For a second afternoon we enjoyed the rooftop swimming pool and the late Summer sunshine and later upon a recommendation dined at a traditional restaurant close by. The restaurant served hearty portions of tapas and inevitably we ordered far too much.
The following morning we packed and left early as our plan was to drive further into Spain and visit friends who live in the delightful town of Arcos de la Frontera, one of many Pueblos Blancos which are a feature of this part of Andalucia where whole towns and villages continue to be whitewashed in the old Moorish tradition and decorate the landscape as though freak snowfalls.
It took about an hour to reach Arcos, one of the most spectacularly located towns in Andalusia sitting on a massive rocky outcrop straddling a precipitous limestone cleft in the mountains. At first we used the motorway but later we reached the mountains and climbed continuously along a dramatic road that clung to the side of the mountains like velcro and zigzagged dramatically all of the way to our destination.
A lot of towns in this part of Spain have the suffix de la Frontera which is a legacy of Muslim Spain and the Reconquista of eight hundred years ago because these towns were on the border. Not a border in the sense of two countries but between two cultures, two religions, between the Muslims and the Christians, the last frontier separating the warring factions before the Moors were finally expelled for good in 1492.
Arcos is typical built high and narrow with watchtowers and sturdy walls and at the centre at the highest point a solid Christian castle. Back at ground level the Guadalete river flows around three sides, a natural moat cradling and protecting the town.
The Muslims had taken over most of the Iberian peninsula in the eighth century. They called their country al-Andalus. For much of the following five hundred years, until the thirteenth century, Christian forces from the north had pushed the Muslim forces south. By 1248, al-Andalus was reduced to the present-day province of Granada, and parts of the provinces of Jaén, Almería, Málaga and Cádiz, collectively known as the Emirate of Granada.
From the early thirteenth century and for the next two hundred years or so, what may best be described as an uneasy and often turbulent peace descended on the Emirate of Granada and the Christian territories to the north and east. It was a peace however, that was not always enjoyed by the towns that found themselves on the border between the Christian territory and the Emirate of Granada.
Those towns stood sentinel over a ‘no man’s land’, officially called ‘Terra Nullius’, unclaimed space between the territories occupied by the Christians and those occupied by the Muslims.
Terra Nullius had great military, political, economic, religious and cultural importance and the principle towns within Terra Nullius gained the suffix ‘de la Frontera’.
Our friends Barry and Maggie live in the heart of the old town in an elevated spot with grand sweeping views over the surrounding countryside, easy to see why these tall towns were important in an age of continuous suspicion, edginess and warfare.
The old town, it has to be said, was wonderful, as pristine white as any Greek island village and full of concentric roads that wound around like a buckled corkscrew as we climbed the steep slopes and stairs from top to bottom stopping frequently to catch our breath. Along the constricted lanes we had to watch for cars that seemed unlikely to negotiate the narrow corners but somehow managed to do it. Even a mini bus was rattling around the streets. The driver was surely a key-hole surgeon in his spare time. They must be good drivers in Arcos that’s for sure.
The old town is only quite small so even though we walked slowly it wasn’t long before we had seen everything there was too see so we called it time for a tapas lunch sitting at a table in the shadow of the cathedral. A favourite of our friends who guided us expertly through the menu. A place so traditional that the final bill was presented like this…
I wonder how they explain an accounting system like this to the tax office?
In the afternoon we enjoyed the sunshine on the terrace and the magnificent views on all sides of us but eventually it was time to go, we had a three hour car journey out of Spain and back to our apartment in Tavira.
It had been a good day in Arcos de la Frontera, I had enjoyed it. A real contrast to our two days in the cosmopolitan city of Cadiz. A piece of real Spain.
Have Bag, Will Travel 