Arcos De La Frontera

Our drive to Gibraltar from Seville took a turn off into the beautiful back country roads of Spain when we decided to stop off at the little hill town of Arcos De La Frontera. The two lane road meandered through green and amber colored fields and hills. When we got a little lost at one point we stopped and asked for directions at the Spanish equivalent to a highway diner where passing bikers and truckers stopped for a bite to eat. Arriving in Arcos was a bit of a mystery to us, all we really knew about it was that Rick Steves said it was a “must see” in the region and we are always a little mistrusting of him thanks to the Hotel Toledano, Amsterdam, becoming famous for entering Europe through the “back door,” the way he carries a backpack and his style in general. But we decided to give it a shot anyway.

The town was laid out on a steep cliff that seemed to be eternally rising. As we drove up the hill through the narrow and winding streets we became increasingly unsure if cars were allowed in these alleys and if our car would continue to fit between the buildings as the distance from building to building grew closer and closer together (not that we are strangers to driving on pedestrian-only streets in Spain or anything (after all, “what happens in Seville doesn’t stay in Seville”)). Once we finally parked and got out of the car, we were not even sure exactly what there was to see or where that area would be if it at all existed. After walking around, looking at buildings, buying souvenirs and eating some sub-par tapas we were still not sure why it was worth the detour. It was interesting to see the old sleepy Spanish country town (emphasis on sleepy), the cute white washed buildings, cobblestone streets and glorious cliff location rising high above the Spanish countryside, but it was also very dead with no apparent activity to speak of.

As we walked back to our car through the narrow cobblestone alley we were barely able to squeak through, we did make a curious observation: the material that many of the buildings were made out of was literally crumbling. It seemed to be made out of the same material that sand castles are made of: SAND! We noticed the sand pile at the base of some buildings and a mere finger scratch on the bricks sent more crumbling down. Even more curious were the age of these buildings and how in tact they appeared. They didn’t even appear crumbling when you looked at them or weathered at all. Strange.