“Don Quixote is the national glory of Spain. No one who does not know that has the right to call himself a Spaniard. There is a monument to him in Madrid…he was our first revolutionary.” – Gerald Brenan, ‘South from Granada’
After four days of travelling, eight-hundred kilometres driving and some serious sightseeing, today we were planning an altogether less demanding sort of experience with a leisurely full day in the provincial town of Almagro.
Breakfast at the Retiro del Maestre was simply wonderful and easily the best of the week, in fact, if we were compiling a list of the top five hotel breakfasts ever then this would certainly be in there. It was the usual thing in terms of content but it had clearly been lovingly prepared by the ladies of the house and the cook fussed around the breakfast room, making recommendations, making sure everyone was happy and brazenly fishing for compliments. And she deserved them all because this was truly an excellent breakfast.
Almagro is an old town that was once much more important than it is today, two hundred and fifty years ago it was for a short time the provincial capital of La Mancha (1750-61) but religious decline set in during the reign of Charles III and it fared badly and suffered damage in the Napoleonic and the Carlist wars.
Eventually it was eclipsed by its neighbours, Ciudad Real and Bolaños de Calatrava and it became the quiet town that it is today on, not being unkind, a secondary, less important, tourist trail.
Talking of trails, as we stepped out into the street we were now inevitably on the ‘Ruta de Don Quixote’, which is the golden thread that binds the Castilian tourist industry together in a ribbon of towns, castles and windmills stretching from Cuenca to Toledo.
Don Quixote is a novel written by the seventeenth century Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and is regarded as the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age.
It is the story of a man who believes that he is a knight, and recounts his adventures as he rights imaginary wrongs, mistakes peasants for princesses and famously “tilts at windmills,” mistakenly believing them to be evil giants.
As one of the earliest works of modern western literature, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. In 2002 a panel of one hundred leading world authors declared Don Quixote to be the best work of fiction ever written, ahead even of works by Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Cervantes has also been credited with shaping modern literary style, and Don Quixote has been acclaimed as “the first great novel of world literature”.
Since publication in 1605 it is reputed to be the most widely read and translated book on the planet after the Bible. I tried to read it once or twice but found it rather heavy going so gave up quite quickly but as we walked along I resolved to give it another go upon returning home.
The historical centre of Almagro is conveniently located inside a circle of modern roads so this morning we circumnavigated it all as we walked through surprisingly wide and airy streets with the ubiquitous boxy white houses with little balconies and ornamental black iron grills over the windows where much of the town has been redeveloped to accommodate modern living demands.
Along the route there were churches, a wide open park and a convent, now inevitably converted to a Parador hotel. We went inside to take a look but Parador room and menu prices are not really for us so we weren’t tempted to stay and instead made our way back to the Plaza Mayor.
Although it was midday it was quiet in the Plaza as we selected a table for a refreshment break and we watched restaurant owners preparing for what they hoped would be a lunch time rush and then we looked around some of the traditional local craft and souvenir shops and then the not so traditional Mercadona (Spanish Supermarket) for some essential alcohol supplies because our plan now was to return to the hotel and spend the afternoon relaxing in the sun on the roof terrace.
As the sun moved from east to west in the sky we let the afternoon slip away with a bottle of local wine, a game or two of cards and a couple of chapters of our books but after a while some cloud was beginning to gatecrash the party sky and gradually it turned from azure blue to milky white as the sun was completely blotted out.
The wine bottle was empty and this was our cue to leave the terrace and return to the town for the final piece of sightseeing.
This was the Corral de Comedias, which is a sixteenth century theatre, similar to those that Shakespeare would have been familiar with in Elizabethan England, built in what was the courtyard of an Inn and which today is the only fully preserved example of a theatre of this type in the World.
It is a working theatre still today and inside it is an immaculate example of a theatre of the golden age, built on three levels with galleries and private boxes running around all three sides of the still open courtyard. It was an unexpected little gem but it didn’t take long to walk around and listen to the audio commentary so after we had finished we stopped for a coffee and compiled a shopping list of souvenirs that we could confidently carry back in our hand luggage and agreed on some local pottery and some water colour postcards of the main sights of the town.
There was time for a few more early evening minutes on the terrace but the weather was continuing to deteriorate and worryingly the hotel staff were beginning to prepare for bad weather by collecting up the cushions and winding in the sun shades that were no longer needed and this disappointed us but to be fair, given the pessimistic forecast before we arrived in Spain, we had been lucky all week so far with the weather.
It had been a good day in Almagro and after dinner and before returning for the final time to the hotel we strolled one last time through the Plaza and had a final drink in a busy bar that was full of extended Spanish families all starting the weekend here in the square.
I enjoyed this read. You’re out visiting the less-touristy towns, which is wonderful. I also like how your itinerary is scheduled based on the level of alcohol remaining in the bottle 🙂
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I like the big cities but have a preference for staying in the smaller towns. They are more traditional and crucially cheaper!
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Please stop making me pine fo Spain! I can no longer drive in unfamiliar places due to an eye problem, so I can’t get there and your articles are leaving me frustrated!
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Please accept my apologies but I have a few more posts coming up. Which is your favourite region in Spain?
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It should voted “The Greatest Novel nobody has ever read”. I like you, have tried, but, like you, found it heavy going. I would vote for Moby Dick, but even then, there’s a lot of semi-scientific stuff to be missed out!
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Another great novel that sits in my bookcase unfinished is ‘War and Peace’.
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I love poking around less traditional places. Big cities, unless you visit the ‘old town,’ aren’t as interesting. Love this tour. Love your mention of the bottle being empty and time for a walk. 😀 😀
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Well, we had to go and get another one!
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Is that a full-sized statue of Quixote and Panza and is it located in Almagro? Like many statues (your Pizarro of a previous post for example) there are copies in many cities. Great photo regardless.
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Yes it is John, but it outside the Cervantes Museum in Alcala de Henares just west of Madrid.
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Where are the windmills?
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The town of Consuegra, about 60 miles south west of Madrid.
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It looks so clean!
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I am definitely with you Andrew on the small towns vs the large cities. I had no idea about Don Quixote being right up there with Bible sales. That certainly must be the answer to a trivia quiz somewhere.
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The small towns have real character Sue. We are off to Spain in a couple of weeks time and it is small towns for us again!
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Have a great trip!
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My wife parents had a great collection of Don Quixote statues. I think we inherited some. I brought the musical along with me on my present road trip around North America, so I will think of your wandering each time I listen to it. –Curt
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That Don Quixote certainly gets around Curt!
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I love Don Quixote and had so much fun searching for him in many towns in Spain 🙂
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He is quite easy to find, especially in the south. Thanks for dropping by!
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One of those books you feel you ought to have read. ‘Fraid I haven’t, but I’m happy to follow you around his haunts. 🙂
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I don’t think I will ever complete it Jo. I find it good in parts, but a lot of boring narrative. I am a Philistine!
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Say hi to another! 🙂
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You surprised me by writing that Don Quixote is the most read and translated book after the Bible. I would never have thought! I need to give it a try!
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Good Luck – it is hard work.
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Looks like the sort of town I would love. Beautiful statues of Don Quixote, too! I struggled to get through the book, too, but it’s been quite awhile. I found that listening to it in audio while driving wasn’t too bad.
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Now, that’s an idea – thanks Gunta!
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I didn’t get on with Don Quixote either. Our loss, no doubt …
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We should really try again.
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Maybe … so much to read, so little time ….
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I’ve never got him myself
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