And we're off....
After months of planning, on Monday 21 September twelve cars and 24 members gathered early, ready to embark on what was probably our most ambitious club trip yet – The Andalusia Grand Tour.
Ahead of us were eight days, seven nights and approximately 1,800 kilometres of driving, taking us through some of Spain’s most spectacular countryside and visiting Denia, Lorca, Granada, Córdoba, La Mancha, Cuenca and Valencia along the way.
Our travelling party consisted of Ludwig & Marion Berger, Bertram & Andrea Mandel, Neil & Joanna Hindle, Robin & Eudora Ellis, Nish Pandya & Valeria Daro, Roland & Georgina Hoeger, Christian & Susanne Hentschel, Eric & Isabella Woolger, Tomas & Britt-Inger Puusepp, Mats & Mirvi Unge Thorsen, Luisa Newby & Claudia Nobull and ourselves, Sadie & Andy Sutherland.
Unfortunately, our much-anticipated Grand Tour didn't get off to quite the start we had hoped for. We had entrusted the route planning to Drive España, who were well aware that our cars are classics, relatively slow and at their happiest on quiet, scenic roads.
The roadbooks provided by Drive Espana were unfortunately held up in customs in Madrid for a month, so for the majority of the group, the first time we got to read them was on the ferry across to Denia. We were therefore more than a little disappointed to discover that the route provided for our most days consisted almost entirely of motorways and busy highways – pretty much exactly the sort of roads we had hoped to avoid – with no suggestions of coffee or lunch stops, or attractions to visit along the way.
It wasn't quite the carefully planned classic-car adventure we had imagined and made for a rather disappointing first day's driving. However, as a group we were nothing if not resourceful. It quickly became apparent that if we wanted the scenic back roads, interesting villages and quieter countryside we'd come for, we were going to have to find them ourselves, and that is exactly what we did!
As it turned out, creating our own routes became part of the adventure – although, it was also responsible for several wrong turns, some extremely narrow village streets and more than one marriage being temporarily put under strain!
Day 1: Denia to Lorca – not via a motorway!
Our 8am ferry deposited us in Dénia at around 2pm and, once all cars had successfully made it off the boat and onto the mainland, the Grand Tour was officially underway.
Our first destination was Lorca, around 250km away.
As mentioned, the drive itself wasn't quite the scenic introduction to mainland Spain we'd been expecting, and we all had to improvise quickly with alternative routes avoiding the motorway suggested by Drive Espana, but things improved considerably when we reached our destination.
The Parador de Lorca sits high above the town on the site of the old castle, with fabulous views across the surrounding countryside, and was an impressive place to spend our first night and a substantial meal.
Day 2: Lorca through The ‘Wild West’ to Durcal
The following morning we left Lorca and headed towards Durcal, close to Granada and having learnt our lesson from day one, we again abandoned the suggested motorway route and set off on a much more scenic journey of our own put together by Andy, and what a difference it made!
Our route took us through some stunning scenery as we headed towards the Sierra Nevada National Park, with mountain roads, huge open landscapes and the sort of driving we'd all imagined when we signed up for a Grand Tour in the first place.
It also produced some unexpected stops along the way, perhaps the best of which was the town of Tabernas. By sheer coincidence, we'd arrived while the town was hosting its annual Almería Western Film Festival, and suddenly our tour had taken a slight detour into the Wild West.
The festival celebrates the area's extraordinary film history. For more than 60 years, the desert landscape around Tabernas and Almería has provided the backdrop for countless Westerns, most famously the “Spaghetti Westerns” of Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood. The festival itself began in 2011 and is dedicated entirely to the Western genre. It certainly wasn't on the original itinerary!
Lunch that day continued the theme. As we were travelling in smaller groups, we didn't all stop in the same place and one group somehow managed to find a bona fide Route 66-style American diner, complete with it’s own cowboy ‘Paul, from Devon, UK!’
The rest stopped a little further along the route and enjoyed a rather more Spanish lunch, made particularly memorable by a very entertaining local waiter who kept the group amused throughout. From there we continued through the spectacular landscape towards Durcal and our home for the next two nights, the Hotel Señorío de Nevada, surrounded by vineyards just south of the city. Conveniently, they also make their own wine.
Day 3: Granada - Wine, Racing Cars and the Alhambra
Obviously, as responsible club members, we felt it was important to investigate this thoroughly, and Eudie Ellis kindly organised a fantastic wine tour and tasting for the ladies who preferred a much more relaxing morning than tearing around a race-track. Others enjoyed a morning’s shopping and sightseeing in nearby Grenada while the brave few remaining headed towards Guadix for a morning at Circuito Mike G. It was certainly a change from our usual leisurely club drives and great fun to see some of our classics out on a proper circuit. Most importantly, everyone – and every car – survived.
