Casares
Written by Geoff Forster
Casares: We travel along the Manilva/Casares to Gaucín road when we go to the coast, so we had seen Casares perched on the rocks. It was somewhere that we both had wanted to visit, so in mid July we set off on the 25 minute journey from Benarrabá.
Our neighbour had said the streets were very narrow and you couldn't drive around Casares so we parked at the edge of town and walked up towards a busy plaza. 
The town was preparing for its fourth mercadillo medieval. There was bunting across the street and pennants hanging outside many of the buildings. 
Casares being so picturesque and near to the busy Costa del Sol resorts gets a lot of visitors. There are numerous tourist souvenir shops (tat shops!) and street Cafés /bars/restaurants. 
The streets started to narrow as we started the climb to the castle ruins at the top of the town. 
We passed Casares Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) 
There were some lovely side streets with beautiful old buildings. The one above has lovely contoured walls above the windows and doors.
We made it to the top.
A bar/restaurant just below the castle, cleverly placed to trap weary tourists after the climb beckoned, but with great will power we walked passed and up the final few nasty concrete steps to the ancient ruin.
The castle was a big let down. It had been botched up at some time in the past and was a mixture of old stone, fairly recent brick and concrete. The views were good. We headed down. Found a small bar and had a beer. 
The stairways here are wonderful. Jane found one of the few friendly cats in Spain. 
Quite a view, it was worth the climb to see this. 
Back down to the plaza area. It took a while to get this shot of the church without lots of people walking across the shot. Casares is very busy. 
We headed away from the plaza area to find a church we had seen from above. We passed through some lovely streets.
The archway below was particularly pretty. 
We found the church ... a very pleasant quiet area of Casares. 
We also found this surreal bench. We love finding things like this. 
A little later something really weird happened ...
Casares is a lovely town. It attracts lots of tourists and caters to their needs. Postcards ... souvenirs, Café/bars etc.The castle was a let down close up, but looks great from a distance. Definitely worth a visit. We drove past Casares in December and I took this photograph in the late afternoon. 