%20(1).png)
Made in Spain
Whether you’re an expat chasing the dream, a traveller inspired by European elegance or a foodie seeking the perfect paella, Made in Spain is your insider’s guide to all things chic, cultural and quintessentially Spanish.
Join hosts Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior García for a glamorous mix of travel, food, fashion and the rich cultural narratives that make Spain a global icon of style and sophistication.
Nalini is a former Canadian TV presenter, who has previously covered red carpet and live events, and major news stories. She channels the same wit and curiosity to the Made in Spain podcast, offering sharp, unscripted takes on everything from Spanish traditions to expat surprises.
Laura, a seasoned leadership coach and global traveler, shares her deep, first-hand knowledge of Spain—not just as her birthplace, but as a country she continues to rediscover. With a British father and Spanish mother, she considers herself a global citizen with deep roots in Spain. Her insights connect Spain’s rich past with its modern evolution, offering a unique and personal perspective on life, culture, and luxury in Spain today.
Every episode of Made in Spain explores the country’s hidden gems and exclusive experiences, but it’s more than just a guide—it’s a conversation.
The show’s Slice of Life segment gives listeners an unfiltered peek into Nalini and Laura’s daily experiences – the joys, frustrations, and unexpected moments that make life in Spain, and beyond, full of surprises. Sometimes, it’s about the reality of settling into a new country – at other times, it’s about their travels, funny mishaps, or behind-the-scenes stories from researching the podcast. No matter the topic, listeners feel like they are right there with them, stepping into their world.
Made in Spain
Horror and Delight in Guadalest
Laura and Nalini relive their recent adventures in the very special Valencian town of Guadalest. Although home to only 300 or so residents, this mountainous municipality receives over 2 million visitors a year. And with ten museums, a medieval castle, a beautiful reservoir and a tempting array of bars and restaurants, there was much on offer for our duo to enjoy!
The Guadalest theme continues into this episode’s Slice of Life segment, as the ladies sample locally produced liquor and sugar-coated almonds, as well as Nalini’s home-baked olive oil mandarin cake. Meanwhile, they discuss their recent visit to one of Guadalest’s top (and most gruesome) attractions: the Medieval Torture Museum.
micro miniature museum statue of liberty in the eye of a needle and goyas the 2nd of may 1808 on a grain of rice. Micro gigantic museum. The ethnological museum antonio marco museum. The Ethnological Museum Antonio Marco Museum, there's a little model of Bethlehem and various other model buildings the Museum of Torture or Historical Medieval Museum, the Guadalajara Valley Museum, the Rivera Girona Museum, which is a contemporary art museum, the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum, classic and Casa Orduna Municipal Museum. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten that we have listed here from Guadalest, which is the topic of today's podcast, Made in Spain.
Speaker 2:Welcome to episode five everyone, we are your co-host, Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior-Garcia. We are super happy to be here discussing with you the unique, quirky and very, very special town of Guadalest.
Speaker 1:It is okay. I first discovered the town when we moved here and I needed a dog sitter.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I just looked up and she said oh, you're in this town. She said I'm 10, 15 minutes from you. It's very easy to find you, just drive up through the town and on the other side and I showed you the other day when we went up there and I showed you the other day when we went up there the drive. For anybody who has not done that drive it can be a little bit nerve wracking because you're Especially if you're afraid of heights?
Speaker 1:Yes, you're going up the mountain. You go up and then you kind of come down again. So I went and that was the first time I sort of discovered it. But I used to go, not all the time, but anytime I needed somebody to watch the dog I would have to drive the dog up there. So I became very familiar with the town and because it's close to where I am I didn't not that I didn't think it was special, but it was just somewhere that I went. But it is such a cute, very interesting place.
Speaker 2:Yes, guadales is a gorgeous little town. I would say it's a. When you're driving up there you have to look twice to kind of go wait a second. Is there like a fortress or a castle built on the actual mountain? So it's like a peak and on it there's this fortress, and we'll talk a little bit about that in a in a little bit here. But really what's spectacular about it is, if you're visiting the costa blanca, if you're visiting, you know, altea, benedorm, even valencia, and you know you want to do a little drive, you are going to find this very special town. I think total is about 25 minutes away from the beach. So it's about 25 minutes away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not that far it's close.
