Alcala la Real

 We visited Madinat  al Zehra a fortified city palace built in the tenth century and had a the ruins available to visit.they had a good movie which showed recreations of the palace which helped. The olive tree has been dated to the 13 century.

On the drive we got caught behind a long load which finally pulled over.

We then moved to a small town called Alcala la Real which has a big castle which we walked up to and explored. They showed a movie in the old church on a screen the size of the front wall. 

AFter a couple of hours there and a visit to the local museum it was lunch time, p having a platter of four types of sausage and I had local cheese, tomatoes, local olive oil and bread. We followed up with Contesse and carrot cake. The Contesse was like an NZ vienetta. 

Wine cellar

some of Spain's millions of olive trees

they pulled up the floor of the church and it was all graves

nuaghty contess cake ( like a vianetta) and carrot cake 

 We are now in Granada after passing through more olives, Jaen  province grows 70% of Spain’s olives and Spain grows more olives than anywhere in the world, they export to Italy who rebottle it .

Beautiful country side in the Sierras where they ski and tramp, big rocky outcrops and valleys. The snow behind Granada never melts so it must be pretty high up.