Ecija to Alcala la Real

Ecija to Alcala la Real
Sunday 22nd November.
Before leaving Ecija we breakfasted in the dining room we’d dined in last night. General Franco had dictated that many eating houses had to offer meals for 10 euros (or the equiv in his time) so you can get a reasonable 3 course meal everywhere. This morning, some effort was and had been made to clear up from the massive lunch party which had gone on the day before. The cleaners were shooed out as we arrived at 9.15 – clearly the Spanish habit of eating late is carried forward to breakfasting. After that we went walkabout in the town, sat in on a service in the Iglesia Santa Maria, visited the Museum – religious and archaeological with some fabulous Roman Mosaics, and housing the tourist office – helpful but not particularly for us.
We then tried to get out of Ecija down alleys which grew progressively narrower until finally thank heaven we burst into open countryside and the road leading toward Cordoba. We had also seen that our hire car had a large scrape on the front side which we are sure we hadn’t done. Thankfully Alec had reduced the excess to 35E.
The plain stretches on forever, with Orange trees on either side, then changing to Olives. We tried to find some smaller roads following the river bed, which we might be able to follow by bike, but they don’t seem to exist. We came across the fantastic Medieval Castillo Almodovar del Rio so sat in the sun to admire it, feeling too lazy to walk all the way up to the entrance. We by-passed Cordoba in favour of heading towards Granada, as we will go there on our way back to Cadiz. This area is one of the largest olive oil producing areas in the world so there are a LOT of olive groves and we cannot imagine how they pick them all. I did see 2 men stripping 1 bush by hand. The temperature dropped from 23C down to 13C the higher we climbed towards to Sierra Nevada.
We have stopped in Alcala la Real for the night which is a small hilltop town full of olive processing factories. We were starving as we hadn’t eaten for hours so shot in to a small café to have a large bit of toast covered in tomatoes and olive oil, as a little appetizer before supper later. They don’t open most restaurants till 9.30.