And we had bypassed the town of Olvera the day before, so the plan was to stop in on our way home if we had time. But, there is just so much to see!
We were talking only yesterday about the fact that we arrived here January 2nd, and have only been in the lower third of the country. And you know very well that we haven't been sitting doing nothing! I think you'd need a full three months in Spain to do it justice!
Scenery along the way.
A few twists and curves in the road.
We arrived in Setenil just before noon (yes, it's slow going on these back roads!), and parked outside of town. You don't want to be going into some of these towns without checking out if the motorhome (even a small one) can get through without any problems. We decided to have an early lunch and then go out exploring the town.
The street signs are very pretty!
And it's a nice clean town.
The town of Setenil is famous for it's cave houses. The town is in a valley and the river had carved out many natural cliff overhangs and caves. The area has been inhabited since the stone age and the caves have been used as shelter ever since. Now, actual homes and businesses are built into the caves and overhangs. It's really something to see!
Buildings built under the cliffs.
They should be okay if it rains!
Sometimes the roads even go into the caves.
The entire town blends into the caves.
How cool is that?!
Me!
They are said to stay very cool in summer, and warmer in winter. Just like caves.
Some are unoccupied and in rough shape.
Others have for sale signs, and some have been fixed up beautifully.
Tony, holding the wall up.
Some of these never have to worry about doing roof repairs.
Setenil de las Bodegas.
The streets are not RV friendly. Some of the streets are not even car friendly!
Lots of restaurants and bars with naturally covered patios out front.
Some of the streets are so narrow that you have to step into doorways to let the cars go by.
Covered patios.
Wow. Too many photos. It's a lot of work to sort through them all, discard the bad ones, crop and adjust a little bit, and then decide which ones to show you and how many are too many! And then upload them to the blog. Good thing we have a decent internet connection here.
And we're not done yet. It was around 4:00pm when we left Setenil and headed towards Olvera. It was pretty much on the way home anyhow, and it was such an impressive looking city when we drove by it the day before, we really wanted to stop in and see the castle and church that sit above the town.
Olvera, Spain.
The castle dates to the 11th century. But the church is fairly recent, having been finished around 1875. The church was closed, but the castle was open with a €2 ($2.86 CAD, $2.20 USD) per adult charge. Not bad at all.
Climbing up to the castle. Starting to get a bit of a view.
Yep, we're going right to the top!
I love castles.
Great view of the church.
I took video for you...
I'm the king of the castle!
The top of Olvera.
Tony got a great shot of this lesser kestrel. A type of small falcon.
And then back to the apartment to cook up a late dinner. Fish, cauliflower, and potatoes. We like this restaurant!
Dinner is served!
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Lenovo Chromebook...while supplies last. At this price, they may not last long...
And in Canada, a great deal on a basic Singer sewing machine...
I wonder what the inside of the cave buildings are like - are the walls finished or are they bare rock?
ReplyDeleteI did a quick search on Goggle to see what some might look like and it seems that there is a mixture. Some are finished and some show the rock and some that show the rock will also paint the rock. When we were looking for somewhere stay Helen and Tony had been looking on AirBnB and some of the places available were cave houses and quite a few showed at least part of the rock in the rooms.
DeleteOh how we are enjoying your trip. I just love this town. Your I'm the king of the castle! photo is my favorite. What an awesome experience to see this cave city!
ReplyDeleteWe too are enjoying this trip and love bringing the stories and pictures of our adventures to our readers. Who would ever have thought that a town like Setenil de las Bodegas really exists!
DeleteAbsolutely stunning...
ReplyDeleteIt is truly an interesting and beautiful town.
DeleteSome real amazing scenery and love the cave houses.
ReplyDeleteWe loved wandering this town and finding all kinds of photo opportunities. It was a great day, once again!
DeleteGorgeous cities love the castle wish we were there!
ReplyDeleteThey are wonderful cities! The problem is there are too many of them and we can't visit them all. I think we would need a year to really see this country properly.
