Down to Andalucia

We grabbed a quick breakfast across the road from the hotel, then retrieved the car and set off to find the modernistic science park we failed to reach yesterday. After a false start, caused by programming the wrong science museum into TomTom, we found it, and were bowled over by the amazing buildings. A couple of photos give a flavour.

With a long drive ahead, we decided not to linger, getting a good idea of the scope of the place from the road, but also realizing it would take an entire day to explore properly. So TomTom was instructed to take us to our next parador, in Ubeda, in Andalucia.

There was quite a bit of traffic on the motorway getting out of Valencia, but eventually we turned off onto a normal highway. We had thought of pausing for lunch at Albacete, however, a bit of research revealed that it has very little to offer the discerning visitor, being both modern and industrialized. So we decided to press on to Ubeda and hold out for a tapas lunch at a about 2 o’clock or so - a reasonable hour in Spain.

As we moved into Andalucia, we were amazed by mile after mile of olive plantations. Research online revealed that Spain produces half the olive oil of the entire European Union, twice as much as Greece and three times as much as Italy. After today’s drive, we can believe it.

Ubeda, renowned for its renaissance architecture, is a town of extremely narrow streets, which were tricky to navigate, and gave the GPS quite a bit of trouble. However, eventually we found the parador, a 14th century mansion, in a car-free square, and managed to park just behind it.

Then we headed for a tapas bar we had identified in the guide book, only to find it closed for holidays, but there was another close by, which proved to be just fine. After that we checked in, once again being given an excellent room, pausing to admire the central patio/lounge.

In the same square there is a handsome church, which we explored, before wandering around the town, enjoying views of the surrounding countryside - plenty of olives and snow  on the mountains, which made for a chilly wind.

 

We were able to wander through the impressive Town Hall building: not a bad place to work! And we enjoyed other interesting corners.

The highlight, however, was a 13th century synagogue, discovered, excavated and restored only a dozen or so years ago. A local developer had demolished three old cottages with a view to putting up an apartment block and underground car park. Then he started to find interesting remains. To his eternal credit, instead of pressing on and dumping the relics, he had the whole thing excavated. It is a fascinating find. Features include the women’s gallery, a bodega with giant storage vessels, seven wells, two still with water, and a miqve ritual bath.