In the afternoon it was back to Granada for one of the cultural highlights of the trip: the Alhambra. The magnificent Moorish palace complex certainly lived up to expectations and was well worth having booked well in advance. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for a lovely group dinner, and of course more wine.
By now, after hundreds of kilometres of Spanish roads, most of our cars were wearing a fairly respectable coating of dust, dirt and assorted evidence of the journey.
Most of us simply accepted that this was what a car on a Grand Tour was supposed to look like. Bertram and Ludwig did not. They somehow managed to persuade the hotel to have their cars washed, meaning that while the rest of us set off looking suitably battle-scarred after many kilometres on the road, Bertram and Ludwig emerged with their cars looking as though they were heading for a concours event. Standards must be maintained, apparently!
Day 4: Durcal to Cordoba - Olive groves, tomato salad and ‘big things on a hill’
On Thursday we made our way towards Córdoba, following an extremely scenic route once again planned by ourselves, that took us through mile after mile of olive groves.
Most of the group eventually converged on the very pretty village of Moclín for a coffee stop, where I think we took both the bar owner and the locals slightly by surprise as the roar of our engines suddenly filled their tiny village square. It’s probably fair to say that twelve classic cars arriving together was not part of their usual Thursday morning routine.
Perched high above the village was the impressive Castillo de Moclín – another particularly fine example of what we would later in the trip start referring to as another “big thing on a hill” – so naturally we couldn't resist driving up for some spectacular photos.
Our arrival also attracted the attention of the local policeman, who appeared behind us in his patrol car. For a brief moment we wondered whether taking over the village square with a collection of noisy classic cars might have been frowned upon. Fortunately, he seemed more curious than concerned and no arrests were made, so with everyone still accounted for, we continued on our way to Montefrio our planned lunch stop for the day via a beautiful viewpoint overlooking Moclin.
Our lunch stop turned out to be one of the best of the trip so far. Once again, we took our genial host completely by surprise when ten classic cars suddenly rolled up outside his typically Spanish chiringuito-style bar, which had been practically empty until we arrived.
Completely unfazed by the sudden influx of hungry customers, he welcomed us warmly and quickly called his wife over from their house to help with the unexpected rush. She appeared shortly afterwards, armed with a bucket full of freshly picked tomatoes, which were promptly transformed into quite simply the best tomato salad I think I have ever tasted. It was one of those wonderfully spontaneous stops that you could never really plan – simple, friendly, very Spanish and all the more memorable for being completely unexpected!
Day 5: Cordoba - Mosques, Cathedrals, Horses and Flamenco Dancing
We now had two nights to explore Córdoba, one of Andalucía’s great historic cities, and there was certainly plenty to keep everyone occupied.
The Mezquita was naturally at the top of everyone’s list and we joined a guided tour to really make sense of its extraordinary history. Having begun life as a mosque before being converted into a cathedral following the Christian reconquest, it's a fascinating mixture of Islamic and Christian architecture. Nothing quite prepares you for stepping inside and seeing the seemingly endless rows of distinctive red-and-white arches stretching away in every direction, with the Renaissance cathedral rising unexpectedly from the centre. It was definitely one of the cultural highlights of the tour.
Some of us also made good use of the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus, which gave us a welcome rest from driving and a very easy way to get our bearings and see more of the city. After several days of navigating our classics through tiny Spanish villages, there was something rather enjoyable about sitting upstairs and letting somebody else worry about where to turn.
Another highlight was the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, with its fortress walls, towers and beautiful gardens filled with fountains, pools and orange trees. Between that, wandering through the narrow streets of the old Jewish Quarter and stopping for the occasional drink along the way, Córdoba was an easy city to enjoy at a much more leisurely pace.
Unfortunately, the previous night’s dinner in the Parador had turned into something of a debacle due to the restaurant changing the menu at the last minute and not informing us, so on the 2nd evening we opted to head out into town for dinner in our own smaller groups, giving us the chance to sample more of the local food and, naturally, a little more Spanish wine.
We also managed to squeeze in not one but two very different evening performances. At the Caballerizas Reales, the historic Royal Stables, we watched the famous Andalusian horse show – a wonderful combination of horsemanship, music and traditional Spanish dress, with the magnificent Andalusian horses very much the stars of the show.
And, of course, no visit to Andalucía would have been complete without some flamenco. An evening of live music, singing and dancing provided plenty of atmosphere and another taste of the culture that makes this part of Spain so special.
After the long driving days, it was lovely to have two nights in the same place, park the cars and explore on foot.
