The Unofficial Guide to Martos

Well, it’s actually the only guide to Martos. We know that many of our readers will never have a reason to pass through Martos. Even prospective tourists might think twice. After all, it is firmly located in the less interesting part of a less interesting province, sandwiched on either side by Cordoba and Granada. But […]

Hike: Treasure and Disappointment!

Buried treasure is the epitome of adventure. We were going to have a big adventure going to see a buried treasure site, an ancient mill, and a museum that talked about aforementioned buried treasure. But losing your buried treasure – probably the epitome of disappointment. No joke, the guy who buried all his treasure never came […]

Hike: Abandoned City and Castle

The last serious hike we took was up El Pico and it ended up being one of the most grueling hikes we had ever taken. And this hike was a close second. It was late August, and the average temperature was 94F (35C). If we get a heat wave (which we did), the temperature goes […]

Hikes: Three Medieval Martos Things

We’ve been hiking a lot this simmer, and recently went to three really cool Medieval things. We thought it would be best to combine them into a single post, so here it is! Puente Medieval – The Medieval Bridge This bridge was built by the Knights of Calatrava, to connect Martos with a neighboring village. […]

Hike: El Pico

We’ve made a goal to spend our summer exercising, studying Spanish, and adventuring around our area. Part of this list involves hiking every Friday. It’s about 93 degrees every afternoon. So on Hike-Fridays, we get up at 5 in the morning to get a head start. The sun rises at 6:55ish, so by the time […]

Hike: El Cortijo del Alamillo

While doing research on the many things to see and explore in our area, I stumbled upon this blog talking about some fancy ruin out in the middle of nowhere. They seemed easy to get to, so without further deliberation we set off to see what we could find. The ruin we hiked to this time […]

Hike: Los Baños de Agua Hedionda

Continuing in our quest to explore the heck out of our area, we set off south towards some ruins. Not particularly old ruins, but still ruins. The surrounding country side is littered with ruins. There are grand plantation-style homes, olive oil factories, homesteads, stables, and farms all lost in the “sea of olives”. We don’t […]

The German-Spanish Exchange

Chris here! A few weeks ago, the principal of my school asked me if I would be interested in accompanying a group of German students around Andalucia. As it turns out, our school does this every year. For one week students from Germany come to Spain, take a look around, share their culture etc. And […]

Hike: La Peña!

When you drive towards Martos, La Peña is the first thing you see. And even from a great distance, it is impossible to miss the castle sitting on top of it. The name, La Peña, basically means “the promontory”, just a specific geological formation, nothing romantic. La Peña is an awesome thing to live next to. […]

Banking Adventures

Because of the lack of internet this was originally written on Tuesday, September 28th, and posted October 11th. After such a crazy day cleaning we slept okay but we’re still not adjusted to the time zone (which isn’t like us). We’ve made a lot of mistakes by staying up late, going out to a bar […]