We know we have banged on about this before, but Granada in the summer is just the best place to be. It is filled with music and dance from June right through to September, and there is a deliciously languid quality to life in the city as it slows down under the weight of the summer’s heat. However, Granada doesn’t play host to every cultural event during the summer, and the villages put on a pretty good array of fiestas, events and activities, including our own Granada Concierge Flamenco performance at the end of our Flamenco course (this year from 28th June - 5th July)

This weekend, we enjoyed a couple of diverse events, one of which included some of my art work.

The ayuntamiento organised an exhibition of talent covering all the villages of the Municipality and with a display in the old convent in neighbouring Olivares. It was a great opportunity for me to put on display some of my recent abstract paintings, as well as a couple of older works. Getting work down to Olivares gave us the opportunity to visit two new bars in that village.

Casa Rubio is the first on the list of new bars to have been given a new lease of life. The owner, Jose Antonio, knows what he is doing and on our couple of visits so far, he runs a very tight ship. He has excellent staff and he has the time to act as host, making sure that all visitors feel welcome and valued. The tapas is good too.

We had a visit, last week, from the daughter of a friend of Andrew. Maisie is studying Spanish for A Level and it was considered that it might be beneficial if she were to spend a week with us practicing what she has learned. Her visit was a breath of fresh air, as Maisie came with lots of youthful enthusiasm and schoolday yarns. Andrew and I immediately became 18 year olds again (a feat for me!). On one of the evenings of Maisie’s stay, Casa Rubio put on a concert by a singer called Billie Waves or, as we renamed her, Billie Eyelash. Billie had a good voice, but perhaps not enough amplification, but we had a great evening on the terrace, under the stars, listening to a sort of Spanglish version of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, amongst other jazzy standards.

BIllie Waves performing at Casa Rubio, Olivares

The arrangement of the exhibition was a little chaotic, with loose schedules and a sort of ‘do what you like’ approach to curation. However, the space is great in the old convent, and even I quite liked the look of my paintings on the walls. The collection of works included some fine creative work, including some beautiful pencil drawings and very delicate watercolours by Antonio, one of the curators. The inauguration was a fairly low-key affair, probably on account of the heat at 20:00 on a Friday night. We had bed and breakfast guests from Córdoba, so we beat a retreat to another nearby bar for a cold beer before heading home.

Ian Rutter exhibition in Olivares, Moclin.

The other new bar in the village is in a rather lovely location. One of Moclín’s main tourism draws is the hiking route, La Ruta del Gollizno. On the route, just outside the village of Olivares, there sits a hotel that was built fairly recently and then closed down, presumably affected by the financial crisis of 2008 - 2014 which hit Spain very hard. Whenever we have walked the Ruta, we passed by this sad building that holds the promise of so much, as it sits forlornly on the banks of the Rio Velillo. So, very surprised were we when we saw that a new bar, El Gollizno, had opened in the abandoned hotel. The owners rent the space - a large bar and a lovely terrace overlooking the river. They mean business, and have planted flower beds and put in attractive solar lighting to guide the visitor’s way towards the bar. Again, the food we had was very good and the setting could not be more delightful with a backdrop of trees and the sheer cliffs that line the gorge.

All this bar activity is very promising. Moclín, at last, has new managers for the Bar la Plaza in the centre of the village. For so long, not helped by the Covid pandemic, this bar was run with a timetable of its own, and it became hard to tell when it would or wouldn’t be open. Now, under the management of brothers Mario and Ángel, there is real energy and commitment. Both brothers go out of their way to welcome guests and this is vital for the survival of a local bar. Guests need to feel valued wherever they go, whether this is through the warmth of the hosts, the quality of the food or the activities they do for the community, and there needs to be consistency. With Maisie and two guests from The Netherlands, we had a lovely night outside Breaking Bar la Plaza with a concert by local band, Garranchas.

Garranchas playing outside Breaking Bar al Plaza

Without wanting to sound patronising, we wish all three new bars every success and hope that lots and lots of people visit them and enjoy what they have to offer.

Last night, we had a different experience and it was truly representative oafs much that we love about our life here - the unexpected.

We know Épona as we are all on the committee for the new Asociación de Turismo that we are in the process of forming for the municipalities of Moclín, Íllora and Montefrio. Épona’s family home lies just outside the village of Montefrio (listed by National Geographic magazine as having one of the best views in the world and as one of the best places to visit in 2022. Mind you, we may be biased, but has National Geographic been to Moclín? I think not!). Épona’s family property also contains one of the most important archaeological sites in the area, dating back to Neolithic times and with a time line up to the beginning of the Bronze Age, so from 5,000 years BCE up to 3,000 years BCE, and there are remains of the village of Los Castillejos, open neolithic caves and Megalithic and Visigoth Necropoli. This magical site provides a veritable history lesson of Andalucia and Épona gives private guided tours, and speaks with passion and knowledge about this, her home.

Épona does a lot with the property. She farms organic olives, has a collection of beautiful horses, runs a bed and breakfast retreat and organises cultural events. Last night, she opened her land for picnics and a concert by a fabulous group of chaps who met at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Seville, the Al-Andalus Clarinet Quartet .

The unexpected element came as we really didn’t have a clue what to expect. We had never seen Épona’s house, although we had taken a long hike around it exploring the caves and looking for dolmenes (megalithic tombs). Part of her land had been set out with rustic tables, and little battery-operated candles were liberally scattered around the area to create a magical Midsummer Night’s Dream atmosphere. 50 people turned up and enjoyed a drink and their picnics looking at the most spectacular landscape - the house sits on a plateau beneath dramatic cliffs and on top of swathes of sweeping countryside. It is tranquil, mysterious and historically almost beyond comprehension. Épona buzzed about welcoming guests and making sure the beer was cold enough before welcoming her amazing 90-something (I won’t be indiscrete) year old mother to the concert.

The boys from the Quartet set up their stands as darkness fell and then performed a fabulous repertoire of classical and contemporary pieces, from Pachelbel’s Canon to Argentinian Tangos and Leonard Cohen’s Alleluia with audience participation. Behind them, little laser lights picked out trees and cliff faces, and somewhere in the inky evening, a horse would harrumph and a dog would insouciantly meander in front of the audience and collapse almost at the feet of the talented musicians.

The quartet was unexpected. In jeans, branded t-shirts and bare feet, you could have been forgiven for thinking they had just wandered in after an afternoon picking olives. But with clarinets in their hands, they worked to weave a bit of magic in the lugubrious shadows of the cliffs of the Peñas de los Gitanos (Grief of the Gypsies).

It was a lovely evening, beguiling in its simplicity and authenticity; a labour of Épona’s love. Beautiful music in an enchanting setting and an unique experience that you have to be lucky to get to enjoy.

Moclin Sunset — Moclin sunset, July 2022

Useful Links

Las Peñas de Los Gitanos. Arrange tours of the historic dolmenes with Épona. The next event at Las Peñas will be a night of Astronomy and Archaeology on 22nd August 2022. Details on the Las Peñas Facebook page.

Breaking Bar la Plaza, Moclín

Casa Rubio, Olivares

El Gollizno, Olivares