DAY 22 WEDNESDAY 1 JUNE 16 PARADOR LORCA LEAVING TOWARDS UBEDIA TODAY.

Bright and sunny this morning, down to the 3^rd floor for the buffet breakfast. All stuffed from eating we headed back to pack up and find a luggage cart to aid in our departure. The car is parked on level 2 and reception and load up area is level 4.

Interesting but Jane pointed the cart to the reception area while Paul hobbled off to retrieve the car. Today’s drive will be about 240Km and include crossing over a mountain range. We chose the Michelin map book and old style map reading versus the two GPSs in hand. We stopped half way to stretch our legs but NO BITTER KAS was available hence, we reverted to the trusty Fanta one Lemon and one Orange because the young lass could not find a

second Lemon bottle. Jane and Paul both enjoyed the change in drinkies along with the free tapa that the lass offered up, mini-beef short ribs with fall off the bone tender meat in a mild and slightly tangy sauce. The remaining half drive was interesting as the terrain changed to rocky and we were climbing higher and higher. We normally choose the road less travelled but as this looked as though it involved a lot of mountain passes on barely defined roads we chose the A roads down and around. Discretion being the better part of valor, or words to that effect!  Finally Ubeda was in sight and the search for food began in earnest!

Why do we always have to search so hard? There is a restaurant on every damn corner or so it seems. Not for us. As we have often said, parking is always at a premium in Spain so we opted for an underground parking lot. Then we quizzed the locals about lunch options. There was a bit of dissent but we opted for round the corner and, we hit the jackpot! We have noticed that unless you are in a city or old town area, there are fewer people eating out. This recession and “crisis” has hit the Spanish hard. We were the only ones in the restaurant and there was only one person in the bar downstairs. That being said it was a great meal, Jane had menu of the day and Paul had lamb chops. We made our way to the Parador and unloaded to enjoy the siesta hour. We stayed close that even and in fact ate at the Parador using the discount coupon from Lorca to cut the costs. Off to crash and rest up for adventures tomorrow.