Two Go Back to Spain (2 Viewers)

[Viennese]

Charlie looks worried - he may have heard the shipping forecast. It could be rough.

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He's more worried about not being included - 'Two go back to Spain' - should be Three!!

 

[Viennese]

We are currently sitting in the queue at Plymouth waiting to board the ferry to Santander. The plan is to head towards the south west, Andalusia and Extremadura then return through Portugal to Galicia before ending back in Santander at the beginning of July.
But like all our plans this one may be subject to later modification!

Great trip you have planned - I would like to do that one too. We are having a couple of weeks in Holland in May, and Slovenia in September/Oct.

 

[DBK]

Just seen a few dolphins, but too fleeting for a photo.

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[DBK]

The new WiFi even good enough to upload a short video . Seen quite a few more dolphins this morning.

 

[EuroTrotters]

I have just purchased your book! (well, requested it for my Birthday).

Still reading "How to Live in a van and travel".

 

[DBK]

We saw a few more dolphins before arriving in Santander. Professional wildlife photographers can relax. The best I could manage is shown below. If you look very carefully at the bottom left you may just see the blurred hindquarters of a possible common dolphin. The blighters were fast!

We only drove about 15km after landing to the free aire at Lierganes (CC6015). This is a very good alternative to the Elephant Park with a small Carrefour and several eating and drinking places within walking distance.

It has an old bridge, the Puente Mayor next to the oldest and prettiest part of the little town. The building on the left of the bridge by the river is a disused mill.

Underneath the bridge is a curious statue. He has webbed fingers and a line of scales down his back but I don't think he is modelled on a local.

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[DBK]

After shopping at Torrelavega we drove just a hundred miles or so south today and it seemed to be uphill most of the way. It is easy to forget the middle of Spain is quite high and some of the mountains we could see had a good covering of snow.
A couple we met at Lierganes last night had been snowed in only a few days earlier when they were driving north. They were diverted off the motorway onto a service area while the snowploughs cleared the route. Then after a four hour delay they were allowed to continue on the cleared road. Our motorways could learn from this.

The weather forecast for this part of Spain has changed quite dramatically over the last few days and the rest of the week looks warm and sunny - we had 20°C today.

For the next couple of nights we are staying on a campsite south west of Burgos, CC41019 and also in ACSI at Castrojeriz. This is an attractive little town on the Camino de Santiago. I took the photograph below standing on the Camino. The campsite is just visible lower right of centre.

I have booked a place on a Great Bustard trip tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed for some good views of this elusive bird. (or indeed any view)

 

[DBK]

At seven thirty this morning I left with Roberto the campsite owner to look for Great Bustards which are generally considered to be the World's heaviest flying bird.
After only a short drive we saw their spoor!

The area we were in was gently rolling farmland planted with cereal crops now just sprouting from the ground. It is intersected with farm tracks which are open to the public. We drove on these looking for groups of the birds, the biggest we found had 33, some of which can be seen below.

The birds are famously wary of humans and start to move off if you get too close. The shot above was taken with the equivalent of a 600mm lens.

The white blob below the church is a male displaying to the females. The birds turn their bottom (very romantic ) towards the females and display the white under the tail and also open and turn their wings so the white underneath is also visible. The display is sometimes called a "foam bath" and very luckily the time of our visit has coincided with their lek.

I also took a couple of shaky videos which I might upload when we move to somewhere with a better mobile signal and also if I can fathom out the new change on YouTube since I last uploaded a video. They have introduced a new verification procedure, the hoops of which I am now jumping through to prove I am not a robot.

 

[DBK]

The campsite is overlooked by a ruined castle. The Romans built a fort here first and a few of their stones remain if you know where to look.

We walked up to it this afternoon.

Charlie found the walk up a trial but there was a convenient puddle to cool off in.

The views from the top were good. This is looking north with the snow covered Picos de Europa just visible on the horizon. The fields are where the Great Bustards are found.

Roberto showed where we went this morning on a map.

To the west of the village of Villasandino, marked with "14", he has drawn an arc with red dots. Between this arc and the village is the GB hotspot. . Castrojeriz is at the bottom of the map.

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[Riverbankannie]

Just caught up with your new travels. Did Roberto take you off in his old small jeep type car. Who had the pleasure of sitting in the back.? You saw more Great Bustards than we did!

 

[DBK]

Just caught up with your new travels. Did Roberto take you off in his old small jeep type car. Who had the pleasure of sitting in the back.? You saw more Great Bustards than we did!

He mentioned he had had an old vehicle for 25 years but he now has quite a posh Dacia 4*4. I wasn't convinced we would see any GBs or if we did they might be captive ones! Conventional wisdom says you need to be further south and west of here to see them but here we are barely more than a hundred miles from the north coast. We have also been very lucky on the timing and the weather. In another month the crops will be too tall to see the birds and yesterday was the first sun they have seen here for a month. This may have encouraged the males to do their thing.

But Roberto knew exactly where to go, which must help and we saw the first one within about a ten minute drive from the campsite. He says their numbers are growing every year.

 

[busby]

I'm a pensioner on a fixed income I can't afford to be paying to communicate with someone on the same shipCould not find one striped shirt with glasses in the Piano bar so went to dinner. Now through Channel du four so free data on Orange. Maybe breakfast?

Dinner,,,breakfast,,,,Cant be a bad fixed income,,,,,Stale sandwiches for us,,,,BUSBY

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[jumartoo]

We saw Great Bustards totally by chance on a cycle ride from Villafafila near Zamora. Its a good birding spot for lots of other species also.

We'd driven many kilometres following guide book advice in previous years and seen zilch!

