Around Andalusia - Sunday Times April 9, 2006

Why go now? Beaches, siesta, flamenco, white towns and red wine – could it be any more Spanish? Katie Bowman heads to the deep south of the country

Think of Andalusia as the e=mc2 of long weekends. If there were a mathematical formula for the perfect short break (PSB) it would go something like this: PSB = cheap flights + short flying time + bit of beach + bit of city + lashings of red wine. And that, in a nutshell, is what you can expect of Andalusia.
Of course, that’s underselling the region hugely. Encompassing a great hulk of Spain from the Portuguese border to beyond Almería in the east and above Córdoba to the north, Andalusia is bigger than Holland. Its vastness means you can really only tackle one corner over four days – and if you’ve never been before then the southwest is where to start.

This part of Andalusia gave birth to every Iberian legend: bullfighting in Ronda, tapas in Seville and flamenco in Jerez. And the countryside is just as Hemingway wrote it, sprinkled with pueblos blancos (white towns) across the hills like cotton buds in bloom. Drive from the city to one of these and you’ll see life visibly decelerate to a standstill. At 1.30pm sharp the shutters come down, bread is broken and the religion of the siesta begins. All you can do is surrender and pull up a bar stool before soaking the afternoon in a bottle of Barbadillo.

From April the weather is warm enough for sunbathing, by July it’s too hot even for the Italians, so May is perfect, although it’s also not bad after the searing heat has passed in September. The beaches are either buzzing and flashy on the Costa del Sol, or windblown and deserted on the Costa de La Luz, but there’s time to try both on a long weekend. Driving is half the experience, so take the scenic routes that hairpin through carob-covered mountains, or sandy tarmac strips that slice through fields of cork and orange trees. Then pull in to one of the cities for an evening of gazpacho Andaluz, jamón Ibérico and sardinas Malagueñas, washed down with a bottle of Cruzcampo beer. It all adds up to the perfect weekend…

THE BEACHES

Starting from the west, the real shock of the Costa de la Luz is just how wonderful – and diverse – the golden beaches are. Both Conil and Chiclana, south of Cádiz, have great empty long stretches; Barbate de Franco is more crowded, and bustling with beach football and volleyball; and Los Caños de Meca is the place to meet the dreadlocked ‘in’-crowd.

Further south begin the kilometres of sand dunes as you approach Tarifa. If you can only make one stop, make it Bolonia. This lengthy but private stretch of sand is backed by Roman temple ruins, believed to date back to 200BC. It’s ideal for those who suffer from ‘beach guilt’ (that nagging feeling you have while sunbathing that you should be looking round a museum). Be warned though: the northern end of the shore, marked by an unmissable sand dune, is nudist. In this part of the world, people are so used to naturism that you’ll see bikinied bathers amongst naked ones – but if you’re not so blithe, tread carefully.

On to Tarifa, where the beaches are stunning but wild – no public loos or beach bar for a swift cerveza. Surfers migrate to the region every summer, which is great if you’re a surfer but not so great when the wind picks up and you’re eating a sand-and-pickle sandwich. Invest in a windbreak.

Round the Strait of Gibraltar and you start to swim into package territory. The terrible two – Fuengirola and Torremolinos – look like wedding cakes on the horizon, and the beaches are packed in summer, soulless in winter. But there are pockets of loveliness on the Costa del Sol. San Pedro de Alcántara is a quieter package town with a pretty palm-lined seafront loved by elderly Spanish couples out of season. And Puerto Banus, next-door neighbour to Marbella, can be great fun. This small bay has only enough room for select power yachts, a handful of boutiques and a couple of beach bars: Marbella on a manageable scale. Reserve a table for lunch on the marina and watch the Eurotrash from behind big shades. from behind big shades.

THE CITIES

Seville is easily Andalusia’s most exciting city and the best-looking thanks to over 500 years under Moorish rule. Go straight to the Alcázar (right), a 12th-century palace with beautiful mosaic-tiled gardens. Adjoining it is the Giralda minaret, which you can climb for superb views of the city.

