NAUGHTY BUT NICE!    For those who missed our Festive trip to Rute on 3rd December, we thought you might like to share in some of the experiences of our very successful and enjoyable day.

Unfortunately, it was an early start – due to the length of the journey – but we all gallantly arose to meet the 8am coach deadline – even a couple, who will remain nameless, who booked an early morning 6.30am wake-up call from Gillian the night before “just in case the alarm clock didn’t work” arrived at our starting point in plenty of time.

As we journeyed down the coast we enjoyed a lovely sunrise over the sea and we bit into the Christmas mood when we ate our complimentary mince pies with our coffee during a short stop north of Malaga. A Christmas Quiz kept everyone awake during this part of the journey as the landscape turned from the rocky coast to olive groves as far as the eye could see. Then on to the main event.......

Rute comes alive only at this time of year when production of Christmas sweets, biscuits, nut products, drinks and other delicacies comes to a culmination following 4 months of frenzied factory activity. Our first stop was to the Museo Artesanal del Mantecado, Turron y Mazapam. We were invited into the museum to see manufacturing artefacts from previous eras before ascending the viewing platform in the modern fabrica. The sweet smell of the production lines wafted towards us, making us all feel quite hungry, and it was just the right scent to encourage us into the shop! The tills rang merrily.

Then, on to see the Belen de Chocolate 200 metres away. To our surprise, we first saw life-size chocolate figures of Queen Sofia and Princess Letizia, complete with tiaras and evening dress - an amazing 600 kilos of chocolate was used in their manufacture. Once more we had a birds-eye view of the present day factory floor before viewing the largest Belen in Europe – a magnificent chocolate vision of Cordoba, fused with Bethlehem, and covering about half a tennis court in size. It had taken 5 workers 4 months to prepare and, after 6th January each year, it is consumed by at least 800 local children through various charities. Yum!

Lunch at the Maria Luisa Hotel followed and we enjoyed a typical and well cooked Cordoban meal, after which the winners of the Christmas Quiz were announced – the first prize being won by Barbara  (a friend of our President) who, with partner Den, we hope soon to be Estepona members.

Our coach driver, Juan, then drove us back into the centre of Rute so that we could enter the Jamon and Anis Museos. The Anis tour included sampling various brands currently made. We tasted blackberry and almond non-alcoholic digestifs before trying many other examples of the distiller’s art , for example, high-strength sweet and dry liqueurs and cream-type drinks. Once again, a flurry of merry purchasing took place in the pretty bottle-stacked shop!

On our way home we were treated by our driver to a scenic tour of breathtaking grandeur whilst travelling through the Antequera lake district and then, as if on cue, we witnessed a magnificent sunset – just beautiful.

To round things off a raffle with a difference took place as we neared home and, if you would like to know what the ‘difference’ was, don’t forget to book your place for our next day trip – watch this space for details! A selection of photos can be seen in the website gallery HERE