We thought we were being smart this morning by getting to the main plaza just before 10 o’clock so we would have a chance to look around and then do a short video as the church bells rang the hour. As you will see, Ned started the video a few seconds before 10, panning across the facade of the fortress church that helped defend Vera against pirate attacks, and then he waited … and waited … for the bells to ring. Just after he finally gave up and turned the video off, of course, the bells began to ring. We were impressed with the sturdiness of the church with its thick walls and defensive towers at all four corners. All the windows are high, the door is stout, and I’d love to see the key that fits in that lock.
Nearby we stumbled across a traveling exhibition about the mining history of this area, including one of the hoppers that carried ore along the aerial tramway to Garrucha - sort of like a chair on a ski lift. Mining profits paid for many of the fine houses near the main plaza here.
Our final stop was at the water museum that contains a restored lavadero where thirty women at a time could have their own basin for washing clothes. It’s the biggest lavadero we’ve seen in Andalucía. It was fed by a fountain that has carried water from a spring since Muslim times more than 1000 years ago.
Tomorrow, we are walking to Cuevas de Almanzora.もっと詳しく
旅行者The lavadero is so beautiful. It is interesting to see it so "museumed." The first one I ever saw was the one in SMA when I lived with you both there. And that one, although not often, was still used by locals. I suppose the hand washing was left behind long ago here as people bought washing machines for their homes. It is probably not used in SMA anymore either. Progress creates a more privatized way of doing things. I suppose I wouldn't miss having to go to the middle of town to do my laundry every week and hand wash it all but there is that sense of community that is lost as we mechanize so much of our lives. From shopping, to cooking, to laundry things have changed a lot in our lifetimes and that of our parents.
Laurie ReynoldsTotally agree with Nicole that the lavadero is beautiful. I have seen a lot of lavaderos, but never one with those individualized cubicles. And to piggyback off what Nicole said, I remember walking on the Vdlp, in a town whose name I now forget. I went to the old lavadero so I could soak my aching feet, and an old woman came out to chat. She told me that she really missed the days when she would gather with her friends to wash clothes and gossip. Now they all had washing machines and never saw each other. Not to romanticize what must have been an awful daily task, but we have lost something in the process.
旅行者The church reminds me a little of the fortress churches in the Basque area! Very beautiful. Were the bells in tune? Tom and I always have commented on how out of tune most Spanish bells are.
旅行者
The lavadero is so beautiful. It is interesting to see it so "museumed." The first one I ever saw was the one in SMA when I lived with you both there. And that one, although not often, was still used by locals. I suppose the hand washing was left behind long ago here as people bought washing machines for their homes. It is probably not used in SMA anymore either. Progress creates a more privatized way of doing things. I suppose I wouldn't miss having to go to the middle of town to do my laundry every week and hand wash it all but there is that sense of community that is lost as we mechanize so much of our lives. From shopping, to cooking, to laundry things have changed a lot in our lifetimes and that of our parents.
Laurie ReynoldsTotally agree with Nicole that the lavadero is beautiful. I have seen a lot of lavaderos, but never one with those individualized cubicles. And to piggyback off what Nicole said, I remember walking on the Vdlp, in a town whose name I now forget. I went to the old lavadero so I could soak my aching feet, and an old woman came out to chat. She told me that she really missed the days when she would gather with her friends to wash clothes and gossip. Now they all had washing machines and never saw each other. Not to romanticize what must have been an awful daily task, but we have lost something in the process.
旅行者The church reminds me a little of the fortress churches in the Basque area! Very beautiful. Were the bells in tune? Tom and I always have commented on how out of tune most Spanish bells are.