Molinos Street in Molinicos
Take the test: one of the words that is most associated with Albacete is 'humor '? Surely yes. It is the land of the chanantes, of redneck humor that exploits the most deeply rooted customs and of the mixture of laughter with surreal situations. Well, before his comics became so fashionable, three villages of the Sierra del Segura inspired and served as the real setting for the masterpiece of Joseph Louis Rope , a thoroughbred from Albacete who has sucked up since he was a child the idiosyncrasies and oddities of the small-town idiosyncrasy of Spain. Although, yes, in his script for ** 'Amanece que no es poco' ** he gave a twist to Castilian routine making it more unlikely but at the same time more tender and irresistible. For this reason, why fool ourselves, at some point we have all wanted to take a motorcycle with a sidecar and make the same visit that good old Teodoro (Antonio Resines) did with his father named Jimmy (Luis Ciges). And if you haven't seen the movie, write it down as homework for this weekend And don't worry, Ayna, Liétor and Molinicos are municipalities with a beauty independent of the adventures of the film.
Whether by motorcycle, car or tractor, access to these villages is very promising . Especially since it zigzags through the natural park of Calares del Río Mundo, where waterfalls and ravines are the star of the landscape. Right on a bend in the road, near Ayna, is the first icon that draws the visitor into the imagery and props of the film. Planted on a viewpoint in the middle of the gorge is replica motorcycle with sidecar in which its protagonists arrived. And the instinct is unstoppable, everyone takes a photo and tries to put that face of stoicism before the stupefaction that this couple wore during the movie.
Liétor, the 'top' town of Albacete
And with this high you get to Ayna , the municipality that appeared the most in the film. In his school, the children do not sing in chorus how important and amazing the heart is, but their twisted streets give imprints that would have perfectly fit in the film. White houses, ladies in black from top to bottom and young men whose pronunciation skills are quite poor (yes, they do not talk about philosophers and contemporary thought). In the hermitage of Los Remedios, in the heart of the town, the aided interpretation center of this route where the links between this land and the plot of the film are established. It may not seem like the most appealing stop, but it ends up being a pleasant surprise due to the Mudejar coffered ceilings inside the building.
Probably the most remembered moment of the dense script and culmination of its surrealism is that of the man who is born like a plant in the garden. Well, there it is today! represented with a statue as a tribute to one of the great ideas of its creator. If the plan includes spending the night in the place, do not forget to approach the highest point of the town to see the sunrise. Of course, just in case, better do it alone, without the presence of the meritorious, so that the commander does not get involved in shooting with the star king. And no, don't be afraid, you're not going to find the suicide bomber on the road, it's not a matter of getting scared just for the sake of it.
Jimmy and Teodoro, two men and a sidecar through Albacete
lietor it's quite a surprise. Story line aside, it is a top town , full of stately mansions of noble origin that infect the rest of the municipality. Here Cuerda found the precious hermitage of Bethlehem , where the grotesque masses from the movie where the priest considered the Eucharist as if it were a show. It is an authentic treasure for Spanish art, since it houses the largest amount of popular painting from the 18th century in our country. Come on, a total of 600 meters of frescoes and polychrome for which it is worth putting aside the constant visual references to the film and claiming it on its own.
The route ends in Molinicos , a town with a very funny name and a piece of the square that was used to shoot the scenes in which the assembled people listened to their mayor, including the one in which the councilor asked his neighbors to make a flash back with little success . This is a good point to eat a little bit of the region , with a ** museum dedicated to the níscalo ** that sums up the excellent taste of its inhabitants for food. Because, let's not forget, as much as Cuerda tried to circumvent the canons of society and propose a rural parallel universe, the food was not touched. Do not play with that.
Ayna, the most filmed town in the movie