We thought we would make the most of the facilities before our planned night in a basic caravan park. So, we recharged everything, showered and used the free Wi-Fi as much as possible!! We then prepped the van, emptied the toilet and the grey water and were ready to hit the road!
The first stop was the Ubeda launderette in Calle Don Bosco. It ticked the box for easy access but not for easy parking. I hopped out of the van to get the washing going while Dave went further afield to try to park. Luckily, he found a space only a few minutes walk away and we met back at a café just by the launderette which served chocolate con churros.
We were fairly far from the historic Centre so decided to transfer to the Ubeda caravan parking facility which was very spacious and well located. It was directly opposite a massive training centre for Guardia Civil, so we made sure not to misbehave!!
The whole of the Ubeda historic centre has been listed as a World Heritage Site, along with Baeza, due to the ‘renaissance monumental ensemble’. We headed for the historic part and there were stunning views everywhere you turned. First we saw the Casa de las Torres – an urban tower palace which is now The School of Arts and Crafts. We were able to see some artworks on display inside the building. This building featured prominently in a novel by a famous writer from Ubeda, Antonio Muñoz Molina, whose novel The polish horseman won him two prestigious literary prizes in the 1990s.
We walked past the Sacred Chapel of El Salvador, where the priests were just leaving morning mass and then on into a spectacular area of renaissance architecture with the Palace of Vázquez de Molina and the Iglesia de Santa María de los Reales Alcazares. We then followed signs to another square called Plaza 1 de mayo, where we stopped for a drink in the shade. This square was notable as it used to be the market square, was then the bullring and then was the site of burnings during the Inquisition which the local bigwigs used to watch from a balustraded balcony in the old town hall in the corner of the square. Pretty gruesome! Nowadays, it’s an altogether more beautiful proposition! One of the buildings on the corner is a secondary school and as we sat having a drink, all the students spilled out at the end of their school week. It was nice to witness a bit of the normal day-to-day life of the town.
We then headed to the Mirador de San Lorenzo viewing point where there were more great views across olive groves. There are apparently 66 million olive trees recorded in Jaén province, although many people think it is more! You could see the distant view of the mountains which had also inspired Antonio Muñoz Molina and were referenced in his works.
Unfortunately, quite a few of the main attractions were shut due to the siesta hours so we decided to head on to Baeza rather than wait around for several hours in the hot sun. We got to the Baeza caravan park and there were many other people there. It was very accessible and about a 14 minute walk from the old town.
We then visited two beautiful squares, both with interesting fountains and strolled past the famous 15th century renaissance style Palacio Jabalquinto. This building now houses one of the campuses for the International university of Andalucia. Antonio Machado was a professor here and part of the university carries his name.
We stopped in the Plaza de La Constitución for a drink. It was a shame because they were making improvements to the enormous square and there were screens all around the square obscuring the view. We researched a few restaurants but were not having much luck in finding anywhere that we liked the look of. On the way back up the hill, we saw some tourists taking a cheesy photo next to a statue of Antonio Machado on a bench and I decided I would like one too! 😃 It’s a rather nice natural statue, although I was a bit disappointed that he was ignoring me. 😃
We’d almost given up on finding a restaurant and then saw one very near to our caravan park which was totally empty but looked nice, so we asked them what time it started to get busy. To our surprise, they said we really would need to book and that it started to fill up from about 9 pm. So, we booked for 9.15 , went back to the caravan park for a while and then came back to the restaurant. We could not believe how busy it was. It was absolutely buzzing with large tables of Spanish families and children playing in the nearby streets. The speciality of the restaurant was tiny snails and most of the tables were eating these. We hadn’t realised this at first so did not choose them and I probably would not have done anyway, but Dave probably would!
Anyway, it turned out to be probably the most authentic Spanish eating experience of our trip! Loads of noise, not a word of English could be heard and really nice Spanish specialities. It was called Restaurante Navarrete and we ate really delicious, Crujiente de berenjenas con miel de caña, (aubergines in batter with honey) and Solomillo con Pedro Jiménez(steak cooked in sweet sherry) We left at just before 11 and the place was still buzzing. We were grateful that the walk back to the van was short and only slightly uphill.
