Where's Bertie? He's in a large car park (that looks like it was designed as a marketplace) just outside of the pueblo blanco of Salobreña. Exact location: 36.73210, -3.58346.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and warm (20 degrees). Not as windy as the last couple of days.
You know I said yesterday that we needed to stay focused on progressing along the coast and not getting bogged down in one small area? Ummmmm.... Shall I explain how tonight we are within 3.5km (as the crow flies) of where we spent the last two nights?
As you know, we ate a massive lunch yesterday. We didn't need anything else for the rest of the day, but in the interests of fueling for his long run today, Mick ate a doughnut late on. It was a really greasy doughnut and greasy food doesn't agree with him. He thus spent most of the night awake with a tummy ache. Accordingly his long run got postponed from today to tomorrow, and as we'd already identified a couple of good-looking routes hereabouts, it was the easy option to stick around. However, we couldn't stay where we were, so we drove the 10km (you have to go around the houses a bit by road) to get here.
I made it out for a run before we left, on another lovely morning.
Arriving at the spot I'd identified, we didn't like the look of it, so we started tootling around looking at a likely side street where we could pop ourselves unobtrusively (or as unobtrusive as a white box gets) on the road. Being an area of apartment blocks that are clearly mainly summer second homes, most of the roadside parking is empty, so we wouldn't be inconveniencing anyone by spending a night thus.
Peering down the side roads, I happened to spot some motorhomes and, upon investigating, we found this place. At first glance it didn't look appealing, with some people having clearly set up camp for the long term. However, it would serve our purpose for the night, so we joined them.
Until our final approach to the town I had no knowledge as to what was here, but as we drove we observed a town of white houses perched upon the sides of a hill atop which sits a castle.
Perhaps not the very best snap I could have taken of the town with its castle atop it, but this also captures the place where we're parked and the wasteland appearance of the adjacent land where construction of some parkland was started, but then apparently stalled.
As soon as we'd coffeed, out we headed to investigate the riverside track, thence down to the beach we went, finding that it sports a promenade (busy on a Sunday) that extends for the best part of 1.5km. We didn't make it quite to the end, as by now lunchtime was behind us and our stomachs were reminding us so.
Hot soup may not have been the obvious choice in the midday heat, but I had a whole lot of veg to use up before we left home, so we drove down here with the freezer full of soup. I'm not inflicting it on Mick, who instead enjoyed the last of the pate I bought in France.
The castle was our objective after lunch, so we wandered off townwards, then followed our noses with the general rule of 'up'. That took us variously up tiny winding streets and up stairs between houses.
I'm not sure I captured adequately the feel of the place.
We found a couple of view points
Finally we located the entrance to the castle, and perhaps I should have checked Google before we went, because we found it to be closed. It turns out it wasn't to reopen until 1600, and we weren't going to hang around that long (it had just gone 1500), so wandering slightly aimlessly in a generally downwards direction, and with a small diversion into a park, back to Bertie we came.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and warm (20 degrees). Not as windy as the last couple of days.
You know I said yesterday that we needed to stay focused on progressing along the coast and not getting bogged down in one small area? Ummmmm.... Shall I explain how tonight we are within 3.5km (as the crow flies) of where we spent the last two nights?
As you know, we ate a massive lunch yesterday. We didn't need anything else for the rest of the day, but in the interests of fueling for his long run today, Mick ate a doughnut late on. It was a really greasy doughnut and greasy food doesn't agree with him. He thus spent most of the night awake with a tummy ache. Accordingly his long run got postponed from today to tomorrow, and as we'd already identified a couple of good-looking routes hereabouts, it was the easy option to stick around. However, we couldn't stay where we were, so we drove the 10km (you have to go around the houses a bit by road) to get here.
Arriving at the spot I'd identified, we didn't like the look of it, so we started tootling around looking at a likely side street where we could pop ourselves unobtrusively (or as unobtrusive as a white box gets) on the road. Being an area of apartment blocks that are clearly mainly summer second homes, most of the roadside parking is empty, so we wouldn't be inconveniencing anyone by spending a night thus.
Peering down the side roads, I happened to spot some motorhomes and, upon investigating, we found this place. At first glance it didn't look appealing, with some people having clearly set up camp for the long term. However, it would serve our purpose for the night, so we joined them.
Until our final approach to the town I had no knowledge as to what was here, but as we drove we observed a town of white houses perched upon the sides of a hill atop which sits a castle.
As soon as we'd coffeed, out we headed to investigate the riverside track, thence down to the beach we went, finding that it sports a promenade (busy on a Sunday) that extends for the best part of 1.5km. We didn't make it quite to the end, as by now lunchtime was behind us and our stomachs were reminding us so.
Hot soup may not have been the obvious choice in the midday heat, but I had a whole lot of veg to use up before we left home, so we drove down here with the freezer full of soup. I'm not inflicting it on Mick, who instead enjoyed the last of the pate I bought in France.
The castle was our objective after lunch, so we wandered off townwards, then followed our noses with the general rule of 'up'. That took us variously up tiny winding streets and up stairs between houses.
Finally we located the entrance to the castle, and perhaps I should have checked Google before we went, because we found it to be closed. It turns out it wasn't to reopen until 1600, and we weren't going to hang around that long (it had just gone 1500), so wandering slightly aimlessly in a generally downwards direction, and with a small diversion into a park, back to Bertie we came.
I've since finished the task I started yesterday, of noting potential places to visit between here an Cadiz and have even come up with an itinerary (almost unheard of!). As the chance of us sticking to it lies somewhere between 'slim' and 'none', I'll not publish it.
One closed castle entrance
Fountain of the day
Sculpture of the day
As I read along with my mind on castles I was puzzled to read it wasn't opening until 1600 because that DATE sort of registered with me as slightly relevant to castles. I envy y0ur 20 degrees, although it is not cold here at the mo.
ReplyDeleteNot just travelling again, but time travelling! (Actually, a bit of time travel would be handy if we persist in arriving at castles whilst they're closed!)
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