TRAVEL ALPHABET

The A to Z of My Favourite Travel Destinations

Starting with Aracena, Spain

I didn’t come up with this idea myself. Thank you, Sam Millichap for the inspiration. I love reading about Sam’s favourite places. I’ve decided I’m not going to choose any of the same ones as Sam, so that might be a challenge.

I’ve only been travelling these last ten years, but even so, I’ve managed to notch up a few countries. I didn’t realise how many until I had to apply for a visa to Russia — I think there were 43 and I didn’t mention North Korea. So 44 in total.

Some places I’ve visited several times, some on my own, others with one of my children or other family members or partners. Each one of these destinations holds fond memories for me and offers something, dare I say, unique.

I’ve been to quite a few A places — but the one I’ve chosen to start with is Aracena. ( pronounced A-ra-then-a) Aracena is about an hour north-west of Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain.

The caves

We were going to Aracena to see the Gruta de las Maravillas, (the Grotto of Wonders) one of the most spectacular cave systems in Spain, and the Iberian Ham Museum. I love caves and I’d never been to a ham museum before! As a bonus, this weekend, Aracena is hosting a cheese festival. How could we resist? An hour and a quarter later we arrived in Aracena.

The whole town seemed to be deserted until we reached the ticket office for the cave tour where a huge line snaked in and around and out the door. I left Stacey in line and bought a coffee and cake and sat in the sun. I no sooner sat down than Stacey called saying she was almost at the front of the line. Apparently, the forty people in front of her were all part of the same group, therefore they were dispensed with all at once.

The castle

We bought combined tickets for the caves, the castle and the ham museum, and accepted the 1.15 pm spot to tour the caves.

The cheese festival

Then we walked down to the cheese exhibition in a large hall. Cheese vendors were set up in little stalls on two sides, with a sprinkling of other goods in between. After paying 5 euro for 10 tasting tickets, we chose our cheeses and sat down to taste test them. We needed red wine to cleanse the palate between cheeses.

Ten cheeses were two too many for me. I lost my taste buds after eight. We both liked a particular blue, a herb cheese, a fig cheese and a chestnut cheese, so bought the lot! We have enough cheese to last us for the next three weeks on the road! I also bought a bottle of caramel vodka for 12 euro. If I had realised it was so cheap, I would have bought more! There were more than a dozen varieties to choose from.

Back up to the cave entrance for the tour. Wow! The cave system was the best I have seen; extensive displays of stalactites and stalagmites, with many joined up making huge pillars and columns. Magnificent! Clear blue lakes filled the bottom of some of the largest caves, breathtaking. The Emerald Lake was so-called because of its beautiful green colour, due to the presence of copper. The cave system was opened to the public in 1914, and the paths and stairs had been carefully laid out to take advantage of the best views of the cave features.

It was relatively easy going except when I had to stoop over to walk through a couple of tunnels without touching the sides. Stacey helped me through the slippery bits with no handrails. I was completely saturated by the time we exited the caves and sat down in the shade to cool off. The humidity of 98–100% and temperatures of 16–19 degrees encouraged huge amounts of perspiration.

The ham museum

After catching her breath, Stacey hiked to the top of the hill to the Castillo (castle). I stayed where I was until the coffee shop opened and I bought another coffee and cake. No wonder I’m not losing weight! When Stacey returned, we headed off to the Iberian Ham Museum, where we learned everything you would want to know about Iberian ham, but not before having lunch of two different types of Iberian pork and a bottle of red, for medicinal purposes.

It helped dull the pain in my knees enough to get me to the Ham Museum and then back to the bus stop. At the Ham Museum, we learned that these special “black” pigs eat acorns fallen from the oak trees in the forest which gives their meat a particular flavour. Chefs apparently rave about it worldwide.

What a wonderful exhausting day! If you’re ever in Sevilla, take a trip to Aracena to see those caves! You won’t be sorry!

Here’s Sam Millichap’s report on Auckland.