Imagine our surprise when, after climbing these narrow alleys for about an hour, we came upon a wide open square filled with cars. Yes, it also had a medieval church with the unwieldy name of Santa Maria de la Asuncion, as if the fine folks of Arcos de la Frontera needed longer place names. But I was focused on the cars, since there seemed to be no way to drive into the heavily walled city, and since the roads were so narrow, and frequently interrupted with staircases it seemed impossible to drive in the town. We definitely didn't see any cars while we were hiking around. So, the only logical answer was that the cars were here first, and the town eventually built up around them, trapping them in the town square like a ship in a bottle. Haven't figured out if the cars are 700 years old or the town only twenty years old, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

We parked the car outside of town (the photo with the paved street), figuring one "streets so narrow we crashed our car into the house" story was enough for today. We then ducked through the arch at the end of the road, and climbed up a series of stairs and steep narrow alleys.

67. Arcos de la Frontera

We then drove for many hours, missing several of my intended destinations until we drove into the unmissable Arcos de la Frontera. This sizeable town is built on a huge rocky outcrop disrupting the monotony of flat farmland surrounding it. Its defensive positioning atop a rock explains both the fact that it has survived through centuries of war, and that we managed to find it despite our poor navigation.