Around Sabiote and then into Ubeda

We're staying in a lovely quiet, small campsite (only about 10 pitches) in Sabiote. There is a small local herd of goats that visit everyday and have a look around.

Our campsite overlooking the extensive olive fields in the distance:

We walk to the Sabiote Thursday Market, and walk in one end and out the other 5 mins later - some interesting local produce but also lots of clothing, shoes etc. We then wander the rest of town and aren’t really sure if we find the ‘Centre’ as it is just so quiet - we do of course, it is just small town vibe to the extreme.

Around the streets in Sabiote:

After lunch we drive over to Ubeda 10 kms away, and try to follow the instructions to the known parking spot for motorhomes on the edge of town. But as usual, it’s into tiny streets so we bail out and find a wider road with side parking, and nuzzle the van in right up against the gutter to make sure are far enough off the road (let’s come back to that later).

All set, we walk into town, get the lowdown from the Tourist Information office, and start walking the town. My, my, what an astonishing collection of monumental buildings in a small area. Its starting to rain, and we have to scoot quickly to the last building, the previous Hospital de Santiago from the 16th century, and its worth the risk of getting a bit wet (which we do). Back to the van via the Supermercado for dinner supplies, and find we have been parked in a bit by a van that is parked facing us (thus on the wrong side of the road, so clearly just swung across, its all sweet - they just make up their own rules here).

Lovely collection of monumental buildings around the streets of Ubeda:

Oh and occasional cute tiny little car that will be good for doing renos!:

Old Hospital de Santiago from the 16th century - beautiful ceilings, arches and courtyard:

In order to get some room Bob reverses a bit (because we nuzzled in close to the gutter earlier). But as we swing out the rear bumper which is already half falling off (as delivered to us when we first picked up the van), possibly one of the sticking out bent screws just catches on a bloody perforated metal rubbish bin mounted right on the gutter edge. By the time we realise, it’s too late, and now the bumper is a bit more worse for wear. I hear a few more of those very annoyed "f**k, f**k , f**k’s" again when we inspect the damage (visions of our $2000 Bond disappearing out the door).

We drive somewhat calmly back to the campground, although the GPS chose another crappy road to get us there. There is a retired Dutch Marine Engineer in the van next to us, and of course he has tools! So between him (mainly) and Bob they get it back together and more solid than it was before. Twice actually because they realise the blinker isn’t working - so Bob spends 15 mins under the van trying to get his hands in to reattach the wiring that has pulled loose, but to no avail, so off it comes agin, fix the blinker, and do it the second time, but slightly better again. (So we will tell Indie Campers that we were worried about it falling off so we tightened it up a bit and hope they don’t twig to the real reason 🙂).

We give him and his wife a bottle of wine which they insist on giving back to us as the pleasure of helping us out is all theirs- Bob has always said that the Dutch are lovely people (🙄).

Adious for now