The Road from Santiago

Less of a walk today, a mere 5.7km. Having worked out what a Camino de Servicio we are not on one but a regular regional road - the A-4105.  In writing this I have kept straying off it and heading south then scampering back. It must be the lure of the lake - of more, later.  We are rising up - a little over 200m and we are almost 1100m above sea level. Below us is the Embalse de Francisco Abellan.  Floods in October 1973 saw people scratch their heads, stroke their beards and felt they ought to do something about it. The thing they thought was one big flood and make a reservoir. The twenty years before the construction had seen migration away from the countryside - that and a dictatorship made it easier to move people out. W ork began on….. May 1991.  It was done by January 1998.   The dam is 250m long and made, according to Wiki in Spanish, of loose materials. The dam has a wiki page in Spanish, English and Norwegian.  Who was Francisco Abellán Gómez? Well...

  I always think Spain does so much more with its population than Britain.  Maybe it is the later coming to modernity or the ambient temperature, which allows people to live outside a lot the year. We are entering Purullena. It has about 4300 people. It has bars and museums and rocks with people living in them. Of the rock people. The first mention in written sources of people living in caves appears in 1554.  By the 18th century 600 people were living in excavated. The wiki Spanish page gives up at that point and switches to ceramics and we will pass a shop selling many pretty things.   To be honest someone on Purullena needs to flesh out what wiki has a bare bones. Who can resist a nice pot.  Not I! Into Ceramicas Morillas.  Kathleen felt it was a ‘Nice ceramic outlet, better priced than on the A92. Didn't find exactly what I was looking for. There aren't as many traders in Purullena as there used to be. But still a good selection.’   Nikki was of mu...

    We are off to a cathedral - the very one that muscled out Baza.  Probably time to bury the hatchet.  It is all you could hope from a Spanish Cathedral that Gaudi hadn’t got his hands on. It is big and boxy and with lots of curly and columny bits added to it - with spikes and the occasional window. The site had a Visigoth Church on it. Then the place got turned into a Mosque. In 1489 the Armies of Ferdinand and Isabella turned up and Pope Innocent V III turned the church into a cathedral.  Seventy years later Diego de Silow was given the job of designing a new cathedral and so began. It stopped in 1574 - when they ran out of money - but began again twenty years later.  They were still working on it in 1731 - so, not a rush job.  They have a replica of Michelangelo's Pieta. Twelve hours ago Manu reckoned ‘ A beautiful cathedral, although somewhat neglected in some areas and poorly maintained on the exterior.’   Alan liked it ‘Surprising.  I...

We are going to head into Guadix today. I think we had better, despite what they did to Baza’s bishopric. We are first nipping under under the N-342 and heading down a camino de Servicio - see, I said we would use the term and we are. Turning south we are going under the motorway again and passing the station at Guadix.  It has a spaced service. At the time of writing the first train seems to be the 7.39Am to Granada and a 9.41am Madrid.   The 12.19pm goes to Almeria but don’t rely on this when making your travel plans.  Damon summed it all up saying ‘Train station with no extra services. There are restrooms and a ticket machine. Train to Granada, Almería and connections to other areas. Safe neighbourhood but only a few options for travel.’  Two weeks ago Ana wasn’t happy. ‘A beautiful station, but very neglected in terms of hygiene. The restrooms lack toilet paper, not just once, but countless times... and the overall cleanliness leaves much to be desired. It's a sh...