Ardales

Yesterday we went out to Ardales. a small village of about 3000 inhabitants situated on the main A-357 Campillos to Malaga road. We had passed it several times before when going to and from Malaga airport so we decided to pay a visit.

It took about an hour and forty five minutes to get there, taking one of my world famous short cuts across country via Teba. Normal journey time would be about an hour.

Still, it's nice to see parts of the area you wouldn't normally see..........Anne wasn't too impressed though!

Ardales from the main road.














A tiled plaque on a wall showing Ardales.

When we arrived in Ardales we followed the signs for the "Centro Historico" and arrived at the top of town where the castle and church pictured right were located.

Unfortunately, we couldn't gain access to the castle as the gate was locked and a plaque near the church stated that the castle was being used to store ancient artefacts from the village. So perhaps that was why it was locked but it would have been nice to have had a look.

The castle.













Just along from the church we came across this unusually designed house, not the normal style you see in a "Pueblo Blanco" or White Village.



After visiting the castle we returned to the car and headed for the centre of the village, arriving at the Plaza de San Isidro.

The picture right is of the centre looking towards the "Ayuntamiento" (Town Hall) in the foreground with the castle and church above.







The Ayuntamiento












The Ayuntamiento was beautifully decorated with blue and white tiles.













Anne spotted this sign but unfortunately the bar it was attached to was closed. On a hot day like today a pint of the black stuff would have gone down well.










Looking from the Ayuntamiento back down the Plaza de San Isidro.














































One of the few houses in the village that had decorative plants outside......just a few. Watering must take ages.









Before leaving Ardales, we went into a cafe called "La Alternativa" which Anne had seen earlier.
Looking around it became clear that it was dedicated to bullfighting, with many photo's on the walls and this mural painted covering one wall.









This is the stuffed head of a bull. There was a plaque underneath but I couldn't translate what it said.











After a couple of Cokes we headed home.







More information on Ardales can be found in the following link:
http://www.andalucia.com/province/malaga/ardales/home.htm

El Gastor

We went out today to attend a Flamenco Festival in a village called "El Gastor", which is about 15kms south of Olvera, 30 minutes drive. We arrived in the village, parked up and proceeded to walk around. The absence of bunting or music was a clue to something not being quite right but undeterred we carried on, eventually arriving at the tourist office. We went in and enquired about the festival, attempting to say that it had been advertised in a local magazine, to be met with "Que, que" (what). The lady in the office turned to the local policeman who happened to be standing over her PC who also looked a bit bemused."Que". It was fairly obvious by now that the mag had got it wrong, so we left with a smile, a "lo siento" (sorry) and carried on to explore the village. The picture below is of the approach to El Gastor.

The festival was apparently to commemorate the 100th birthday of a great local flamenco guitar player, a plaque and statue in whose honour we found in a park on the outskirts of the village.

The picture below shows the village square with the "Ayuntamiento" (Town Hall) on the right with the church of "Corpus Christi" just behind it.

The streets were decorated with lots of window displays, tubs and hanging pots of flowers. They look nice now but will really bloom in a month or so.
A couple of canaries out in the sunshine.

We stopped for a bit of lunch at a bar and ordered coffee's with some tapas.

We selected four dishes of herring, potato salad, mixed salad with what tasted like horseradish sauce and a russian salad plus two coffee's. Delicious, and all for eight euro's (£6) We liked El Gastor. A very pretty and clean village. Shame about the Flamenco Festival though. We will probably hear through the grapevine that it was on but we were there at the wrong time of day. Never mind, always next time. The picture below is of Olvera taken on the road back from El Gastor.

And finally, thanks to our ex-neighbour Philip Booth in Ruscombe, Stroud, Gloucestershire for adding us as a link to your blog, Ruscombe Green. We have a very fond affection for Ruscombe and still retain some smashing friends in the area. We hope you enjoy reading about Olvera and the area in which we now live.

Linked posts:Market day

The scary two!!

These two are scary.....they guard and defend with their lives a smallholding containing pigs and a good job they do too.

Prior to going to the church square (previous blog), I left the house and headed down the street towards the edge of town. Sometimes we take Peppie for a walk this way to what we call the viewpoint and just sit down and admire the views. Occasionally, when we feel brave, we decide to continue our walk and creep past the smallholding but invariably these two hear us and stand on top of the wall growling, barking and slobbering at the mouth at the thought of tearing Peppie apart. Needless to say, our bravery soon departs and we head back.

This is the viewpoint at the end of our street that has tremendous views south and west towards Cadiz city.

The peak visible in the centre of this picture is of the Penon de Zaframagon, which is a 600 metre high limestone outcrop or crag (Penon) that is home to one of the most significant colonies of Griffon vultures in the area, not to mention eagles and owls. It is accessible only from the Via Verde disused railway track and is about 13kms from Olvera. A project in the future for a bike ride I think, when we feel a bit more energetic !!.

View from the viewpoint back towards where we live.

Views of the rear of the castle.























Views toward the castle and church from the park in the centre of town.

Plaza de la Iglesia

With no trips out planned this week, I thought I would just go up to the church at the top of
town and take a few pictures around the Plaza.

Construction of "The Church of Nuestra Senora de la Encarnacion" was started in 1822 and finished in 1843.

The Plaza de la Iglesia or Church square.



























View of the castle from the plaza.













This is a memorial sculpture in the plaza, dedicated to the Olverino's who lost their lives during the Spanish civil war.





View over Olvera from the church, looking back down Causeway Street.











Unfortunately, due to restoration work and the church not being used, the graffiti artist's have been busy decorating the walls.

This must be as disappointing for visitor's as it is for us as the castle and the church are the focal points of Olvera and can be seen for miles around and to climb all the way up to be confronted with this is bit of a let down.

If we could collar Kevin and Momo, I'm sure we could find a job to keep them occupied for a week or two!!!.

The view again from the front of the church.













Entrance to the tourist information office in the corner of the plaza.

The courtyard inside the tourist office.













View from the courtyard.

El Chorro

Today being Anne's birthday, we thought we would take a drive out for lunch to a restaurant in El Chorro, a place we visited in September last year.

The picture above is of a small waterfall we passed along the way.

We diverted slightly onto a road signposted "Bobastro", which is the site of an ancient deserted village containing a church which had been cut directly out of the rock. On we drove until we came to a reservoir, pictured right, and ultimately to a dead end. However, not a sign of the village or any signage indicating where the village was. So a little disappointing but the drive was still worth it for the views at the end of the road.

The picture right overlooks El Chorro and the reservoir from the viewpoint at the end of the road with the picture below looking down the valley towards Alora.

The picture right is of the "Garganta del Chorro", a gorge in the rock through which the Guadalhorce river passes through. My previous post also records that this was the place where part of the 1965 film "Von Ryan's Express" was filmed. In the film, the rail bridge pictured below had been blocked by a German aircraft rocket attack and the prisoners, led by Frank Sinatra, had to escape along the wooden walkway that skirts the mountain and then through the wooden bridge above the gorge.

Just out of interest, the water level should be covering the darkish grey area at the bottom of the gorge, which is about four to five metre's in depth, an indication of how desperate we are for sustained rainfall.

Anyway, after all that, we arrived at the restaurant and it was closed. Not to be thwarted, we headed back along the road home to the Chinese restaurant in Campillos and had a smashing meal there.

Many thanks to all for Anne's cards and best wishes to Dave, Heather and Sean who at last should be moving into their house this week.

Linked posts:El Chorro
The Lake District