After 2 weeks I went to Isambard. My wife  didn't want to go, she thought it was just a creep. Drove the Suzi out of the garage and headed for the mountain. Uphill it takes about 20 minutes and is full of winding roads and goes to 350 meters. At the top of the mountain you have a fantastic view over the Mediterranean Sea and in clear weather you can see Gibraltar and part of the Moroccan coast. In the past, as a seafarer, I had sometimes sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar on my way to the Suez Canal. Finished the course at the Hogere Zeevaartschool, but now I had a different mission.

 

I took the roundabout third way west. I had driven there many times before. It starts with a piece of paved road and then turns into a kind of paved dirt road. On the right you look into the beautiful nature with pine trees, cork oaks, eucalyptus trees, mountains and rivers. I knew the whole area like the back of my hand. Had driven there for days and also picnicked many times with Mieke and the dog. Water still flowed in the river even in the hottest summers. This river could turn into a kind of Niagara waterfall in winter. One winter I had driven there once to have a look. The river then flowed over the road and I thought in an overconfident and rash mood that I could drive through it. I felt the Suzi slide but was just able to put her in reverse. While skidding I got solid ground under the wheels. As I often do, I went to talk to the Suzi and thanked her. On the left you continued to have a view of the Mediterranean Sea, until the first walls arrived with villas behind them that you could not see. People who live here don't want to be seen.

 

After passing these walls I ended up in the bush. On the left you could still see the Mediterranean Sea. For the rest all mountains, beautiful vegetation, (it was spring) and trees.

Isambard told me to drive past the water reservoir. These water reservoirs are located everywhere, to enable helicopters to suck up water to fight fires in the event of a fire.

 

Found the entrance quickly afterwards. I knew it too. It wasn't far from where Isambard had blocked my mountain route with that rot fence. Damn, it can still get mad. The gate was indeed open with some kind of guard standing by. Strange, you don't see that often here. Was now at an altitude of 431 meters according to the altimeter on the IPhone. The guard greeted me kindly and I waved back. Buena dias. I was going south now still on a dirt road. Sometimes steeply up but mostly down. But my Suzi had never had a problem with that. After about fifteen minutes the road was paved and I came to a gate with a guard with a scary dog. God, it seemed as if the crown jewels of the Spanish queen were stored here. The road continued for a while and came to a large square with a flowerbed in the middle. There were two buildings on the square.

 

Most south was a large classical Andalusian villa. The windows all had so-called "reja's", these are beautifully manufactured wrought iron bars, anti-burglary so that you can still have the windows open when you leave your house, nice invention! All walls beautifully plastered with many round corners, you don't see a single brick. And beautiful gardens that cost quite a bit of irrigation water. He must have an underground source somewhere, because tap water is quite expensive here. And on the left a large and rather mysterious building with very few windows, which detracted from the whole.

 

I parked the Suzi. The gate of the villa opened and a servant beckoned me and said: Bienvenido, welcome to Isambard's house. Just walk with me. Beautiful classic Spanish house. I was in a kind of vestibule that connected to a wide corridor. The corridor split  near the atrium, so you could walk around the atrium. I had already seen this on Google Earth. But the so-called pond I thought I had observed was not a pond but a gigantic parabolic antenna. You could see that it was adjustable in all directions. Also in height. Isambard must love TV very much. 

I walked on again. Heavy wooden ceiling, marble floors, thick carpets everywhere and very large pompous Spanish furniture, at the end of a long corridor was the living room. How big can a living room be? Good Lord. Everything was big. Here too, classic Spanish decor, dark furniture  (large of course). But the most impressive thing was the large window. This is quite  unspanish in a classic villa. The Spaniards built rather small windows with thick walls to keep out the heat. Outside was a large shelter with an outdoor terrace. Isambard apparently made a large hole in the wall and placed this window in it. Fantastic. And then the view. I think I was quite perplexed watching this institutional violence when Isambard came up to me. He was actually very cordial. Have a seat. What do you want to drink. Coffee, tea, wine, beer, whatever. Oh, and we don't have junk like cola or other sugar waters. Well it had already been quite hot and dusty in the Suzi, so I was hungry for a cerveza. What do you want? Heineken, Maui or an Alhambra reserve. Say it. Well, give me an Alhambra, that's a nice classic dark Spanish beer. Now it was my turn to be nice so I handed Isambard a nicely wrapped bottle. He opened it and saw that it was his favorite whiskyLaphroaig used to be. A huge grin appeared on his face and saw that I had scored.