Great News from Álora. A Walk of Kings and a Game of Thrones
El Caminito del Rey
I've booked my tickets for El Caminito del Rey. Mrs. Sanchez and I can't wait to tread the wooden boards of the restored 'walkway in the sky'. It's due to open during Semana Santa (Holy Week) which I think is a bit ominous what with all the celebration of pain and death that characterises Spain's most important religious festival. What swung it for me was IT'S FREE for the first 6 months.
Is that a rucksack or a parachute? Is he standing on glass?
The Caminito will open on March 28th.2015 and will they will allow 600 people a day to walk the 8.5 km (5miles 495 yards) from the Caminito del Rey- El Chorro train station to El Sillón del Rey (The King's Armchair) or vice versa. The stretch of actual Caminito walkable is only 6km (3miles 1281 yards) which is quite long enough for me without a sit down and a drink. It seems like a bit of a hike and I don't recall hearing about plans to put a bar or even a cafe somewhere along the way. No more than 400 people will be allowed on the camino at any one time.
El Sillón del Rey
The free tickets (up to 4 per visit) were available from mediodía (midday) yesterday, which can mean anything fron 12.00pm. to 2.00pm. in Spain, so there I was, teed up to go at the sound of the starting pistol.(apologies for the mixed sporting metaphor). Then I discovered that they want the DNI, NIE or passport number and date of birth for every member of your party. By the time I had secured this information and brought in reserves to take the place of the less than enthusiastic, the website had crashed.
Apparently there were more than 30,000 visits to the site and 10,500 places booked before it went down.
Visitors are warned not to wear rucksacks or carry big bags (no chance of a picnic then), not to carry children, and not to light fires!! Umbrellas are also prohibited, not even as emergency parachutes. No petting and no bombing either.
There are plans to light up el Camino at night; a brilliant idea which should attract lots of people to visit the place at night even though it will be shut. They will be able to drive along the narrow tortuous and precipitous unlit road, dazzling oncoming traffic and stopping without warning to take in the effects of the 'ornamental illumination'. What larks!
Mrs. Sanchez can hardly contain her excitement at the prospect of a walk on the Caminito. She is game for anything and may even be able to combine the walk with another of her favourite extreme sports - skydiving. She is well insured.
The preparations for Semana Santa are in full swing again. The hermandades and cofradias are having their big meetings and presenting their posters ready for flyposting all round town in shop windows, bus shelters and underpass walls, their colourful depictions of bleeding crucified Christs and weeping Marys bringing a much needed visual uplift to an otherwise dull and featureless town.
As usual the weather will be the main subject of conversation. If it rains the processions will be cancelled which has happened a lot recently. The tronos (thrones) carrying Marias, Jesuses, St. John and, on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday), a donkey, are very heavy and a slippery road surface could mean disaster. Not only that though, the vestments and ornaments are worth millions of euros (several thousand pounds) and would be damaged by rain.
What good news, then, that after 6 years in the design stage a company in Jerez de la Frontera , Mascofrade, has come up with a solution.
It's a throne cover! Why has nobody ever thought of this before? The answer to a virgin's prayer. It can stand up to winds of more that 120km. per hour (74.5 mph.) and be put up in 3 minutes.
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And the news gets better. It looks as if Álora´s long awaited Indoor Swimming Pool is about to open. We've been waiting for it since 2006. The existing open air pool is superb but only opens from June to September. Mrs. Sanchez can now enjoy all the year round aquatic exercise without having to travel to not so nearby Pizarra. We can't wait to get back. Only 3 weeks and a bit to go.
February 25th. 2015
