Today was the shortest drive of the trip at 26 kilometers to the city of Setenil De Las Bodegas. It is famous for its homes constructed out of caves.
Setinel has probably been occupied for quite a long time, but there is no evidence of habitation before the 1200’s when it was founded by the Moors. The name is a corruption of the Castillian for seven times nothing. It took the Castillians eight attempts to capture the town from the Moors.
The standout feature is the number of buildings that are built into rock faces throughout the town. For about 1500 meters along the river different homes, restaurants, and businesses have a facade covering rooms carved into the rocks.
What looked like a run of the mill Spanish town turned into a really interesting place to explore. The whole town is not carved into rock, but a substantial portion is.
Some of the town climbs the cliff faces on either side of the river so for a lot of the town you are either climbing stairs or descending stairs. But it was worth it for the views, and also to get away from the heavily touristed river walk.
Setinel along with Ronda are part of the day trips out of Seville and Malaga so the river walk was really crowded for a good part of the time we were in the town. But once we started to climb stairs the crowds thinned out considerably.
We spent a couple of hours walking the town and Ton was having a wonderful time with pictures. It was not too stressful for me as the town was small enough that we could just wander aimlessly so I could keep my phone in my pocket and enjoy the town rather than navigate.
After a couple of hours of climbing and descending we were both hungry and thirsty. Ton recommended a restaurant and we were able to get a table after only a few minutes wait. We both love Spanish food and today was another great meal. We went for the barbecue platter for 2. It was listed as €20 but we weren’t sure if it was per person or in total. When the plate arrived it was heaping with meat and we assumed it was €20 each. We were wrong, our total bill including the food and 3 glasses of wine (I was thirsty) was €27. We love Spain.
We ended the day with a slow walk back to the campground that was located about a mile and half from the center of town. We thought about a taxi but decided we needed to burn off some barbecue.
