The gorge in Alhama de Granada
Welcome to the blog of our new venture Alhama Creative Holidays. Our aim is to bring creative people to our beautiful town of Alhama de Granada in Spain. We plan to offer a variety of opportunities for you to develop your creative potential. These range from tutored holidays taught by experienced published writers, book club weeks where you can relax in the sun and discuss your favourite books, and writers’ group weeks where you can transport your group to the stimulating environment of real Spain. We also offer holidays exclusively for women designed to help you find your creative spark and if you just want to get away from the greyness of everyday life you can use our house as a writer’s retreat.

While our website is under construction we will use this blog to keep you informed of developments and new information. We are currently putting together a schedule for 2009 and are in discussion with some great writers for our tutored sessions. As soon as we have names and dates we will post here- so watch this space. It is looking very exciting already!

A blog is different to a website though and we will also use this space to share our own personal experience as we give up our jobs and embark on our own creative adventure. Over the next weeks we will tell you about our impending move to Spain and the progress of the restoration of our own house in the ancient Arabic quarter of Alhama de Granada. For now though we just want to tell you a little bit about Alhama so you can get a taste for our beautiful- soon to be home-town.

Where we are
Alhama de Granada is a in a lively Andalusian town about half an hour drive from Granada Airport and forty minutes from the historic city of Granada with its stunning Moorish Palace The Alhambra. We chose Alhama because, being used to the city, we wanted somewhere bustling and buzzing with life. Attractive as it sounds, we didn’t want to be in a remote Cortijo four miles down a dirt track in the middle of nowhere. And the truth is we like going out at night and Alhama has plenty of lively tapas bars. In that part of Spain tapas is central to the social experience and every bar has its own specialities. What’s more you get one free with every drink! It goes without saying that the wine is top quality Rioja and at just over £1.oo a glass it is easy to have a very sociable time indeed.

While Alhama is a lively and growing town, it is typically Spanish with winding cobbled streets, whitewashed houses and an ancient Arab Quarter where our house is situated. The town is steeped in history and was the last stronghold of the Moors. The loss of the rich stronghold of Alhama was central to the defeat of the Moors and the Spanish Romance 'Ay mi Alhama' commemorates the cries of the Moorish king Ali Abu l Hasan on their defeat. A little known translation by Byron also tells of this event. Following the reconquest Alhama was the first town where Isabella built a Catholic church the Santa Maria de Incarnacion on the site of the great mosque and opposite our house was the first blood hospital built in Spain. This is named Hospital La Reina after the queen and our street is called Calle Real- Royal Street.



View from the terrace of our house

Alhama is about 900 metre above sea level, it is surrounded by rolling countryside which changes colour with the seasons, green, to gold, to ochre, to bone; each time of year offers new breathtaking views. Beyond the landscapes of olive and almond trees rise the peaks of various mountain ranges, including the Sierra Nevada. In winter and spring these are often capped with snow. The air is clear and pure and though it does rain occasionally- not as much as the farmers would like- the skies are usually high and clear and blue. Even in the height of summer, when it is very hot in the day, there is often a lovely fresh breeze and nights are pleasantly cool.

Through the town runs the Rio Alhama and this has carved out a deep gorge with fascinating geological features. The gorge is colonized by an abundance of wild flowers, trees and birds and is a beautiful place to walk. Some early twentieth century ruined flour mills provide a sense of atmosphere and mystery and are an inspiration for storytelling. Log onto www.alhamarentals.com where you can find out more about our town. Here you can see some of the accommodation we are offering at our friends’ houses Casa Esquina and Casa Verde.

Ruined mill in the gorge