Day 6: Cordoba to Cuenca - Olive oil, 4 weddings (but thankfully no funeral), and Don Quijote Country
Leaving Andalucía behind, heading for Cuenca, we faced the longest leg of the journey yet heading north into La Mancha, the vast, open landscape forever associated with Don Quijote, the wonderfully misguided hero of Miguel de Cervantes’ famous 17th-century novel.
Nowhere is this more famous than his encounter with the windmills. Spotting them on the horizon, Don Quijote becomes convinced that they are enormous, menacing giants. Despite his companion Sancho Panza’s attempts to point out that they are, in fact, simply windmills, Don Quijote charges at them on horseback – only to be swept aside by one of the turning sails.
So, naturally, driving through La Mancha meant that we simply had to go in search of the famous windmills of Don Quijote ourselves.
Seeing the traditional white windmills lined up along the ridge against the huge La Mancha sky was one of those unmistakably Spanish sights and a fantastic place to stop with the cars for photographs. Standing beneath them, it was also rather easier to understand how – with a sufficiently vivid imagination and perhaps after a glass or two of La Mancha wine – Don Quijote might have mistaken them for giants - thankfully, none of our group attempted to charge at them.
There were plenty of other adventures along the way. Some of the group stopped at the Picualia olive oil mill, where some members took some rather 'peculiar' photographs (see what I did there?) 😁
Lunch also turned out to be something of an adventure. Because we were travelling in smaller groups, everyone stopped independently – and almost unbelievably, nearly every group somehow found themselves either in the middle of, or very close to, a wedding party.
Messages began appearing from one group after another reporting yet another wedding. Apparently Saturday in Spain is not the easiest day to find a quiet lunch stop without accidentally gatecrashing somebody's big day. Sadly, nobody managed to get invited to stay for the reception.
Our different approaches to lunch were also becoming increasingly apparent.
Eric and Isabella continued what was rapidly developing into their own parallel Michelin-starred Grand Tour, seeking out yet another rather more refined dining experience.
Meanwhile Mirvi & Mats and Tomas & Bibbi went in completely the opposite direction and enjoyed what was subsequently described as a “Dunlop-rated baguette” – proving that our tour could cater for every level of gastronomy.
Andy and I, meanwhile, had a rather different concern.
We already knew that our self-planned routes occasionally took us to places we hadn't entirely intended to visit, but even we began to wonder just how badly wrong we'd gone when we repeatedly started seeing signs for what appeared, at first glance, to say CANADA.
Canada seemed ambitious, even by our standards. Thankfully, closer inspection revealed that the signs actually said CAÑADA – a warning of cows on the road!
So we hadn't accidentally crossed the Atlantic after all – although after some of our previous satnav adventures, for a moment neither of us was entirely ruling it out.
After 420km, several weddings, a few more wrong turns, we finally reached our stunning Parador in Cuenca, and it was absolutely worth the journey, despite the fact that our reserved parking had not ever been reserved, leading us to wonder what else could probably go wrong with Drive Espana!
Day 7: Cuenca to Valencia – Fiesta’s, Navigation Hell and Possibly the Fastest Hotel Checkout Ever
Cuenca is spectacularly positioned around a gorge and famous for its Casas Colgadas – the Hanging Houses – perched dramatically over the cliff edge.
Our hotel was equally impressive. The Parador de Cuenca is housed in a former 16th-century monastery opposite the old town, with the bridge across the gorge providing direct access into historic Cuenca.
With so much stunning scenery to see and some fairly serious hills involved, Robin & Eudie and Roland & Georgina discovered possibly the best – and certainly the easiest – way to explore the city: Cuenca's little red tourist train. While the rest of us were tackling steep streets and steps on foot, they were happily being driven around many of the city's main sights, enjoying the views without wearing out their legs. I think they may have had the right idea.
For Luisa and Claudia, however, simply getting out of their hotel room proved to be the first challenge of the day. Somehow, before they'd even made it down to breakfast, they discovered that they were locked inside their room and couldn't get out.
Fortunately, they were eventually liberated and made it down to join the rest of us – although, as it turned out, this would not be their only slightly unconventional hotel exit that day. After a morning’s sightseeing, they found themselves right at the Castillo at the top of the mountain, when they suddenly realised that they had one minute left until hotel checkout. There was absolutely no chance of walking back in time. Fortunately, Cuenca offered another option – a zipline. So, having started the day unable to get out of their hotel room at all, Luisa and Claudia finished it by taking what must surely qualify as the quickest – and most spectacular – route back to it, ziplined across the gorge right to the hotel!
Whether the hotel accepted “we were stuck at the top of a mountain” as a legitimate excuse for a late checkout remains unclear. It certainly gave the rest of us a good laugh.
