Saturday, May 26 - Driving around Asturias

Another day that we had scheduled for birding and hiking in the mountains, but we awoke again to Rain! Great breakfast buffet with several local specialty sausages hams and cheeses. We drove off to explore the north side of the Picos de Europa, and as we drove higher, the weather got rainier and foggier. We got to the Mirador de la Reina at about 4000’ and couldn’t see more than 50’. As it was Saturday lots of people were there stubbornly setting off on trails, but we drove down and continued east through tiny villages along a river gorge. The weather improved and we stopped and looked down over a flower-laden bridge into bright blue water flowing over light limestone. We occasionally could see striking and strange shaped peaks. It must be an incredibly scenic area when it’s clear!

Eventually the road turned north and joined a coast highway and we turned westward. One would have no idea the ocean was there until a view of it suddenly appears. We took a turnoff when we spotted surf and drove a very short distance to a sign indicating a park featuring a “internal” beach. We walked a ways through soggy farmland to a large limestone headland and came upon a sinkhole about 300’ from the coast with an established beach in it. Totally bizarre! We climbed up onto the headland and found several small holes dropping precipitously down into the sea. The headland consists of steep jagged limestone cliffs that are undercut and obviously riddled with tunnels. Some locals were there fishing with surfcasting rods.

We returned to the Parador at 3 and went to the bar for beer and chicken and ham bocadillos that required two waiters from the kitchen bearing large dome-covered plates! We were hoping for a small snack to hold us until dinner, but no such luck! Fortunately we have a minibar in our room so we stored the leftovers and are ensured of lunch tomorrow!

We took a hike along the river towards town and were amazed to see how high the river has risen and how cloudy it was from all the rain. Returned to the hotel to find a crowd of people dressed to the nines and a very fancy wedding in progress in the old chapel.

While we were at dinner, about 9:30, very impressive fireworks started exploding as part of the wedding celebration right outside from where we sat. For once I was glad everything was so wet as it didn’t look as if there were many safety precautions being taken!

Friday, May 25 - to Cangas de Onís

Clear blue sky this morning, but we had a long ways to go so couldn’t dawdle and set off north through Zamora. We took some back roads to look for the elusive Bustard and found some blinds set up for birders by some ponds. Saw European Coot, Stilts and Avocets. Drove into a tiny abandoned village with a crumbling church and many round adobe buildings with tile roofs and small holes all over the sides. We discovered they were pigeon coops in various states of collapse but still full of pigeons flying in and out. We found a wonderful new bird hide built in the style of the coops with two spotting scopes inside to look at the birds on the nearby lake. The hide is open in the morning and afternoon and closed for siesta, which seemed amazing, as there was no sign of life around! Got two life birds: Rock Sparrow and beautiful Northern Lapwing.

North of León we got onto a very fast toll road that cut along a beautiful valley and into the smooth gray limestone Cordillera Cantábria Mountains, and through several tunnels, the longest of which was over 4 km. Large cumulus and sunshine! Stopped at a rest stop for bocadillos, great baguettes with ham and cheese for RRZ and with two huge wedges of room temp eggs and potatoes for me, all served by spiffy waiters in black tie.

We drove north toward the Bay of Biscay through towns with a more French aspect, different flowers, no poppies. We have definitely left more typical Spain behind. We arrived at another Parador in Cangas de Onís at the foot of the Picos de Europa, supposed to be one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in Spain. The Parador is in a 12^th century monastery beside a roaring river with the clanging of cowbells on the other side. We took a short hike along the river and saw several new wildflowers. Got back at 7 and hooked onto to the wi-fi at last.

There have been torrential rains south of Madrid and nasty photos of flooding on TV. The stationary low sitting off Portugal has moved on land and that may signal a change in the weather although the prediction on the computer is for more rain over much of Spain for the next TEN days. Good dinner: bowl of yellow squash cream with a pool of green pea puree in the middle with streaks of sea urchin roe across the top and toasted marshmallow and ice cream for dessert.

Thursday, May 24 - Salamanca

Fresh squeezed OJ, ham, cheese and sweet rolls for a late breakfast. Rather than spend God knows how many Euros to have the hotel do our laundry, we hauled a huge bag to the other side of the main plaza and found a terrific laundry/internet café where the attendant gave us free soap and fed coins into the machine for us and just charged us when it was all done.

RRZ had a siesta and I walked over to the Museum of Art Deco where my camera was confiscated and I was unable to take pictures of the fabulous stained glass windows. Saw exhibits of dolls of the past 150 years, lace handkerchiefs, mildly erotic figurines and a collection of fans. Returned with pastries in hand to keep us until tonight.

After resting, we set off at 6:30 and walked across the Roman Bridge that crosses the wide Tormes River lined with lovely habitat of trees and rushes. Back to the main plaza, stopping at several bookstores and watching the crowds of students and older people walking arm-in-arm. All the stores were open and it was a lively, charming sight. We had supper of paella and beer and more ice cream and got home early at 10.

