Spain – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Extremadura

We eventually reached the campsite just outside the Monfragüe National Park where we came a few years ago. Lovely relaxed campsite with good facilities and a restaurant. On our first day we went for a walk in the national park alongside the beautiful river Tajo.

Dehesa

The countryside in Extremadura is known as the “dehesa “. It makes very good pasture for sheep, goats and cows. Its main trees are holm oaks and cork trees.

Transhumance

Part of our walk in the Monfragüe National Park was along a “cañada” (drovers’ trail). These drovers’ trails criss-cross parts of Spain and date back to the time when “ Transhumancia” (Transhumance)” was common. This is the practice of driving herds of cattle many hundreds of miles from their winter pastures to their summer pastures and back again. For more information about transhumance and how it is being adopted again, see this BBC article https://www.jamon.com/pig-raising.html

Cycling

Spain has 126 via verdes spread throughout the country. Cycle paths, mainly on old railway lines and the campsite is just next door to one. We went off on it the following day, but rather than follow the route we turned off to the nearby town of Malpartida de Plascencia and there we discovered the town square just right for coffee, and in addition various sculptures.

The cycle path sometimes followed alongside the railway line (we never saw a train)

Donkey on cyle ride — Donkey along the way

Valerie’s adventure to Monfragüe Station

After Judy and I finished cycling along the via verde from Malpartida de Plasencia, I decided to continue on to Monfragüe station since I had read online that there were some interesting buildings to see there. When I got there I did see quite a few big buildings which all seemed empty, then I heard talking and laughter and wondered if there was a café so I wheeled my bike round the corner and found a whole group of people sitting at a long table, drinking coffee and eating cakes.

As I like practising my Spanish, I said hello and asked if it was someone’s birthday. They said it was and I was immediately invited to join them for a coffee. They sat me down next to the birthday boy, Antonio, and brought me a wonderful cream cake to eat with my coffee.

Antonio told me that he had been born there 22 years previously (I think there was a bit of poetic licence here – possibly add a further 50). It turned out that they were all cousins and they had all been born there. In its heyday Monfragüe station was an entire village of about 1000 people who all worked for the Spanish railway company, RENFE, because Monfragüe was a major hub. The trains from Salamanca to Cáceres and from Madrid to Cáceres went through there. It had its own church, school and doctor, all paid for by RENFE. However now only a very few trains go through there. With the demise of the steam train, and a new railway line was built.

Some of the cousins still live in the area, but many now live in other parts of Spain or even further afield – Antonio lives in San Diego, California, and another of the cousins lives in Miami. Whenever they can, they all meet up at the station for a family reunion. They were sitting outside what was the village school and inside on the walls they had put up lots of black and white photographs of family members over the past 50 years, including lots of class photos of the school children.

As I made my goodbyes they had just put on some music and two of the cousins were singing into microphones while others started dancing. It looked like the party was going to go on for quite a while still.

Family reunion lunch — Monfrague station buildings

Oh dear … a problem with the Webasto boiler

Second day in Spain and something went wrong with the Webasto boiler. It gave off error messages about no combustion.

After phoning Webasto in Madrid we found an authorised dealer in Valladolid with a skilled engineer named Cesar who could fix it. But of course it needed a new part which had to be ordered.

Evidently if you’re only using the water heater (as we tend to do over the summer) carbon builds up around the burner and eventually it stops working. Evidently these boilers need to be set to very high heat every so often to prevent this build up.

The workshop was in an industrial estate just outside of the city but as this was Spain there was a very good bar/restaurant where all the workers from the surrounding businesses went for lunch. It took three excellent ‘menus’ at €10 each before we were on the road again.

Valladolid

Valladolid was our first stop. There’s a great camper stop in a car park near the city centre for €5 per night (see park4nite).

To get to the centre you have to cross over the river Pisuerga and the town have made great walks along the river bank, bringing in sand to make a beach for bathing.

We went out for something to eat and just happened upon a Tapas bar called Jero. There was a queue outside of people waiting to get in before it had even opened at about 8pm. So we were lucky and able to get a table.

