It’s squishy, ugly and nearly rotten or, to give it the term that doesn’t make it sound quite so bad, bletted. Medlar is an old fruit that has slipped from popular usage. On a sunny autumnal day in an orchard in Las Alpujarras I’m happy to pop one into my mouth. Not because I’ve been told it’s tasty which is a matter of opinion; although, I like its slightly mushy, cinnamony apple flavours.
I pop it into my mouth because of the olde English name for it – the open arse fruit. You’ve got to try something with a name like that.

Jack is co-editor, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

Tom was a senior chef at London’s Moro restaurant. In the atmospheric and golden setting of a traditional village at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas in Andalusia, he taught us, and a few other foodie/walking fans, how to prepare a selection of exotic looking and tasting Moro dishes.

For those whose have yet to discover this culinary gold mine, Moro is a vivacious blend of North African and Spanish cuisine with flavours that swirl around your mouth like a flamenco dancer stomping her feet to a Gnawa beat.

In other words, it’s terrific nosh.

As well as being enthusiast eaters, we love getting our hands floury. Cooking has always been a therapeutic pastime.

Since Tom shared his secrets in Las Alpujarras we’ve regularly dipped in and out of the Moro well.

Last night we stuck on Amy Winehouse, poured a generous glass of wine and rustled up a couple of our favourite Moro recipes – beetroot borani and walnut and red pepper bulgur (in our case couscous) with soft and floppy flatbreads sprinkled with za’atar (a blend of Middle Eastern spices that raises the game of anything it’s sprinkled on).

Moro cooking isn’t for anyone who likes to be in and out of the kitchen with their dinner before the commercial break is over. It’s slow cooking.

Beetroot takes an hour and a half of bubbling away whilst a red pepper chars and blisters slowly on a cast iron griddle. The cast iron griddle is a magical pan. Anything cooked on it just tastes better.

Roasted red pepper is a revelation. Alone it adds pizazz to couscous; accompanied by smoky paprika, mint, parsley and harissa it takes you by the tongue and drags you at breakneck speed through a Moroccan spice market.

Walnuts are cracked, pieces of nut ricocheting around the kitchen, herbs are chopped and feta crumbled whilst Amy sings about her F-me pumps.

After the pepper is blackened, the flatbreads take their turn on the griddle whilst the beetroot is turned into a thick paste courtesy of a hand blender whose enthusiasm to do the job sends beetroot splatters around the kitchen, leaving it looking like Freddy Krueger’s paid a visit.

It takes time but the kitchen is filled with a rainbow army of ingredients and aromas swirling with Eastern promise.

And then it’s done. And it’s eaten in a fraction of the time it took to prepare.

That’s how it is. The journey to get to the destination is part of what it’s all about.

Saying that, such are the flavours in Moro dishes, one teaspoon of beetroot borani or walnut and red pepper couscous would more than justify hours of preparation.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

When I imagined the Alhambra, I visualised grand Moorish palaces amidst a countryside of olive groves; I remembered tales from my childhood about warriors like El Cid and thought of Moorish Christian conflicts lasting centuries… perhaps destined to last forever.

It seemed a magical place where North Africa had blended into Europe resulting in a sometimes bloody, sometime peaceful clash of cultures and religion.

The Alhambra is a chameleon of a structure. It started life as a citadel in the 9th century before enjoying the grandness being a Muslim palace in the 14th century before changing religion to Christianity and providing comfort for European aristocracy from the 16th century. Somewhere along the line it faded from fashion and fell into disrepair before rising from the ashes to become one of Spain’s major attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The question was could this personality changing icon of Moorish Iberian culture, which throughout history has inspired kings, warriors, writers and poets, live up to the fantasy from a little boy’s mind?

A View of the Alhambra

In truth I was more impressed with the view from the Alhambra, especially from the Queen’s Robing Room, than the views of it from below. It was easy to imagine that the views over Granada’s red-tiled rooftops, medieval churches and cypress trees to the Sierra Nevadas beyond hadn’t changed in centuries.

Pillar of Carlos V

This intriguing fountain just outside of the Alhambra walls has nothing Moorish about it. With Hercules and Apollo featuring, it’s allegiance is decidedly Greek and Roman mythology. There’s some debate over what the fountain is said to represent; either the three Granada rivers of Darro, Beiro and Genil or possibly spring, summer and autumn. As winter seems to be missing, the former seems more likely.

