Second WorkAway: Alcala la Real

 Workaway in Alcala La Real with Des
(Photos at the end for formatting and sanity's sake)

 

What do you get when you mix a Hula-hooping Australian, a body painting Australian, two Americans, and an older British gentleman under one roof?  One helluva circus! When we think back on our time at this work away we laugh and smile. We worked with these two girls for one day, but we already could tell their stay just wasn’t working out like our host hoped. I think he was happy to have us :)

When Ryan found this workaway on the website we were instantly excited. It was the right location, right time, and the right amount of peaceful, quiet, nature time we wanted. Alcala la Real is a beautiful area in Southern Spain where the make up is mostly farm land, with some small towns sprinkled in. It’s the heartland of olive trees, and Des had a variety of other things growing as well; grapes, figs, and almonds for example. His home has come a long way from when they first purchased it. It now has a new concrete, refurbished wood, cleared up land and yard, and a beautiful pool for swimming. Des and his wife (unfortunately she was working in the UK, we did not get to meet her) eventually would like to run a yoga retreat.

Our time spent there was wonderful. His hospitality, conversation, and home made us want to stay a few days longer.  Our work during the day was interesting and new to us. We mixed concrete, dry fit, and then placed tiles to create walkways and stairs between the house and the pool, and began to tile a walk way from the driveway to the house. Something new for both of us! We also cleared brush, and would clean the pool (usually while we took a swim, so that didn’t feel like work!) We really appreciated the work because it gave us the opportunity to learn new skills. We usually worked from about 9 am after breakfast and coffee, until about 1:30-2:00 pm, with a break in there, and then we would have lunch.

We had our afternoons off to do what we liked.  The thing we found we really enjoyed was that we had nowhere to go or nowhere we could go! So, we spent time writing, taking walks, swimming, and mostly napping to stay out of the heat. It was a calm, reflective period of time that helped us both to appreciate slowing down more. We talked about that often, how slowing down during traveling is special and really gives you time to learn about a place, its people, save money, recoup, and just feel part of something. We’d like to do that more often and are now making a more conscious effort to do so.

Something we really enjoyed was being able to try out some new recipes we learned in Italy for dinner. Two recipes in particular; spaghetti al carbonara and Milanese parmigiana were wonderful! We also made a tempura-like eggplant with molasses tapa that we found in Spain that was awesome and would like to make again for friends and family at home. Des was great about getting groceries that we asked for, and we would all sit down together for dinner with a bottle of wine and enjoy a delicious meal with conversation.

On our days off we relaxed, swam in the pool and one day we hiked up through the olive trees to a viewpoint and had a picnic.  We also took a day trip into the small town Alcala La Real.

Alcala la Real

The home we stayed and worked in was in an “unincorporated” part of the Jaen province of Spain. Alcala la Real is about 20 minutes away and was surprisingly full of history. We spent a day exploring and touring the city and it’s castle.

The city was a midpoint for the Moorish people and the castle in Alcala was built by the Moors in the year 727. It was amazing to stand in the stronghold and think of the many people who lived there over the years. The castle turned over to the Christians in the 1300s and it served as a main base with a network of watch towers for hundreds of miles across southern Spain.

After seeing the castle and learning about it’s history, we walked around and explored the city. We stopped in the central park and did like the Spanish do--beers at lunchtime with free tapas at each round. Before we knew it, our host arrived to pick us up and we headed back for a nap at the house. We could get used to the siesta lifestyle! :)

There were a couple more days of work at Casa Valero, then it was time to head to Madrid for our flight to Deutschland.

We enjoyed Madrid for one night, arriving in the morning, our flight was departing the next morning. It is a huge city and it was nice to see it on foot. We walked through El Retiro Park, the Madrid version of Central Park, it had a big man made lake with canoes for rent, botanical gardens and lots of walking paths. There was a neat indoor market with booths serving food and desserts where you could walk around with a glass of wine--naturally we said yes and enjoyed an appetizer and a drink!

We also searched for the world's largest El Corte Ingles (which, from the reviews, said it rivaled Macy’s 5th Avenue location for shopping and had a rooftop restaurant with fireplaces that served drinks). We walked for over two miles and SPOILER ALERT, these reviews are wrong. The El Corte Ingles department store exists...but there is definitely no rooftop restaurant or fireplaces. And for the record all the El Corte Ingles stores are pretty much the same. You can skip the walk when you’re in Madrid ;)

We were kind of beat from all the walking, but we found a cool food-court style lounge bar, with a central seating area where you could choose from multiple different “hipster/foodie” counters and order a beer or drink to enjoy. We both thought something like that would do well in Madison!

We had an early 6am flight to Dusseldorf, so we ended our tour of Madrid at sunset. We both thoroughly enjoyed Spain, and we were super excited for the next destination... Germany!

More to come :)

Lindsey and Ryan