Bedrock

Today (Thursday) is the Huescar market. I initially discounted this one as being small. Wrong, it’s MASSIVE taking over much of the town – WELL worth a visit. Parking of course as with any market was fun but Maureen and I parked on the outskirts of Huescar and walked in – really the town for the most part has only the most gentle hills (unlike Baza which is like an obstacle course at times) and so parking just about anywhere will do.

Here’s one for you – a popular snack here is what looks like fried batter. They fill up a syringe maybe 20mm dia and star-shaped) with what looks like batter – and inject it into a pot of boiling oil… swirling it around as they go. It’s in there for minutes at most then taken out, cut up into strips and sold. We tried a tiny amount and it was fine – but what most of the locals do is take it into the nearest cafe, shower it in sugar, order hot chocolate and dip the stuff in the chocolate… Amazingly most of them are thin -  but then, they all SMOKE LIKE CRAZY – indoors and outdoors. There’s a message in this somewhere.

For most of the morning, the temperatures were in the middle 20s, it’s now perhaps 32 degrees at lunchtime, Maureen has bought herself  some fried chicken at the market and I’ve been experimenting with chicken slices and tuna for lunch! As soon as I’m done here with blogs and emails we’re off to the pool to cool off.

Tomorrow the Scargills are going to take a chance and take the drive down to Aquilas – that’s not taking a chance on the weather of course, it IS going to be hot and sunny, but we’ve never been to Aquilas before and know nothing about it – but a trip around the place on Google Earth suggests it has much to offer. It’s about an hour and a half, maybe more from here, not as the crow flies but as the windy Spanish back-roads take you. I’m quite looking forward to a little time up to my neck in saltwater. More on that later.