Puerta de la Justicia

The Alhambra’ largest gate, the Gate of Justice, is very much in the Moorish style with the hand of Fatima, a talisman to ward off evil, guarding its arched entrance.

A Taste of Morocco

Stepping inside is like beaming into the Medersa Ben Youseff in Marrakech. Walls and ceilings have been painstakingly carved and are hypnotically beautiful. I can’t imagine how they would have looked in their original state when the intricate designs would have been painted in vibrant colours.

Court of the Myrtles

One of my favourite parts of the Alhambra, the Court of the Myrtles is so named because of the plants that line the long pool. In both Spanish and Moorish houses, courtyards were the focus of family life. Coincidence or influence?

A Spot to Contemplate

Simply a lovely little spot to rest awhile and absorb the Alhambra’s charms.

Court of the Lions

One of the enduring symbols, the purpose of Court of the Lions is to be a bit of a show off really. It’s an example of the Alhambra’s wonderfully imaginative decorative qualities as well as a display of its ingenious water systems – something to do with how the water can flow throughout the place in shallow channels without spilling out. I’m a right-brainer so, unlike the water, the explanation sort of flowed over me.

Court of Lindaraja

A total contrast to the Court of the Lions, the Court of Lindaraja has more greenery, a baroque fountain and a European vibe. There’s almost a feeling that the Alhambra changes architectural direction and even continents as you walk from Moorish corridors into a courtyard that looks as though it belongs in an Italian villa.

The Partal Gardens

The morphing from Moorish influences to European continues in the neat terraces of the Partal Gardens. No surprise as this part of the Alhambra is just over a century old.

The Generalife

Despite sounding like the place to pick up car insurance, the vegetable and flower gardens of the Generalife represent a softer, possibly even more charming face of the Alhambra. Nobody seems sure where it got its unsexy name; although, as always, there are plenty of opinions. The most popular being it had something to do with a gardening architect (alarife in Spanish). Maybe the gardening architect had also once been a general?
My favourite spot was the Sultana’s Court (above) which had an air of sad beauty about it. The legend has it that one of King Boadbil’s wives enjoyed romantic liaisons in this garden with a knight from a neighbouring tribe. Needless to say it didn’t end well and the lovers had an enforced bitter and bloody break up.

So did the real Alhambra live up to the one in my mind? Commanding and beautiful though it was I didn’t get the same sense of history oozing from its bricks and mortar that I have in some other historic sites. It was visually stunning but, having not long previously wandered around some of the great palaces in Morocco, there weren’t really any surprises and the different custodians over the centuries have left it with a bit of a confused personality.

In short, although it impressed and interested, the Alhambra didn’t move me.

Granada on the other hand totally exceeded expectations

Entrance to the Alhambra costs €13 but there are various packages available. Tickets are available to purchase online but if you take the over 65 option you need to get your ticket stamped otherwise you can’t get through the turnstile. The Alhambra is open from 8.30am to 6pm in winter months and 8.30am to 8pm in summer months.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

The magnificent fortress-palace of the Alhambra towers over Granada and constitutes Spain’s premier piece of Islamic architecture. It’s named after the red colouring of its brickwork on the outer walls, and construction on it started in 1238, by the founder of the Nasrid dynasty, Ibn Ahmar.
His successors added to the building and it was finally finished in 1358. Just a century or so ago it was completely given over to vagrants and rare visitors like Washington Irving, who wrote a book about it, Tales of the Alhambra, which is still highly readable and instructive. Now it has been greatly renovated and visitors have access to the citadel or Alcazaba, the oldest part of the complex that still stands, along with the Great Palace which contains the famous Court of the Lions – a huge basin made out of a solid chunk of alabaster and supported by 12 marble lions.

The gardens of the Generalife with their fountains and pools, laid out in the 14th century, evoke a lost world of wonder and the heyday of Moorish civilisation in the Iberian Peninsula.
How to drive there: take the N-IV and then the E5 roads from Madrid, and follow the N323 to reach Granada, or follow the N334 and N342 from Seville in the south.

