I haven't posted anything for a couple of days, one of which I spent feeling gastrointestinally challenged - most likely the result of having fish for lunch the day before. Last year I had an unfortunate experience with a delicious yellowfin tuna steak in Chile, and one would think I'd learn.
So I spent a beautiful drive from Gibraltar north through La Mancha (so John says) curled up in the backseat, thankful that we rented a larger vehicle.
You know you're in La Mancha when you see these giant bulls (toros) along the roads. John pulled over to take a picture of this guy. They were originally ads for a government promotion and have remained standing for many years.
Our first destination was Oropesa - a surprising treat. It's a well preserved/restored medieval town. The church has a ceramic tiled roof, which suggests that it was originally a mosque that was turned into a church after the Spanish recaptured the town from the Moors.
We saw storks nesting everywhere - on every power pole, on trees, and on this steeple.
We're staying in the Parador that adjoins the castle. I erred in an earlier post - Franco didn't start these. They were founded in 1928 by Alfonso VIII to promote tourism and save historic buildings - they are still government owned. The public rooms of this one are the living areas of the original nobles' residence, one of whom was the Viceroy of Peru.
This view of the church was from our window - there were several churches nearby, so we were serenaded by dueling church bells on the hour. Either they didn't ring them at night or we slept soundly.
On Sunday morning I was feeling much more chipper, so we explored the castle, which dated from 1402. That's me atop the tower.
Someone didn't come to a good end - apparently being hung in a cage from the castle wall was a punishment meant to serve as a warning to others. Worked for me.
From Oropesa we headed northwest to the entirely untouristy town of Fermoselle. We looked up someone we'd visited 13 or so years ago on the off chance she'd remember who we were. We found her, still working in her family's shop (tienda), but, alas, she had no recollection of us. John had originally met her when he was on an agricultural tour of Spain - she had been studying English and had been excited to talk to a native speaker. Apparently the English classes have been discontinued - she remembered neither the language nor us.
We did enjoy exploring the town - another medieval walled town with a castle. We were impressed by the huge boulders that formed part of the foundation of the castle.
Unlike Oropesa, this town's castle is pretty much in ruins. It seems to be private owned, and if I read the hand-written sign correctly (questionable), the owner is attempting to restore it without government assistance. We paid a euro apiece to go up to the "castle garden mirador" (mirador=scenic viewpoint) that looks out over the town -
And also over the Douro River and Portugal beyond.
Julia recommended another mirador, so I went off in search of it, climbing to the top of the other high point of the town - right past it. Eventually I figured out that there was no viewpoint where I was headed and turned around.
Halfway down the hill I saw the sign and the lookout, just as the sun was setting -
En route down the narrow road I met a man leading a horse -
I can't imagine where the horse was going to spend the night.
Having had a sketchy lunch at an even sketchier "restaurant" along the way (the only one open on Sunday afternoon), we went in search of dinner - had an excellent one at the Medieval Restaurant next door to the hotel. We were the only diners.
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