Monday, July 29, 2013

Priego de Cordoba, Spain

View of gardens and olive groves from the city wall of Priego de Cordoba. 
From Grenada we traveled by bus (Alsa is the main bus service) to Priego de Cordoba, a small, walled city tucked into miles and miles of rolling, olive tree covered terrain.  Our primary reason for visiting this town was to see some friends whom Ben and his sister, Angela, had met in 1996-97.  We had a wonderful visit in their home and I appreciated their great patience with my Spanish.  In the evening we took a walk around Priego and ate a typical Spanish meal: tortilla espanola, olives, bread, salmorejo, watermelon and grapes. 
Paqui in her kitchen making dinner.
She let me help with the salad: tomatoes, garlic, onions and olive oil.
 
 
 
In Priego, it is quite easy to believe that nearly 50% of the world's olive oil is produced in Spain.  The view from the city wall consists of thousands of neatly ordered olive trees. 
In the plaza there are many fountains. Manolo & Paqui included this on the walking tour of their city. It is one of the nicest parks I'd been to in Spain.  Ben remembers this plaza from his first visit to Priego. 
 
The following morning, Paqui insisted on sending a bottle of local olive oil with us.  We left Priego with oil in our backpacks and happy memories in our hearts.