According to legend, the remains of St James, one of the Apostles, are housed in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in the north of Spain, a historic Christian stronghold while the wars with the southern Moors were going on. St James was martyred around 44AD in Jerusalem, and the first church here was erected in the 9th century by Alfonso II of Asturias. After Jerusalem and Rome, this was the most important place of pilgrimage in medieval times. Try to time your visit to coincide with one of the special masses, when a huge incense-burner is swung through the length of the transept, conjuring all the excitement of those turbulent centuries when Christians and Moslems were at each others’ throats.
You can reach Santiago de Compostella on the A52 or A9 from Madrid, or take the A9 from Ferrol.

For a fine example of a more light-hearted piece of religious architecture you can’t beat the splendid confection of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Gaudi’s obsessive masterpiece, with its eight spires soaring to over 100 metres and its snaking contours. The cathedral was supposed to have twelve spires, representing the Apostles, but it remained an unfinished work. Nevertheless, La Sagrada Familia is a stunning symbol of this exciting city and looks like a surrealist portrait of Cologne or Notre Dame – definitely one for the modern age.
Take the A7 from France or the A2 from Saragoza and follow the signs.

You can conveniently whizz around these and many other historic sites on Spain’s excellent road network. Whether you’re into castles and cathedrals or simply want to lap up the wonderful and varied landscapes, Spain offers the lot.

David Elliott is a freelance writer who loves to travel, especially in Europe and Turkey. He’s spent most of his adult life in a state of restless excitement but recently decided to settle in North London. He gets away whenever he can to immerse himself in foreign cultures and lap up the history of great cities.

The Buzz Trips View
If you want to experience a generous slice of Andalucian village life, this is the place. Mairena is a close knit community in Las Alpujarras. David and Emma Illsley, who own Casa Rural Las Chimeneas, don’t just run a charming and quaint B&B/rural hotel in the Sierra Nevada foothills, they’re also an integral and active part of Mairena itself.This is a rural getaway for people who want to enjoy Andalucian country living combined with good food and fine local wines in a setting that could easily be part of a best selling travel book – oops, wait a minute Chris Stewart has already done that with Driving Over Lemons.

Las Chimeneas is quite different from other rural accommodation we’ve stayed in throughout Spain in that it’s not one house but various houses spread around a small immaculately whitewashed corner of the village. It makes visitors feel more a part of Mairena. On the way to breakfast (about five paces) we’d smile a ‘hola’ to the old man who lived in between our apartment and that of other guests. Watch out for his cats by the way, they’ll try to tell you they’re starving even though he feeds them bowls filled with juicy fillets.

Mairena is a typically sleepy Andalucian village with one shop and a bar, both with mysterious hours. It’s a picturesque place to explore with some interesting features to discover at a leisurely pace; seek out the old fountains, wander around the church, take a tour around the olive oil factory and climb above the village to watch sunset from the era (old threshing circle) viewpoint.

Rooms

There’s a choice of accommodation all with its own personality. Las Chimeneas’ rooms are located in the main house, where each room has it own private balcony or terrace; the Casita is a self contained, two bedroomed house; the Corrall, a peach of a cosy little stand alone house where we enjoyed a Drambuie or two beside a roaring fire with occupants and fellow guests John and Rita. And finally there’s the Azotea, our pepper-drying loft home for the week complete with rocking chairs in front of a wood burning stove (perfect for a glass of wine in the evening) and a small terrace with inspiring views across Las Alpujarras.

Each of the rooms are designed in a pleasingly bright and contemporary but also rustic fashion; they are simply comfortable places to chill out after exploring the countryside.

Facilities

Nature provides most of the facilities that the sort of people who will lap up Casa Las Chimeneas will need. Step out of the door and explore in any direction to find olive and citrus groves, chestnut tree lined paths, villages that are distant cousins of those in the Atlas Mountains and a quirky church which, apart from having intriguing ancient wall murals in its interior, has the Star of David as well as a cross on its roof.

There is also a small swimming pool and a communal lounge with free wifi doubles as a rustic business centre whilst those who haven’t embraced the world of the three Ws can choose a book from the library and curl up on a rocking chair in front of a roaring fire.