Speaker 2:As Nalini said, the drive is not for the faint-hearted if you are afraid of heights, if not, the road is absolutely fine, but it's very, very special. So a few very unique things about guadalis. So I didn't know when we first started talking about doing an episode about guadalis, just exactly how many people visit there, because sometimes when you go in the summer parking is a little crazy. So recommendation if you can get there in the spring when all the almond trees on the drive are in blossom. So we've got actually some beautiful almonds here on the table that came from there, but the almond trees are in blossom. You see also quite a lot of olive trees and you know just like the gorgeous, also like little flowers that are growing on the trees and stuff. I think spring is definitely an ideal time to visit.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's really stunning and I would recommend that if you are driving up there and you're not taking a tour.
Speaker 2:Make a day out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you make a little. I mean, yeah, you could spend the entire day there, for sure. But first of all you would, I would recommend finding a restaurant and making a reservation. Number one because, you can't really. It's a small town. You sort of have to have a reservation to get a nice table. It's absolutely you sort of have to have a reservation to get you know a nice table.
Speaker 2:Absolutely true. There are a lot of different restaurants, I think, some that are particularly special. There's one that's called El Rio, which is actually where we bought some of our products here.
Speaker 2:And again it's right in the middle of that mountain area, then you have one that actually has views to the valley. So in Spanish it's called El Valle de Guadales, so it's the valley. So in spanish it's called el valle de guadales, so it's the valley. In certain places you can actually see the sea. So also in the summer, some people do swim in the reservoir. So I believe you can swim. I look this up and I think it's not like quote unquote, forbidden to swim. So if it is sorry, but I think you can swim in there. So the cool thing and the reason why we're talking about when to visit it does get very, very busy in the summer and actually, when we looked at the numbers, guadales receives that astonishing over two million people on average a year that visit the town.
Speaker 1:I, I believe it. If you decide that, for example, um you know, the odd time will say let's walk the dogs around the reservoir, and it's in the middle of the summer. I mean, we've made that mistake before because, first of all, you cannot, number one, get through the town and there is absolutely zero parking yes, so if you're gonna take a tour, maybe not a bad idea. You know when you go on the bus.
Speaker 2:you don't have to worry about parking If you are driving up there. Definitely need to plan to spend a little time Plan ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, leave early. And I would also suggest that there were a lot of places, like when we went up this week there were. I mean, we kind of went last minute. But you can pack a little picnic, you can. There are little lookout points, you can stop, you can pull the car over safely, like not in a dangerous area at all, and have a little picnic Picnic next to the reservoir, I think it's gorgeous, so romantic as well.
Speaker 2:If you want to take like a little, you know, like a romantic picnic, I think it's also a beautiful place to do that. So, almost, or around two million people average a year, and the interesting thing, is actually very funny total number of people who live there, would you say inhabitants, or is under 300 people?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's so it's.
Speaker 2:If you think about that, you know like about 300 people that are actually registered and live in guadales and two million people visiting a year may shed some light into the crazy amount of museums they have. So we just read it at the beginning of the episode, but I told lalini, like you're gonna see some pretty odd museums, like one of the things that you know really shocked me is that when I read about the salt and pepper museum yeah, like okay, so the what? What do you call those?
Speaker 2:the shakers, the shakers right salt and pepper shaker museum. I believe they have a collection of over 20,000 salt and pepper shakers and now every time I see a cute salt and pepper shaker, I think well, I wonder if they'll have this in the museum.
Speaker 1:She picks up, she's like oh look, how cute so let's talk a little bit about the history.
Speaker 2:So the actual fortress was built originally by the Muslims and it dates from the 11th century.
Speaker 1:It is an ancient town.
Speaker 2:So medieval, you know like it goes from medieval to the modern ages. The fortress itself was shook by two major earthquakes around 1600s and 1700s, which is interesting because this area is not really prone to earthquakes, but it seems to be that at that point there were two major earthquakes that almost destroyed the fortress. And then in the mid-1600s, the Orduña family from the Basque country built the castle of Guadalés. That castle of Guadalés was basically owned or ruled by them. I'm not sure if you say ruled like in the 16th 1700s but, it was yeah, they were the owners.
