Most visitors to Spain will look for something really Spanish to take back home as a souvenir, or to give as a present to family, friends, colleagues, and cat sitters. And so it was for us before we lived here. Our two week summer holiday in Spain would often be slightly marred by the pressure of finding something interesting, beautiful, fun, useful or tasty to take back home. It was always a challenge to find items that were really Spanish, and we certainly didn’t get it right every time, as evidenced by our attic in the UK which still holds some tasteless memorabilia of past holidays!
Lots of souvenirs on sale everywhere
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Knowing where to go
Some years ago, holidaying with friends near Priego de Cordoba, we visited La Rambla (a town near Cordoba), which we had read was full of amazing ceramic factories and shops. A very disappointing visit. On the road to La Rambla, we found dozens of places with shelves upon shelves of crockery, but it all looked a bit gaudy and mass-produced. So we returned without buying anything and vowed never to go again.
But now we live in Spain, we keep hearing about La Rambla and its excellent ceramics, and we thought we’d give it another chance – maybe there is more to it than we thought. So, off we went, in search of lovely ceramics!
Dozens of ceramics shops to explore!
This time round, we looked into many more shops. And we realised that each shop has its own style, its own particular brand. So when you enter a store you can often see if the house style is something that fits with your taste, or not and make a quick decision to move on. Until you find THE shop! The one that’s just right, the one that has everything you could ever wish for (and more), without it being too costly, and where you could just keep on buying. Well, that happened to Hilary and I anyway. And so now we have our ‘go-to’ shop in La Rambla. We will occasionally look around some of the other stores to just see what there is, but usually return to ‘our’ shop to buy.
La Rambla, el pueblo
Last week when we were looking to buy some presents in ‘our’ store, we decided to explore the town of La Rambla. The drive into the centre didn’t look very promising. We parked the car, and looked for a place to have a coffee, but there seemed to be little going on, and not even a ceramics shop to keep us interested.
But we changed our view of La Rambla when we reached the town centre square, which was really pretty with palm trees and lovely-smelling jasmine, a beautiful town hall and two cafes to choose from – one of which turned out to be the terrace of an old people’s home. It struck me that this place must be amazing to grow old in, if you can have a room overlooking the lovely square, enjoying a coffee (or more likely a drink if it’s after 11am!) with your friends on the terrace, and all right in the heart of the town. The Spanish really do look after their senior citizens, it seems.
Old people’s home on the square
La Rambla church
We also noticed that the church door was open, so we had a quick peep inside – beautiful and simple, full of light. And plenty of social distancing measures, with only three people allowed in each pew – all very clearly signposted – and hand sanitiser at the entrance. We live in strange times …
Hand sanitiser before entering the church
La Rambla ceramics museum
Walking around the centre, we came across the local ceramics museum – what a find! We followed the instructions at the entrance for sanitising our hands and pushing the door open with the kitchen roll provided (COVID-19 measures are done very well in Spain), and we walked into a different world.
The museum provided a potted (ha!) ceramics history of La Rambla, and displayed the pieces that had won yearly competitions over the past 20 years. It was awesome! From old Spanish design to hyper modern, with many of them intricately designed and painted by hand in beautiful colours. This is what ceramic art is all about. They were all museum pieces, and not for sale, unfortunately. Or perhaps fortunately, as I suspect we wouldn’t be able to afford any of them …
Ceramics museum
Interesting works of art!
Pottery around Spain
There are many more towns in Spain that have their own ceramics footprint, usually depending on the type of clay found in the area. Granada has some fine workshops and factories, as does Guadix just north of Granada. And there are many other places with different ceramics styles. I just hope that our family and friends will continue to like our Spanish gifts!
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