WbtA - part 3. Chocolate bliss in Pampaneira

As we were driving between Orgiva and Pitres, we passed one of the more famous villages in the Alpujarras - often described as the prettiest - one of a three that overlook the Porqueira Gorge along with Bubion and Capileira, which are higher up the mountain still.

Clearly it had a more touristy feel to it than Orgiva and Pitres, with shops displaying the locally- made rugs and terracotta, along with t-shirts and Spanish bulls, but in a gentle way. We had promised the children an ice-cream in Orgiva but were met with looks of credulity there - heavens, it was only February! Far too early in the season to be stocking ice-cream! No one had any at all, not even the little supermarket. However, Romy was not going to give up so easily and made a thorough search of the shops when we arrived in Pitres - and finding them all closed only increased her desire to eat ice-cream. She was very hopeful when she saw more encouraging signs in Pampaneira.

Look at the pavement!!

The village was so beautifully clean, with gorgeous pavements. Have you ever stopped to look at pavements? In Huddersfield, they were made from lovely local sandstone and dotted by globs of chewing gum, dropped over the years and trodden flat, almost impossible to remove and now almost impossible to distinguish from their original resting place.
Here in Alcalá la Real, the pavements are tiled in red and white square patterns and are impossibly slippy when it rains - as it is doing just now.

In Pampaneira, the pavements have little shallow channels running down the middle. Bear in mind all the streets were on a steep incline and that above us were the might, snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains, obviously the channels were for the water that must come through the village as the snow starts to melt.

Get ready to jump out of the way of the water, Romy!

As well as finding ice-cream here, we also found the most amazing chocolate shop. The children tried to steer me away from it, thinking I would be upset that someone else had done exactly the thing I wanted to do. But my curiousity was greater than my envy.

A glimpse of something wonderful going on!

I went in - or rather down, because it was below street level - and before long, was chatting to one of the people who worked there, telling him all about my own love of chocolate making.
 










He invited me into the workshop to have a closer look at everything and it was all I could do to stop myself rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck in! (I did ask if I could work there but they had enough people already...)

And the smell was delicious. And all those lovely bars of different flavoured chocolate, all stacked up on shelves - that was when the envy hit a bit, I confess. Ah well, it was food for thought.

Whatever else Pampaneira has to offer, for me, it was one of the most lovely chocolate shops I have ever had the pleasure to visit - not for its sophisticated creations because there were few of those, but for its attention to flavour and quality and its willingness to let the passers by see how it was done.