We've All Got A Castle Each

Friday, March 4th we had an optional excursion to go to a near by town with... wait for it... yep, you guessed it... another castle!

The name of the town was Confrentes. Same package deal as the others: small town, fortressy castle on a hill, and lots of pretty views all around.
Differences: This one is located next to a volcano and I think it is actually sitting on top of a volcano... both are sleeping volcanoes. No worries.

This is the view of the volcano hole. Don't know if you can really tell.



This castle also has one of the oldest working clocks in the world. Possibly the oldest or second oldest working clock in Europe... I can't remember the exact superlative.


Like I said, pretty views.




Except for that nuclear plant. What?
But all that smoke is really water vapor. The land used to be very dry all around, but since the nuclear plant opened and all this water vapor is in the air, it created a little mini climate conducive for plants to start growing. Yeah, I know... not THAT interesting. But there you have it.


Castle and the old clock from the outside.


Up close old clock. It works, but they don't leave it running unless they are trying to demonstrate that it works.


Next, we went on a boat ride on the rivers that surround the town.


People in the back!


You could stand outside on the little back deck. Very pretty canyon-like surroundings.



Final stop: Honey Factory.
Biggest in Spain, second biggest in Europe.

Here we have crystallized honey...which is what honey does naturally. Honey that stays liquid all the time has been pasteurized.


Leftover wax. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any bees. They do the bee part somewhere else. But they reuse the wax so the bees don't have to rebuild it every time. Very nice of them.


Tons and tons of kilos of honey!


What we were all waiting for... taste tests.


Did you know honey is basically made from bee vomit?

This here is pollen balls that fall off the bee legs. It is packed full of good stuff for you. People buy it and take a pinch every day to stay healthy.


I will just have a spoonful of honey thanks...Chris is demonstrating the face we all made after trying the pollen balls.


All in all, not the most exciting time we've had here, but it was a perfect trip for a day that turned out to be cold and rainy. And now I have 2 jars of delicious honey that are apparently good for my circulatory and pulmonary systems.