DAY 24 ALMEDINILLA and Surrounding AREAS

The two of us thoroughly enjoyed the organic breakfast(s) with a smiley face of watermelon, kiwi, and pear slices. Toast, jam and yogurt with apricot jam and toasted oat flakes. The last course was cheeses, homemade sausage slices. Coffee with

unrefined sugar rounded out the servings. It was decided to stay local and explore the roman ruins before trekking into the city of Alcala La Real and the cheese fiesta later. So after our nourishment we ventured to the Roman ruins office to redeem our Las Era discount along with being old age pensioners, too. We paid and were given instructions on how to find the Roman Museo and where to park. The instructions were fine but finding the location was a bit more difficult. We joined up with another Spanish couple who had bought tickets just in front of us. Our host or guide was Emilio who enjoyed his job and thoroughly enjoyed the Roman heritage that abounded in this region. We went through each of the 3 floors of the museo with Emilio gladly responding to the questions

posed to him. The Spanish couple from Malaga, Javier and Paloma (she was a lawyer) were asking questions which extended the tour on each floor but Emilio pressed on without hesitation. He explained how the  Iberians were here first and then the Romans who pushed everyone aside as they took over. The landlord of the vineyards had a home at the entrance to the village which we would tour last.

Emilio explained the sequence and the heritage obtained from the previous settlers who had build adobe style huts very similar to the Indians of Colorado and Arizona in the US. Same construction

techniques and materials were used by both. He explained the habits and cultures of the past civilizations with great emphasis on the food consumed and cherished by each. It amused me because Spanish friends always judge places on how well you can eat there! We ultimately left the Museo and Emilio bummed a ride with the Spanish couple with Jane and Paul in their car bringing up the rear. We climbed up out of the valley floor to the upper hills high above Almedinilla where the museo curators had cordoned off a sector of land upon which they had reconstructed replicas of the Roman hill top huts and

also preserved several actual ancient huts as well. It was interesting and I was struck how similar the building styles were to the Pueblo Indians in the US. Logs for strength, rock and adobe for the walls. Very similar. Paul kind of begged off for a while as his ankle was bothering him. This did not stop Emilio! This man is passionate about his work, history archeology and above all….food!  Off back down the mountain to the Villa and more instruction from Emilio. Lots of information on mosaic floors, painted

walls and underfloor heating systems! It is pushing 3 hours now and we are really flagging, we have to eat lunch and visit a Cheese Fiesta in the next town! Not gonna happen is it? You got that right! Javier, Paloma, Paul and I ducked and ran! It was not wholly successful as Emilio nailed us sitting outside having a beer and waiting for lunch. We had to reassure him that it was all fabulous and fascinating and that we did enjoy it! The drawbacks of being in a really small town!

Anyway we ate and after a short siesta (rest for older people) headed off to Alcala La Real to seek out the cheese fiesta unfortunately, as most of the day was taken up with historical stuff we were too late. Now what to do? Alcala was very quiet, I guess people were worn out from eating cheese, so we headed to Priego de Cordoba to see what was cooking there. It is only a few kilometers so no problem it was cooling down beautifully and turning into a lovely

evening. As luck would have it they had laid on a lovely procession for us with lots of small children beating drums and marching carrying religious floats. (child size) The little girls were very cute in their ruffled dresses and combs draped with lace mantillas. We had a drink, which always comes with something to eat, and watched life go by. We headed back to Almedinilla for a light supper and bed. It had been a very long busy day. According to Vivo fit I covered over 51/2 miles that day! No wonder we were tired. Though to be fair Paul kind of duck out on a good portion of that which was fine.