LORCA AND MOVING NORTH

Hola,

We took a local bus ride to the rather refined town of Lorca. We have seen very little poverty on our travels through southern Spain which is surprising given the dire economic situation being reported. Our guidebook, albeit 13 years old, gave four recommendations for things to see. The Casa de los Guevara, housing the Tourist Office, had green netting round it in 2000 and was subject of a lengthy restoration. As you can see below the green netting has gone but so has the tourist office. In fact it is still being restored inside and all we could see were pictures of the restoration.

Two free museums housing elaborate costumes of the two blue and white factions for Semana Santa are no longer free and one was only half open due to restoration. (The other was shut due to lunch.) At least, tgere was a short film of the celebrations which looked very spectacular. Most impressive, we were told was the Collegiate church below - Colegiata de San Patricio. Although this side looks pretty well preserved, the rest and all the interior was being restored and was closed.

Below is a relief from the Courthouse.

And finally a very impressive bullring - shut! At least we had a good lunch.

We are now moving on north, first to a huge campsite (1000 places) near Crevillent which is a bit isolated and on first viewing seems a bit soulless. 

We are visiting with an eye to a future longer winter stay and it does have an indoor and outdoor pool, free wi-fi, tennis courts, padel courts, gym and spa and a decent bar and restaurant. We are exploring the surrounding area on our bikes and there is a nature reserve with well-signposted (hooray!) cycle tracks:

but we could not linger in the hides as all round there were mosquitoes the size of small rodents which did their very worst even as we were cycling along. The nearby towns, both about 10kms away seem pretty good so who knows, we may return. In the meantime we shall continue heading north. Anybody who happens to be in the Barcelona area in the next couple of weeks and fancies meeting up, please let us know - we are due to arrive around 23rd and stay for about 10 days.

Buenos Tardes,

J&P

PS. Thanks for comments Jude and Andy. All comments very much appreciated. Hope you had a great time messing around on the river.