Andalucia Day 7 Alatoz to Alcaraz via olives to Baeza

The air in Alatoz first thing in the morning is crisp and enticing and we drive along the high plain towards Albacete with the mist rolling up towards us in a kaleidoscope of colours and a faint rainbow.

Mid-morning we stop in Alcaraz, the first village after Albacete in Castilla-La Mancha heading towards Baeza. With just 1417 inhabitants Alcaraz is perched on a hilltop surrounded by red-rocked land punctuated by trees and cultivated land. The view would be worth the stop but Alcaraz also has the ruins of a castle but especially a splendid Renaissance square in light reddish brown stone.

The church belltower and the tower right next to it echo the old men in conversation in the square below. The villages is full of splendid details in stone and wood.

After a picnic lunch of spit-roast chicken and figs from the market, listening to the breeze and the  silence and also fighting off some overly persistent wasps, we go for coffee to El Casino bar in Plaza Mayor, up the steps to a patio and then a large room with big tables and lots of space, back in time, waiting for the old men below to come up and play cards, a wall full of windows to spy on the details of the stonework in the square below.

Our journey continues through kilometres and kilometres and kilometres of olive trees. Olive trees stretching across the plains, up the sides of the mountains and back down below, as far as the eye can see. We drive for about 70 kilometres surrounded by olive trees. Never could I have imagined such enormous areas of fields of olive trees.

When we arrive at the Airbnb apartment in Baeza, our host, who works in the olive oil sector tells us that half of the entire Spanish production of olive oil takes place in the area. Just Andalusia produces about 900 thousand tons of olive oil per year compared to less than 400 thousand tons in the whole of Italy. A large amount of Spanish olive oil is sold to Italy to be mixed with other European oils and then sold on.

Later we walk around Baeza, a Renaissance town which, together with nearby Úbeda, is a UNESCO world heritage site. The streets of the historical centre are deserted and silent, the warm slightly darkened stone reflecting the warmth of the day into the evening.

What few tourists there were have disappeared. Slowly, we wander the streets, back in time again.

Kilometres by car : 270

Kilometres on foot 8