The Alcázar backs on to Santa Cruz, a gorgeous neighbourhood of lemon-painted houses with green shutters and geranium-stocked window boxes. Only the bravest or most stupid drivers make it up the skinny streets, so you can loiter at leisure and peek through ornate gates into the courtyards within.

If you can bear to look, go see la corrida (bullfight) on Sunday night at the Plaza de Toros de Maestranza, which is heralded as the best venue in Spain.

Málaga is scruffier than Seville but feels even more Spanish since tourists tend to skip this city for the coast. The Paseo del Parque is a lovely tropical garden that runs the length of the harbourfront. It’s heavily planted with palms and orange trees so you’ll find couples in the shade and grandparents taking time out while kids play on the swings. At the end of the Paseo is the beach, surprisingly clean, with beds and parasols if you want to make a day of it.

The 16th-century cathedral is worth a quick stop as it’s walking distance from the port. Known as La Manquita, ‘the little one-armed lady’, only one of its two towers was ever built due to cash-flow problems.

Jerez de la Frontera is the birthplace of flamenco, but even here the dance is an elusive beast, as it’s essentially a private and spontaneous affair. The exception to this is the Concurso (February/March annually), during which the great exponents perform at the Villamarta Theatre or Plaza del Arsenal. Away from the flamenco festivals, look for the local peña, or fan club, which will be in a bar or hut. There’s a great one on an estate near Puerto Real, a dishevelled suburb of Cádiz, where local aficionados gather. They hold weekly events and you may be invited in for a free show. A bottle of sherry for the performers would be appreciated.

THE VILLAGES

The eternal search for the perfect pueblo blanco is enough to justify returning to Spain year after year. The prettiest – such as Ronda or Mijas – have become caricatures of themselves, with the feeling that some of the ‘weather-worn locals’ have been cast for the benefit of daytrippers. Head inland for the less-crowded versions.

Carmona, half an hour east of Seville, is a breathtaking example. Head straight for the hills, where a network of cobble-stoned streets that lead through the Puerta de Sevilla take you to the old quarter. On the Plaza de San Fernando is a lovely food market used by the locals. Then at the top of the village is the 14th-century Arabic fortress, now a parador (see Where to Stay). If there’s no room at the inn, take a scoot round the grounds and go for a drink on the terrace overlooking the Corbones valley.

Vejer de la Frontera, on the coast north of Tarifa, but 11km from the beach via a mountainous drive, is also gorgeous. The main Plaza de España, with its fountain and tiled square, is comically pretty, while the views down to the coast or up to the white roofs strung with washing are memorable.

Fiestas are the speciality of this region; every village will have a series of shindigs, lasting from a day to a week. Muster up a passable paso doble and a half bottle of sherry and you’ll end up being invited to share a chorizo and dance flamenco. In February there’s the riotous Carnaval in Cádiz; in September Barbate’s eerie boat-burning; April holds Seville’s gigantic feria over Easter, with a town of tents and a week of hangovers. You may still catch it if you hurry.

In May Jerez has a beguiling horse fair; Conil de la Frontera’s fishing festival is in June; and Vejer worships its venerated Virgin with a parade and a knees-up in mid-August, when there’s also horseracing along the beach in Sanlúcar

GETTING THERE

Ryanair (0906 270 5656, www.ryanair.com) flies to Jerez from Stansted, to Málaga from Shannon and Dublin, and to Seville and Granada from Stansted and Liverpool, from £24. Easyjet (0905 821 0905, www.easyjet.com) flies to Málaga from Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Belfast, Liverpool, Newcastle, East Midlands and Bristol, from £52.

GETTING AROUND

Holiday Autos (0800 400 0011, www.holidayautos.co.uk) rents out cars from £58pw from all over Andalusia. Sixt (08701 567567, www.e-sixt.co.uk) has cars from £70pw. Alternatively, the Andalucía Express train (00 34 902 240202, www.renfe.es) covers the entire region, including small villages. A return fare from Málaga to Seville costs £21 (journey time: two hours 40 minutes).