DeleteLove, love, love the tour....especially the video. I was thinking about the cave homes in Turkey and how they differ. I believe China also have cave homes but not sure.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you are enjoying the trip Rita. We are having lots of bringing it to you and all of our other readers.
DeleteI am sure there are probably several other countries that have cave houses, maybe one day we will discover some of them.
Hey! You're in the area we will be travelling on Tues 😃 Another nice "pueblo blanco"! We were in Casares yesterday 😍 On the coast right now at Marbella. Hanging out here because need to see dentist on Mon then heading to Ronda and area.
ReplyDeleteSounds like we are going to be missing each other but only just. We will be in El Charro on Monday just for the day and then back to the apartment for the night and then will head to the airport in Malaga early Tuesday morning to drop Helen and Tony off for their flight back home. We will then slowly have to make our way back to Torrevieja to hand back Louis for the week after. We are hoping to make it to Granada though, as we will be doing the trip back via an inland route.
DeleteWe only have 3 months left and travelling all the way to Greece yet 😳
ReplyDeleteThree months sure isn't much time is it! Especially when there is so much to see and the time seems to fly by. Still is sounds like a great trip.
DeleteAmazing adventure today! I loved it! The caves are so interesting...it looks like the mountain is ready to swallow the buildings in many of them. I do imagine it helps greatly with cooling and heating to be built like that. I especially loved the photo of Olvera with the castle and church rising above the town. You are surely seeing some gorgeous sights.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lori, it was an amazing adventure. We would love to have seen what some of these houses looked like on the inside though.
DeleteSeeing Olvera from the road is very impressive and even more so once you get into the town and up to the top of the castle. The views were fantastic.
We've been following you forever. On every trip you take, we think it's the best but now we say this is the best ever. Probably though till the next one. Thank you for sharing your journey. We LOVE it!!!! Hugs!!!! B&C
ReplyDeleteAwww gee thanks, Connie and Barry! We almost feel the same way, every trip is wonderful, and we have enjoyed each and every one but it sure makes us wonder what the next cool adventure will be.
DeleteOh my, both towns are drop-dead gorgeous. Funny, tho, as I scrolled down thru your pics, I got a weird, almost claustrophic feeling in my gut. Just from looking at your photos, I know I couldn't live in a cave-house like those in Setenil. You guys are having The Best Trip! Wow.
ReplyDeleteThe sure are gorgeous towns each in their own special way.
DeleteI don't think we could live in Setenil de las Bodegas either! It would be hard to get enough sunshine in some of the areas and the streets are so narrow it would not be fun to drive around. We actually noticed that most of the cars there have scratches and dings in them.
We are having a great trip here in Spain, it is amazing to think that we will be leaving here in a week and a half and will then be off on a new adventure.
Love the cave houses! Kind of a modern version of the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park in the US... :-)
ReplyDeleteWe have never been to Mesa Verde National Park but have seen pictures of it and although these are modern day homes they are very similar. They suspect that these caves have probably been used by inhabitants of the area from the same time period as Mesa Verde or perhaps even longer.
DeleteWow, incredible towns and photos! I too love castles and hope to see some when I travel to Hamburg, Germany this June for a conference. Thanks for sharing...
ReplyDeleteThank you Tina! We don't think you will have any problem finding lots of castles to look at and explore while you are in Germany, we have heard that there of lots of them. Have fun there and don't work too hard at the conference. :-)
DeleteA great location. I was scrolling down enjoying the photos and your narrative about the town and wondering whether rock fall was a problem when suddenly I saw the picture of the kestrel! Wow! A great photo and so clear too. What camera and lens were you using?
ReplyDeletelone grey squirrel
We were wondering if any rocks fall as well but we really don't know.
DeleteThe picture of the kestrel was taken by Tony, not Kevin and yes, he did a great job on it. Kevin said that Tony's camera is a Sony but not sure of the model and he wasn't using any special lens only the one that is on the camera itself.