Monday Morning Feeling?
It’s Monday, and the great thing about our life in Spain is that we no longer have ‘that Monday feeling’. This week has started off on a very positive note.
As you will know from previous posts, we have found ourselves in something of a debacle, caught in the midst of a disagreement between our architects and our builders. As a result, we had to start involving lawyers which is always something of a last resort. We realised that we were getting nowhere, hurling letters back and forth, so decided to liaise with the builders direct and ask them to come and discuss a solution that suits both parties.
We held that meeting this morning and we now hope that we can reach an agreement whereby we resolve the final outstanding building issues and we get the house we love and the builders go away feeling proud of their work. It’s not an easy task sitting down and trying to reach a resolution in a language that is not your mother tongue. Mind you, sometimes that can actually help as it is much easier to stop the conversation if it is going in unwanted directions and you just need to press the message home. We feel a small sense of achievement and look forward to moving on. It just goes to show that, in so many unnecessarily complicated situations, sitting down and chatting through the main issues is often the best way forward.
As soon as the builders left, we had a phone call from our local mayor, Marco. We have been trying to get an appointment to see Marco for some time to discuss one or two exciting ideas. Our appointment has now been arranged, so another small step towards our bedding in and making plans for the future.
We have been fortunate so far this month as we have had some lovely weather. Alfie’s needs have also dictated that we get out and about at least once a day, and this has helped us immeasurably as we have faced our little life hiccups head on. As a result of these excursions, we have managed to uncover yet more of this area’s glorious secrets.
Yesterday, we took a hike up to the Atalaya Torre de la Porqueriza, on the road to our neighbouring village of Tózar. This tower is one of 5 built in the middle of the 14th Century by the Moors to defend the Castillo de Moclín from the Christian armies who had their sights set on Granada from their base in Alcalá la Real. When you drive around this area, you can appreciate the strategic importance of the broad valley running from Alcalá, through the gorge below Moclín and onto the Vega of Granada - the huge plain that surrounds Granada city and the Alhambra Palace. These watchtowers sit on impossibly sheer and craggy outcrops circling the mountain on which sits Moclín castle. It is easy to see why the castle was considered impregnable when it was built back in the 13th Century. These bold punctuation marks in the landscape look rather like pawns on a chessboard of olive trees guarding the Queen sitting on her throne.
The walks up to these towers is not necessarily straightforward. A week or so ago, we tackled the walk to the neighbouring Torre de la Solana, and stumbled upon the route more by chance than good planning. We had originally gone to look at the neolithic cave below the Torre de la Solana, but had to admit defeat when we couldn’t hoist Alfie up the cliff face to access the cave. By way of compensation, we skirted the outcrop and found our way up to the tower where we met a team of chaps from the Junta de Andalucia. They pointed out the area where horses were corralled beside the tower and showed us the best way to scramble up to the tower itself. The view from up here is stunning, and far more dramatic looking down on the surrounding landscape from such an exposed and dramatic location. It was from this vantage point that we saw the route through the olive groves up to the Torre de la Porqueriza, and from a distance it looked a lot easier than it actually was. What we thought was a good farm track up the side if the hill turned out to be a scrappy dirt pathway that has been churned by mountain bikers, and that was rather steeper than we had first thought. On the positive side, Alfie is great for our fitness and if he can skip his way up these paths without fear then so can we!
The location of the Torre de la Porqueriza is no less stunning than its near neighbour, and after picking our way up through the olive trees, across beautiful meadowy terraces and up over the rocks we arrived at the tower. From a distance, this stone-built lookout appears extremely precarious, as the base has been ravaged by either time or more sinister events from early last century. The tower seems to be on the verge of toppling into the landscape below, but on closer inspection it does seem rather more robust. There is a strange marriage of the old and the more recent on this crag, as at the foot of the tower there sits a collection of Civil War gun emplacements, constructed out of the same stone as the tower itself. Two defensive constructions side by side but with 600 years of time and history between them. Again, the drama of this location is impossible to appreciate until you stand next to the tower and look over the precipitous drop below; it is giddyingly high.
There is something truly magical, mysterious, eery and majestic about these places. The breathtaking views are beyond description, and there is a silence broken only by the sound of birds or the whisper of a high breeze. The valleys below hold delicate veils of mist or woodsmoke. There can be no denying that these places have seen history at its bloodiest. The 700 years since these towers were built are insignificant when you consider that, thousands of years before the Moors and the Christians fought over these lands, there were people living in the many caves punched into these strategic land formations. The huge grey rocks that have been shaken from loftier heights by earthquakes or erosion over time seem to all tell their own stories, and there is something strangely surreal about seeing birds flit over this prehistoric place. Modern farm machinery shaking olives from trees far below us seems at odds with a landscape that was created and moulded so long ago that we can barely comprehend.
As the past 700 years of history seem but a scratch on the surface, our own explorations have only uncovered a fraction of what more this area has to offer. We have found further neolithic caves in the woods surrounding the castle, and have many more to uncover, We have only visited 2 of the 5 towers in the area, so will tick off the rest. Last week, we took a drive to Almedinilla, some 40 minutes’ drive away where there are the most beautifully preserved remains of a very important Roman Villa. The exquisitely delicate mosaic floors and painted walls bear little hint that 1300 years have passed since Romans lolled around in the Triclinium, wandered around the atrium or gossiped in their private salons.
Never before have Andrew and I been so engaged by history, but when you consider that we live in the middle of such an historically rich place, surrounded by daily reminders that we are mere specks in the vast, unfathomable scheme of things, we have no option but to embrace it in all its exciting and vivid reality.
It is no small wonder, therefore, that we no longer have that Monday morning feeling. The early clouds have lifted, the sun is shining and the air has a wintery freshness. We’ll be off out again after lunch, with Alfie, looking for new and exciting places waiting to give up a few secrets.
