Worth Each And Every Mile, And Day

We were both a little sad to be leaving the very small mountain town of ‘Montenajos’, yes I suppose we could have squeezed in an extra day here, where we could have payed to visit the Thermal Baths, and perhaps booked another one of the evening tourist train trips, as they did three different routes, dependent on which day you selected to go, but we had already seen everything else that there was to see, so remaining for another full day, and paying for a dip in a hot bath when both the swimming pool and the river were warm enough, and another three and a half hour evening tourist train tour, albeit to a different set of villages in the lush green mountains, just didn’t really seem to make any sense and, as we had already started heading in a Southerly direction, neither did it seem logical to head North again, so we agreed that we would just continue to keep going in a general South-Westerly direction and search for another inland location.

Shazza had, somewhat surprisingly, volunteered to choose the next location on this occasion, which would also involve locating, and booking, the respective accommodation, well I suppose it did take a little bit of the pressure, and frustration of finding somewhere to stay, off me and my OCD Buddy for a change. However, we all know by now, don’t we ? That when Shazza ‘volunteers’ to do these things, and seemingly out of the blue, it very rarely is. So I already knew with some certainty that at some point over these last few days, probably whilst I had been otherwise distracted with other urgent matters, like having a period of personal contemplation 😴 she had already been looking and, I was guessing, with some confidence, that she would have already selected both our next location and the accommodation 😉

Shazza had identified the town of ‘Manzanares’, and surprise surprise it had another nice ‘Parador Hotel’ with pool, she had enjoyed the first one that we had stayed at in ‘Lorca’, although at that one we hadn’t used their pool facilities. The other reason, and in truth, probably the main one, was that it had a ‘Manchego Cheese’ museum, with of course the mandatory attached and associated cheese and wine shop. Shazza’s Achilles heel is her love of cheese, although these days she tends to stick to Goat’s cheese, Feta or Mozzarella, but if they had anything else that took her fancy I think the temptation would have been too strong for her to resist, I already knew which area of the shop I would be paying more interest in of course, and believe me it would have nothing to do with ‘Curds and Whey’ 🤭

However, the drive to ‘Manzanares’ would be back to doing yet another longish journey and at 9:15am, when we departed the hotel, the temperature was already 26 degrees(c), and it would continue to rise as we returned back to sea level, with temperatures forecast to once again reach 36 degrees(c), before we even reached our destination, so we were once again very pleased that we at least could rely on our good air-con system in the car, and once again, allowing for stops, it would end up being another relatively long travel day of around 5 hour’s.

We left Montanejos via a different route to the one we had arrived in on so, on the outward journey we still had similar terrific Mountain View’s, but this time through a slightly different scenic area. It didn’t seem to take us as long to get off the very good mountain roads and onto our first Motorway, only around half an hour, and that one took us back towards the coast and towards the city of Valencia, although we would skirt around that on the A7, as we had visited Valencia on a previous road trip we decided not to stop there again this time, so we continued on and then started heading inland again on the A3.

This particular motorway was absolutely chaotic, this being the main fastest route from Valencia towards Madrid, there were Big Trucks with additional trailers on the back, known as ‘Wagon & Drag’, normal single trailer trucks and then the smaller HGV’s, these trucks were carrying everything from Livestock, Fuel, Fruit & Veg, Building Materials, Beer and Wines, well just all the usual sort of cargo really that you see being hauled around the roads in most other countries too, nothing out of the ordinary but just a lot of it. Then there were the Tourist Coaches, fleets of them, confirming that in these parts the holidays season was far from being over, and they didn’t hang about either ducking and diving in and out of lanes to get past the slower moving HGV’s. Then of course there were the usual array of both Caravans and Motorhomes, we were interested in looking at the differing number plates, which identify their country of origin, but the largest majority were actually from within Spain, although there was also a large number from France, Germany and the Netherlands, with no more than the odd one or two that we saw from the UK, Belgium and Italy. Of course there were the usual vast array of Transit type Delivery Vans, rushing to collect, or deliver, their cargo’s of whatever 🤷‍♂️ But far the greatest number of vehicles were the Cars, with of course the usual ‘Get out of my way I’m in a hurry’ brigade, then the ‘I don’t care if I am going too slow, I’m doing the speed limit so I am not moving out of the outside lane to let anyone else pass’ and, of course the ever increasing number of ‘I don’t have time to turn on my indicator, you should know that I am going to pull out in front of you’ 🤷‍♂️ However, then, as if we needed anything else adding into this mix, the Sat Nav gave us a verbal warning that there was standing traffic ahead of us, the screen reflected a roadworks symbol and a solid ‘red’ line, rather than the usual ‘Blue’ or sometimes ‘Yellow’ for slow moving traffic. Not that any of the vehicles in front of us could have had any such modern road traffic information systems built in to their vehicles, otherwise they would not have had to violently slam on their brakes at the last possible minute, when three lanes suddenly became one, although their had also been a fair number of roadside visual warnings of this beforehand but they were probably answering, or making, phone calls on their mobile phones to notice them 😲

