Not going far, and if we saw something worth stopping at then we would.
So nice to not have much of a schedule to keep.
Love driving the backroads.
It was another beautiful day.
Scenery along the way.
Lots of seemingly abandoned buildings.
Going through the village of La Parroquia.
The road was pretty narrow, but fortunately we didn't meet many other vehicles.
Scenery along the way.
Oh... a castle ruins up ahead!
Unfortunately there was nowhere suitable to park.
I would have liked to climb up there and explore!
Broccoli.
We stopped in the outskirts of the town of Vélez-Rubio and had some lunch. Just before that, we could see a big castle or church or something in the distance so while we were stopped for lunch I did some research. Turns out to be the castle at the town of Vélez-Blanco and it was right along our planned route so we decided to stop in.
Beautiful views on the drive up there.
The official name is Castillo de los Fajardo.
Max, parked below the castle.
The castle was built between 1505-1515.
I had read some reviews that said entrance was free. But they also said that there really wasn't much to see in the interior. We got up there just after 2:00pm to find out that the doors lock at 2:00pm and don't reopen until after siesta.
An interesting story though.
The castle was fairly intact when owned by the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1903. However at that time there were no historical heritage laws, and he sold the entire interior patio stone by stone to an American millionaire. Upon that millionaire's death in 1941 it was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where it is one of the premier displays at that museum.
You can see it here... https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/199003
Fantastic views from the castle.
There were a few information boards outside.
Ruins of a church, with the more modern church on the left.
The town of Vélez-Blanco.
We decided to walk down into the town itself.
Ruth, at the ruins of a Moorish church.
We walked down to the more modern church.
Funny little Santa.
Ruth and the Christmas bear.
The interior of the church was nothing very special.
But they had a nice nativity display with a model of the town.
Back outside, we did some more wandering around.
And came across Los Cinco Banos.
The village toilet system from long ago.
And then we drove on to a local hermitage just past the village of Maria.
A look back at the castle from the other side.
I had read that you could park overnight here.
Can you see Max in the parking lot?
View out our front window.
In behind us is a fairly big mountain ridge, and there are quite a few hiking trails. So we're off to do some hiking this morning.
We noticed when the sun went down that it got chilly really quickly. I checked the altimeter and we are at 1400 meters (4,600')! I knew we had done some climbing during our drive but I didn't think it was that much! And the hike we want to do climbs another 600 meters. We may not do the whole thing, we'll see how it goes.
Yesterday's drive, 90 kms (54 miles).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record low deal on the big ECOFLOW MAX Portable Power Station. If you've been wanting a bigger unit to help you through power outages, this is a great deal.
And in Canada...
A lot of this area looks so much like Mexico. Chomping at the bit!
ReplyDeleteWe have actually mentioned that to each other just the other day. Lots of similarities in many ways, and it stands to reason as the Spanish more or less took over Mexico so long ago.
Delete