We had our inauguration of the art gallery yesterday afternoon. We had a few artists show up from Ronda, Benalauria, Gaucin and Olvera. We had people from Ronda come for a look as well, something unusual and rare for them as we do not get many Rondeños coming here normally. We had lots of cava on flow with tapas and a delicious carrot cake that Ivan prepared for our 5th anniversary here in the hotel.

There are interested parties who would like to come to put their work on exhibit here but the real valid question is, how many people will we get to come here and actually look at the work on display? All good to have an art gallery and a load of artists who are interested in showing their work but if were cannot get the traffic flow of people to come and see the gallery, then it is a waste of time. We will have to see how it goes; artists should direct traffic to us as well. I think we need to develop a list of artist whom we work with and rotate their works, leading to perhaps developing a following of our own. When people realise it is a legitimate space to display interesting art work with reliable viewing times (well, as reliable as that can get in Andalusia), then perhaps we will have a regular traffic flow of viewers.

I found out that we have a reputation in Ronda with non-Spanish people living there, something we found a bit surprising as we don't have a large clientele from Ronda, especially of non-Spaniards. So how they know anything about us must just be from second hand news; it is nevertheless quite interesting to hear that we are worth talking about. Why those people don't come and see HB for themselves is another question but we are not particularly bothered by that.

Juzcar has a new children's playground, just in front of the hotel actually. It is just about finished and I expect that the village hall will be organising some kind of inauguration as well. It is quite colorful with a swing set, a jungle-jim sort of thing for children to climb on and even some exercise equipment for adults which I look forward to trying out. The ground has some thick rubber surface which has been applied to make it safer than hard ground and it is in very bright colors of orange, blue, green, yellow. They have also planted a few trees around the area with some flowers as well as having planted a few trees at the entrance of the village so it is looking better all the time.

It is chestnut harvesting season here in the valley. We sold all the bags of chestnuts we had yesterday and more people are coming through now asking for more. The chestnut trees themselves have not turned color which normally brings people through the valley. As it has been so unseasonably warm here in the last few weeks, the leaves have not really started the autumnal process. It is yet another bright sunny clear day here in Juzcar and the lunch crowd is gathering steam so I need to get out there and do my duty.

I have today revised my layout of this blog, it now includes a music player with a few tracks to enjoy while reading... or not, one can turn it off as well.

We had a few days without bookings last week so we took ourselves for a couple of nights to Seville and stayed at a nice hotel in the old Jewish barrio called Santa Cruz. The hotel was comprised of 18 former private residences connected with many passages and tunnels, very interesting. The hotel also had a lovely spa which I fully enjoyed.

We are now getting quite busy once again as this is a holiday weekend starting this afternoon, I suppose. We have a two couples who are clients of Butterfly Adventures; they have been enjoying the many walks with their guide, Sandrine, in the upper Valley and the Sierra de las Nieves. With this unseasonably warm weather, they have been having very enjoyable days out. We also have another couple here from our Dutch friends at Hannibal Reisen. They are from Amsterdam and I had to take them to the village of Igualeja yesterday morning where they would start their walk from there back to Juzcar.

On the way to Igualeja, we were chatting about Amsterdam which reminded me of a story about something that happened to me while I first stated living there way back in May 1998. I had arrived to work in Amsterdam in early April 1998 and was staying at the Hotel Grand Krasnapolsky initially. I then took a business trip and upon returning to Amsterdam, found I was moved to what is today called the Renaissance Hotel near the Singel canal in the center. I had gone for a drink with a new friend not far from the hotel and when we returned, we stood not far from the hotel entrance continuing to chat. Meanwhile, two cars pulled up in front of the hotel and out stepped a group of rather large men, all appeared to be possible football player and 1998 was the year of the World Cup. I commented on the men to Dan, the guy I was chatting with. He responded that he thought they appeared to be more of the criminal class. They went into the hotel and shortly thereafter exited again and gathered very near to where we were standing in a circle, so close in fact, that one of them bumped into me from behind.