Speaker 2:You could say they controlled the area?
Speaker 1:They did, and that family controlled the area, if I'm not mistaken, for 300 years, yeah, the entirety of the history of Guadaleste, until it turned over to the municipal town. Yes, so 300 years.
Speaker 2:So if you go to the museum you're going to see paintings from the family, you know you actually get to learn a little bit more about them. But it was a if you, if you look at the in terms of where the wars happened and you know the, the Muslim people had to leave that area.
Speaker 2:That was one of the remaining areas because it was extremely strategic for war. Now when you go to the town and you see where the fortress is located and you can see everything, the valley, basically, the way I kind of visualize it is, imagine you are in that fortress. You know they're going gonna take days to get there. If they're coming up with like an army and you can see them, you have like the whole time while they're coming up. You know to plan because you can see them from the fortress. So it's a very, very cool place. The reservoir itself is almost 10 kilometers to do a full walk around, but you can't walk around the whole reservoir. And what's neat about it is a lot of people think when influencers and different people post pictures from the reservoir that there's a filter on it Because the water looks so blue.
Speaker 1:I've taken, I've gone up there a few times with the dogs and it is. It's this turquoise blue. I don't know why it's that color. I have no idea why.
Speaker 2:But the water is really beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:It's almost like you're on a beach in Barbados you know, and it's like that, that kind of blue.
Speaker 1:And there is actually. Have you gone for a walk around? It yes you gone for a walk? Yes, yeah, there is a beach area. Have you gone to the beach? Yeah, there's a little beach, so I have not seen, but I did go in the winter, so it was a bit cold. I don't know if in the summer people set up on the beach and go in the water.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure apparently, they do seem to go in the water, which would be a an interesting uh experience. It's probably cold, like most of these like bodies of water when they're like in mountains, lagoons, reservoirs. People live in the back there though they do.
Speaker 1:There's actually a lot of different, like countryside houses there, because if you walk across the bridge for anybody who's been to Guadaleste and the reservoir, if you walk across that bridge, often you have to kind of move to the side because a car is coming through, yeah, and they kind of go up the road and then they turn off and you realize this is a neighborhood. People actually live here.
Speaker 2:Absolutely One of the 300 people that is registered in the town, probably lives there.
Speaker 1:We're probably super annoyed that on a sunny, warm weekend, everybody's at the reservoir.
Speaker 2:The cool thing, though, is that the people who own the museums, who own the restaurants, who own the cafes obviously the town lives of tourism, so everybody is very happy and welcoming to see the people from outside there, and that's not the case everywhere in Spain, as we've noticed and experienced in different places, but there it's really, really welcoming. Also, there's little towns around the area as well. You don't just want to stay in guadalesta and want to see kind of more the rural, I would say, part of this area. So benimante, benita, chel, benifato, so you'll hear a lot of benny, benny, benny, benny comes exactly comes from.
Speaker 2:You know, when those areas were populated by mostly muslim, right, you know so, and also the architecture and the agriculture yeah you know.
Speaker 2:So you see the terraces, as they call them yeah you know where you have the trees to make the most out of the space. In that kind of hilly and mountainous area they have all these rocks on the side that really delineate the terraces. That comes from that culture and that's why one of the things I love about this area is that the mix of cultures that has been brewing here you have Muslim, catholic, jewish through hundreds of years and that's really created this very special kind of spot, I would say.
Speaker 1:And it's also I mean you. You can use Guadalest as an example, but you can go to so many different towns here in Spain and they're I mean, they're modern, but they're also preserved in time. Oh, absolutely you know it's like you're living with one foot in both worlds and I was actually really sad because when we went um, I think we went for lunch. A few weeks ago we went to Benefato Um.
Speaker 2:I saw a sign for, I think, new apartments.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I thought oh, I mean, I understand its progress and you know it brings money to the economy and to the town etc. But it's just so pretty, you kind of want it to stay the same.
Speaker 2:And also some of the houses. The townhouses are really hundreds of years old, now they've been rebuilt and obviously we don't have donkeys inside the house anymore, you know which some of them actually had like a little space for their animals inside, but they're still the original ones, same thing as some of the families. You'll still speak to the great grandchildren, you know of people who are still there. Yeah, of who are still there.
