Medieval Battle front: Andalucia's White Hill Towns

Leaving the olive plantation outside of Sevilla, we headed south to visit the white hill towns of Andalucia. As we drove through sparcely inhabited areas of the countryside, two of the most common sites were olive trees as far as the eye could see and small hilltop castles. For people who live in Europe, castles aren't too big of a deal, but as we saw fortress after fortress, it was exciting to go back in time and imagine what this place was like in the times these castles were built. Southern Spain was the center of multi-century long battles between Christian and Moorish rulers between 700A.D and 1492, when the last muslim Moorish sultans were driven out of Spain. Adding to this ancient battlefield aura was the rugged, rocky, arid landscape which is very different from our green trees and vistas back at home.

Finally we arrived at our first white hill town, Arcos de la Frontera. Here Chad encountered his first of several major driving challenges in Spain. The old town of Arcos was set atop a hill, all the way up to the very edge of a large cliff:

Chad parked down at the bottom of the hill at the first parking lot he could find, and we all hiked up the hill to find a hotel on foot, because we had no idea how to get up the hill through the maze of medieval streets. We found a neat old bed and breakfast inn hugging the edge of the cliff in the old town. You felt like you could see the ocean 50-100 miles away from our windows and from our rooftop patio.

The bad news for Chad started when the hotel manager said it would be best and safest if we brought the car up the hill and parked it in a small lot near the hotel. To understand this challenge, picture the typical Volkswagon Passat we were driving. Then look at the picture below of one of the roads Chad had to drive through to get to the parking lot.

Tom told Chad he was going to go take a nap and that he didn't want any part of that fun (in reality he didn't want to watch as the rental car was scraped and scratched on the way up!). Other cars were somehow making it through, so it had to be possible, right? We also saw, however, the eerie battle scars and evidence in the form of dents and large scrapes even on many of the locals cars. An interesting aside was that making turns on narrow streets in this town was such an issue, that back in the 1700's locals used some of the ancient roman stone columns at a nearby ruins as "bumpers" on the corners or their buildings so that horse drawn carts and later cars wouldn't take out the corner of their building. The heavilly used and worn Roman stone columns were still there as Chad and Kari walked down the hill to get the car.

In the end there was no rental car damage (the margin of error was inches, however), and we had a good time in Arcos. It was a relaxing evening after the stress of getting the car up to the parking lot. We sat on the rooftop, cliffside terrace talking, eating local cheese with fresh bread, drinking regional wine and enjoying the sunset. The day closed magically atop our cliffside perch with a sky full thousands of stars and hundreds of blinking lights on the horizon. We weren't sure what they were until the next day's drive when we saw many windmills in the hills (but no Don Quixote).

Our adventure continued the next day as we took to the road again. We drove into the mountains through the Grazalema Natural Park to visit more white hill towns. Our progress was impeded briefly by a goat road crossing.

Untitled from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

There was a great lookout along the way.

Then we ate a pizza lunch (Pizza is really good in Spain) at a restaurant with a great view in the town of Grazalema.

As we drove toward Ronda, our next white hill town stop, we saw lots of curious trees along the way with big chunks of bark stripped off. We pulled off the road to inspect the trees, which turned out to be cork trees.

Right before we arrived in Ronda, we found a dream piece of real estate:

Stay tuned for more on Ronda, Kari's special birthday, the crazy cat, prehistoric cave drawings, and more in the next post.