Tilting at Windmills

Parque National des Lagunas de Ruidera - Apr 4, 2016
(This blog got out of order, it'supposed to appear between Toledo and Camping in the Rain)

South of Toledo there are five castillos within a few kilometers of each other.  The first was a ruins of an old Moorish fortification sitting on the top of a hill jutting out of the plains.

We could see for miles.

There were 2 enormous griffin vultures souring around it.  Then the bird of the day, a hoopoe, flew by.

We wandered across the countryside, past the other castillos, some of which were on the top of hills and some plunked in the middle of a town.

We stopped for a cafe in Orgaz, hoping for something to eat.  The locals were having a small glass of beer, with a small bowl of tapas, which looked like a garbanzo bean stew, but was listed as containing "calles", one of the few spanish words we recognized as tripe, so we settled for just coffee, which seems to be uniformly delicious throughout Spain, espresso with a generous amount of steaming milk.

Our last stop was in Consuegre, in the middle of Don Quixote country, which featured a reconstructed castle on the top of a hill, surrounded by 9 traditional windmills.

We sneaked in for the menu del dia just before 4 pm, in a back room filled with Spanish families.  There was no printed menu here, but the owner came out with a handwritten list of the day's platos, which we attempted to decipher.  We did fine, I wound up with a very rich potato and tuna salad and lambchops, Leo and Janet with migas, yesterday's bread fried up with ham and garlic (tastes like turkey stuffing) and grilled chicken breast.  Janet and I had wine, he then opened a fresh bottle for us, which made us nervous, would we be charged for the full bottle when we each drank half a glass?  It turned out to be included, Leo was charged the most for his glass of coke, 1.5€ ($2.75), more expensive even than his excellent cafe con leche, 1€ ($1.50).

We are camped at the parque national des lagunas de Ruidera, not anything like a Canadian national park, just a popular vacation area along a string of limestone lakes, full of campsites, hotels, and restaurants, but not very busy on a cool rainy weekend in spring.