Delicious prawns on mushrooms!!

Winter in Spain and Portugal … again

We’re off again to two of our favourite countries for the winter. We enjoyed it so much last winter that we’ve decided to do it again. It could possibly become a regular occurrence.

Monfragüe National Park – Extremadura

We’ve discovered a whole area of Spain we’ve never been to before, and it’s fantastic ! We’re staying in a campsite just by the National Park – walking, cycling and guided tours in a 4×4 to see the birdlife.

Black stork sitting on eggs in her nest on the cliff face

The griffin vulture has a wing span of almost 2 metres – they are huge. When you stop at viewpoints you can see dozens of vultures circling overhead.

This is definitely a place we’re going to visit again … many times

Orgiva – the Alpujarras

Hurrah, back in Orgiva in the Alpujarras after an absence of several years.

Lovely walks around the beautiful hills and villages. Four walks in six days is pretty good for us! On one walk we decided to try to walk back on the GR-7 path but kept losing the waymarks finally realised there was far too far to go and we needed to catch the last bus down the mountain this involved us climbing over a barbed wire fence and sliding down a steep bank to get to the road where we were able to wave down the bus!

Also went to a yoga class in Orgiva

And now off to Extremadura where we’ve not been before but has been recommended to us by people we’ve met on the campsite.

Cabo de Gata

Cabo de Gata is Europe’s only desert. It’s a Nature Reserve and people say that this is what the coast of Spain used to be like. Of course it’s a little sanctuary in the corner of the ‘garden’ of Spain, so you have to drive through wall-to-wall ‘plasticos’ before you reach it. But once there, wow it’s beautiful.

We visited a few years ago but it was in late June and it was much too hot, but early May is a good time. Lots of walking routes, temperature low to mid 20s with a lovely breeze. 12 miles the first day, 7 the second and another 12 miles the third. The campsites there are all fairly large but at this time of the year there are not many people and the facilities are good.

Plenty of windmills as it’s a pretty windy place

For our last night we stayed on a camperstop – the car park by the beach of a fishing village, intending to buy some fish in the morning. But they were all much too big for us!!!

Córdoba

The last time we visited Córdoba we discovered it was the day of their White Night when the squares all over Córdoba have flamenco all night. We wandered around all night and it was fantastic.

This time we’d discovered that for the first two weeks of May there is a ‘best patio’ competition, and all over the city people’s private patios are opened up to the public. So of course we had to go.

And then we re-visited the Mezquita – a beautiful mosque dating from 784 AD which has had a cathedral plonked in the middle. But the beauty and magnificence of the building still remains.

Just a quick visit and then off to Cabo de Gata for some walking

Toledo

Toledo is a fascinating place to visit. A completely walled hill top city with windy narrow streets, beautiful stone houses and architecture from various influences. Before the expulsion of 1492 there was a large Jewish population here with ten synagogues. After the Jews departed these were taken over and made into churches. Two have been restored. One is now a museum for Sephardic Jewry and the other is an exquisitely beautiful building with rows of arches. Apart from just wandering around the streets we visited the two old synagogues, the El Greco museum, a tapestry museum and the cathedral. Here are some photos (click on a photo for an enlarged image)

Synagogue

Museum of Sephardic Jewry

El Greco museum

The museum was thought to have been El Greco’s house and some of the rooms have been furnished with furniture from that period in addition there is a large collection of El Greco’s paintings

Tapestry museum

This museum is connected to the cathedral and contains wall coverings and also garments worn by the priests.

Toledo Cathedral

Madrid

We stayed three nights in Madrid mainly to visit the museums.

We re-visited the Reina Sophia to see Picasso’s Guernica and a multitude of other modern artists including Salvador Dali, Georges Braque and Madrid-born Juan Gris. The Prado gave us the Spanish painters – Goya, Velazquez, Ribera and El Greco gets included), and then we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum for the first time. What a collection! Here are a few photos.