Almost everywhere you go in Spain you always see some olive trees and grape vines. It wouldn’t be Spain without them. On our way home we drove 373km to our overnight stop and all we saw was olive trees. Fields and fields of olive trees. A big chunk of the time we actually drove on a road called Autovía del Olivar. Spain is the world’s largest producer of olive oil producing 40% of the global production. And you sort of know this but when you drive through one of the main producing regions you realise the scale of production.

Even though the weather was wet and cold we still stopped at Ubeda which is a beautiful World Heritage city where Renaissance buildings are the main attraction. It is one of the best places in Europe to see Renaissance architecture and get a feel for what life was like in that period. It has many monuments, churches, palaces and noble houses which was surprising given the size of the town.

We didn’t get to Ubeda until late but managed to spend a little time exploring the historic centre and trying to check out the ceramics studios it was known for. We really only saw a very small part as it was just too cold and windy.

We did manage to walk down Calle del Salvador to visit the star attraction, of course, the Sacra Capilla del Salvador and finished our walk at the Mirador del Salvador. You may think Salvador was popular there but not really. Salvador means saviour in Spanish so that explains it. After a hot chocolate to warm up, we drove to the tiny village of Sabiote to stay the night.

Views from the Mirador del Salvador

In the tiny village of Sabiote, we stayed in an amazing Hotel Rural. Lovely friendly owners who made our stay special.

The village had a wonderful old castle and we stumbled upon an old Carmelite Convent that is now used as a cultural centre for the village.

The next morning it was cold as we made our way home. As we left Andalucia and crossed over into Castilla-La Mancha we started to see light snow fall on the hills.

The further we went the heavier to got. We were a little worried that Freddie might not like it but had no problems.

We decided to stop at a bar to check on the roads, warm up and have a coffee break.

No, the bar ceiling is not crooked – I took the photo really quickly and did not make sure the image was level before taking it!