Planned Spontaneity

One clear cultural difference between the Spanish and English approach to holidays and life in general is forward planning. While the English prefer to organise things in advance the Spanish approach is rather more to leave things until nearer the time. Our trips to South America have been booked months in advance but with the road trip south this week we took a rather more Spanish approach such that on the morning before we left we had not decided where to go or how long for. At that point the English approach took over and a few hours later we had an itinerary (see map at foot of this post), tickets to visit the Alhambra the next day, four hotels booked, driving times and distances printed out for each section and plans of all the cities we would be visiting.

We headed south through Alicante province and Murcia to Andalucía, calling in to Guadix to see the remarkable cave houses where we had a bite to eat in a local bar and some coffee that was strong enough to keep the tiredest driver awake for days. Then on to Granada where we managed to go wrong only once while trying to find the hotel, finding ourselves in the maze of tiny streets that made us glad we were driving the mini.  The itinerary has been compiled using the Rough Guide to Spain as a source on the best places to see in the main town and another book, Back Roads of Spain, which has some excellent driving routes on minor roads.

Day two was a leisurely drive across endless fields of olive trees with the snow covered Sierra Nevada mountains in the background to Cordoba and on the third day we passed through yet more olive groves towards the Baeza and Ubeda making it possible to believe the fact that this area produces 15% of the world's olive oil output. From a driving perspective the fourth day was the highlight with some beautiful scenery in northern Andalucia before we descended through the gorge into Castilla La Mancha where a new motorway is being built incorporating some truly monumental pieces of infrastructure.  Huge columns carry the road straight down the gorge instead of winding around it like the current main road. 

The best scenery of all though came after we left the windmills of Consuegra, rising up from the wheatfields and into the mountains where the road leaves Toledo province and enters Ciudad Real.  As you pass the Ciudad Real sign the already narrow road, narrows further, the surface becomes rough and the white lines disappear.  All of a sudden it was like being on a national park road and a pair of deer ran across the road just a few feet in front of the car as we rounded a bend.  They were too quick for the camera so we had to settle for a picture of the view over the wetlands of the Tablas de Daimiel.

When we left Almagro on the fifth morning of the road trip we were about five hours drive from home and we set off for the motorway that would take us back across the country to Valencia.  By the time we reached home we had covered 1550 kms - nearly 1000 miles - in five days, but the driving has been a pleasure. 

Apart from the countryside which is impressive even from the motorway there were views of the new high speed rail line which links Madrid and Valencia and the dam and reservoir on the river Jucar as we crossed back into home territory.  We paused a few times to break the journey, dropping into one of our favourite Valencian wineries, stretching our legs in the town of Requena and eating breakfast and lunch.  Whereas stopping in UK service stations would mean consuming a cornish pasty or an expensive low quality all-day breakfast, here there are proper restaurants on the road with freshly cooked main dishes, salads and tapas at reasonable prices.  We sipped our breakfast coffee while our fellow travellers tucked into their red wine at 930am - another sight one doesn't usually see at Watford Gap!

Map of our itinerary: