With apologies to Mr John Coltrane but it does rather describe a day of unexpected travel from Toledo to Manzanares – my next parador again on their excellent 3 nights for 2 deal. Swim, breakfast, checkout – trunks (swimming, this is not the grand tour) on the rear window shelf to dry – I set off planning a detour or two so as to admire some new countryside and visit a couple of former locations. I find out how to teach the Citroen’s Satnav that I prefer N and side roads to motorways and set off for Tembleque which I must have read about somewhere. This is a one horse town – well the Don is Quixote – which claims to be the exact geographical centre of the Iberian peninsula. It’s certainly in the middle of nowhere. But when I get there I get another self-catering anxiety as it’s market day. I do buy some juicy nectarines and big red plums later consumed with delight. Tembleque has an amazing Plaza Mayor for a town of 2500 people.
It also has an octagonal library – complete with youngster on the net – and a little way away a famous 18th century casa de postas which from its original use as a place for message carriers to stay has been a barracks, a hostel and is noted as a building of interest. But as you can see it’s all a facade.
Made me think again about spending money restoring old things, funding prestigious projects that no one really needs and using scarce resources on real need and halting the slide into poverty of so many. It’s a hard one as heritage is important. How come Spain already has a brilliant high speed train network AVE that connects all the major cities at more than 300 Kph? Crossrail, HS2 really? Are the amazing infrastructure projects what took Spain into the dodgy PIGS group a few years back?
I had a long chat with a guy in the tourist office in Tembleque with a few Brexit references which prompted the above. I guess there are fat cats in Spain too. In fact we know they do as even the royal family is embroiled in tax evasion scandals. However this grand palace built by a rich merchant in the has failed to attract money – laundered or otherwise – to restore it to it’s 1753 splendour. The money for its construction was made in the Americas, something a lots of Spaniards did at this time.
The office was in a small museum of rural life which was fun to see and he also handed me proudly a map of the Ruta de Don Quixote in which Tembleque features as did my next port of call Consuegra. This is the best preserved set of old style windmills that strut across the hillside either side of the castle, The poor Don would think he was completely outnumbered up here. Dee and I came here a few years ago at the end of December after spending Christmas with her sister at their apartment in Murcia. The sky was clear and blue but a bit cooler than today’s 38 degrees C.
It’s enough to make a nag like Dulcinea sweat going up all those hills and forgetting that you can drive to the top! Since we were there one of the mills has been restored to function on a few days a week actually grinding grains to make flour – but not today. We had visited here from the parador at Almagro a bit to the south so I thought a nostalgic trip there was in order.
We had seen its galleried plaza mayor with Christmas lights and a tree. It brought back very happy memories but the square where we had lunched and shopped was exhibiting end of seasonitis today – it was midweek and school’s just gone back. In one restaurant the chef had presented us with a book about the aubergine (eggplant, berenjena) for which the town is famous.
So I had to have one for lunch. It was delicious and Almagro remains an attractive town and I couldn’t help thinking that Dee should have been with me as I passed this bar.
The Almagro parador does have a pool but this trip is about new discoveries so it’s on to Manzanares. Driving on country roads I was struck by the vastness of the country and especially the plains of Castilla La Mancha.
Also to note as I travelled was that while they may not have cash for old landmarks, they certainly do for new olive groves, vineyards and orchards. Like the ones below these have obviously been planted in the last couple of years in the expectation of better prices from the big market of the UK when higher tariffs will apply post-Brexit. There may be other reasons but planting a thousand peach trees, vines or olives doesn’t come cheap and the evidence of investment is everywhere. Just maybe Spain is recovering a bit quicker than many thought, Time will tell.
After spending an excellent Christmas with Dee’s sister and brother in law in Sucina down the coast in the province of Murcia with Christmas lunch in Santiago de la Ribera and a Boxing Day excursion to Cabo Palos and Cartagena, we set off for Valencia for the week until the New Year. Given last year’s experience in Cadiz we left the car back at the airport and took their shuttle bus to the excellent boutique hotel Hospes Palau de Mar which is in two converted merchant buildings not far from the old city and the Turia Gardens, the 9 km super-park that semicircles Valencia in the former bed of the diverted river Turia.
We were too early to check in so left our luggage and set off for a Sunday flea market held behind the Mestalla – Valencia Football Club’s stadium where we went to see a match back in 2006. Sadly by the time we made it, the majority of stalls had packed up and gone. So it was time to find somewhere for lunch and console ourselves that if we had found anything interesting it would have probably been difficult to get it back home. After going back to the hotel and establishing ourselves in our room we walked off to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento where an ice rink was installed and fun was being had by all amid bright white light decorations on all the buildings around it. We found a lovely little family bar Jamon del Medio just along from the hotel so we dined there and only had a short stagger back to the hotel.
The wide sandy beach is fringed by a promenade with at least a hundred restaurants all promising the authentic Valencian paella – well this is the home of the dish after all.The surrounding area also has some interesting old buildings including beautiful wrought iron warehouses and the old Custom House with its tall clock tower. There are also lots of signs of the Americas Cup which was based here in 2010 and of the Grand Prix de Europa which was held here from 2018-2012. It was a bit early for paella so after a coffee we jumped back on the tour bus and headed back into the old town. 
There’s lots to explore here to with the modernist North Station and the Central Market with lots of local iconography and products. We were going to go to the Fine Arts Museum but of course it was closed on a Monday so plan B was back to the hotel to chill and read before a further evening explore of the centre. It took us to what was to be a breakfast gem for the next three days – the Café Agricultura which is part of the HQ building of the Royal Valencia Society for Agriculture and Sport. We entered a nice-looking cafeteria for an aperitif and idly picked up the menu which did a simple breakfast which was great value. Only when we ventured to the loo did we notice that the cafeteria led to a massive entrance hall with a monumental staircase and apparently, lots of meeting rooms and full scale dining areas. They also run the young farmers’ clubs and bridge and chess clubs along with influencing agricultural policy in the region.
That evening we heard a great commotion outside the bar near the hotel we were in and went outside to find the streets filled with hundreds of people in fancy dress running along. We went with them following the sound of some insistent drums to the Plaza de la Reina where we discovered this was the finish of an annual charity 5km run that’s held on30 December every year. The San Silvestre run has been going since 1983 and attracted an estimated 15000 to 18000 runners of all ages. As with so many events like this there are some serious runners but many are in fancy dress and there to end the year with a bit of fun.
Dee was very taken by this early fifteenth century Virgin by the Valencian artist Peris Sarria. There were also lots of sculptures, including this flamenco dancer, by Mariano Benlliure the brother of Jose who’s house we seen earlier. Their father and another brother were also painters so there was quite a dynasty of artistic Benlliures about which we had previously known nothing at all. Cultured out, we had a coffee at the museum and a stroll back to the Plaza de la Reina for another light lunch as we had booked the special New Year dinner at the hotel. This proved a riotous affair with silly hats, whistles and streamers and much jollity among the staff as well – many of them were international catering students drafted in for a big party by the hotel. It was a fine way to see in the new year.
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