On our way down to Andalucía on Friday, Maria told me about an infamous restaurant situated by a mountain pass that crosses a gorge evocatively named “Despeñaperros” (= plunging dogs [from a great height]).
The restaurant, innocuously named Casa Pepe, is a veritable shrine to General Franco, the Nationalist dictator who ruled Spain for four decades. Maria had never been to this place, but suggested we check it out on the return journey.
So, today, on our way back, we were looking for it, but couldn’t find it at first, so we ended up having a rather mediocre lunch in some other place. However, just before we re-joined the motorway, we stumbled across Casa Pepe after all. We didn’t want to linger for too long, but I managed to take a couple of snaps:
Maria in front of Casa Pepe
Maria in front of Casa Pepe
Lady Of The Cakes 
Plunging dogs from a great height. Oh my. 🙂
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Yeah… it’s a stone’s throw from a village called “aldeaquemada”, which means “burnt village”. The two place names appear together on the same signpost… it makes you NOT want to stop.
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No kidding. Nothing like rolling out the welcome mat…
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The landscape is beautiful, though – it’s also a nature reserve and great for hiking 🙂
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Then it’s good enough for me! I’ll be there in 8 hours. Meet me with cake?
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Meet you in Casa Pepe 🙂
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In a strange little way that cafe looks brilliant!
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It was weird… and fascinating 🙂
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History + food, what can be better?
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Ha ha, plunging dogs and burnt village are awesome names 😉
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Spanish is great for composite word foolery. So is German 🙂
English, not so much, but it has other interesting features that allow for amusing wordplay, in particular homophones.
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Do Cockermouth or Shitterton count? And I particularly like Sandy Balls and Bell End 😉
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Did you come across these while scouting out secondary schools…?
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Ha ha, no but it would be fun to go to school in Bell End! I actually stayed at Sandy Balls and sniggered my way through the entire week. I’ve also just found a Cummings Court in my hometown, I’m very upset I didn’t know about that one as a teenager!
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I’ve stopped here on my way to Andalucía too! It is interesting to see, but I couldn’t help but feel like an impostor inside haha. Valle de los Caídos is another infamous sight worth checking out.
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Yup, I also felt like I’d intruded in some private club, not welcome, but tolerated 😉
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Erm… it is a bit unsettling to still find Franco pics around. Will check out this place on the map and avoid it! SD
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It’s not all that easy to find 😉
Did you ever see this one (shop window in Toledo). It’s still like this…
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