Mark at El Gordo, enjoying some of the best and cheapest tapas we’ve had
Almagro was a short stop some 95 miles south of Toledo. There was no real reason to go there; it’s the home of the oldest theater in Spain and the conquistador Deigo de Almagro, credited as the European discoverer of Chile, hailed from here but neither of those are really that interesting. In truth we came here for two days just to get off the tourist trail and see a little of rural and small-town La Mancha.
The streets of Almagro had a surprising Mexican feel to them
Very low key, just a chance to chill out a bit before heading to the big three cities south of here, Córdoba, Seville, and Granada.
Almagro’s Plaza Mayor, the central square, surrounded by faded green windows and beautiful tiled roofs. And like just about anywhere in the world, if you have a reasonably flat area you’ll see kids kicking a soccer ball.
Does this look off the beaten track? One afternoon I went for a long walk out the Don Quixote Route and came on this view.
I noticed in Toledo that, in this region at least, the Spanish paint their highway overpasses bright colors. This, too, was on the Don Quixote Route, crossing a highway with big views of olive orchards.
And finally, the walk took me along lots of late-season vineyards. Most had been picked clean but this one had grapes still on. I’ll admit I pilfered a few and they were the sweetest grapes I’ve ever had, perfect, I presume, for dessert wines.