Meals are served in a separate dining room. Unless there’s a theme week like the Moro Cookery week we enjoyed, the food is traditional with knobs on; imaginative local cuisine (e.g. quail with fig and jamon serrano filling and meatballs in an almond sauce) courtesy of local cook Soledad and assistant Conchi. Vegetarian options are available. The dining room also doubles as the social hub; when the dinner plates are cleared away the quaffing of various Veleta wines from a local bodega continues.

Staying at Las Chimeneas is one of those special travel experiences. Although nature provides a lot of the special ingredients, the easy friendliness of David and Emma Illsley and their staff, for whom nothing is too much trouble, makes staying in Mairena feel as though you’re spending time with good amigos.

Themed weeks like the Moro Cookery one are great fun and you pick up some exceptional tips. Check out what goodies are coming up at Inntravel. Alternatively, if escape for tranquil R&R is all you desire go straight to the Las Chimeneas website.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

The place where Queen Isabella gave Christopher Columbus the green light to boldly go where no person had gone before stirs thoughts of a dark eyed chica swirling like a dervish, one hand with perfectly manicured nails held high whilst a moody looking gypsy king with a silky ponytail beats a hypnotic rhythm on his golden guitar.

Granada; the word positively purrs as it rolls off the tongue. We’d wanted to visit forever and now that we had actually managed to touchdown in the place, we only a few hours to dance a frantic flamenco with it. Luckily we had an insider, David Illsley from Las Chimeneas in Las Alpujarras, to direct us to some of the best bits.

Streets, Plazas and Odd Looking Fountains
The winding street from the car park at the Alhambra (a convenient but pricey place to dump the car for the day) stoked the fires of anticipation with little guitar makers setting off the hand clapping in my head whilst the pastel tones of Plaza Nueva (good place for a cerveza) fitted the bill of a classically Spanish square. More atmospheric lanes link plazas, each with a flourishing fountain; my favourite being Los Gigantones on Plaza Bib-Rambla (a good place for another cerveza). The giants might be more dwarf than gargantuan but they’re a quirky addition to the cafés and bars around the square.

Also worth looking out for is the Homenaje a Los Aguadores in Plaza de la Romanilla near the Cathedral. Not so long ago these guys used to bring fresh pure water from the hills to sell in the city as the local water was pretty rank. As well as being a reminder of recent social history, there’s something bizarrely The Dark Crystal about the water carrier.

Swordfish and a fez; Shopping in Granada
Granada’s Alcaicería really messes with the head as it’s more Morocco than Spain. Linking the area around the Cathedral with Plaza Bib-Rambla, this network of pull-in-your-shoulders narrow lanes could have been lifted straight from the medina in Marrakech… except there’s a lot less hassle when you stroll wide-eyed through Granada’s souk.

Like most Spanish markets, the Mercado San Agustín is a treasure trove for foodies and a good place to play ‘who can spot the ugliest fish?’ (monkfish usually wins) or to ponder whether the fishmonger uses the swordfish head to fillet his fish. Casa Carmina is a stylish charcutería where you can pick up local goodies like smoked tuna or excellent jamón serrano (€5 gets a decent amount of top quality serrano). For anyone who fancies trying something a bit different, the stall opposite Casa Carmina has horse meat.

Tapas Treats – Lunch in Granada
Being with David also meant we didn’t have to play eenie, meenie with the overdose of inviting tapas bars tucked away up Granada’s side streets. Bodegas Castañeda (Calle Almireceros, 1) is known as one of Granada’s best tapas bars and looks exactly like you’d expect a tapas bar in Granada to look; nicotine coloured (possibly stained) walls and ceiling, a cornice of hanging jamóns, chunky barrel tables and packed to the sepia rafters with locals putting Spain to rights whilst sipping cervezas and picking at their tapas. Our complimentary tapas consisted of a tuna and anchovy salad as well as a meaty stew. These were appetisers that preceded the ‘paid for’ tapas – a huge fried platter of tortilla, bacon & blue cheese and port and tomato serranitos, melted blue cheese and jamón, croquettes and a couple of other dishes. It was hearty fare and the generous quantity looked on the overwhelming side but there wasn’t much of it left by the end of lunch. Unfortunately I only found out afterwards (and so didn’t get to partake of a glass) that Bodegas Castañeda specialises in an intriguing drink called calicasas which is a mix of wine and vermouth.  It is a top tapas bar and only a hop, skip and a stagger from Plaza Nueva.

