Wandering Purposefully About

We wandered at length through Arcos: back, forth, back, forth... Sometimes we were trying to find something, like bread or a pay phone, sometimes just a new way home. We spent time in various of the local monuments; cathedrals, palaces and bars all hold their different appeals.

Doorway

Playing on the stairs at one of the city's many lookouts.

From the lookout down to the church near our house.

In front of St. Peter's

Discussing the purpose of all the gold.

Detail of some of the gold on the altarpiece.

Another part of the same altarpiece

More details

The centre of the altarpiece of St. Mary's.

The is meant to show the crooked centreline of the cathedral. Apparently one of the towers of the cathedral fell in an earthquake in the late 1800's.

Apparently a magic circle of stones - unusual in its form and placement.

The beginning of one of many crux-moves when driving a car across Arcos.

This pigeon has just seen Star Wars and wants to look like a spaceship.

Arcos is full of potted plants and cats - here they are together.

Alleys full of potted plants.

Drifting home.

The kids have too much energy still. When this happens we get them to run all the way back to the top of the town.

Potted plants.

The streets wend their way to the top of the hill.

This is another of those places where the "do not enter" sign actually means "honk before you enter and then keep honking anywhere you might surprise a driver who thinks this is a one way street."

Another lookout.

"Hello! Come in for a beer!"

A side street.

Stonework and Tiles

Like many Spanish cities, Arcos has a profusion of decorative elements, mostly carved into stone or decorated on tile.

This was Krista's signal that she had found the correct street home.

Arcos at night

The houses at the bottom of our street

The major part of the city across the ox-bow of the river.

Looking up the main street

Looking down to where the above picture was taken.

Looking out over the plain to where the river bows back again.

Calle Cita 2

The apartment we rented in Arcos turned out to be fantastic. This is partly because Arcos is fantastic, but the apartment deserves some credit too. It was a four storey place (including the deck) fronting onto the second busiest street in the older part of town. Cars whizzed by inches from our door, or they just idled outside. Every morning at ~ 8 am the bread truck would announce it's arrival with a series of honks. If you needed fresh bread, you could run out with a few cents and get fresh bread! It was amazingly compact and had been somewhat removed from the rather traditional central garden that often makes small places manageable. By the end of two weeks we were experts at scaling the four-storey wrought-iron spiral staircase. This staircase was also the only route from the bedroom to the washroom at night - just hold on! 

The entrance to our apartment. Soren looks carefully as this is the second busiest street in the medina section of Arcos.

Looking down our street. Ours is the doorway with the obvious letterbox.

The children dance...

...and fight bulls.

Watching the practice for the Semana Santa processions.

These women are practicing carrying a float.

Receiving instruction!

People pour out of the bar next door to watch.

All the way to the bottom of the street.

Waaaaaaaaaaah!

From our rooftop looking east.

From our rooftop looking straight down at the jeans we are trying to dry. An imposing-looking bumblebee.

At night time looking east.

Our doorway and - one door down, the bar.