El castillo

Yesterday is backblipped.

We visited the castillo (castle) in La Herradura this morning. It's actually not a castle, but a gun battery built in the late 18th century as a defence against pirates, a significant problem at the time.

Architecturally it's not at all interesting, but since 2021 it's hosted an exhibition on the Spanish armada fleet which succumbed to a violent storm in the bay of La Herradura in 1562. Of 28 ships, 25 sank to the bottom with most of the galley slaves, who were chained to the ships at all times. Most of the few who had been released during the storm managed to swim to shore due to not being burdened with clothes, unlike the soldiers and sailors aboard. Between 3,000 and 5,000 men died. The Spanish government did its best to draw a veil over this disaster, so there are very few contemporary records of it (it gets a one-sentence mention in Don Quixote though, justifying a whole room dedicated to Cervantes). There was quite a well done video projected onto the curved walls of one of the rooms. "That was definitely worth the 2 euros each, " said S as we left. 

We strolled to the Cafe Lisboa for lunch. They do the best coffee by miles in Almuñecar and La Herradura, and I also love their brunch dish of eggs Benedict. Their lunch menu was disappointing though ... won't be trying that again. We bought some freshly ground coffee to take away though (Brazilian and Nicaraguan). 

Back at the car I found, via a ticket on the windscreen, that I had wrongly assumed parking was free at this time of year. However we were able to commute a 60-euro fine by putting 7 euros in the parking meter. The museum and lunch definitely weren't worth 60 euros.

It's been a sunny but windy day, and now gusts of wind are howling round the house. We've opened the bottle of new wine I brought back, and it's definitely improved with a few days' rest. We had the blini I made yesterday with surplus sourdough starter, with smoked salmon and cream cheese. The blini were good and very easy to do, so I'll put the recipe (found via Google) on my blog.