Speaker 1:We had a lovely lunch in Benefato.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely. I'm sorry, I don't know the name of the restaurant. It is called La Venta de Benefato and it's been there. You know you can see the pictures of thing as well. That is worth mentioning about that kind of beautiful area is that you know it's a you can go for the day experience. But they've also built a lot of very unique hotels in that area.
Speaker 2:And that is very recent. Those hotels 10 years ago, 12 years ago, weren't there. But you have the VIVOD which is V-I-V-O-O-D. It's kind of a hard one. That's on the more expensive side, but that is in the Benimante Guadalest area.
Speaker 1:Actually I think their hotel, the back entrance to it, you can go right from the reservoir. Really yeah, because I know when I I was walking around it says there's a sign where the property you can you have your passkey, you can go in as a guest from the that side.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice, so that one I've. Every time I've looked to stay the same price yeah, it's like 500 euros a night or something like that, so it is on the pricier side, but it's a unique experience. They have a nice restaurant there, focus on, like you know, healthy food etc. And just recently we also found out there's two, uh, new developments.
Speaker 2:There's one that's called a galaxy, yeah which is one of those where you're actually in a bubble yeah, the bubble you can see the sky, the stars, you know, while you're sleeping there. So basically, it's supposed to give you a in nature experience without having to camp, which I am not a camper.
Speaker 1:But now, laura, you just told me there's glamping I'll do glamping.
Speaker 2:We'll do an episode on glamping well, there's glamping there now from yeah, near Benitache, and I would almost consider the bubbles almost like glamping you know I think so. I mean it's a hotel, but at the end of the day you're basically in a big plastic bubble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the glamping. I saw they have these really cool tents. It's pet friendly. Yes, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:I mean it's not directly in Guadalest, it's a few like a five ten minute drive from guadalest but very close to the area so you can either do the bubbles if you're on a smaller budget, you can do the v-bought if you're on a larger budget. Definitely eating out is not expensive. You know there's a couple of slightly higher end restaurants, but not expensive at all. And for those that want to see the cultural side of what it looks like in more rural areas of Spain that still preserve that beauty of ancient history, definitely the spot to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. It's a really nice day trip and this week we actually went up for to a little shop, a little local artisan shop.
Speaker 2:So I would say that when you're up there, I would definitely look at the liquors. They have some interesting local liquors that we'll be trying on our challenge that we'll do for social media, so watch out for that. Lots of hearty dishes as well, you know. So some of the dishes from up there. One of them is called olleta de blat in valenciano. So there's a lot of valenciano speaking people there and the olleta de blat is actually made. Blat, I think, is trigo, which is oh, what do you call that in english? Trigo, not corn, it wouldn't be corn.
Speaker 2:Like the wheat, yeah, wheat. So it's the actual wheat cereal, you know. So that's what they make it off, so it's very hearty, so you know, it's very, very good the market.
Speaker 1:We went to the man there. He was so lovely. I mean we walk into all these places and we say, hey, we're doing a podcast, hey, we're doing a podcast. Hi, we're here, they're always and we never.
Speaker 2:I mean we usually call to find out if they're they're closed, yeah, for siesta.
Speaker 1:And we just walk in and say, yeah, we're doing a podcast, and they're always so happy and excited. Oh, really, that's interesting here. Let me show you this, let me show you that. So we asked them specifically um for products, yes, from the area which, first of all, we have the almonds yes, so we're not gonna try here.
