A Visit to Priego de Cordoba

Ruta Bancos Gigantes or Huge Bench Route in Andalucia

A new rage is slowly spreading across Andalucia with its beginnings in the province of Malaga and that is huge benches are being installed in beauty spots across the region. The Huge Bench Route or Ruta Bancos Gigantes #rutabancosgigantes can be found on Instagram where they are more active with updates on the new installations of these enormous benches and they have a Facebook page too. Map of the Ruta Bancos Gigantes The initiative started by Forest Green an agrobroker company that supplies and works with treated wood to large construction and environmental companies in Spain. The huge bench route is steadily growing, with constant new installations spreading across Andalucia. The enormous handmade wooden benches are 4 metre long and 2.3 metre high, with the seat being 1.3 metres above ground and needing steps to get onto them, appearing in natural beauty spots hopes to encourage people out into and enjoy the views and of course take photos to be ...

It wasn't my first visit to Priego de Cordoba, but the first decision-made trip. I accidently came across it years ago on a long (wrong) way home from Malaga airport. I'd picked up some friends and with a lack of concentration and a lot of chatter I veered off route. We stopped in Priego for lunch and I made a mental note to return one day.

That day finally came a few weeks back, with the glorious, dry, warm winter we've had Sunday explorations have become the norm so we (read I) decided it was time to revisit the 'Wedding Cake' town as one of our visitors to Casa El Reguelo called it.

I realised why it had been so named as we approached from a new angle. The white houses sit neatly on a rocky outcrop around which the long balcony stretches.

Once voted by users of Tripadvisor as one of the 15 most beautiful towns in Spain. There are many, many of those. It is a lovely town surrounded by the Sierras Subbeticas national park and with a long history.

The balcony with gorgeous metal railings and street lights winds around the edge of the medievalBarrio de la Villa the old part of town with far-reaching views on one side and a maze of narrow streets on the other.