As I had my back to them, I did not notice what was happening but Dan did. At one point, he said, "Let's go! Move!" and we took off running as gun shots rang out from the group. Because Dan was a bit suspicious, he had been watching the group and he saw what was about to happen. Dan had his bike with him and starting running with it into me, knocking me over with it. As I fell, I tried to hold myself up with my right hand which wound up scrapping severally against the bricks on the street, providing a very nice open skin wound. As I ran along the front of the hotel toward the restaurant which had an entrance to the street, shots were ringing around me. I tried to enter the restaurant but they had already locked the door and would not let anyone in (they did not know me so they would not let me in... nice, eh?). So there I am on the street with these gangsters. I ran for cover behind a cement column in front of the hotel covering my head with my arms and hands.

When it was quiet, I looked up toward the hotel main entrance thinking I could get inside the hotel for cover but there was a gun man there holding a pistol aimed across the street. I ducked down and waited a moment or two before deciding to run out of the area completely in the opposite direction from the hotel entrance. I took off toward the corner away from the gunman, around the corner and then toward the Sheraton Hotel in the Nieuwezijds Kolk (now a Goldenb Tulip property) to get off the street. In running away, I passed one of the gunmen who was himself escaping the gunfire but was covered with blood from the waist down. I entered the hotel and went straight to the front desk holding my injured hand and quite distressed. I told them there was a shooting and they thought I had been shot, of course.

After they called for medical assistance and the police, I was accompanied into a meeting room near the reception area where they kindly offered me some coffee while I waited for the paramedics to come. After the paramedics attended me (leaving my wound open was their advice, a raw skin wound treated only with some antiseptic leaving it to become infected later requiring more medical attention at a hospital!!), I was accompanied by a rather handsome Amsterdam detective to the nearby police station where he wanted to take my statement. By this time, it must have been after 1.30AM as the shooting occurred around midnight. I was kept at the station for at least an hour and then was accompanied, on foot, back to the hotel. There, I saw the street was still closed to traffic and there were plenty of little triangles with numbers covering spent bullet shells. The detective told me that over 25 shots had been fired and they thought it was pretty miraculous that only those involved were shot with no injuries (aside from my hand) to innocent by-standers.

One of the gang members was killed on the spot, I was told. He had been shot several times from the waist down and died there on the street in front of the hotel. It seems this group that arrived while Dan and I were there in front of the hotel was a second coming. They had stopped by earlier for a meeting but the other party had not shown up. This was known by watching the CCTV video tape of the hotel entrance. They returned to find the other party; during their discussions, one of the group got nervous and tried to pull out his gun and all hell broke loose as they all started to shoot each other. They were all well known to the police of course and the problem they had involved marijuana sales and prostitution, of course.

So, that is the story of my first weeks in Amsterdam. Me, a New Yorker, who lived in New York City for 26 years including the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan, and had never witnessed a shooting or even had seen a gun on the street except in holsters of street police. I arrive in "quiet, little" Amsterdam and witness a murder. Wow, was that a surprise. Anyway, needless to say that I did not go to work the following day. I checked out of the hotel a 2 days later as I was nervous that I would be a targeted witness; I was later assured by police that I was safe and not to worry; there were more than a couple of dozen witnesses to the shooting so I did not need to worry.

A few weeks later, I was requested to come to the police station on the Marnixstraat to watch a video line-up; fortunately I recognized no one. Even later, I was requested to be a witness at a trial.... for the defense. At this point in time, more than 10 years later, I do not recall specifically what happened when I appeared in court except that I was informed that I would be compensated by the city for my testimony, provided my bank details and the funds, a mere 30 Guilders at that time, never did appear in my bank account, ever.

After court, I ran into Dan, the first time I had seen him since the shooting. He told me he ran down an alley and was dead-ended there for a few minutes. Hidden for a short time, when things went quiet, he managed to get out and bike himself home without any injuries. As for my injury, I had escaped to Brussels the following weekend to get out of town for a couple of days to forget the experience. There, I realised I required further medical attention and went to a local clinic where they dressed and bandaged my wound and told me to keep it covered until it healed a bit more as it was quite raw and should have been dressed and bandaged from the start to prevent infection.

Despite this experience, I would recommend Amsterdam to anyone. It is a lovely city, small and manageable yet international with lots on offer.

Other news, big mushroom weekends coming up here in Juzcar in November as well as a yoga weekend on offer at the end of October. The weather is quite good and the chestnuts are all starting to fall, ripe for the picking. I understand up in Holland, the leaves have changed color already, something we are still waiting to happen in the Genal Valley.

And finally, as for those very adorable puppies, all but one have new homes. The last one is in a shop in Ronda waiting.