This was the first time that we have encountered these kind of lengthy roadworks on a Spanish Motorway, one’s that involved us being virtually at a stand-still, this one lasted for close on 15 minutes, oh well, that was a less than desirable first, on this, or indeed any other, road trip that we have done here in Spain 🤷‍♂️ However, we were in no hurry so we just sat patiently in the queue until we saw the three lanes open up again, it wasn’t as if we could have done anything else, there was nowhere else to go, but when we saw the ‘All Clear’ sign we moved over into the middle lane, we couldn’t get into the inside for all the trucks, we waited for all the formula one racing drivers to sling shot past us, in a hurry to die it seemed at the speed they were going, even though my own little Luis Hamilton was herself already doing close to the maximum permissible speed limit of 120Km (74mph), but they all soon became just a speck in the distance and then the traffic started to thin out a little bit.

At the risk of upsetting any other of my Spanish reader’s, I do have to say that the landscape along a lot of this part of the route that we were on, was very flat, and very boring, the earth a parched rusty red colour for miles and miles, although some of it was dispersed with neatly planted straight rows of Olive Groves along with several miles of grapevines, which did add a little more colour to the proceedings, confirming that the farmer’s irrigation systems were doing their job.

We were grateful when we left this A3 route, leaving the hoards of vehicles to continue their journey towards Madrid, whereas we now started heading South West, on the very much quieter, and much more scenic AP36, where we took the first opportunity we could to stop for a coffee, and comfort break, and also to take the opportunity to change driving positions. Shazza had done the first, and what had turned out to be the more chaotic leg of this journey, well I guess some you win, and other’s you don’t, but in reality we had both lost out on this second part of the journey, for on this second stage, where I was now doing the driving, it turned out to be the much more scenic part, with hills and greenery in abundance, but you know what that meant of course, with Shazza in the passenger seat, exactamundo, no photo’s 🤷‍♂️ Although in all honesty, I guess one virtually traffic free motorway, and mountains with perhaps the odd church, castle or white finca on it, must tend to look just like the last one, well to you my reader’s at least.

I was a little surprised when we arrived at the hotel, for these ‘Parador Hotels’ are ‘generally’ perched on hilltops, in the grounds of grand historical estates or castles, looking down on the towns spread-eagled below them, or over vast swathes of mountains and countryside, but not this one, no this one was at ground level and sat virtually alongside the A4 Motorway. Although there was an advantage to that, the estimated half hour walk into the town would be on the flat and so quite an easy one. It looked, once we had driven through the arched entrance, as though this particular property had once been part of a large estate of stables, from all of the now brightly painted stable type doors in the very large inner cobbled courtyard, and there was some horse and cart related paraphernalia dotted around. However, once inside, in the nice air-conditioned reception, it was modern, albeit that the main large interior of the building still retained a lot of its former character and charm, with large wooden doors and large wooden framed windows with the older style heavy iron window latches, with some antique looking furnishings dotted around the reception entrance hall. Shazza had pre-booked for just the two night’s, we had agreed on just the one full day of sightseeing the following day would suffice, as by now we had both seen quite enough of historical architectures, castles, churches, convents etc, and the statues of Kings or Knights on horseback, or other famous former residents emblazoned for eternity in grey concrete, marble or brass, stood in Plaza’s, or at road junctions, towering over everything else, the usual kind of stuff you find in most large towns and cities all around the world.

Shazza just really wanted to visit the cheese museum, wander through some of the narrow cobbled shaded streets and enjoy a leisurely breakfast, at a nice little street cafe/bar, people watching, as is our want, that was if we managed to get up early enough to beat the worst of the day’s heat, another scorcher was forecast. I had looked on Google to see if there was very much to interest me but, other than the usual museums and churches there was very little that sparked any real excitement. So once we had done our walkabout, perhaps, before returning to the hotel, we could partake of a light lunch, which may, or may not, have required partaking of a dose, or two, of Anti-Covid Vaccine medication 🤭 Once we had returned to the hotel, we would then probably just relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon taking cooling dips in the outside pool, so it sounded a pretty decent plan to me although I knew that at some point during that afternoon we would have to commence looking for our next destination and accommodation.

