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The interestingly unalive

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You won’t mind if I wing this one a bit.  We end today at Baza and it has a rather splendid roundabout to prove it.  Beyond that we are hunkered up against a major road and, while some of it is weird and wonderful, towards the end there is some old stuff, so lets get old. I always get worried talking about stuff before the Romans because it seems to be the one area that changes really dramatically as new discoveries are made.  In my brief teaching Archaeology at lunchtimes we did old stuff and you realised that the books you could find were well out of date - even if they were only ten years old. The Iberians to quote wiki ‘ The Iberians (Latin: Hibērī, from Greek: Ἴβηρες, Iberes) were an ancient people indigenous to the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula ’  Even the term indigenous worries me. I mean, it conjures up ideas that sometime in the distant past they all suddenly woke up from a deep sleep rather than wandered in, then some wandered out, ...
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Sigh me a river

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  It is a bit of a day today. We are nipping under the motorway and mostly following the route down alongside the motorway.  We will hit, what appears to be, the old road - as seen in 2014 - and then head into 2025 and end near the Rio Baza. Baza definitely sounds like an 80s sit com character, possibly the decent side kick of the wheeler-dealer.  Rio Baza, meanwhile, has 68 reviews on Tripadvisor. When I say reviews, I mean not reviews.  85 reviews mention the word baza, but are riverless.  It hasn’t even got a wiki page. Oh well, let’s talk rivers.  The Ebro River is the largest, while the Tagus is the longest in Spain.  The Duero has the largest basin in Iberia - and some rather lovely wines - while you can actually navigate a decent way up the Gudalquivir. The Duero begins in Spain and ends in Portugal, with a length of 897 km, of which 572 km is in Spain. This river rises in the Picos de Urbión, in the province of Soria and its mouth is in the Atl...
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Like God with Adam, we will take the ribs

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  Yesterday I did an unforgivable thing.  I mentioned ‘Forest of Books’ and did not pursue this. I know you. Well, I know some of you.  And the you I know will have spent a night in torment wondering what is this. I have images of great buildings full of books. Possibly concrete structures in town squares with ready tomes and papery ecstasy available wherever you turn. I think that would be nice.  Naming streets after Sherlock Holmes is  a step forward. The promised theatrical performances and workshops sound promising so lets hope. We are off on the A-330. It is one of those Spanish roads which have been bypassed by a motorway but has been straightened, cut and made fit for purpose.  We are going along, through the scrub, our way marked by suddenly groupings of industry. For example, Fran Electronic will repair vehicles.  A year ago Milagros said ‘Good service, kindness, professionalism and excellent work.’ Nearby is Jolotrae.  They repair vehicl...
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Devotion, tradition and gunpowder

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  We are heading to Cullar.  Most of the day we will be in February 2025 - but we will have a Candlemas Bun and nip in 2009.   The road starts alongside the motorway and, from the air, it seems almost like the view of some reconstituted wood panels - as the olive trees march in ordered ranks over the landscape. Cullar is patronised by Our Lady of Sorrows and you have to ask if this was by way of preparing for the way ahead. Almost 4000 people choose to live here. I have headed for wiki in Spanish and run it through Google Translate.  Sorry if this is ‘rompiendo la cuarta pared’ but my Spanish isn’t up to it.  The subtitles include ‘Cultural Heritage Assets’ and ‘Forest of Books’ - which I’m rather looking forward to. Wiki goes big on the Andalucian past.  I quote ‘ Moors and Christians Festival in honor of the Blessed Virgin of the Head, in Cúllar, on the last weekend of April. Declared of Andalusian Tourist Interest.’  It further adds ‘ The Moor...
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