Spring into summer in Spain

jumartoo said:
Today's ride, planned by Martin using Komoot didn't go to plan. Firstly a ploughed field made us turn back and ride a few km on a road and then a totally fenced, private area, had us riding between it and the high speed railway line. The first train that came from behind didn't half make us jump 🤣. We were heading further and further from home as we couldn't make any left turns. Martin had to quickly replan, and he did a great job because our return was lovely.

We stopped to wait for a train as we crossed over the line. We didn't have to wait long.

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We got back with an added 16km or so to our original route, but it was easy, pleasant riding.

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We then packed up and headed further west. We're now at Castillo de Garcimuñoz motorhome area. We've stayed here before, many years ago and it's a pleasant spot. It seems fairly popular and there's two Brit vans here.

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From here it seems like we'll have to, again, head west for the best of some more unsettled weather.

I really wanted to get into the Maestrazgo area again, but it's not to be. Next year, maybe.
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Yes it was a great ride...over the 50km mark....I've often wondered if the very few Brit vans we park close to are reading this.😄🚴🚴..
 
It was sooo cold last night and early this morning. We put the heater on 😨. As much as we'd liked to have explored the area around the Castillo we didn't feel up to multi layering again, and the forecast was for rain.

Far to the west we could see a glimmer of lighter sky, so we headed in the direction of our present spot at La Solana. Before we got here we stopped at Argamasilla de Alba because the sun was shining. The motorhome area gate was open so we parked up and went for a ride. The machine was out of order. On returning we were met by the guy trying to sort the machine. The outcome was we came off the area, he closed the gate, put another CLOSED notice on the machine and left and we continued on Plan A.

Dozens of Bee eaters were flying alongside us, hunting along the watercourse
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Some of the millions of stones cleared from the fields. Some have been made into little store rooms.

It's been warm and sunny all afternoon and we'll be disappointed if tomorrow dawns grey and damp. The riding around here is especially lovely and we've a ride we can do again.

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Now, you've heard the expression Fur coat and no k******* 🤣🤣. We have a very lovely 4x4 MAN camper (Julia - Yellowstone, a new one to us) pulled in near us. The owners came to our door and said their card wouldn't work in the machine. Could we pay with our card and they'd give us the cash. Martin obliged. You've got to help out the poor people, haven't you 😂😂
 
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jumartoo said:
It was sooo cold last night and early this morning. We put the heater on 😨. As much as we'd liked to have explored the area around the Castillo we didn't feel up to multi layering again, and the forecast was for rain.

Far to the west we coukd see a glimmer of lighter sky, so we headed in the direction of our present spot at La Solana. Before we got here we stopped at Arganillas de Alba because the sun was shining. The motorhome area gate was open so we parked up and went for a ride. The machine was out of order. On returning we were met by the guy trying to sort the machine. The outcome was we came off the area, he closed the gate, put another CLOSED notice on the machine and left and we continued on Plan A.

It's been warm and sunny all afternoon and we'll be disappointed if tomorrow dawns grey and damp. The riding around here is especially lovely and we've a ride we can do again.

Now, you've heard the expression Fur coat and no k******* 🤣🤣. We have a very lovely 4x4 MAN camper (Julia - Yellowstone, a new one to us) pulled in near us. The owners came to our door and said their card wouldn't work in the machine. Could we pay with our card and they'd give us the cash. Martin obliged. You've got to help out the poor people, haven't you 😂😂
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I like to do my bit for Spain and it's people....🇪🇦😄
 
Rain, and a storm, were forecast for today so we decided to pass on a ride and head to Villanueva de los Infantes. We parked up in the motorhome area, had a coffee and croissant (Mercadona best), donned a waterproof jic, and went to visit the town. It's been a mostly sunny day so far 😡🤣

Tomorrow we plan to ride. I guess it'll be Sods Law again 🤔🤭

Our parking, Billy no Mates again. It appears no-one else can get in here. Someone just pulled up at the gate and then left.
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And a sign that Martin spotted
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Well, for another forecast dull, with potential rain, day, it's dawned fair again so the bikes are already out and ready to ride.