Once we had checked-in and settled into our very nice room, we made our way to the more ‘informal’ Cafeteria for a light lunch, They had quite an extensive menu, from starters to main courses and sandwiches, we knew from our previous ‘Parador’ experience that they were never going to be just a ‘sandwich’, so we ordered a Salmon and Creamed Cheese Bagel each, there were no egg and bacon butties or baked beans on toast here I will have you know 🤭 Okay, so all of these ‘Paradors’ looked a bit posh on the outside, and during the height of Summer they are in high demand and the more popular one’s, in the more touristy locations, can command up to €400 per night 😳 and that is on a room only basis, we were fortunate to catch them in ‘their’ low season period and so had only paid €80 per night. We were initially a bit surprised, as whilst they look a bit on the more ‘Upper Class’ style shall we say, they are actually much more casual than they first appear, most of the guests wore shorts and short-sleeved shirts, which is a good job really as I had left my ‘Jodhpurs’, ‘Hacking Jacket’ and ‘Cravat’ back at home, although I was still rather hoping that Shazza had remembered to pack the ‘Whip’ 😂

Once again though, no tea or coffee making facilities in the rooms, but at least they did provide a stocked ‘Mini Bar’ comprising of Bottled Beer, Soft Drinks and Snacks (All of which would have incurred an additional cost of course), however, as stated previously, we always come prepared to cater for our own needs. The rest of that late afternoon and evening we stayed at the hotel, I sat on the nice shaded balcony and commenced drafting my blog, the previous one to this, the ‘War and Peace’ volume, which some of you will be forgiven for, if you are still ploughing your way through it 😂 Shazza sat on her double bed, yes we had one each again, she checked her social media stuff and then read something or other on her ‘Kindle’ device, it was nice with the room air-con doing its job very efficiently. Later that evening we went back down to the Cafeteria area and ordered a meal off their quite extensive menu, we couldn’t be bothered going to one of the two on-site restaurants, for although it wasn’t ball gown and tuxedo attire, it would have meant wearing long trousers and a smarter style shirt, or a dress for Shazza, we couldn’t be bothered with any of that and I am not sure whether Shazza had even packed a dress anyway 🤔 We sat outside on the terrace, although their were no dramatic views like their had been at the one in Lorca, but it was pleasant enough as their was enough opportunities to do a spot of people watching.

We did manage to get up relatively early the following morning and head out in the direction of town, the early signs were promising, as we passed by lots of expensive looking houses, set in their own grounds and protected by high walls and electronic gates, okay yes I confess, I glimpsed through gaps in some of the gates or fences, well it would have been rude not to, but I refrained from poking the lens of my camera through to take some photo’s in case one of the neighbour’s was watching, and reported me to the Police, who may have arrested me, thinking I was casing the joints 😂 We passed the town’s ’Plaza de Toro’s’ (Bullring), on the outskirts of the town, but their was no external indication of whether it was still being used for that sometimes controversial traditional event, although the building itself looked in a good state of repair. In many towns now, where the bullfighting no longer takes part, the buildings are used for different events, mainly musical but occasionally, as wedding reception venues or, as the one near us in Estepona, the weekly ‘flea markets’, although that one in Estepona has not been maintained and looks rather scruffy, some are just left to fall into a state of total disrepair, a shame really as they are rather iconic traditional Spanish looking buildings.

One thing that was very noticeable to us though, was just how quiet everywhere was, we had seen just one or two people in the half hour it took us to walk to the main periphery of the town, and their was hardly any traffic, literally just the odd car, and it was a weekday 🤷‍♂️ We were beginning to wonder whether we had arrived on a local ‘Public Holiday’ perhaps 🤷‍♂️ However, I saw what looked like market stalls in the distance ahead of us, so we walked in that direction and sure enough there was a market, it was a big market with lots of stalls, but just the usual array of clothes, shoes, kitchenware and plants and shrubs, no food produce of any description, not even the usual fruit and veg stalls, however a lot of these stalls were selling exactly the same sort of stuff and they stretched along the street for quite some way. At least there were actually people here, although not crowds and we could just saunter without being shoulder barged every couple of minutes, but there were enough people to at least prove that we hadn’t arrived in a ghost town.

