The Road from Santiago

  We are turning back on ourselves because I missed the turning. It will mean we won’t go to the Hotel Villa de Gor.  Come on, that does sound like a Hammer House film; probably in Hammer’s waning period.  Before we do that, yesterday we went past an oddment, there is a picture, and I thought I better tell you about it. On top of a former railway bridge pillar is a statue of Jesus. Vlad has described it for us .’The structure on which the Sacred Heart of Jesus sits is the support for the previous bridge over the Río Chico on the old railway line from Guadix to Lorca. Today, that bridge is located in Dúrcal and is known as the Tin Plate Bridge, the only cantilever bridge in Spain belonging to the Eifel school. It was removed due to fears that it wouldn't support the weight of the railways due to the unstable terrain. Passengers on foot were made to disembark on the other side of the bridge over t he Gor River, and the route was later changed. This was the reason for its sa...

  Today feels like we are revisiting all those February half term trips to Spain. A wide sweeping and essential bleached landscape.   We will begin retracing our steps.  The new road will not allow us and we need to get off the old rail line, nip back, and cross the road and head to Gor. Yes, I know, I have vague ideas that this is some sort of 70s Swords and Sourcery thing. If memory serves, the cover should have some improbably muscular man, you know, the sort you get by working out, not actually doing an honest day's building.  Draped over him is a sultry something with the sort of cleavage which will make buying bras a bit taxing. Well I had to look it up.  The 1976 cover of Tarnsman of Gor is all I remembered, if not slightly more kink.  I looked it up on wiki, not having read any of these tomes. Apparently it was all that and more suitable for 16 year boys who call themselves ‘Lone Wolf’ and hope their mum doesn’t catch them. Well, that was Gor a...

We are following the old railroad to Baul.  It is very small. Even Spanish wiki can not find much to say other than 137 people live there now. 157 people used to live them.  We won’t go into the town but it has some splendid roads there.  The Plaza de Andalucia, Calle Flores and Calle Explanada de la Estación. To be honest, I feel you need a certain population for a plaza. First though, we are going to the rail station.  It was a small affair. For 1970s Hornby railway fans it would count as maybe ‘a wayside halt’.  It was in decline but has been done up. Daniel gave it four stars and these wise words.  ‘ A small, typical railway station on the Baza-Guadix line with a water loading bay for steam locomotives. It is currently being restored to its former glory. Along with the large Baúl Bridge, it makes for a very attractive destination. Recommended for nostalgic railway enthusiasts or railway enthusiasts.’ While the station only gets 5 reviews, the bridge nea...

Welcome to March. Also welcome to a day without a house, shack or wideside cafe. We begin the day, alongside the main road. Google will have us scrambling up the embankment, nipping over the barrier and so across the way and out among the olive trees. Today is the Dia de les Illes Balears. This day was picked because on 1st March 1983 the Statue of Autonomy was published. It became a non-working day in 1999. I’m sure they are up to larks over the sea. It is Saint David’s day. Last year the Welsh migrant community came together at the Plaza de la Mezquita in Benalmadena to, to quote Euroweekly, ‘to eat and drink Welsh cuisine, sing, dance, and celebrate the ex-pat Welsh community’. This is what I have found out about St David in Spain. The websearch answering to the call did offer me a fair bit of St David’s as a Pilgrim Route; the Camino de Santiago and ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’. Hum Ho. Not much going on. Not a lot to look at. Alright, some saints. The two earliest Iberian...