Martin's planned a route, using a bit of an area we've been through before so we can visit a Santuario and a Roman temple archaeological site. I'm really looking forward to that.

Hopefully there'll be some stunning photos later 🤔😂

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Today's ride was a bit of an adventure. Safe, but an adventure nevertheless because we weren't on many well used tracks. Some tracks were so overgrown by wildflowers that we had to trust that the surface under our wheels was rideable. It was, even the bits alongside ploughed fields. Eventually we got on more distinct tracks that serviced farms. We saw some lovely horses, the grey was my favourite, strangely. I'm a bay lover, normally.

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We had a few water crossings and some muddy puddles we had to push around. We saw some Great Bustards, Bee eaters, a Spotted Cuckoo, a few Stone Curlews and a Lapwing.

We didn't go into the Santuario, because we visited last year, but we went to see the Roman ruins. Disappointingly the notice board wasn't readable so I don't yet know the history.

We're here, alone atm, again and hoping to do another ride from here tomorrow.

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Here are our photos of horses too at the Ebro reservoir, although I think they are more like Shetland ponies? Whatever, they were beautiful to see
What are those colourful birds.
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manners said:
We've seen plenty when travelling around Africa but not in Spain, are they migratory?
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Yes, I believe they are...we look out for their arrival every spring...generally hear them first, then we start seeing them sometime in great numbers..this past week we've seen them in many different locations..
 
The weather is supposed to be damp today so we've already been for a ride. We didn't hear a blackbird singing in the trees on the left but we did hear a Golden Oriole. The scenery, again, was lovely. A long and winding road through fields of barley and green, green grass. The barley is just beginning to turn yellow.

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We didn't have to ford every stream today, just one. The widest and deepest had a bridge over it hidden off to the left. The bridge itself wasn't easy to get the bikes over but we managed.

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We did ride this one.
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With the encroaching cloud cover we won't see a starry, starry sky and be able to look at the stars, which is a shame because, around here there are many dark sky areas with boards and diagrams of the constellations as seen at varying times of the year. Maybe over the next few days we'll get better conditions. At least it's (not) raining again, yet.

Did you get all the musical references? 🤔🤭😂
 
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jumartoo said:
We didn't hear a blackbird singing in the trees on the left but we did hear a Golden Oriole
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We're just starting some kind of interest in birds and we heard today our first Golden Oriole (we know that thanks to Merlin app, of course 🙂). So we've just learned that it's singing seems a bit similar to the blackbird (at least that's my impression). There was no way of seeing the bird though, they seem pretty shy.
We do know well the blackbird, but starting to understand a bit more of other birds in our area. We have just discovered we have some Bee-eaters here. We bought a couple of binoculars and having some fun using them.

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Another ride today with a bit of an adventurous feel. For a large part we felt we were on a private estate (we rode right through a stud farm with mares and foals) but there were no gates or signs and no-one approached us. It was lovely riding through different types of terrain. We only had one oooops when our route petered out at a fence, we shimmied under it to get back onto a wide track.
We stopped for a break in the lovely square in the village of Puebla del Principe and we were happy to ride another part with the guidance of Don Quixote route markers. We called in to visit a ruined castle and then dropped back down to our parking area at the village of Terrinches.

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Peavy said:
Ok, I got "it's raining again" (Supertramp), "The long and winding road" & "Blackbird" (Beatles) and a reference could be about "Bridge over troubled waters" (Simon and Garfunkel)... I can't get more🤪
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I thought about that last one but it was a bit of a stretch, so I discounted it.

I'll give you a clue.

Para 1, after the double Beatles, is Sting, Tom Jones, and Coldplay.

Now to follow up on Judith's hint.
 
OK here are the answers.

Blackbird
Long and winding road
Fields of barley
Green, green grass
Yellow
Ford every stream
Bridge over ....
Starry, starry ....
Look at the stars
Constellations ( modern song by Jade LeMac. The wildcard, I think. I didn't know that one but Martin said he thought it was a song and I Googled it and it was 😂)
Raining again
 

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