Beer, Brimeda and spam

 


I always think that preconceptions are the spam of the mind. No one knows where they come from. They are almost certainly founded on sketchy knowledge and will probably be harmful if acted on. I had rejected any nonsense about Spain. It was a modern industrial society. I expected things to be 1990s and everything. Driving along this road and seeing a man with a horse and plough did shake these notions a little. Crossing the river in Brimeda and seeing an old woman washing clothes in it really was not on script.


At the river crossing I came across the tight walled enclosure crammed with cabbages. Cabbages was not a thing I associated with Spain. How wrong I was.
Brimeda is a proper village. The current population is 100. It used to be a rambling collection of farm houses. It sits in what feels like a modellers valley. A flat farmed middle and then suddenly slopes up. It remains, on part, a farming place. The populace declined as opportunities arose elsewhere and it still has some houses which are slowly returning to the earth.




Like many places near somewhere else, Brimeda is reshaping itself. The number of commuter houses has increased. In the 2000s a bar reopened. At first it was only high days and weekends but it seems to open every day now. It gets 4.4 stars = although Juan Miquel gave it one and gave the reason ‘I cannot make any judgment, since I have not visited it.; What would life be if everywhere we had never been got 1 star. It would put Travel Agents out of work.


A microbrewery has been opened and it makes trip advisor. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/AttractionProductReview-g21259074-d23768320-Astorga_Cervecera_Visit_to_the_Artisan_Beer_Factory_in_Brimeda-Carneros_Province.html It has a website. https://cerveceriavallesdellupulo.es/ You can order 36 beers for 81 euros and they include snacking chorizo. I am in love. 35 reviews average at 5 stars.


We are heading up the valley. Just after where we end the road bends around a series of small fields which have a strip vibe about them. A hunting kennels of off to the north. Tomorrow we turn back to Astorga.



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