Wednesday, May 23 - Salamanca

Still raining as we drove out of Ávila and west through the “cereal lands”, gentling rolling lush green fields. Spain has had a very wet winter and with the current rainy period, the plowed areas are now getting flooded. We drove back roads in search of the elusive Great Bustard, but did manage to see a pair of beautiful Red-Legged Partridges, with bright red legs and bills.

We drove into Salamanca about 1 pm and easily found the Hotel Rector, a very elegant small hotel, and were greeted in our somewhat grubby state as if we actually belonged there! Lovely room with marble bath and lobby with stained glass window. It was only partly cloudy by then, so we set off to explore the town, which we found to be one of our favorite cities anywhere. Salamanca’s buildings are all constructed of golden-colored sandstone and it is full of beautiful plazas and cathedrals with drip-castle spires. It has the oldest university in the world, established in 1218 and has a lively student and café atmosphere. Got a double scoop of pistachio ice cream and wandered around.

Back to the hotel where we cleaned up and retired to the bar for drinks and to try to connect to the wireless. As it’s raining up north and as we like it so much here, we decided to stay another night in Salamanca, have dinner at a one-star Michelin restaurant nearby and sleep in tomorrow. We got to the tiny six-table Victor Gutierrez Restaurant a little after nine and had an amazing array of exotic foods, starting with bits of cod in a sauce, a dab of very cold thick cream sprinkled with cheese and olive oil, ceviche, pate layered with smoked salmon and caramelized apple, baby lobster tail with soft boiled egg, suckling pig and red deer with poached pear. Rolled out of there about 11:30 and walked by the illuminated cathedral and back to our hotel.

Tuesday, May 22 - Birding around Ávila

Light rain on our skylight this morning. Extracted our car from the small underground garage via a steep very narrow alley and got out of town. Today was supposed to be a big birding day and Bob had several places picked out to explore on the northern slope of the Sierra de Gredos mountains, from his “Where to Watch Birds in Spain” book, but as we drove higher, up to 6000’, it rained and blew harder and harder and fogged in completely. At the top are several hiking trails and we were going to hike a couple of miles to a lake where it’s possible to see the Spanish Ibex, plus the Bluethroat, the bird we particularly wanted to see, but….. We headed over several passes and down the steep southern slope, crossing back and forth over the old Roman road. It partially cleared briefly and we passed through a town full of palm and olive trees and golden grass: warm southern Spain! But even there we drove through a brief torrential cloudburst so we eventually took a break for ice cream and returned to Ávila via a different scenic route at about 4 PM.

Amazingly, the sun came out so we headed for the city wall, paid the lower Edad Oro rate, climbed up about 80’ to the top and walked a km or so on the 6’ wide walkway with wonderful views of the city and eye level looks at many storks on their enormous nest on bell towers, chimneys and even on a crane counterweight. We returned to the hotel just as the rain resumed and had drinks and dinner in the courtyard. When you order a drink, you are brought a glass of ice and the waiter then pours as much at you want of, say rum, into it. Good way to get pretty snockered!!

Heavy rain all night. We’re beginning to reconsider our plan of driving north and spending five nights birding in the mountains as the weather report is for Rain for the next ten days for all of Spain, but worst in the mountains!

Monday, May 21 - Ávila

Overcast, once again. Checked out at nine and headed onto the highway south and west about 40 miles to Ávila, another small hill-top walled city. We drove through a band of attractively-landscaped industry, apartments and nine traffic circles, and after only one missed turn, drove through a narrow gate into the city and magically found our way to Hotel Palacio de los Velada. The hotel is in a small palace with a huge inner courtyard with a glass roof where, out of character, we settled down for a Sandwich Club and beer. The sandwich came with ham, tomato, lettuce, gherkins, HB eggs and a few other things and really hit the spot. Our room is up under the roof eves with only a skylight, but is very cute and attractive with a blue and white tiled bathroom and enormous tub.

We set off to explore the city, which is small enough for easy walking. The wide ornate walls that surround it are its main attraction, but inexplicably, on Mondays, they are closed for walking on!!! We went into the main cathedral, which was very high, narrow and dark, and then to the Convent of Santa Teresa, the local saint. Found a brilliant gold-covered alcove dedicated to her and went into the museun where we could see her relics: her shoe sole (very small) and her index finger with ring still on it!….a bit too soon after lunch for that! We. wandered in and out of the walls and returned to the hotel when it started to get drizzly.

Hotel has Great wi-fi…my AOL screen is just like as at home!! But the blog is all in French..pretty scary; I thought being in Spanish was a challenge!

Went down at nine to the small, elegant dining room where, strangely, we were the only diners, but had an excellent dinner of tiny lamb chops and cod baked in garlic sauce with chestnut-covered fried cream for dessert.

We didn't realize that our skylight could open (actually it has a pad with nine different buttons so we'll play with it tomorrow; who knows what it will do?), so a rather warm sleepless night!

Weather forecast is for rain for the next four day!!

Sunday, May 20 - Birding and Baroque

Awoke at 6:30 and watched a large thunder storm approach over the plains from the south and back light the cathedral. Overcast with on and off light rain all day.

