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February Club Drive

Because the weather forecast was for heavy rain some of our Classic Cars stayed warm and dry at home whilst their owners choose to use their daily drivers rather that miss our visit to the Saint Mary Magdalene´s Sanctuary near to Novelda.
We met near to Crevillente and after signing in and taking a quick cup of coffee, set off on time over the hills to Aspe where we again enjoyed another welcome warm drink at Restaurant Meson Garcia, here, some of us also sampled one of the local delicacies namely ‘ la gachamiga ’ a sort of pancake made from flour mixed with water and olive oil and lots of garlic. Our Spanish members were the first ones to order and eat it and the restaurant chef explained to us how it was made and smiled with self satisfaction when others that tasted it spoke enthusiastically of their approval.
Soon we were off again, going through Novelda and on the outskirts up the
La Mola´s hill to the Castle and the Sanctuary where we were greeted by our guides Isidro and his companion, who were only too pleased to answer any questions about the church and its contents. We were told about the architect, the time used to build the church and also that it was built using stone quarried from the local hillside. Outside the church are huge pieces of carved marble waiting to be used to build the yet to be built organ which according to Isidro will be 11 meters high and 4 meters wide, the next part of our tour was to the old nuns home next to the church which at the moment houses the organ pipes, these are also made of marble and vary in size from a few centimeters to a couple of meters. Our guide beamed with pride as he started up the pump which blows the wind through the organ pipes creating the music which will be played when the organ is completed some time this year. Although the weather was dry, the cold wind deterred most of our group from climbing the castle steps and after making sure we had relieved ourselves of any excess liquids we again set off on our second part of the drive.
This brought us through the countryside where the pink and white blossom of the flowering almond trees sharply contrasted with the near black tree trunks, a sight that needs to be seen and unfortunately is only at this time of the year. We drove through Monovar and headed in the direction of Pinoso, turning off to the left and going passed La Romana and on to Fondo de las Neus, but before reaching Fondo we turned off onto a typical Eric´s type of side road ( which later the Spanish members asked if this was intentional or had we got lost ? ), this narrow road brought us near to Hondon de las Frailes where we again turned left and went over the Sierra de Crevillente to Albatera, here we turned left and after 10 kilometers entered Crevillente where we took our lunch at the Restaurant Las Palmeras which rounded off and interesting day and an enjoyable drive.

Our next meeting is the March Ace Café where we hope to see the big M of Mercedes cars amongst our many other Classics.

Posted by Webmaster1 on 2010-02-22