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.

Camping in the Rain

        Campsite in parque national des lagunas Ruidera

It started raining at 9 pm the night we arrived and it kept up for 24 hours.  Our enthusiasm for doing anything outdoors evaporated so we decided to drive to the nearest city and pick up some groceries and camping supplies.

We enjoyed our drive through the surrounding countryside, rolling hills with wheatfields and olive groves aND deep red soil.

Bird of the day was the red-legged partridge,

a relative of the chukar, which we can sometimes see in the Cariboo though it comes from the Middle East originally.

 They were numerous and, sizewise, looked like they'd make a tasty dinner.

Toledo

After a splendid buffet breakfast at the Airport Hilton, we left the lap of luxury to battle both the extensive spaghetti network of cloverleafs, roundabouts and off ramps that constitute the outskirts of Madrid and the Spanish drivers who've never heard of the word yield.

Toledo is about an hour's drive south of Madrid.  After setting up our tents in the Camping El Greco, we walked into the walled hilltop city of Toledo, stopping at the Puento San Martin for the menu del dia, consisting of 2 plates, all the wine we could drink, water, bread and dessert, for 12 euros ($18 Canadian) each, a great deal after our last trip to Scandinavia last summer.  

We're solving the challenge of the Spanish habit of dining late by slipping into a restaurant just before they close at 4 pm for a large lunch, then skipping dinner, which starts at 8 p.m., and having bread and cheese in our campsite.

Crossing the Tags River at the Puente San Martin

We spent two days walking the narrow streets and checking out some of the eleven churches, some of which were built over the ruins of the Romans, Moors, and Jews that preceded them, and taking in the vie of the surrounding plains.

One of the Puertos (gates) into the walled city

Our campsite was right on the river and had a great view of old Toledo, as well as of the local waterfowl.  But we saw the bird of the day, little bittern, while crossing the bridge coming back from the old city.

The ornate entrance to the main Catedral

Bienvenidos a Madrid

We're in Spain!  After 18 hours of flying and waiting for connecting flights, we landed in Madrid in the late afternoon right on schedule, and our friend Janet was waiting for us as planned.

Cleverly, we'd booked the Airport Hilton with Airmiles (practically free to us) to avoid having to drive in busy traffic straight off the plane.

Then, in the typical post-long, exhausting flight fashion we've gotten used to, we drove past the Airport Hilton multiple times trying to find the exit ramp, despite having a gps, eventually having to return to the airport info centre for the correct directions, after which it took us 5 minutes to get to the hotel without even getting on the motorway.

This Hilton is pretty fancy by our standards, with a large bathroom encased in smoked glass complete with a preposterously impractical clear glass sink, and a separate shower and soaker tub.  With its discreet blue (inadequate) lighting, it glows in the darkened room.

After only a few jet-lagged hours of sleep, I've hauled myself down to the lobby in the early hours of the morning to update this blog while the others sleep.

View from Airport Hilton

Today after some time to organize and decompress, we head south to Toledo.

Signs of Spring

Last week we went walking out on the Mission Road for the first time this spring.  The weather was glorious, the meadowlarks were singing and I saw my first bluebird.

Yesterday morning it was snowing but it cleared in the afternoon and we went for an evening walk at Scout Island.  The waterfowl are passing through on their way north, including this swan,

 And the obligatory picture from the viewpoint:

Today we walked the Mission Road again.  No sun this morning, but another sure sign of Spring in the Cariboo, newborn calves:

And to think in another week, we're abandoning all this splendor for a month in Spain.

Cabaret Opens to Rave Reviews

"Even the orchestra is beautiful"

Full review here.

After 2 months of rehearsing, the musical Cabaret I'm playing in has opened to sold out audiences.  It's got a great trombone part, so it's fun and challenging to play.  We have 6 more performances over the next 2 weeks.

Night of Remembrance Video

Here's a video from our Night of Remembrance Concert back in November, featuring our guest trumpeter, Donnie Clark.

What I am up to lately is practicing hard for the local theatre club's performance of the  musical "Cabaret," which will play for 3 weeks at the end of March.