Saturday morning began with work on the laundry situation, as we had not washed any clothing since we left Northern Ireland. Emmie, GeeGee, and I all worked to get the clean load of laundry hanging to dry before Emmie and I went to check the chicken coop for more eggs for breakfast.
While the coop had 6 eggs yesterday upon our arrival, Emmie was only able to find one extra egg this morning. Still, 7 eggs scrambled, along with some “tortillas Americanas” (e.g. ready-made pancakes) and chocolate milk, and we had ourselves a filling breakfast.
Emmie has been asking for pancakes almost every morning of our trip… so, today was a big day!
While our original itinerary included a morning hike up to the castle in Zahara de la Sierra, but our crazy amount of laundry, and generally late start to the day, put us behind schedule. We decided to go straight to the olive oil factory, where we’d planned on a Noon tour.
Our van, Emmie, and the Olive Oil Factory (behind the trees.)
We had inquired about the tour in February but should have followed up closer to our trip: When we arrived at the olive oil factory, the worker did not have a record of any tours scheduled for the day. She spoke virtually no English, we spoke virtually no Spanish, and we felt like we were lingering without any progress in arranging a tour. Eventually, we installed the Google Translate app and found it helpful in communicating and creating a plan.
A selection of olive oil at the factory’s modest “storefront.”
We volunteered to come back later in the afternoon, but the worker said we only needed to wait 5 minutes. She had called her son, who brought his girlfriend to be our translator for the tour. We received explanations of the olive sorting equipment, olive presses, and storage tanks, plus some great views of the many olive orchards surrounding the quaint, countryside factory. The best part was at the end of the tour, when we were served a light lunch of cheese, bread, olive oil olives, and apricot juice.
Outdoor olive oil production equipment.
This room, which stores the cold-pressed olive oil, is only accessible by the owner, his wife, and the employee who gave the tour. (We saw the room from behind a glass window.)
A group photo from the second-floor balcony at the olive oil factory.
Gee Gee, with Zahara de la Sierra in the background.
We had some difficulty navigating the narrow, one-way streets of Zahara De La Sierra, one of the handful of small Spanish hill towns recommended by Rick Steves. After only one incorrect attempt, we had parked in the “upper” parking lot which offered the best access to the town’s castle.
On our way to the castle walk, we snapped a photo of this unique Spanish cemetery.
Reminiscent of our day in Gibraltar, the hike to the castle as steep, only this time we were only hiking upwards. In hindsight, it was not the greatest idea to complete this hike at 2:00 p.m. when the car temperature was registering 102 degrees. Everyone was drenched in sweat, and everyone but GeeGee sported beet-red faces by the time we reached the summit. The cool air inside the tower-like castle was extremely refreshing. With our phone flashlights, we were able to navigate the steps to the top of the castle and take in some spectacular views of the town and surrounding hillside. The return was nearly as miserable, but we all made it down in one piece.
Noah and Emmie were the first to climb the stairs portion of the hike.
We were almost there!
An amazing viewpoint from the castle’s second-floor window.
Emmie was proud that she reached the top of the castle!
The town of Zahara de la Sierra sits in the foreground; olive orchards are in the background.
With our van’s air conditioning cranked to high, we set off towards El Bosque and its well-rated Quesos El Bosqueño cheese shop that Brian has identified as our “lunch” stop for the day. Unfortunately, our delayed start to the day meant we arrived during the shop’s siesta time, and the store was closed. We took a few minutes to drive through the town’s narrow streets for an alternative lunch possibility, but things seemed pretty dead.
Grazalema was the next and final stop on our hill-town tour, roughly 40 minutes away from El Bosque. We stopped at a roadside viewpoint area for a few photos roughly halfway through the drive. Eilidh was asleep at that point, and I joined her not too long after. Because Eilidh has been sleeping significantly less than usual so far this trip, we decided that she and I would stay in the car for a longer snooze in the parking lot while GeeGee, Brian, Noah, and Emmie set off to walk through the town.
We posed for a picture at the roadside viewpoint.
They took some photos, shared some snacks, and did some shopping for about 40 minutes before Eilidh and I joined up with them. We stopped for ice cream, and slushes for everyone except Noah, who was thrilled to be eating a bag of his new-favorite-nut, pistachios. After a quick FaceTime call with Grandma and Grandpa Mac, we settled back into the car for the drive back to our Spanish home.
Brian, Emmie, and Noah tried a small piece of the store’s regular cheese; we all returned later to buy the paprika and rosemary varieties to serve for dinner.
Noah poses with his new favorite nut: pistachios.
Many Grazalema homes were outfitted with beautiful flowers.
Emmie was pretty excited about our purchase of new colored pencils.
Despite the relatively unenthusiastic expression, Eilidh loves the soccer-shaped Cheetos!
Brian insisted on a final cheese stop, at a store just outside of Grazalema. Fortunately, there was a visitor who helped translate the types of cheeses. We ended up with a way-too-big block of cheese made from a mixture of goat and sheep milk.
Once home Emmie and I decided to check the chicken coop again, and this time we were excited to find 5 more eggs! The kids enjoyed playing outside while GeeGee and I did more laundry and Brian took a late afternoon nap. Dinner was a smorgasbord of ham, cheese, olives, salad, pasta, and crackers and was followed by bathtime and bedtime. All 3 kids struggled with going to sleep tonight, but luckily, Sunday’s itinerary is more relaxed, providing a much-needed opportunity to sleep in.
My dad would have loved seeing the kids with the eggs.