I went to Antequera the first time I went to Spain and fell for it. It is attractively situated and convenient for the main Andalucian cities. It has attractions within and around it. It can also be a one-night alternative to Málaga for flights.
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Antequera is on the rail line from Granada to Algeciras. Nearby Bobadilla is the junction for Sevilla, Málaga or Córdoba. Many stretches of these lines are highly scenic and the route from Málaga to Bobadilla must be used once for the views of El Chorro Gorge with its near incredible walkway. However the fastest way between Antequera and Málaga is by bus and there is a very good service. See http://www.estabus.emtsam.es/ for details, a brilliant site and a credit to Málaga. This makes Antequera a handy place for the first or last night[s] of a trip around Andalucia with flights to Málaga airport.
The fantastic Torcal is covered under favourites and the dolmens, an unusual feature as handy to a town centre under special but these aren’t the only attractions. There is an old alcazaba at the top of the town, El Torre del Homenaje, with terrific views, one way out over olive estates and the other to the mountains, to say nothing of the fine rooftop views of the town itself. It’s not a commendable practice to leave your binoculars on a bush after taking a photo – but I was lucky.
Antequera is a large enough town to make window shopping attractive and there is no difficulty in finding a small supermarket for picnic requisites – or the market is good.
If using the town as an alternative to Málaga at the end of a trip, you may a little but not much more for drinks to take home.
One of the most attractive features of the town, however, is its extreme friendliness. The first time I went, I could speak very little Spanish and anyone I asked went to immense trouble to answer my queries. In general I find that friendliness varies in inverse proportion to exposure to yobs in Andalucia and yob exposure is usually greatest near the coast. For some reason Antequera, though near, does not seem to attract them. Long may that remain the case! The true story under pubs is only one example.
http://www.andalucia.co m/antequera/home.htm [no break]
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El Torcal de Antequera was fabulous. I suspect it still is, although I believe there’s a visitor centre now and it’s all more organised. When I went, the only additions to the natural scenery were one house and the waymarks. Strictly ‘El Torcal’ is only used to refer to the rock outcrops on top of the mountain, wonderful limestone shapes. The waymarks give two excellent routes around them and if you come up in a taxi [neither cheap nor prohibitive] you will have ample time to do both and then walk back to the town, enjoying an ice-cold fino on your way! I’ve been twice, the first with cloudless sky and superb views, the second misty and hence mysterious with the rock forms coming and going. Sadly I can only show a picture of the second occasion – but see http://www.andal ucia.com/ante quera/torca l/home.htm [no breaks]
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The dolmens, three of them, are less than 2 km from the town centre. Menga, Viera and El Romeral date respectively from 2500 BC, 2000BC and 1800BC approx. Menga is most spectacular and is possibly the biggest in Andalucia. Its excavation in the 19th century revealed hundreds of skeletons. Seven gigantic stones at each side are covered at the chamber head, one of the roof slabs being 180 tons in weight. Both the others have complete corridors but El Romeral is a tholos tomb, i.e. a round shaped one of a type more often associated with Mycenae in Greece. Among many fine churches, two should not be missed. These are Nuestra Señora del Carmen and Santa Maria. There are splendid mudejar attributes, including the lovely ceiling of the latter. The website in the description above refers to recently excavated Roman baths, though I have no other knowledge of these.
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I am slightly embarrassed here because I don’t remember the name of the very good cheap pension where I stayed on both my visits, in a single with shared showers the first time and in a twin en-suite room with my friend, Ian, the second. It was directly opposite the market and I think it must have been the P Toril, but the difficulty is that the P. Toril, as described on the Internet, has no food, whereas on both occasions mentioned, very tasty evening meals were provided at a price low enough to be almost ridiculous. It may have changed since 1990 but, anyway, there is a pension opposite to the market of which I can speak very favourably!
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Again I forget the name, if I ever knew it, though I could find it easily enough. It was like any number of other family run bars. We had an incident here that illustrates the friendliness of Antequerans.
Ian had a wonderful ear but was totally idle [his own words] about languages. He was curious about how the bar could survive with so many staff and so few customers and provoked me into asking how many of the younger staff were the proprietor’s offspring. He replied at length and fast, too much for my one-year study of Spanish but Ian picked out Kung Fu. They commented on this and I said ‘Si si, yo hablo un poco pero no entiendo bien; el no habla pero entiende todo.’ [Sure, I speak a bit but my understanding is poor; he never speaks but understands everything.] Clearly they had been talking about us because they all turned bright red! However it was only seconds before we were all laughing together and there were very genuine handshakes when we left for the last time.
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One day I hope to get to Laguna de Fuente de Piedra. This is the largest natural lake in Andalucia and is connected with Antequera by bus and by train [via Bobadilla]. It is said to be a spectacular bird reserve and has a large colony of breeding flamingoes.
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Published on Saturday January 22th, 2005
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Wed, Oct 26 2005 - 01:44 PM
 by toribio
| VERY GOOD. 3 WORDS NO FIND IN DICIONARY |
Tue, Jan 25 2005 - 05:34 AM
by ravinderkumarsi
| excellent place and nicely written report |
Sun, Jan 23 2005 - 12:23 PM
by britman
| Super report well illustrated and five stars again |
Sat, Jan 22 2005 - 07:06 PM
 by rangutan
| I love Spain, wish id note all the names too. A report and pictures some of us travellers wish for... Increadible! |
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