Seville: the big orange - Saturday Times April 08, 2006

Tim Hames is wowed by fruit trees and decorated tiles in Seville

Three features make Seville stand out not only as a city in Spain but one of the finest settlements in Europe. They are the smell, the streets and the tiles. These might seem odd items to bring together, yet in a subtle way they are the secret of the success of a place that, despite the undoubted popularity of Andalusia, is still something of a mystery to that section of the British population which thinks that straying more than a mile from the coast on a visit to southern Spain is, well, criminal.
It is their loss. The first thing they lose is the smell. Seville positively reeks of the orange trees that seem to adorn every thoroughfare, their fruit hanging in easy fashion for those who want to reach out and pluck and — from mid-April to May — adorned with staggeringly pretty blossom.

Grapes grow in public places as well, but it is the oranges that add astonishing flavour to an already vibrant café culture and climate, which means that even in winter, locals and visitors can superglue themselves to seats outside to partake of coffee, wine or the mountain of food that comes under the misleadingly modest title of tapas.

And then there are the streets. Lots of them. Small and intricate and winding, often confusing but invariably looping back to one of the comparatively few major roads or squares such as the long Calle Sierpes, which is the main shopping boulevard, or the vast cathedral — the third-largest place of Christian worship in Europe after St Peter’s in Rome and our St Paul’s — which suddenly emerges from a maze of tiny streets.

In this respect, Seville resembles Venice, a place full of busy locals and somewhat less hurried travellers, with plenty of English spoken, a sizeable proportion of it American in tone. The centre of Seville is very much for walking. The notion of a bus weaving through this terrain is laughable, and, besides, the city is the optimal size for exploration on foot.

 This produces a paradox. I can think of no other place that combines so many small streets at its heart with such huge and impressive buildings at the edge of the conurbation. The oldest of these is the Altamira Palace. Other landmarks include the breathtaking Plaza de España, the centre of the Spanish-American exhibition of 1929; the enormous hangar that was once the tobacco factory brought to the stage in Carmen; and the Teatro de la Maestranza erected for Expo ’92.

Then there are the tiles. Millions of them — everywhere. Despite extensive research, I could not discover which King of Spain had issued an edict banning wallpaper in Seville, but such a proclamation must have occurred because everything that could possibly be covered in tile is. And these are not the sort of tiles that you bung up in a bathroom to keep the cost down, but ones of breathtaking design and colour. If you are a tileophile (does that word exist? It does now) then head out to Seville.

But frankly you should make a beeline for the city even if unmoved by the smell of oranges, unaffected by the intrigue of narrow streets or perfectly content with Homebase for tiling. If there is a flicker of romance in the soul, then Seville is the place to fan it.

The accommodation ranges from the imposing (and pricey) Hotel Alfonso XIII to boutique townhouses such as Casa No. 7. There are, mercifully, few examples of the soulless mega-brand hotel. Most people who come choose to sniff, walk, nibble at tapas, walk, wonder why they could not obtain tiles like that for the downstairs loo, walk, get lost and find themselves again. It is an enticing combination. The orange trees and those tiles deserve just a little more company.

Spain at its sauciest - The Sunday Times May 14, 2006

Avoid Andalusia’s coast: it’s a Spanish Blackpool. But go inland and it’s an altogether sexier story, as Stanley Stewart reveals
 
In Andalusia, you can’t move without tripping over a Spanish cliché. Everything we think of as Spanish seems to have started here among the orange groves beneath the hot blue skies. Andalusia is the home of flamenco and tapas, of sherry and bullfights, of gypsies and the Spanish guitar. This is the Spain of castanets and flounced skirts, of white villages and long siestas, of Moorish palaces and bodegas like castles. It is the Spain of Lorca and Picasso, of Carmen and Don Juan. This is where Bernarda Alba kept her daughters locked up rather than expose them to the flirtatious possibilities of the evening paseo. Andalusia is the Spanish south, the full-blooded, unadulterated Spanish thing.