Speaker 2:But nalini asked me you know, have you ever opened one of these almonds? I'm like, yes, you can do it with just two stones. It's not exactly very, um, sexy, I would say it like that but you know, it's a, I would say, very rudimentary. You just like take it and open it. And she tried it and it's just a natural almond it is. This just hasn't been toasted, it hasn't been processed. So and then the kind of products you can find there that you want to definitely take with you. If you like honey, there is a lot of honey production, uh, fresh honey, some of it made from, like the. They keep the bees near the lavender, uh, so the honey actually has a little bit of that infusion of the lavender. So honey, almonds, nispero, which I don't even know how you call nispero it's apricot apricot it's not apricot, it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not an apricot, it's a. It looks like an apricot, it looks like an apricot, but it does. It looks like an apricot, but it's not the texture, the skin, it's quite different. So it's still sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, interestingly enough, I don't know what it is with our tie-ins with Japan. It's a little like I want to move there or something, but there's a tremendous amount of export of Nispros to Japan, because the Japanese really like it to um sort of liken it to a fruit. I would say apricot is the closest apricot would be the closest, with a little bit more acidic than but they grow wild yeah, I mean, you can just go on a walk and just pick, pick them wild used.
Speaker 2:There used to be a ton more as well, but they started changing that for the production of avocados, because everybody does so crazy about, you know, avocado and everything. Avocado on toast, you know, everyone's become avocado obsessed and I think people started figuring out in the area that, hey, it's probably more productive for us to sell avocados and Nisperos, because also Nisperos are very delicate. Yeah, they're very, yeah. So avocados. Nisperos, because also nisperos are very delicate yeah, they're very, yeah. So avocados, you know, last a long time and nisperos, like you basically touch them and they get bruised, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like it's a very, very delicate thing um okay, so it's a beautiful town, one west, it is accessible the road I mean we talked to it is a little bit of a white knuckle drive.
Speaker 2:Not because and there's two ways to go. There's one that's way more of a white knuckle drive, and then there's like a new road.
Speaker 1:That's very nice, calmer, yes um, but the roads are good. Yeah, the roads are like they're well paved, it's just you are driving up. It's a height. So if you're a little worried about that, just take your time don't jink and drive people, especially not up there and don't feel the pressure of somebody behind you who lives one of the 300 people who live up there and know the just you know they'll pass you eventually. Just take your time, yes, that's what I would say.
Speaker 2:And for such a small little town, all these very interesting, odd museums oh my god, so we'll talk about it in our slice of life, yeah, in a moment here. But yes, there are definitely some very odd museums and, without trying to be any kind of offensive or disrespectful to the people that own the museums, I think that some of the people that own them are a little bit odd also, because I think you have to be a little odd to own something that odd and dedicate your life to something like that Salt and pepper shaker, it's like a very specific thing.
Speaker 2:It's like I collect, you know, salt and pepper shakers, so yeah, so that kind of thing. But I do the other thing as well that I think for nature lovers, if you are taking a hike especially around the area there's a number of beautiful hikes I would say watch out for the wild boar there's wild boars are a thing here and people think it's a joke, but it's actually a thing, they're a thing and they are. I think they do not like people penguins, like people wild boar do not like no.
Speaker 1:I think I saw a sign on the golf course this week with the the boar on it oh yeah, it doesn't surprise.
Speaker 2:I've seen greens on golf courses destroyed by wild boar.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure it's on the driving range. Yeah, doesn't surprise me. I went this week with my son and I I said I think that's a sign for the wild the wild like don't get me wrong when they're little they're cute, but they can be quite vicious here.
Speaker 2:It is a thing you have to see a bunch of little rabbits as well. There's tons of rabbit. Uh, again, interesting with the food and the culture. When we went to Benefato for lunch and I know Nalini was like looking at us because there was an interesting mix of things on the table, but rabbit is definitely something that's very prevalent in restaurants in that area. Again, there's a lot of rabbit that are in that area, so I think that's not uh weird to find. Specifically, my favorite is the rabbit with tomato sauce, because my grandma used to make that and I had it there and it was absolutely delicious. So you will and you'll also see some more gamey sort of um dishes, you know because it's typical it's in the mountain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly kind of what you would expect even boarar stew.
Speaker 2:That's not, you know, odd to find, but again, it's kind of a tougher meat. So definitely I would say, if you have the chance to visit Guadalist, I would definitely take it and make a day out of it. Hopefully the weather is nice for you Again. You can do the little fortress, you can see the castles. You can do the little the fortress, you can see the castles, you can see the museums and you can go see the reservoir.
Speaker 1:Take some beautiful pictures and have a picnic. Even if you don't want to eat in a restaurant, just take a picnic. Yeah, there's lots of places where you can pull over safely and, you know, have a nice, nice afternoon, excellent, okay slice of life.
