Almost a week in our adventure and we’ve hit the road. First stop was an archaeological site dating back to the Neanderthals, the 📍Dolmens near Antequera. It was the site with the oldest signs of human habitation we’ve visited in our adventures. A fact that prompted Karine to declare: “I like old things”. Being the youngest of the two of us, I wasn’t sure if I should worry that I’m not old enough or should accept that I’m an old thing. The latter made the most sense as my kid sister declared me to be old in my early 30s. The judgment of both women being sound I guess I’m old.
Picking up our car we were offered a Jeep Wrangler. As we were getting a car to drive into small towns in Andalusia it seemed like a risky proposition. The number of scratches on what, otherwise, should be a fairly new SUV, led me to believe that my scepticism was well placed. In what seemed like a world first for the car rental company, we asked to be downgraded to a smaller car. Downgrade we did and our new gray Fiat 500 was indeed smaller. It had all the basics we needed and nothing extra. It had all except one: an engine. The speedometer might go all the way to 220, the car however can only hit that speed except in a free fall. It barely can go up hill.
The Fiat got us to both of the 📍Dolmen sites safe and sound. For reasons the museum failed to explain, their two sites were separated by the local highway. One could think they found the site while building the highway but considering the mounds date back more than 6000 years and we can find written descriptions of the sites as far back as the 1500s; I’m guessing here but I’m pretty sure the highway came after we were aware the Dolmens are there.
The Dolmens themselves are burial sites. Flat slab of rock put on their side then the underside is excavated and supported by stone columns to make a large chamber. Used in short bursts for a couple of thousand years, (thank you carbon dating) they allowed archeologists to understand some of the fundamentals of these early human societies.
While fascinating, the sites are small. We enjoyed the museum. It had just the right amount of information. Also, since we’re at the tail end of the season, the main site had parity between staff and visitors while the second site had more staff than visitors as we were the only visitors. Not sure how this can be financed through the sale of free tickets but I would like to know their secret.
The nearby 📍Antequera is a small town with an 11th century 📍Alcazaba on top of the small hill and a very large number of churches. We’re not quite at the archeological site ratio of more churches than people but they certainly gave it a go. Our theory is Antequera is where churches must go to retire. When the weather gets too cold for them in the north of Spain they pack their pews and head south to meet up with other churches.
I'm not a fan of visiting churches. To me, they all look the same. Castle and forts tend to vary more if for no other reason that they had to adapt to the geography and whims of their rulers at the time of construction. That made the choice of what to do while in town easy. Check-in to the hotel and head uphill to the 📍Alcazaba.
We tried really hard to visit that castle. We found the walls and proceeded walking around them to find the entrance. The first entrance we saw was closed, a group of workers were redoing the stairs. No signage was present to direct us to other entrances but, it being a walled emplacement, it did seem obvious. Why put signage to tell people: “follow the wall to the next entrance” after all? Obvious right?
On we went and followed the walls. Being on top of the hill we appreciated the views of the city and its surrounding countryside. But, after getting to the back of the structure things started to get sketchy. The paved road became gravel, the quantity of dog droppings kept increasing (clearly a popular spot to walk your dog if you’re averse to picking up after them).
At three quarters of the way around we’re starting to think there might not be another entrance. When we started walking through the minefield of empty beer bottles and cans we’re pretty sure this way is not going to pan out. When we got to the corrugated steel panel used as a make shift barrier from stepping off a ledge, at that point, we knew we would not be getting into the Alcazaba that way. We’re smart that way.
We made our way through the debris and turd field and went back to civilization. We decided to go and explore Antequera by foot. 20 minutes later we were done. Having what could be generously described as the penthouse suite of the hotel, we sat on our terrace overlooking the pool and the castle and relaxed our way to dinner at 📍Mesón Adarve.
Dinner turned out to be a class in our lack of Spanish culinary vocabulary. You see, we picked what is our kind of restaurant. Something small with just as small a menu. Ideally a menu that changes weekly, if not at least seasonally. A place that prefers local ingredients. Ideally a menu written on a blackboard. That’s all well and good but when we got to said restaurant with its seasonal menu written on a blackboard, it would have behoved us to make sure we can understand the menu. While Karine could generally tell which meat was on offer, how it was prepared was a mystery. Asking our waiter did not yield much better. He simply listed the vegetables, fishes and meats until we picked one of each and called it good enough. We had a good meal with plenty of potatoes; enjoyed every surprise dish, even the pork we weren’t sure was pork. We thoroughly enjoyed the adventure and went to bed. So… maybe my advice on making sure you can read the menu isn’t so good after all.
