Arcos de la Frontera from our window. March 2017. Alexandra Hanson-Harding.[/captionAr
Arcos de la Frontera is one of Spain’s “White Towns.” All the buildings are painted white. It is on top of a mountain. We stayed at a very old hotel that we had to park several blocks away from–even driving there was utterly terrifying because the streets were so small and windy. A waiter from a nearby restaurant guided us through the streets, then asked us for a tip, which we very gladly gave him. I felt horrible for people in this area–Andalucia has 38 percent unemployment, and although it is rich in beauty, opportunities are obviously short in supply. He was a young man and he seemed enterprising and he told us his restaurant was really good. We went to it later and it was. The hotel was very, very beautiful. It was called La Casa Grande. We had a room that had a terrace right over the cliff. It was incredibly reasonably priced–only 75 euros. That was crazy. It was obviously off-season, but still! Tiled floors, ancient arched doorways and ceilings, heavy, solid doors–such plain dignity and beauty. The shadows and sun had such presence. So much beauty. The town, what I could see of it, was really lovely. My problem was that it was very steep, and with my back problems, going down steep hills is very painful and then makes my leg go numb. It’s not the best. So I couldn’t do much there. There was an ancient church that was closed. Someone was displaying birds for a fee[caption id="attachment_4279" width="3264"]
Fields of Arcos. Alexandra Hanson-Harding 2017.
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