Speaker 2:So for the slice of life today we're going to be trying a number of different things. So we decided we have something a little heartier from the mountain but we should talk before we get into.
Speaker 1:Well, we can get into the food, but, um, do you want to pour our?
Speaker 2:yes, let's pour the drink, okay, so I am going to try and not disturb the microphone here, so our drink, it is a licor de nispero, which is there it says, serve very cold. So we've got a little bit of ice here and it's a liquor, uh, made from the nispero, and this is actually made in callosa, which is the next town to guadales.
Speaker 1:But they sell it in Guadales In the little market. But I'm going to let's talk about our trip to the torture museum, which is it's just down. I mean, guadales is a very small town, it's quite easy to find. You get to the center of the village and hang a right and walk down the alley and you will find a museum dedicated to torture.
Speaker 2:So I have a little confession to make.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to say this was fully intentional, but kind of a little bit, because I am someone that likes the odd things sometimes and I have never been able to rope anyone in or convince anyone to go into this torture museum with me.
Speaker 2:Except me, and it was, you know, one of these things. I was like. I was like oh, I'm curious, I want to go, but it's definitely not something I want to do by myself. And then I said to Nalini, oh, let's just go in here. And she's like really, I'm like, yeah, I think we should do it.
Speaker 1:And we're like, okay, but yeah, I was with my two boys um, wait, cheers, cheers, and your husband to guadalis.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, that is very, very smooth oh, it doesn't taste like water uh, it's not.
Speaker 1:Let's see. Let's see that. What's the alcohol percentage on that? I'm just 15. Oh, it's not too bad it's actually really nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah you, this is a nice, almost like a dessert wine almost so it's a nice liquor, that's very nice.
Speaker 1:It mixes very well with my earlier martini, yum, yum. But okay, the torture museum it is. I mean it's not jokes, I mean it's not some kind of.
Speaker 2:It's actually very serious. It's very serious because they are ancient. The moment you walk in there you feel like, okay, this is a space that you need to be respectful in exactly, it's not one of these funny um you know kind of, you know, halloweeny type places it's really a museum where they display torture devices from, but not medieval times, the real ones. Yes, so it's a collection of torture devices, some of them dating back to like 500.
Speaker 1:You know like yeah it's yeah and they're um.
Speaker 2:It's quite frightening a lot of stuff from the inquisition, yes, and that was not a good period for this country no so the spanish inquisition.
Speaker 2:You know, I I've always loved the history of, uh, witchcraft, witches. I find it quite fascinating, and to me, the fact that some of the rationale behind some of what the people did during the Inquisition so there were a ton of devices to figure out, or a lot of different methods to figure out if you were a witch or not but if you think about the rationale behind some of these devices, it's absolutely crazy Because basically, for example, one of the things that they did is they would tie a bunch of rocks on your feet, throw you into the water and if you don't come back up, you're not a witch. Well, at that point, you're dead. So what is the actual point? And this is like every device oh, actual point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and this is like every device oh, we're gonna burn you, and if you burn, that means you're not a witch. They actually have a stake in the one of the back, uh, little areas, yes, they do they have an actual?
Speaker 2:stake yeah and what was crazy, what we found out about that is the. What would kill the people that were burnt at the stake fear not just that, the, the fumes. So the fumes from the fire, yes, thank goodness, because it would that killed them before the actual fire so there's a stake. There was these like what do you call those?
Speaker 1:the stretch like yeah, like stretchers, like where they just pull your limbs apart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of crazy stuff and my first, one of my first comments when we went in there is okay, if human creativity, you know, can create this, you would think if people use this kind of creativity for the good would be in a much better place as a society, exactly because the the amount of like stuff that you think. How would someone a thousand years ago think of creating this for the purpose of torturing someone else?
Speaker 1:torture and also what was wrong with humanity. A lot, a lot. It's actually a really um, I mean, it's an interesting place. I wouldn't take kids in there not that it's.
Speaker 2:Do not take your kids in there, especially if they're little. Yeah, okay, there's nothing gory in there, not?
Speaker 1:that it's. Do not take your kids in there, especially if they're little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, there's nothing gory in there, but it's just very like.