The chief rule about Andalusia is that if you are wearing a thong, and have got sand down your baguette, you are probably in the wrong place. Even before the transformation of so much of its coast into a sort of Spanish Blackpool, the heart and soul of Andalusia lay inland. Climb through the Sierra Nevada to the rolling interior, where the landscape begins to unfold long, languorous limbs. It is ravishing country, with villages crowning the ridges and olive groves stretching to the horizons.

Here lie three great Moorish cities — Cordoba, Granada and Seville. They hold the secret of Andalusia.

Of these three great cities of Andalusia, Seville is the most closely wedded to exaggerated images of Spanishness. It is a party town, at its best when strutting its stuff. Every year, the great Feria de Abril seems like Spanish caricatures run amok. The morning paseos are a costumed equestrian extravaganza. The married women, with shawls of mantilla lace and fluttering fans, ride up and down in carriages examining one another’s dressage. The young men in tight jackets and flat Cordoba hats are on horseback. Seated side-saddle behind them are their dates: young women in flounced polka-dot dresses with roses in their hair and wide lipstick smiles.

La Feria de Abril is a great spectacle, but for outsiders, it can be difficult to infiltrate. Someone described it as “2,000 cocktail parties to which you have not been invited”. But this sense of theatre, this extravagance, this love of finery, of a good time, of late nights, is the essence of Andalusia. It is not confined to a week in April. Every night in Seville seems to be party night.

In the back lanes, revellers progress from tapas bar to restaurant to flamenco club.

In Los Gallos, the dancers circled one another like birds of prey. Flamenco dispenses with the saccharine-coated niceties common in most forms of traditional dance, offering instead a brooding, uneasy confrontation between the sexes. It crackles with erotic suggestion. It is febrile and dangerous. Flamenco is not for sweethearts; it is for lovers. It is not about romance; it is about passion. It is also the most persistent of the Moorish survivals. With its quavering half-tones and insistent rhythms, flamenco is the raw voice of Al-Andalus, of Muslim Spain.

TRAVEL BRIEF

Getting there: Malaga, Seville, Jerez and Granada are served by several airlines, including British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com), Iberia (0870 609 0500, www.iberia.com), EasyJet (www.easyjet.com), Flybe (www.flybe.com), Flyglobespan (0870 556 1522, www.flyglobespan.com), Monarch Scheduled (0870 040 5040, www.flymonarch.com), Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) and Aer Lingus (0818 365000, www.aerlingus.com).

Project approved at town council and pre-approved in Cadiz

Projects the size of Prado del Rey Golf and Country Village are complex to approve because there is a lot more to do than simply built homes. For example, there is the whole question of water provision and water purification for a project almost the size of a small Spanish village. There is the question of what local facilities will be provided and what will be the arrangements for local labour. The list is very long.

Profit Finders always back projects that are fully approved so that clients need have no worry. At this time the project is fully approved at the town council of Prado del Rey. It is also pre-approved in the regional Cadiz assembly. The final approval is due mid-May 2006 at the next sitting of the regional assembly.

Bankers and Construction Companies approved (March 2006)

The project has this month, March 2006, successfully negotiated terms with the projects bankers and constructors. To ensure the project safety the bankers and constructors have agreed to take a share of the development company for the project so that all parties have a reason to work well together.

Sales Office Opens at Prado del Rey

The sales office at Prado del Rey has just been finalised. Visiting clients will be able to get a detailed feel for the project at the site office from Lola Dominguez. Lola speaks fluent English, living half the time in the UK and half at Prado del Rey.

Prado del Rey to be Launched in the National Press September 2006

Prado del Rey Golf and Country Village will be launched in the major British press throughout September 2006. Look out for the advertisements and tell your friends about the project. One third of all the units for sale have already been pre-reserved so you will need to act quickly.

Albert May of Profit Finders who have the exclusive contract to market this project in the UK comments: “This project is unique in Andalusia and perhaps even in Spain in terms of value for money and tranquility of location; but within easy reach of incredible culture, history and a wide range of activities. Without doubt it is the best project Profit Finders have ever promoted.”