Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in a truly vast car park almost in the centre of Guadix. Exact location: 37.30407, -3.13320
Weather: Clearing to sunshine, 10 degrees.
On our way south through Spain last January, we drove around 50km out of our way to visit Guadix, but just short of our destination decided not to come here after all, after belatedly checking the weather forecast. We did an about turn, and intended to pop by on our way back east a few weeks later. A few weeks later, Mick was more interested in getting to San Juan than visiting Guadix, so we drove straight by again. I was determined we were going to visit this year, and with today's forecast daytime temperature being 12 degrees (the same as our cooler days on the coast in this unusually cool winter), there was no argument against.
I'm not sure what time we left San Juan (after Mick had been for a run, we'd breakfasted and second breakfasted) nor what time we arrived here, but it must have been somewhere between a 2 and 2.5hr journey.
The snowy Sierra Nevada mountains came into view in the latter part of the journey
The drive into town gave a good first impression: at the end of the dead-straight road along which we were driving was the imposing cathedral, with the town behind, and beyond that the snowy mountains. I took a few snaps, none of them are worth sharing.
Here's one of the vast car park in which Bertie is parked, although you can't see it all in this snap.
Pausing only for lunch, we headed out for a look around - our first bit of touristing in 3 weeks in Spain*! The main thing for which Guadix is known is its cave houses, of which there are apparently around 2000 that are still inhabited. There's an entire underground quarter of the town, so that was our objective.
The cathedral lay on our path, but we only admired the outside...
...we then followed our noses and happened upon Plaza de la Concepción...
...before some typical rural-Spanish side streets (i.e. lots of abandoned buildings in various states of disrepair)...
...took us to the Barrio de las Cuevas.
An interesting place, with a backdrop of shapely rocks. We did note, however, that some of the houses look more like a mound of earth piled on top of a house, whereas others are clearly built substantially into the hills. Hopefully these snaps give a general impression of the area:
Note all the ventilation chimneys - some of which were in a sorry state of repair.
Our way back took us via the Alcazaba (not open today)...
...and a huge convent of which I failed to take a snap. An indirect route was then taken back to Bertie, but with the benefit of passing a supermercado to pick up the missing ingredient for tonight's tea.
Verdict on Guadix: an interesting place, and worth stopping by.
Weather: Clearing to sunshine, 10 degrees.
On our way south through Spain last January, we drove around 50km out of our way to visit Guadix, but just short of our destination decided not to come here after all, after belatedly checking the weather forecast. We did an about turn, and intended to pop by on our way back east a few weeks later. A few weeks later, Mick was more interested in getting to San Juan than visiting Guadix, so we drove straight by again. I was determined we were going to visit this year, and with today's forecast daytime temperature being 12 degrees (the same as our cooler days on the coast in this unusually cool winter), there was no argument against.
I'm not sure what time we left San Juan (after Mick had been for a run, we'd breakfasted and second breakfasted) nor what time we arrived here, but it must have been somewhere between a 2 and 2.5hr journey.
The drive into town gave a good first impression: at the end of the dead-straight road along which we were driving was the imposing cathedral, with the town behind, and beyond that the snowy mountains. I took a few snaps, none of them are worth sharing.
Pausing only for lunch, we headed out for a look around - our first bit of touristing in 3 weeks in Spain*! The main thing for which Guadix is known is its cave houses, of which there are apparently around 2000 that are still inhabited. There's an entire underground quarter of the town, so that was our objective.
The cathedral lay on our path, but we only admired the outside...
...we then followed our noses and happened upon Plaza de la Concepción...
...before some typical rural-Spanish side streets (i.e. lots of abandoned buildings in various states of disrepair)...
...took us to the Barrio de las Cuevas.
An interesting place, with a backdrop of shapely rocks. We did note, however, that some of the houses look more like a mound of earth piled on top of a house, whereas others are clearly built substantially into the hills. Hopefully these snaps give a general impression of the area:
Our way back took us via the Alcazaba (not open today)...
...and a huge convent of which I failed to take a snap. An indirect route was then taken back to Bertie, but with the benefit of passing a supermercado to pick up the missing ingredient for tonight's tea.
Verdict on Guadix: an interesting place, and worth stopping by.
A Renault 6, that caught Mick's eye as he used to own one. He says he doesn't remember it looking so old fashioned!
(*Our plan didn't really pay off. For the first three weeks we were happy to just sit around in seaside resorts, soaking up the sunshine and acclimatising to running in the heat. The ingredient that has been missing is the heat! Meanwhile, my daily photo memories of years past show us gallavanting around in shorts and t-shirts at this time of year.)
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