Speaker 1:There's no way you can explain anything in there like hey, what's this? Table for you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, to rip you from limb to limb, yeah and and also there's a couple of, like, very odd things. I'm gonna ask you in a moment, nalini, what you what, which piece shocked you the most, and oh, I don don't know what to say, and then I'll describe mine.
Speaker 2:But I will say this we asked the person that was at the front of the museum and this is again going back to our little stories of how we do our content creation we just go up to people and ask like hey, can you give us a little bit of history about this? And it turned out he was the owner. Like can you give us a little bit of history about this? And it turned out he was the owner and he owns a museum with his wife. They bought it, uh, from his parents. Yeah, it's been through a few generations, few generations. It is a private collection, yes, and he told us it was so crazy going to buy all these different pieces from collectors that you can imagine someone that has a torture piece from hundreds of years ago has usually very odd collections. Yeah, so their experience is doing that. But he said something that really stuck with me. Yeah, he said you know people come in here and they go oh the cruelty.
Speaker 2:He said we still torture people, just in a different way it's true, you know obviously there's wars and there's all kinds of things still going on, but apart from that, he said you know we torture people on social media. Yeah, you know there's people hating on each other and trolling each other. Yeah, I'm not saying that's as bad as the stretch chair there, but it's still. You know, it is true, it was a good, it was a good reflection.
Speaker 1:He was very philosophical, very, actually very interesting moment there of like, oh wow, you know like and again we walked in, we paid, and for anybody going to guadalajara you should budget a little bit of money, for if you're going to the museums, they are not free. There is a bit of an entry fee. It might be five or ten euro, so just keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but um, and I mean when we say museums, they're not necessarily you're not they're not like 10 000 square feet yeah, they're small little me, so just pick, pick and choose what you want to see and just have that in your little budget.
Speaker 2:But do it contribute to the economy? Yeah, exactly it was.
Speaker 1:Um, he was, yeah, he was just very philosophical. And again we told him after the fact. We started asking him questions and we said, oh, we're actually doing a podcast. And again he was like, oh, it was so interesting. And then just started telling us about the history of it. Um, and there's a real kind of there's a bit of a heavy energy when you go in there.
Speaker 2:So if you believe or you don't believe in you know any kind of like energetics but spirituality. You walk in there, it is heavy, you can feel it. It takes you a few minutes. When you walk out there, it is heavy, you can feel it, it takes you a few minutes when you walk out. There are a lot of people who suffered in the devices that they have in there and suffered very horrible things. So and he did say you know we took pictures and took videos, but we know we didn't sit on the chair or anything.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:He said the amount of stuff they've had to like remove spikes or something because people will go want to take a picture in there and like they'll literally like sit on the chair and you know he's like they're making kind of fun of it. I'm like not criticizing but, man, you know like be respectful because yeah, like you said there's, there is a heavier atmosphere. We did ask him if we could go for halloween. He said yes they're open on halloween yes, I mean so, like, definitely, that's the halloween plan coming up there.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you, nalini, what was your most shocking piece in the in the museum I would say I mean not that it was shocking, but that a lot of the pieces uh were to torture women specifically and generally on the most sensitive parts on a woman's body. I mean, they have specific devices for that yeah, which?
Speaker 2:again, if you think about the people who are performing the torture, mostly men yeah, so it's a little disturbing, I mean interesting.
Speaker 1:It is history it is, but it is disturbing.
Speaker 2:It is disturbing so one that one that really I cannot forget. It's like, first of all, society, at different points, has had a thing about ridiculing people, and in the streets that's something that is interesting. Like they had a lot of these masks that they would put on people. If you were, like the town, drunk and you know you, you know they paraded you with this mask. One of the masks for torture was this metal mask that almost looked like a Hannibal Lecter sort of thing, yeah, and it had like a tube in front of it and it was like a metal tube, and this device was designed to stick a rat in there and then close it, and the only way out for the rat was to eat through your face. So it's like this is such, it was so gory, like I was thinking like, oh my God, I mean there's no listen, there's no technology in there, there's no interactive, it's just.
