Day 18. Tuesday 25 March.

Last day in Jaen, and we did go back to Ubeda, the Renaissance city & purportedly the oldest city in Western Europe, with map and guide in hand this time. The first challenge (excluding negotiating the narrow streets to drive out) was finding parking when we arrived. We lucked in, the last spot, and were then able to applaud, along with her crew and a few others, a lady who managed to squeeze her car into a very tight spot opposite us.

We opted to select the Ruta de las Tres Culturas tour (there were five suggestions), of 13 sites, but that also gave us a good overall view, as we passed many others not on this list. We took a minimalist approach, using the guide and the excellent multilingual signage.

The one exception was joining a tour, only offered in Spanish, of the Synagogia del Agua. We were handed a book in English, so we’re able to appreciate the tour, the simplicity of design & decoration, notwithstanding we had no idea what was being said! Interesting to see Christian symbols, including the crucifixion.

A lot of this site is underground: T enquired about this and was told that this was because the Jews were obliged to build their edifices to be lower that the Muslim or Christian ones. No comment required.

We are now at the stage of having exhausted our ability to take hugely different photos! Ubeda is a beautiful & fascinating city that blends the stories of 3 big religious/cultural groups.

The afternoon sky looked ominous, but we were blessed and returned to Jaen high & dry, if a bit route-befuddled (so many roundabouts and the car GPS insists on us walking part of the way!)

Then there was a short walk to a recently discovered tourist information office where we picked up some stuff on Cordoba. And T asked again about the ritual happening each day at the church Sanctuario Camarin de Jesus. We were told that at this pre-Easter time, visiting & venerating the statue of Jesus is a routine thing (we’ve seen all ages & lined up in hundreds) & we were asked if this happened in Australia. No.

We’re now booked up a bit ahead: Zamoranos (accessible to Cordoba), Gaudix (cave house) and a bit later, Granada to do the Alhambra. There is a bit of a gap before the last two, but there is no particular pressure, so maybe T can relax!

Dinner. We had rather a big lunch in Ubeda – paella and chicken noodle soup (which had boiled egg and, we assume, chicken meat in it), both dishes shared, so dinner is home-made simple tapas (aka leftovers).