Olives - The Green Gold of Andalusia

As the next stop on our journey, we have chosen the village of Allmedinilla in the province of Córdoba.

We were spoiled at the Hospederia la Era. We felt very comfortable with Raul and Davinia. Breakfast was served in multiple courses. The first course was always a fruit plate for the face.

Raul and Davina place a great importance on using environmentally friendly products. The understanding of organic food is growing steadily in Spain. Here we even got whole grain bread from the wood-fired oven, which is really rare in Spain.

Raul offered us a 'cata de aceite de oliva'. During the olive oil tasting, the aromas are first smelled. Then a little olive oil is taken into the mouth and slowly let down the throat. From there, the oil should be sniffed into the nose (slurped). I didn't manage to do that, the olive oil went straight to my stomach.

Many things are similar between olive oil and wine, except that olive oil does not need to be stored after production. In Spain alone, there are over 260 varieties of olives. We limited ourselves to the Picudo and Hojiblanca varieties during the tasting.

The best olive oil is said to come from 'our' region Priego de Córdoba. A bottle costs only 12 euros here. Of course, we went for it.

The best olive oil in the world.

By now, we have gotten used to the typical Spanish breakfast with toast, olive oil, and grated tomato. It tastes excellent with good olive oil.

We thought we had seen many olive trees in Catalonia, but it's nothing compared to Andalusia. In the province of Jaén alone, there are said to be over 60 million olive trees. Extrapolated across all of Andalusia, there could be between 200 and 300 million olive trees. I think there are no more beautiful trees.

Since we already know Granada and Córdoba from a previous trip to Andalusia, we have restricted our range of action and focused on smaller towns and villages. Priego de Córdoba, with 22,000 inhabitants, is just right for us. In Priego de Córdoba, you can buy everything and it also has a beautiful old town with a fantastic view of the sea of olive trees.

We had a reunion with the mountain village of Zuheros. During our first visit, we spent a cozy evening on the village square.

Zuheros

View of Baena

On December 23, we drive to Malaga full of anticipation, where we want to pick up our children from the airport at 3:30 p.m. It will be an exciting and long day, as we have a flat tire near Antequerra. After the ride with the tow truck, we can pick up our children and the replacement car at the airport at 4:00 p.m.

Jürg