Last day in Nerja – riding above Frigiliana

The second day of independent student projects once again saw staff serving as taxi drivers.  However, it did also provide a brief moment for a participatory experience of  local tourist provision as two of us explored Frigiliana on horseback.  Much, much later the partying began.

Thanks to Don Thompson for organising another inspiring field course – and to all the students who made it so worth while.

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Andalucia Day 4 – tourism and argiculture in Frigiliana and Maro

The fourth day of our undergraduate field course based around Nerja saw us exploring the tensions between agriculture and tourist expansion in the villages of Maro and Frigiliana.  It was interesting to see how much change has taken place over the last few years, with considerable expansion in the amount of holiday accommodation, accompanied by some evidence of agricultural decline.  Yet, in part, the success of tourism is based very much on the landscapes created by a vibrant agricultural sector.

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Andalucia Field Course Day 3 – Valle Tropical

The third day of our undergraduate field course in Andalucia took us to the villages of Otivar and Jete in the Valle Tropical to the north of Almunécar.  It provided a vivid reminder that geography is about all of the senses:

• sights: the mountains, valleys, diversity of crops (from chirimoyas and bananas to vines and beans), tourist apartments, hang gliders…
• sounds: birds, goats, dogs, children at school, cars driving along the motorway cutting across the valley…
• tastes: the local wine, solomillo de cerdo (in the great Buena Vista restaurant in Otivar), asparagus in vegetable broth with bits of ham
• smells: wild lavender and fennel; burning rubbish…
• touch: steering wheels, the roughness of the schist and avocado skins

Thanks Mike and Alex

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Day 2 Nerja

The second day of our urban exploration of Nerja led by Alasdair Pinkerton and Sara Fregonese – traditional architectures, urban origins, and cultural understandings of place…

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Experiencing Nerja – Day 1

The Geography Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, has been taking first year students to the Andalucian town of Nerja and its surroundings since the late 1990s.  Below are just a few photos from the first day exemplifying

• that geography is about understanding the human interactions with the physical environment that shape places, and
• field trips should be about working hard and playing hard!

Video of panorama from Balcon de Europa

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