Another out of sequence post here, but we’ve done such a lot over the last 36 hours that it’s better to post whilst everything is clear in our minds.

Tuesday morning, the last day of February 2023, and we set off for Antequera, which is a little over a 1 hour drive from Torrox. Joe had booked a hotel overlooking one of the squares in the centre of town – Hotel Infante.

Antequera is known as “the heart of Andalucia” due to its central location between the cities of Malaga, Granada, Cordoba and Seville. In 2011, Antequera had a population of circa 40,000 inhabitants and is situated at an altitude of 575 meters.

The city dates back to Roman times and there is a lot to see both in the city and the nearby national parks.

The large wooden shutters revealed stunning views across the square and of our local bell tower. There are a lot of bell towers in Antequera, and the city is steeped in history. In fact, if Joe had dug a little deeper into his pocket, he could have secured a room at the back of the hotel with views of the Alcazabar.

Before we arrived at the Hotel car park – or more aptly the waste ground near to the hotel where literally hundreds of cars were parked for free – we visited the Dolmens of Antequera.

The Dolmens of Antequera is a world heritage site but it is actually an ensemble of several cultural monuments. The Dolmen of Menga, Dolmen of Viera, Tholos of El Romeral and two natural mountain features – the El Torcal and the Pena de los Enamorados.

The Dolmens of Menga and Viera were the ones we would visit en-route to our hotel and they are just a mile or so out of the town. The Dolmen of Menga is a megalithic mound called a tumulus, long barrow form of dolmen and dates back to 3700 BC. We also visited the Dolmen of Viera, which is in close proximity and is a type of megalithic single-chamber tomb.

We queued for an hour to gain entry into the Dolmen of Viera and were somewhat underwhelmed – if I could understand more Spanish, I think I would find this isn’t a unique opinion.

And some photos of the Dolmen of Menga.

We then headed to the hotel and set off for a whistle stop tour of Antequera. This was when Moe discovered that Antequera has an marvellous collection of bell towers.

We passed the Bullring, which has largely been rebuilt in recent decades and is no longer used for bull fighting but holds local events and concerts.

We had picked one of the worst days of the year in terms of finding somewhere to eat in the evening – 28th February is Andalucia day – marking the anniversary when the region became an autonomous community of Spain. Eventually we found Abrasador Bodegas Triana and had an excellent close to the day. Food, service and atmosphere was excellent.

Some more photos below of our whirlwind tour of Antequera and the meal at Bodegas Triana.