Once we had walked the full length of the market stalls there was no obvious indication of which way led into the main town area, it was just narrow empty streets of two or three storey residential buildings, often there is a ‘Plaza Espana’ sign, pointing to its location, nothing here that we could see and strangely enough, none of the other more usual ‘Brown Coloured’ tourist signs pointing to a central Church, or other places of interest, not even one indicating the location of the Cheese Museum. To be completely honest, it just all seemed a little drab compared to a lot of the places we had visited recently, it made us wonder why there were so many large luxury houses that we had seen on the walk in, it didn’t look a particularly affluent area but perhaps the owner’s made their money in the nearby cities but invested in properties here that were not only cheaper but had lots more open space 🤷‍♂️ I checked Google Street Maps and then followed a route leading towards a central area that showed shops and bars, somewhere to at least sit and have a coffee and tostado.

We kept walking, aimlessly really, just following the Google Map directions and eventually, well within probably five or ten minutes, we did come across a much larger, and quite impressive looking church. Outside it there were umbrellas, tables and chairs stacked up, indicating that it would have been a nice area to sit and have a drink and watch the world go by, but not today it would appear. There was the odd shop here and there, all with their external metal shutters down and no signs of life so we looked at the sign on one of the shop doors with the opening hours, to see if we had arrived on the day everything was closed, but no, it indicated that it should have been open from 10:00am, but it was now 10:30am 🤷‍♂️ We continued wandering, in search of that elusive Cafe/Bar, most other cities, towns or even villages have Cafe/Bars on almost every corner, but not in this one. We came across some other nice looking historical buildings but our question was, ‘where were all the other tourist’s 🤷‍♂️’

More by luck than judgement we found our way into ‘Constitution Square’, this would have been the ‘Plaza Espana’ in most other town’s and this was where the ‘Ayuntamiento’ (Town Hall) was located, and other Government Offices, an arched pedestrianised walkway ran across the lower level and their were a couple of nice looking Cafe/Bars with their plush looking ‘wicker’ style chairs and tables outside, but there was absolutely nobody about, no waiters or customer’s, surely the whole town couldn’t all have been at the market 🤔 There were no obvious signs or banners that would indicate that a ‘Fiesta’ had just taken place or that one was about to happen, nothing, the place was almost completely devoid of people, except the market of course.

After a little more aimless wandering we finally discovered the main shopping street, pedestrianised and with shops on either side of the narrow precinct. We discovered one Cafe/Bar, which was open 🥳 however, it had only three tables outside and all three were occupied ☹️ There wasn’t enough room to swing even half a cat inside, so we walked on. The hostelries highlighted on Google Maps were either still closed, or looked as if they were no longer in business and, to top off a rather disappointing morning, the Cheese Museum didn’t open until midday, still an hour away. Shazza didn’t want to hang about and wait, it was getting hotter and hotter and we had nowhere to sit and wait anyway, so we decided to head back towards the hotel, a few minutes away from it there was a ‘Repsol’ fuel station with an attached Cafeteria, we would stop their for a coffee and maybe a Tostado, if we were lucky.

Whilst we were finally getting to enjoy a very good, and hot, Cafe con Leche, and Tostado, Shazza asked me how long it would take to get back home from here. She said that she was about done with sightseeing now, and she was getting fed up of living out of a suitcase, she really just wanted to get back and enjoy her home comforts again. It came as a bit of a surprise, as although I knew she was getting ready to head home, and I knew before we even left on this trip that we wouldn’t in all reality, remain on the road for a full three weeks, I had thought that we would have got at least one more location in, potentially for another couple of nights. The scenic town of ‘Jaen’ which, by coincidence, also had a ‘Parador Hotel’, located on a hill within Castle Grounds and which had a nice swimming pool, was actually on the route home anyway 🤷‍♂️ Yes I had done a Shazza, and already looked in advance knowing that it was a place that she had said, in a previous conversation, was a place that she would like to visit at some point. But not even the temptation of another ‘Parador Hotel’ could tempt her, so I looked at Google Maps and it indicated that we could be home in just a little over four hour’s, although we would have to get back to the hotel, re-pack our bags, check-out and re-fuel, and allowing for a comfort break, I estimated that we could be sat on our own balcony by 6pm that evening. So the decision was made.