 

[jumartoo]

Weve got bad memories of Castrojerez cos we cycled through in horrendous rain on the Camino Frances. We were almost hypothermic when we stopped in a bar for coffee. It's funny how a bad experience puts you off a place.

 

[Speve]

Took these at Castro Verde early March

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[DBK]

Weve got bad memories of Castrojerez cos we cycled through in horrendous rain on the Camino Frances. We were almost hypothermic when we stopped in a bar for coffee. It's funny how a bad experience puts you off a place.

How very true! And we might have felt the same if we had arrived just a week ago. There is standing water in many of the fields from the rain. Though I guess the farmers are happy, or as happy as farmers can ever be, last year's drought was horrendous apparently with a lot of crops lost.

 

[DBK]

As promised earlier here is the "Shaky Bustards" video. Next time I'll take my tripod!

As an aside YouTube has changed significantly in the last few days and it took me a few false starts before I got this uploaded.

 

[DBK]

Took these at Castro Verde early March
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I think they were under snow in March at Castrojeriz!

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[DBK]

We moved south today and visited Segovia, which is a spectacularly sited city just north of the Sierra de Guadarrama, which are currently covered in snow. It is famous for its aquaduct which brought water to the city until the late 19th century. It was built by the Romans in the first century who obviously knew how to do long-lasting plumbing.

The cathedral is very nice, especially if you like wedding cakes!

The Alkazar is also well known as it projects over the valley below like the prow of a ship. It was mostly built in the 1400's but was rebuilt in the Disney style after a fire in the 19th century.

We followed this with a quick trip to the "Valley of the Fallen" which contains Franco's tomb and a 150m high cross built by prisoners. Not all of whom survived the project. I will put up a few photographs, probably tomorrow, after I have worked out what I think of the place.

 

[DBK]

I forgot to include this picture of the city walls, cathedral and snowy Sierra de Guadarrama.

 

[Viennese]

Some great memories of our trip there - thanks

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[hilldweller]

I forgot to include this picture of the city walls

If you haven't visited, Avila does a grand line in city walls. Approached from the south we went from "what's that" to "wow" to "oh my god". Spent a night there and walked the walls.

 

[DBK]

If you haven't visited, Avila does a grand line in city walls. Approached from the south we went from "what's that" to "wow" to "oh my god". Spent a night there and walked the walls.

Yes, the wall of Avila are fairy tale stuff but the cathedral in Avila was seriously weird .

 

[hilldweller]

Yes, the wall of Avila are fairy tale stuff but the cathedral in Avila was seriously weird .

I don't recall the Cathedral but it was a long time ago.

Maybe it's in your book, I'm still saving it for a rainy day.

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[DBK]

We visited the Valle del Los Caidos at the end of yesterday - it's free between five and six if you show your passport . The name translates as "Valley of the Fallen" and is either a memorial to the dead of the Civil War or Franco's equivalent of the Great Pyramid of Cheops depending on your point of view.

You can get a feel for the controversy over the place in these references, plus of course many others available about the place.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valle_de_los_Caídos
https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...cist-dictator-spanish-civil-war-a7652841.html

But whatever your views there is no denying it is a spectacular monument. To get an idea of the scale look at the trees to the left of the base of the cross.

The cross is 150m (500 ft) high and is made of stone. A lift and staircase go to the top but these are not open to the public.

There are two main sites, the monastery side, where the photograph above was taken and the basilica side where Franco's tomb is. The sun was perfect for taking pictures of the cross from the monastery but from the basilica side the sun was directly behind the cross. Literally in fact because it cast a shadow on the parade ground in front of the basilica.

And if you stand in the shadow you can experience your own private solar eclipse.

We didn't go into the basilica.

 

[Falcon 269]

A pity you didn't go inside. It's one of the most impressive spaces I have ever been in. It's enormous but it's not only the scale, the architecture and the decorative stonework and statues that hit home. The atmosphere, the feelings that I brings about are very powerful. My wife had to leave because there was something about it that made her distinctly uncomfortable. I found it deeply moving and disturbing at the same time.

Set aside the politics and the polarization of viewpoints about the history of the place, take it at face value as a monument to those who died in that awful civil war, and IMHO it succeeds in its intent to honour them all. I've never been to any of the concentration camp memorials but I can imagine they stir similar emotions.

 

[2657]

A pity you didn't go inside. It's one of the most impressive spaces I have ever been in. It's enormous but it's not only the scale, the architecture and the decorative stonework and statues that hit home. The atmosphere, the feelings that I brings about are very powerful. My wife had to leave because there was something about it that made her distinctly uncomfortable. I found it deeply moving and disturbing at the same time.

Set aside the politics and the polarization of viewpoints about the history of the place, take it at face value as a monument to those who died in that awful civil war, and IMHO it succeeds in its intent to honour them all. I've never been to any of the concentration camp memorials but I can imagine they stir similar emotions.

I would agree that it is an impressive space but with the remains of Franco and Jose antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Spanish Fascist movement Falange interred inside and the obvious Catholicism of the whole valley I cannot view it as anything more than a Catholic monument to Fascism. I am sorry but I cannot set that aside and it's construction was never intended as a memorial to all who died in the Civil War, indeed many Republican POW's died in the process.

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[DBK]

It is an odd place. The Spanish have been described as having "collective amnesia" about the Civil War but then they have this huge great thing not far from their capital which is hard to ignore. Though they have tried. It was closed for a while until a change of government overturned the decision.

 

[bobandjanie]

Some great memories of our trip there - thanks

Is that where you bumped into us Catherine .

Thanks for posting your journey John @DBK another good read , there is so much of Spain that we have not seen............... Yet. Bob

 

[DBK]

Is that where you bumped into us Catherine .

We had to go all the way to Italy to bump into Catherine.

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