Speaker 1:It's actually a very old fashioned type of museum in which you have to read the information. There's no, you know, pressing buttons or anything in there. You read it and you think, oh okay, this is, this is real like is this for real?
Speaker 2:yes, it is, and this is the original piece. So that's a little about the torture museum let's talk about what we have here.
Speaker 1:Food wise, I'm getting hungry, so well, I said, since we're doing um something on a little mountain town, I would do some lentils.
Speaker 2:So can we try them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, let's try them. So I made these. Let's see.
Speaker 2:So here's a spoon.
Speaker 1:I just tried to make something that I thought would be, you know, hearty, and lentils, by the way, are very common in Spain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, and a lot of times when you eat lentils in this area, they'll have chorizo, they'll have ribs, so a lot of kind of pork in there.
Speaker 1:I don't eat pork, so I always make it without.
Speaker 2:So this is our vegetarian option, for it's delicious though you like it.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. It's actually really good and I made a cake which we can try.
Speaker 2:So tell us a little bit about the cake. Nalini the cake.
Speaker 1:I did it with olive oil. It's an olive oil orange cake and I took the actually olive oil mandarin Because I took oh okay, hold on a second, I took the mandarins off my tree, right, and that's pretty much the.
Speaker 2:So what are the ingredients? Is it like flour oil? It's mandarin juice, yeah and then one more thing, yeah, that maybe you can put this side is we have the almendras, which is the almonds coated in sugar that then gets toasted. These are good, so we're bringing the crunch back to the episode you want some yes so here's a, for this is like an asmr. Is that what you call it asmr?
Speaker 1:experience within the podcast wait okay, I apologize if the cake is not good oh my god, almond, I love almond well, it's mandarin olive oil cake, which maybe doesn't sound appetizing, but let's try oh my god it's delicious, the thing is good, okay.
Speaker 2:So I kind of like the cake with the almond this cake is good really good wow okay, try it with anboro liquor.
Speaker 1:Listen, I'm not even joking about it, it's good.
Speaker 2:We're going to have to do an episode on dieting.
Speaker 1:We did a good job. I'm not a baker. I don't like baking.
Speaker 2:So the fact that it comes out. We want to share the wonderful foods from the area with all our listeners.
Speaker 1:This is delicious Okay.
Speaker 2:So we are heading into.
Speaker 1:Phrase of the day. Phrase of the day Okay.
Speaker 2:So for this phrase of the day. It's an old phrase and I tried to do something related to the mountain, given that guadaleste is in the mountain, so I'll say it in spanish first and then we'll talk about the meaning. It's got a little bit of mysticism to it, so I thought it would also be appropriate with what we talked about with the torture museum and everything. Okay. So it is el que va al monte y no coge romero no encuentra el amor verdadero wow, that's a lot okay, so el que va al monte y no coge romero, no encuentra el amor verdadero okay, I got.
Speaker 1:There's rosemary in there, yes, okay, so who?
Speaker 2:goes to the mountain and doesn't pick up rosemary does not find amor verdadero.
Speaker 1:Love, true, love, true love.
Speaker 2:Whoever goes to the mountain and doesn't pick up rosemary doesn't find true love. Oh wow, yes, love. Whoever goes to the mountain and doesn't pick up rosemary doesn't find true love. Oh wow, yes. So this one's not like a kind of trying to figure out if there's a meaning to it. Yeah, it's more a little bit, like I said, mystical, because apparently rosemary had the power to attract right so supposedly, when you go to the mountain, you pick up rosemary to find love. Nice or to strengthen your love.
Speaker 1:That's nice, yeah, and it's growing wild in Guadalest.
Speaker 2:It's everywhere. You can find it very easily. It is everywhere, rosemary and thyme as well.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, I like that. Okay, I didn't have to, I didn't have to figure out what it meant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one, no, but I just wanted to do something that was a little bit related to the mountain.
Speaker 1:That's really nice.
Speaker 2:El que va al monte y no coge romero, no encuentra el amor verdadero.
Speaker 1:Okay, so next time you're walking through the mountains, pick up some rosemary there you go Alright.
Speaker 2:cheers, Laura. See you soon and please leave us a comment.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:We look forward to hearing from you Until the next episode, where we're going to be talking about beauty products from spain.