Mountain. Village built in a rock. Noon. No access to the centre of the village with a vehicle, just on foot. You can imagine it is very nice, to walk there, and enjoy some stunning views, all until the Mediterranean coast. But if you have a concert and have to take your piano with you, then maybe it is not that nice and comfortable anymore?
So, this is the road, the better and wider part of it. Usually, it is full of tourists. It was pretty busy today too, however not as crowded as other times. It is good, my piano in the Voyager passed here without problems. And I had great help, I didn't have to move a finger to carry my piano. One of the singers I had the performance with, didn't allow me to carry my instrument. He took it as his task :)) Thanks J. for that :)
The 243 residents of this village and countless daily visitors of it have to pass this gate to enter the "castle". The core of the Castell de Guadalest, which is the official name of it was the part of the fortress that exists from the period of Muslim occupation. In the middle of the XIII century, it was conquered by the Christians.
You see now why it can't be approached with a car. Not only because the whole path is steep (as the village was built literally on a rock), but also because this passage between the two rocks is narrow. If My colleague, the singer, would have to carry here a real grand piano, I am not sure if in the end, I would have my instrument on the other side of the rock. It would be very challenging, as look how the passage looks like from the other side. That is the same "tunnel" between the two rocks seen in the previous photo, but now already looking at it from inside the castle part of the village.
It is incredible how they built the whole fortress and that tower, on the top of a rock. There is also a path, up there, to access the cemetery, which is also situated close to that tower. I guess that the lack of space inside the castle made the people from the past use every single square meter efficiently.
Once, being inside the walls of the fortress, we have one street where every house is transformed into a museum, shop or restaurant. I am wondering how do they bring the goods here? I mean, no car can pass here. Maybe they have some trolleys or trucks to carry the stuff they need?
I was happy that my colleague did it for me, carrying my stage piano, but how do all these people do that, on daily basis?
A detail from one of the shops. I guess I am not right when I say it is a deer head made of rye... Well, it is cute, whatever it is :))
At the end of that super short street, there is a small square, from where we can enjoy the views of the lake! That is the same lake where I had some adventures, but now you can see it how does it look like from the village itself. It is just one part of the lake though.
In that same street (obviously, as there is no other one) we found the church we had the arranged performance. In such a small place, having less than 250 residents, every event is kind of special. One girl had her first communion so the parents hired classical musicians to accompany the religious and social act. Those two guys you see in the following photo, in white shirts were my musician colleagues for that event.
We had one rehearsal a few days ago, and we were ready actually. The pieces I had to play were not too difficult, there were some songs I could play seeing them for the first time, sightreading them. Also, we performed those songs that we already knew from before, as this is not the first time we collaborate (before covid we did some gigs together), like Gabriel's Oboe by Ennio Morricone and Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. I noticed the goosebumps conquesting my arms while I was playing those two songs. They sounded really well, with the acoustic of the old, stone church. And I think we also touched some more hearts there.
After finishing the performance, and the piano was again packed in Voyager, we headed back to the only part of the village that we could access with the car. While I was enjoying the views and playing being a tourist, my colleagues had a different responsibility...
...they were again carrying the piano, my piano, this time not to the top of the rock, but back to the parked vehicle. I think, all in all, this event that happened yesterday was very pleasant. The other thing is that in the evening I had another performance... But that one is now still staying out of this post!