From here it was thankfully a much shorter drive to Valencia but by now we'd learnt that one of the best things about travelling independently in smaller groups was that you never quite knew what you might stumble across.
For Neil and Jo, that turned out to be a local fiesta in the suggested lunch stop destination Requena. They arrived to find the town full of people dressed in wonderful vintage costumes and, naturally, thought this was far too good a photo opportunity to miss.
Neil approached a group and tried to explain that he would love to get a photograph of them posing with his classic car, however something clearly got lost in translation and they thought Neil wanted a picture posing proudly beside his own car. Thankfully he managed to finally get what was probably the best photo of the whole tour!
Despite the challenge of finding a restaurant in Requena that wasn’t fully booked due to the fiesta, most of the group managed to meet in another charming little eaterie found by Roland and Georgina where we had a great lunch and discussed whether or not to stop at the last ‘big thing on a hill’ the Castillo Bunol.
For the few of us that did it turned out to be the biggest test of our navigation skills (and marriages) of the tour! Unfortunately, beautiful Spanish villages tend to have streets designed several hundred years before anyone had considered the width or turning circle of a classic car.
There were wrong turns. There were missed turns. There were streets that became narrower and narrower until you began to question whether they were actually streets at all.
And there were quite a few tense conversations between drivers and navigators involving variations of:
“I said LEFT!”
“No, you didn't!”
“Yes, I DID!”
“Well, you said it too late!”
Fortunately for us a friendly local realised our situation and kindly led us out of the village back to the main road to Valencia. At various points during the week, I think several couples came remarkably close to returning to Mallorca in separate cars.
Neil's car also managed to provide us with the nearest thing we had to a breakdown during the entire tour when he suffered a flat tyre.
Fortunately, it was nothing more serious than that and, once dealt with, Neil and Jo were soon back on the road. So, while we can't quite claim that all twelve cars completed the tour entirely without incident, not one of them suffered a mechanical breakdown – which, considering their ages, the distances involved and the heat, was a pretty impressive achievement.
Eventually we reached El Saler and the modern Parador just south of Valencia, which couldn't have been more different from some of the historic buildings we'd stayed in earlier in the week.
Set beside the beach and surrounded by a golf course that has hosted the Spanish Open, it was a suitably relaxing place, not to mention the latest night, to finish our adventure.
Day 8: Valenica to Denia - The final stretch
The following morning just 95km separated us from Dénia and the ferry home.
After some of the distances we'd covered during the previous week, 95km felt like popping down to the shops, and as such it was probably the most uneventful (if not least scenic) leg of the tour. This however gave us plenty of time for one last lunch in some beautiful restaurants (of course Eric and Bella chose a Michelin star) before all finally meeting at the ferry port in Denia for the evening crossing back to Palma de Mallorca.
1,800km Later…
Looking back, we managed to pack an extraordinary amount into eight days.
We toured the Alhambra, tasted wine amongst the vineyards, took our cars onto a racing circuit, explored the Mezquita, watched flamenco and Andalusian horses, visited the windmills made famous by Don Quijote, crossed mountains and gorges and stayed in some truly memorable hotels and Paradors.
We also took countless wrong turns, almost lost several marriages in narrow Spanish villages, inadvertently gate-crashed numerous weddings, encountered more “big things on hills” than anyone could count, passed snow warning signs while baking in the Spanish sunshine, discovered that a zipline is a perfectly acceptable form of emergency transport back to your hotel, learnt that Bertram and Ludwig apparently don't believe road dirt belongs on classic cars, experienced one rather confused photo opportunity at a fiesta – and changed one flat tyre.
But perhaps the most impressive statistic of the whole trip was this:
Twelve classic cars left Mallorca and twelve classic cars came home again. Despite the heat, the distances, the mountain roads and everything else we threw at them, not one suffered a mechanical breakdown during the entire journey.I think the cars deserve a round of applause for that one!
Ultimately though, it was a fantastic eight days spent travelling through Spain with a great group of people. There were long days, lots of laughs, memorable meals, spectacular scenery, plenty of wine and more than a few stories that will probably be retold at club events for some time to come. So thank you to Ludwig & Marion, Bertram & Andrea, Neil & Joanna, Robin & Eudie, Nish & Valeria, Roland & Georgina, Christian & Susanne, Eric & Isabella, Tomas & Britt-Inger, Mats & Mirvi and Luisa & Claudia for joining us on our Andalusian adventure!
1,800 kilometres. 12 classic cars. 24 people. 8 days. 1169 Whatsapp messages. Countless wrong turns. Several near-divorces. Numerous accidental weddings. One emergency zipline. Two suspiciously clean cars. One misunderstood photo opportunity. One flat tyre – and not a single mechanical breakdown.
Now that, is a Grand Tour!!