goes to the grave". (I'm translating from Spanish that's been translated from Estuary English, but I think that's fairly accurate.) The lady in question has Alzheimer's, and her son is livid.
More snow hits Granada
The province got some really heavy snowfall this weekend, with many roads in chaos. This shot is from Castril, in the North East of Granada (and a fair bit lower down than our place). Ideal reports today that transport is getting back to normal again.
Beautiful women on bikes
This has nothing to do with the Alpujarra, but I'm interested in cycling at the moment and discovered a site called Copenhagen Cycle Chic. It's run by a guy who just loves taking pictures of girls on bikes, especially if they're wearing fashionable outfits. Blogger Mikael lives in a city full of beautiful women and bicycles, so he's in the right place. As he says, it's "bike advocacy in high heels with a streetwise twist from the world's cycling capital." I love the way the site is charming, sophisticated and very slightly pervy at the same time.
Save 20% on a booking at our house
I haven't had an enquiry on the house for a few weeks so I'm trying a discount ad on villarenters. If you prefer to book directly I'll extend the same terms, which are that if you book any full week or weeks for 2009 before the end of March, I'll give you 20% off. Prices now start at £200 per week (less 20%, of course, so that's £160) during February and March, rising to £350 (£300 with the discount) for the English school holidays. I'm putting the prices up soon - so that there's some relationship between pound and euro prices - so it won't ever get this cheap again.
San Anton, patron saint of pet food
The British cling to the belief that they're the most animal-friendly people in Europe, but I don't think they can compete with the Spaniards. It may be true that bulls and donkeys are slaughtered on a regular basis throughout the country, but when it comes to their mascotas, the Spanish are as soft-hearted as anyone else. 
Today is San Anton's day, when religious pet owners in Spain take their dogs, cats, hamsters and canaries to church to have them blessed and sprinkled with holy water. In a secular alternative, Ideal in Granada gets people to send in pictures of their pets for posting on the paper's website. Here's just one of several dozen.
The Alpujarra on BBC4
Rageh Omaar, the BBC journalist usually seen wearing a flak jacket in a war zone, was in Granada and the Alpujarra on BBC4 last night in the final episode of his mini-series “An Islamic History of Europe”. It seemed a pretty superficial exploration of a vast and infinitely rich subject to me - apart from anything else, how can you do a whole history of Muslim influence in Europe without mentioning the Ottoman Empire? - but he did get to sit on Chris Stewart’s terrace drinking mint tea, and that's not far from our house and so worthy of mention on this blog. The cheerful evocation of ancient battle at the Moros y Cristianos enactment in Velez de Benaudalla was fun. Apparently nobody wants to dress up as a Christian because the Moors have better swords, and the town enacts two battles with contrasting outcomes during the day of the fiesta, so that everyone gets to win at least once.
Here's a picture of the Moros Y Cristianos from our own village:
Here's a picture of the Moros Y Cristianos from our own village:
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