The Road from Santiago

  It is another day of the straight road. I have been monitoring the Mabella Rugby Club. They are jolly active and been away for weekends for tournaments and good luck to them. So what about cricket? Spain became an Affiliated member of the International Cricket Council, and became Associate Members in 2017.  This may be a slow burn as the first recorded match was in 1809 - between two British teams - part of the Duke of Wellington’s tour of that year. Various expat groups played each other until 1975.  Did the founding of the Madrid Cricket Club’s founding pave the way for the return to democracy? History will have to be the judge of that and  while it is mulling on, we will move on. Spain went off to Austria to play in its first ECC Trophy, where they played Portugal - and lost by 63 runs. In 2019 Spain took place in their first T20 match and beat Malta by 7 wickets at the La Manga Club, Murcia. So far they have played 49 T-20 matches won 40 of them.  The high...

  Once I presented a thing on our village’s History. It was notable that, being a distance from where the local paper was printed and, what with one thing and another, the only time the working classes arrived in the headlines was when they were committing, usually petty, crimes. History is full of unrecorded people because History is what we record. The past is lousy with them. All of this is by way of an introduction to the fact we are leaving Medina Sidonia. We have an empty road ahead. True Born English peoples of all persuasions will have heard of the Duke, if they know anything of the Great Armada. He really just gets a cameo - on in the 2nd Act of ‘Elizabeth: Why I’m Fab’ and then forgotten.  Let us not forget him. Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, was born 10th September 1550. He got the gig as Duke in 1558, when his grandfather died.  The family are a bit interesting.  His paternal grandmother was the illegitimate daughter of the B...

We are off on the road to Medina Sidonia. If you have any decency about you you will be thinking of the Duke.  We’ll do him tomorrow. Today we are heading for a hill top village. I expect, if you were that near to a somewhat tetchy coast you would wish to be on a hill top as well. Currently 11.838 people live here.  The Romans had been here since the 3rd century BC and around the 1st AD they rebuilt the urban centre. The Visigoths made it a provincial capital and built a cathedral. The Moors continued the whole capital bit and the Normans sacked it. I have been trying to find out about this Norman thing. I have not been successful - however I now know about the Norman involvement in Crusading activity in Catalonia in 1064. The Dukes of Medina Sidonia got the place in 1440. Population wise 10,000-12,000 seems to be where the place is comfortable. The 10,534 of 1 842 rose to around 12000 in the 1850s, dipped a little till the 1920s, dipped again then rose to almost 17000 in 1960...

  Today we are by passing things.  We are bypassing San Jose de Malcocinado. We are by-passing Los Badalejos. We are also by-passing streetview and going cross country. But first, the Venta El Negro. This looks like so many roadside eateries and, with 4.2 stars, it sits in that zone. A month ago Fran was not happy.  They wrote ‘There needs to be more variety, and there was only one menu available at my table and one other table at 2:30 pm.’  At the same time juan was very happy. ‘I've only gone for breakfast and they serve you everything: lard, pork rinds, pâté and more’ San Jose de Malcocinado is a new town. During the Second Republic 40 settlers arrived to work the communal lands. It was subsequently known as ‘La Yeguada’ - the Stud Farm - because the military stabled mares here.  Alas we are late. The patronal feast was on 15th May, in honour of San Isidro Labrador, who has a chapel here. On to Los Badalejos.  Here is a 4.8 starred bakery - Panaderia pas...