Casa Pilar Alto, Illora Newsletter 6th May 2007

Illora Weekly News
Dateline 06.05.07

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“The rain in Spain falls mainly on..” the roofs of Casa Pilar Alto, Illora, or so it felt at the height of the downpour late last week. In fact, the whole of Spain was subjected to it, whilst the U.K. languished in the weather we should be having. The steeply sloping streets of Illora became fast flowing streams for 24 hours. Aside from the rain finding some weak spots in the building to flood us, it was a good thing, really. Even the endless miles of olive groves that surround us need rain. If the prospects for the crop were to be measured by the amount of rain, we shall have olives the size of apples this year.

Before the downpour, the weather was wonderful. Today, the sun slipped over the rock towering above our terraces – home to many, for us, new species of birds by day and owls and others by night – and the capofinaed walls blinded us again. We are assured of temperatures up to 30 degrees this week and beyond. Last week, in good weather, we put on our climbing boots and walked to the upper outskirts of Illora to take some new photographs of Illora itself, of the Sierra Nevada in the distance, of the Sierra Parapanda, of Montefrio, of mile upon mile of olive groves and much more besides that our web site Photo Gallery really needed along with the Special Offers now featured.

Spain is a “good news” country, with less focus on the unfortunate incidents, political gaffes, celebrity gossip and artificial celebrity creation that dominate the media in the UK. Last week the news focused heavily on the birth of the Infanta – a second daughter for Crown Prince Felipe and his gorgeous wife. Felipe visits the hospital, Queen Sofia visits the hospital, Felipe visits the hospital again and so on.. Which is a good chance to slip in that the area of Illora is well known to much of the British Royal Family. Prince Charles, Princess Diana, the Duchess of Cornwall and the late Queen Mother are, or have been, frequent visitors to the area. Prior to the opening of Casa Pilar Alto, Illora, they have stayed on the vast estate given to the first Duke of Wellington in perpetuity by the Spanish, out of gratitude for release from Napoleon. Originally called “Soto de Roma”, the estate was created and used by Moorish nobles as a summer retreat and hunting ground. Not much has changed other than the nationality of its guests.

Cathy and I have ceased to feel that dizzy sensation I had been attributing to living at an altitude we have not before. It turns out to be something entirely different but equally fundamental – two weeks of eating really good, solid, cooked meals from our still new kitchen and we are new people after the two months when we ate whatever we could get from a tin that did not need to be heated. A few months without the chance to cook have either left Cathy more heavy-handed with the chillies when cooking Filipino food or my mouth less accustomed to the effect, which seems more likely.

Strange the way that people searching on the web find us. “walking in Illora”, “fiestas in Granada”. Google tells me how you got to us but these are terms I had largely disregarded when writing the web site content. A friend very kindly sent me a link to free software to help me with search engine optimisation. Perhaps I would be better to try negative search optimisation – choose the phrases I want you to find us by and then set them aside and ensure I do not use them in the belief that Google, Yahoo and others will index us prominently by these terms right away. Does the global industry built to serve the ever-changing needs of search engine marketing work to a false premise ?

It’s a good life being a Brit in Spain and not at all bad for the Spanish. Monday last was a holiday in the U.K., so our English workers had the day off. Obviously, the Spanish could not work without them. Tuesday was a holiday in Spain and, trust me, the opposite arrangement works. Thursday was also a fiesta in Puerto Lopez close-by, which made working on Wednesday or Friday just silly. So, we have had a quiet week, punctured only by a trip out with Tony to select worktops and tiles for the kitchen in Café Pilar Alto, Illora and by our own efforts at decorating. The room which will be ours next week is now decorated and almost entirely ready, save for poles and shelves for the wardrobes. The furniture comes on Tuesday evening and we shall move on Wednesday, so that we can welcome our first guest since Klaus. Her arrival will enable us to go on some seriously intensive shopping trips for the finer details needed to make Casa Pilar Alto, Illora into a hotel.

Miel and Carbon continue to shred anything they can reach and we continue to learn that they can always reach more than we anticipate. Now 12 weeks old, we have started taking them for walks in town in an effort to wear them out with the steep climbing. Taking out a dog on a lead is a little like hanging a sign on our backs reading “Somos Ingleses” (you will gather that my grasp of the language is improving). The Spanish do not, in my observation, walk their dogs this way. They do often walk with their dogs – human in quiet thought, dog in endless exploration - but only once have I seen a lead and that on what could very easily have been Miel’s and Carbon’s brother. I am not in any sense suggesting lack of care – there is too little traffic for this way to be a really serious risk. It just that the Spanish view of the way we British deal with our dogs is broadly similar to the British view of the fuss many Americans make of theirs.

So, tomorrow is Monday and the peace of the last week will be shattered again by the arrival of, this time, a largely Spanish team. Some Brits will come to finish off the kitchen in the Café and other things whilst the Spanish come to build a couple of new walls we need and to level out and concrete the terraces for your future viewing pleasure. Casa Pilar Alto, Illora is rapidly coming together !

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Hasta luego !

Matthew and Cathy Brooks

Casa Pilar Alto
4,6 Cuesta Pilar Alto
18260 Illora
Granada
Spain

Email: stay@casaillora.com

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