Dead Monarchs – Things to See in Granada
Both Granada Cathedral and the Capilla Real (entrance €4) are within a Gothic stone throw of each other. As time was on the Tom Cruise side (short), we opted for the last resting place of Queen Isabella I of Castile and hubbie, King Ferdinand V of Aragon who liked Granada so much, they chose to stay there for eternity. One of the most interesting parts of Capilla Real is El Gran Retablo Mayor (the main altarpiece) which is a gruesome work from 1522 by Felipe Bigarny. The things they did to poor St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist would come with an 18 certificate if they were in a movie.

Oh, and there was something else really worth seeing. What was it now? Ah, yes, that place on the hill.

You can’t visit Granada without a pilgrimage to the reason that everyone and their dog knows of the place – the Alhambra. But the Alhambra has far too much personality to squeeze into a couple of lines so it deserves a blog post all to itself.

Buzz Trips visited Granada and ate too much hearty tapas as part of Inntravel’s Moorish Flavours of Las Alpujarras week.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

The secret was passed on to me by London Chef Tom Ryalls whilst he was demonstrating the art of Moro cookery in Las Alpujarras.

It is simple in the extreme and you need no culinary skills whatsoever to be able to reproduce it.

Step One: Setting the scene
All you need is a jar of small pickled onions, pickled guindilla chillies, green olives (pitted), anchovies and some cocktails sticks.

Step Two: Creating Tasty Tapas in Ten Seconds
Pierce the fat end of the chilli with the cocktails stick; thread the pickled onion on to the stick and then envelope with the thin end of the chilli. Next spear the anchovy at one end, skewer the olive and fold the other end of the anchovy to be held in place by the stick.

Hey Presto, you have created a Gilda in seconds. But now for the real magic.

Step Three: Magic in the Mouth
Wrap your teeth around the stick and pull the lot into your mouth at the one time, then eat it and weep.

What does it taste like? Does the chilli blow your head off? Suppose you don’t like olives?

I’m not going to answer any of these, save for the olive one – Andy doesn’t like olives but she eats Gildas.

Your just going to have to take a leap of faith and try it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed… it’s a kind of magic.

Buzz Trips Fact File: We don’t know why these mini pinchos are called Gildas except that it is after a woman. Whether that woman was Rita Hayworth and her long black gloves who knows – certainly tasty enough to fit the bill.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

“Once it’s in your hand, you’re sort of committed” says chef Tom Ryalls, a large splodge of dough ebbing from his left hand in an elastic bid to escape before being brought back under semi-control by a nimble flick of the chef’s wrist.

Holding the pan steady with his right hand, Tom brings the splodge of dough down onto the hot surface and holds it there for a second before deftly flicking it back up into his palm and then onto the pan again in a rhythmic motion. Creating a rosette of splodges that meld together into a paper-thin pancake, with his right hand Tom gently scratches the edges free and begins to peel the pancake from the pan while with his left, he continues to work the dough in its aerial ballet. It’s a master class in dexterity.

When enough warka pancakes have been made to go round, Tom takes a pancake, smears it with his home made harissa paste, adds an anchovy, some fresh coriander and a raw egg and deftly folds it over and scoops it into the hot oil to be gently fried. In the mouth the light, golden pastry melts into the creamy fried egg yolk before the fiery harissa paste kicks in, tempered by the salty anchovy and rounded off with the peppery coriander. It’s fried egg, Jim, but not as we know it. It’s a fitting end to four days of cookery demonstrations and a savoury prelude to our last Moro lunch together. Tomorrow we all return home to scour local supermarkets for Orange Blossom Water and Pomegranate Molasses.

The Moorish Flavours of Las Alpujarras
Anyone who’s ever eaten at London’s Moro Restaurant will already be familiar with the aromatic salads, the succulent flat breads, the savoury tapas and the sensational Tunisian briks fried in delicate warka pastry. But at Casa Rural Las Chimeneas in the La Alpujarra region of Southern Spain, the slow travel specialist holiday company Inntravel go a stage further by arranging for Moro’s talented former chef, Tom Ryalls to give hands-on demonstrations of cooking Moro style. On the ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life‘ principle, attending their Moro Cookery week could mean bringing the flavours of North Africa and Moorish Spain to your own table whenever you feel the urge, provided of course you have the dexterity, patience and skill of Tom Ryalls.

