Everywhere we go we look for the dykes. It should be simple. Go on the net, put in the name of the place and 'lesbian', or in a pinch 'gay', and up it comes. Especially places like Seville, Lisbon or Cadiz. Maybe the guidebook will have somewhere, though it may be out of date, given the speed with which bars come and go.
It works in much of the UK, right? Even in Ipswich it led us to the regular group, and various friends there. (Hi, Sally and Penny!)
But we've pretty much failed till Granada, where we hit gold! The picture is us with new friends Rocio (next to Sarah) and her girlfriend Monica. The bar is the lovely La Sal, at c/ Santa Paula 11, just south of the Grand Via. It's been there for an extraordinary 19 years and doesn't bother with the web. We found it in the Rough Guide, and it was open.
To measure this triumph you have to understand the failures. They fit into various categories. There are the places which simply don't exist; you go to the address and there's a shoe shop, or an empty site. Just not a bar/bookshop/hangout at all. This happened in La Coruna. Then there are places which exist but aren't gay; the Levante bar in Cadiz, or the very popular slightly alternative bar in Lisbon. Or you find somewhere which is open (probably only from midnight and is strictly for the boys: stand up, the Poniente bar in Cadiz. Or somewhere draped in rainbow flags but permanently shut: Oporto, Seville and La Coruna all come to mind. Or there is a nice gay-run bar, but which isn't really a gay or lesbian bar in the sense of meeting and talking to other dykes; welcome to the very pleasant Torito bar in Rota.
Pip argues that the solution to this is to find the address, and then sort of hang around in nearby streets. Before long, other befuddled queers will happen along, and lo! A party. The problem is of course that you still don't meet local people, and it means hanging around some pretty weird places late at night.
You can tell from our list that we've tried. Really, we have. Not that we're major bar bunnies or club hoppers or anything. (Stop falling about at the back there). But we like to meet other women. And we also want to meet people in the places we visit, and we'd hoped that finding the lesbians would be one way to do that.
So it was all the sweeter to find La Sal, meet Rocio and Monica, and the lovely Rosa who owns the bar and took the pic. Certainly, we should find somewhere in Barcelona!