First night, Saturday night we managed to finish off the bottle of Patraran. Fortunately there were eight of us drinking it so we were able to even out the consumtion.  It was far healthier than sharing a bottle between three or four. Even so there was a slow thud at the back of by head as I woke up. Lying in bed and thinking it over I remembered spending half a day walking rould the Prado in Madrid with a Patcharan hangover and standing in front of the great panels painted by Hieronymous Bosch and his visions of hell.

Out of bed was the sun was shining again and so went went on a walk through fields of olives . Apparently there had been heavy rain a few days ago and the ground was heavy and claylike underfoot and covered with fine stones. The trees were heavy with black fruit the branches weighed down.

There was the occasional pomegranate tree along the side of the path. The remaining fruit on those trees had an obscene look about them, the red skin torn apart and dirty and the seeds plucked out by birds.

The walk took us to a small village and a bar.  There was one man behind the bar. He took the order for drinks but looked nonplussed when we asked about food. He shook his head  and said something about this evening.  Looking at our faces he asked if we wanted tapas and then went back inside.

Five minutes later he came out with four plates of deep fried anchovies. They went in a minute. We worried that that might be it and went inside to order another round of drinks. There was a menu on the wall but he shook his head again as he saw us looking at it. He asked about tapas again and we all said yes. There was a local policeman stood at the bar in his green uniform and stiff black staff cap. He held a small rounded glass that looked like it contained brandy.

Five minutes later the man was out again with another four plates. These had slices of black pudding and small bread rolls that had been filled with pieces of pork cooked in tomatoe sauce.

As we had those he brought out another four plates of fried fish  – a mixture of sardines and pices of cod. They had been dusted in flour before being deep fried. The last few plates were of pork – a mixture of thick pieces of bacon and small slices of thinly sliced loin.

It was a a very good lunch.