Set at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the little village of Mairena, the Moorish Flavours of Las Alpujarras week is hosted by British couple David and Emma Illsley who, along with their two sons, live in the village and contribute to its daily life as well as running an organic finca and the rural guest houses and restaurant which make up  Las Chimeneas. After careers in the British Council which involved constantly moving around, David and Emma decided to take a year out and chose Mairena as their base, learning to work the land the traditional way.

“When the year was up we realised we didn’t want to leave,” says David. “So we basically looked around for an excuse to keep us here for another year.”
The years notched up as David and Emma carved out a life for themselves, acquiring an encyclopaedic level of knowledge about their adopted home, getting the finca into shape, opening the rural house to guests and even producing olive oil from their own harvest at the village mill.

Village life
In the rolling valley below the village of Mairena, David and Emma’s organic finca provides fresh fruit and vegetables for the restaurant and their uncultivated areas are a treasure trove of salad leaves, herbs and fruit which furnished a couple of idyllic hours of munching on winter medlar, grapes and walnuts while  foraging for salad for that evening’s starter, under the expert supervision of Soledad and Conchi, Las Chimeneas’ in-house cooks.

Life in Mairena moves at a slow pace and other than one shop, whose opening hours  are fickle at best, there’s little to do except enjoy the peace, tranquillity and expansive views over the rolling valleys of Almería and Sierra de Gador to Cabo de Gata in the east, Málaga and Cádiz in the west and the ghostly outlines of ships sailing the cloud line in the African distance. Clinging to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the white houses huddle together like a displaced Berber village, their simple street lights transforming the village into a scene from the Shires after dark, complete with Hobbit-sized inhabitants.

Accommodation at Casa de Las Chimeneas is in a series of rustic, character-filled rooms and casitas set higgledy piggledy around the main house where a log fire, wifi, complimentary tea and coffee and warm conviviality drew most of our group in our free moments. I stayed in the personality-rich La Azotea, a pepper drying loft with a wood burning stove, a small kitchen and an upper storey bedroom with a door onto the roof and a morning sunrise view to take your breath away. Access to the bedroom was by way of a near-vertical staircase with rope handrails beneath low rafters which initially made for some nervy midnight visits to the bathroom before I developed my slick, ‘duck & descend backwards’ style.

It never crossed my mind to lock the front door once during the entire week, even when I disappeared to Granada for the day. Mairena is just that sort of place where you feel you could leave your belongings on the street from morn ’til night and no-one would touch them.

Family and friends
We were a motley crew of thirteen when we arrived from our various corners of the globe with just a love of cooking, eating and walking to bind us together. As the week progressed and we learned to tap pomegranates with a spoon to dislodge the berries; splattered warka dough over our shoes and freed broad beans from their pods; after we’d walked to the frescoed church in Jubar, followed the Ruta de Piedras Pintada (the Coloured Stones Way) and strolled beneath the golden boughs of chestnut trees alongside the old waterway in the Laroles Valley, we became friends.

In the evenings we enjoyed the fruits of Tom’s labour and the local specialities prepared and presented by Soledad, Conchi, Andrew and Gill in the restaurant warmed by the glowing wood fire and the mellow Veleta wines from the bodega in neighbouring Ugíjar.

Looking over the images and the video footage of my week, I’m transported back to a world of  superb food, good wine, excellent walking and the company of similar minded people in a stunning setting with the world’s most knowledgeable and affable hosts. As the perfect holiday ingredients go, it’s hard to imagine they come much better.

The Moorish Flavours of Las Alpujarras is available from Inntravel and the next chance to join the Moro experience with Tom Ryalls will be 15th November 2015.

Buzz Trips works in partnership with Inntravel

Andrea (Andy) Montgomery is a freelance travel writer and co-owner of Buzz Trips and The Real Tenerife series of travel websites. Published in The Telegraph, The Independent, Wexas Traveller, Thomas Cook Travel Magazine, EasyJet Traveller Magazine, you can read her latest content on Google+