Cuevas del Almanzora

It occurred to me that since I started the blog, I haven’t mentioned our nearest town; it is a nice town too.  The name means Caves and the minute you arrive you don’t really have to ask why.  There are many cave houses here – both deserted now and converted from caves which were excavated thousands of years ago.  The modern ones can be quite grand as they build a normal house on the front and then use the caves as bedrooms as they remain the same temperature all year round – cool in summer and warm in winter.

Cuevas Town Hall

Cuevas has a population of around 12000 people, 99 per cent Spanish – yikes!  Luckily I have continued to drag myself to Spanish lessons pretty much every week for the last two years.  My Spanish is still rubbish but I can make myself understood (understanding Cuevans is a different matter though – I guess it is like someone from Madrid trying to understand someone from deepest Devon).  Anyhow, I digress.  We have a castle, which has a very nice little art gallery (we even have a Picasso exhibited there), a Dam (constructed for the 2005 Mediterranean Games for the rowing events), a motocross arena which happens in August until 3 in the morning, a pub which looks like it could be in Dublin, but is completely Spanish owned and run – they serve draft Guinness – we love it.

Check out this fantastic over the top Cuevas video made by the Andalucia tourist people  

There are little pizzerias, one really good restaurant although I prefer to go in winter as it is indoors, a pretty square with fountains and a children’s playground and a really pleasant bar called El Recreo, where you can sit and have a drink and watch your children playing.  We have markets up at the castle on Tuesdays and Thursdays that sell fantastic fruit and vegetables and then all the usual stuff that markets sell (i.e. mostly ‘toot’ but I have bought a linen dress there for a fiver before now!).  Also up at the castle are a few little cafe/bars; one of which, bar Canada,  is just fantastic for ribs, chorizo, pinchos (little kebabs) done on an old fashioned wood burning grill – order chips and salad to go with it and you have a really gorgeous supper.  Do not drink the red wine though – I believe it comes from the local garage and is completely undrinkable, so stick to beer or G&T’s.  I have never risked the white wine – in fact I don’t think they have it.

We have one or two really good shops – my favourite is the nice lady shop as we call it as I can never remember the actual name but it is full of nice ladies ready to help you! And we have a couple of great clothes shops, supermarkets, and about 14 banks.

The best time to see Cuevas is during the early evening when all the families are out for a stroll and a drink with all the kids in tow – it is the same all over Spain and just something we in the UK don’t really do (because of the climate) but something which is very pleasurable here.