Only I’m not really solo this week. My cousin from UK has joined me for the week and it’s been lots of talking and eating and drinking wine. We’re sharing reminiscences of our families . Here in the Arabic town of Quentar in the Sierra Nevada mountains an hour by bus from Granada we are comparing stories , speculating about family secrets and laughing through a few glasses of wine.

So here we are in this really special town.

Walking the narrow streets between the whitewashed walls, every angle is a picture book illustration of the prettiest town wherever….. only there are not many tourists here. It seems some people work from home and others commute into Granada. This is a lived in place with 3 bars, a small supermercado, and a 13C church , which is yet to be opened .

We have also been walking . Everywhere is up. We went on a few circular walks, some better marked than others. I managed not to slither and fall on the way down .

After a few short walks , we decided to walk most of Stage 9 of the Mozarabe. Bus to the small town of Dubar and we walked into Granada, about 15km. Thankfully we started early as it was a hot day and the last bit seemed interminable . Where is that splendid view of the Alhambra ?

And we walked straight into a bar at the bottom of Sacromonte, for a Coke zero.

More about Granada later,

PS :

And the Quentar church was opened for mass on Sunday. An impressive service with the small congregation speaking or singing all the responses.

As we were leaving Clare noticed a woman re/ lighting the lamp outside a small building with a cross. She showed us inside the what she said was originally a 13C hermitage. Saint Sebastian ( c263 BC) holds pride of place in the beautifully tended space, fresh flowers alongside a a simple altar. The martyr looks upward with a spear through his side . He is the patron Saint of Quentar and a group of women look after the hermitage all year. The big celebration is in September : the. Battle between the Moros and Christians and the saint is brought out for that re -enactment of an old , harsh event in Spain’s history.