It was telling that when we went to check-out and I explained why we were leaving early, the female receptionist gave a knowing smile, but why would they have a ‘Parador Hotel’ here on the outskirts of this anonymous town was the question in my head 🤷‍♂️ Shazza wanted to drive the first part of the journey, not just because she knew it would be relatively quiet but she wanted to stop off when we got nearer home to do some shopping for some groceries to see us over the next few days as we had emptied the fridge before we departed, so she wanted a bit of a break before trudging through the shopping aisles. It gave me an opportunity as the passenger to take the last photo’s of this trip, especially as we would be approaching the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges from the North, and then driving through a part of them before heading South. She also knew that we would have to do battle with the heavy traffic around Malaga and Marbella, she didn’t fancy that as it would be in the middle of the Spanish rush hour, the end of the Siesta period when everybody rushes back to work.

We had only been on the road for just a little over an hour when we decided to stop for a cold drink and then we also realised that apart from the tostado, we hadn’t eaten lunch, so we pulled in to a roadside Cafeteria, it was very busy although the road up to here had been very quite. Shazza managed to find an empty table and we looked at their menu, we both opted for a hot Calamari Sandwich and I went up to order. A very nice lady, who spoke absolutely no English, took my order and then checked back with me to confirm that she had understood what I had ordered, before telling me to go and sit at the table, which I had pointed to so that she knew where we were. She brought across our cold drinks and a huge bowl of crisps covered with plump anchovies, she must have seen my expression as I hadn’t ordered these, but she said ‘Gratis Tapas’ and then smiled. They were just crisps and anchovies, but boy were they delicious, the saltiness and vinegar of the anchovies, with the plain slightly salted crunch of the crisps, were an explosion of loveliness in our mouths. Shortly afterwards came the hot Calamari ‘Baguettes’, there were oodles of Lightly battered Calamari rings in a half fresh crisp baguette, with the usual small side portion of French Fries, and the total bill, including the drinks, a mere €13 (£11). This is what I enjoy about these road trips, no not just the value for money at places like this and not just getting to a particular destination, but the experiences along the way, the unscheduled stops, time to pause and enjoy the surroundings and the people that we meet, but the next stop would be the ‘Mercadona’ supermarket, just twenty-minutes from home.

As we left the rest stop, Shazza had said that she didn’t really want to drive anymore, which I didn’t mind one bit as I really enjoy driving and, to be truthful, I would do all of it if I could, but the eye issue that I now have since my detached retina operation in March 2022, means that I am less confident in places which have very narrow and busy streets, but as it was now Motorways all the way home, bring it on 😁 We had been back in our own ‘Region’ of Andalusia for some time, but it wasn’t until we reached the outskirts of Malaga City that we felt as if we were in home territory, although we were still a little over an hour from home. Unusually, it was Shazza, and not me for a change, that started spouting lyrically about the scenery, we could see the sparkling blue of the ‘Mediterranean’ on one side and the lush green forested mountains on the other, “Look at what we have on our own doorstep ?” She announced. I had been telling her this all the time we have owned a property here, and although we have explored quite a lot of it, there is still so much that we have not ventured into, but she had always been dis-interested when I had mentioned having weekends away in a ‘Casa Rural’, or even a hotel, in our own nearby mountain ranges or even in some of the plentiful coastal areas that lay to the East, South and West of us 🤷‍♂️ Finally, and I think a lot of it has to do with the short period we spent in the mountain town of Montanejos, which she thoroughly enjoyed, but I believe that she may be coming around to my way of thinking and, if it took this trip to make her realise it, then it was ‘Worth Each And Every Mile, And Day’ that we had just spent away 🙏

The ice-ing on the cake, when we got home, was to discover some exceptionally joyous financial news. You will recall from my recent previous rambles of the process I was going through with the UK Tax Authorities (HMRC), to claim a refund for the ‘UK tax’ that I had paid, which I should not have been paying over the last two year’s. But I was not expecting to hear from them quite so soon, but they have already come back and officially confirmed that I had overpaid, which I guess must have stuck in their throats a bit 🤭 and advised me of the amount of refund they would be giving back to me, which I should receive ‘within’ the next 14 days, so Christmas will have arrived a little earlier than anticipated this year. They also notified me that my tax code has now been changed accordingly, but I will still be keeping a close eye on any future income tax deductions they take from me 😉 but what a lovely way to end a two-week vacation, and at least this time, unlike our previous month long holiday in the UK at the beginning of the year, we were not coming back for urgent work to a water boiler, or any other domestic crisis 😂

It does feel good to be back at home in our own surroundings though, it is certainly true that whilst it is sometimes good to get away from the same four walls, and routines, it also feels very nice to be back home again.

Until the next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigo’s, La Vida Es Buena