Drove south through the ski resorts again and into a large regional La Pedriza park that resembles the backcountry of San Diego in that the mountains appear to consist of jumbled piles of large boulders. We couldn’t drive to the top as Sunday tour busses had filled up the parking spaces, so we set off lower down through chaparral full of blooming rock rose, Cistus, that seems to take the place of Ceanothus in Calif. The shrubs fill the valley floor and up hillsides and are covered with large 5” white crinkly blossoms with bright yellow centers. There was also a lot of bright purple French Lavender and blue echium, plus dozens of kinds of yellow composites. The wildflowers here really beat out those of home. We hiked about four miles up into the rocks and saw the Azure-winged Magpie and Rock Bunting for new lifers.

It was about 4 PM by now so we headed back, stopping at San Ildefonso, the summer castle of Felipe V which was built in the early 1700s. I was faint with hunger by then as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Unlike our friends, the Brucatos, who are now touring France and Italy and daily describe their sumptuous lunches, RRZ runs a rugged tour and we are always on the brink of collapse with fatigue and starvation. Fortunately we were able to grab an ice cream bar at a café before we entered the palace grounds to explore the gardens before they close at six. Baroque isn’t the word! I’ve never seen such ornate and pretty grotesque statues of all sorts of animal and human combinations! The gardens cover many acres and we could only see a bit until the famed “turning on of the fountains” which only occurs at 5 PM a couple days a week. We entered a large maze with 7’ high walls of a chestnut-like shrub, confident that our GPS would make it pretty simple, but got amazingly disoriented very quickly and found our GPS screen rapidly becoming a confusing blob of black dots! Panic started to set in, but we managed to find the correct route out. There must be bodies of expired tourists in the far reaches of the maze. It’s really confusing!! At five we gathered with a crowd at a large pool with statues of Neptune and many other fishy people and suddenly forty foot plumes of water started shooting up into the air. After ten minutes the water was turned off and we were herded to yet another and more elaborate fountain and finally a third huge one. We staggered out to our car and 20 minutes got back to our hotel, showered and headed for the bar! Dinner of seafood salad, wonderful rich veal cheeks stewed in rich gravy and duck pate with fruit sauce.

Note for Constant Reader: the photos are clickable and comments can be read by clicking on the archive title, and one does not have to register with Google blog to write a comment.

Saturday, May 19 - Segovia

Both slept soundly until 7:30 and felt somewhat restored. Downstairs to a huge buffet featuring a large ham sitting in a saddle. Ham slivers on toast drizzled with olive oil: world’s best breakfast! After carefully consulting maps we tried to figure out how to get to town without getting trapped in a tiny alleyway ending in steps, as has happened before. Actually we did OK, found an underground parking lot near the 2000-yr old Roman aqueduct and climbed up the hill into town, past an amazing carousel with large beetles, T-rexes, and models of the Titanic instead of simple horses! We followed Fodor’s walking route past churches, nunneries, around plazas to the main Cathedral and onto the Alcazar on the edge of town. Decided to leave the tourists pouring into the Castle and made our way back along the city wall. The views from the wall to the S, E, & W are of endless green plains stretching to mountains on the horizon. No slurbs or Wal-Mart’s mar the view from this treasure of a town! We stopped at a sidewalk café for pistachio ice cream and coffee and then returned to the car park and figured out how to extract our Golf successfully. Found the perimeter road and circled the town, slipping into one of the tiny parking areas and taking a short hike among brilliant wild flowers before returning to the Parador at 3:30 for a nap.

Anxious to get on line, I checked at the desk to see if they have wee-fee, as they call it here, and they actually did! Signed up for 24 hrs. Dashed back to the room and went through the usual computer frustration of having things not work…no sign of a wireless network@#$$#$ Meanwhile RRZ sat on the terrace logging in birds. There are more raptors flying around than he’s seen elsewhere; must be a very healthy ecosystem here…maybe the farmers don’t poison all the rodents and just let the hawks and eagles eat them? Also have seen many storks flying by and building huge stick nests on rooftops and chimneys.

We went down to the bar for Campari and soda and RRZ suggested maybe my wireless problem was due to distance, so ran back to the room for my computer and voila! On line in the bar! Went to dinner when the restaurant opened at 8:30..still broad daylight! I think the Spanish have skewed their clock to agree with the rest of Europe as the sun doesn’t rise until 7:30 and sets around 9:30, so eating at 10 PM isn’t really as exotic as it sounds, more like eating at 8 at home. Anyway found out that last night I had lamb sweetbreads with caramelized onions. Tonight we were handed English menus and I ordered rice with pork which came as very good risotto in a smoky ham broth with chunks of something fatty with a strange skin that I figured was pork tongue, but on glancing at the Spanish menu turned out to be boletes and morels. Pretty bizarre! Fig and chocolate soufflé for dessert.

Being Saturday night there was rock and roll blasting from the city plaza until midnight and mucho alegria!

Wed-Fri May 16-18 Setting off

5-16 We set off at 3:30 PM leaving a sad Jane behind. Drove the coast route south and reached Arnie and Anita’s by 5:45. Got in the mode for European travel with a delicious dinner at a Sardinian restaurant in Santa Monica.

5-17 Up at 4:15 AM, which certainly beats getting up at 2:15 in Santa Barbara, but not by much! Made record time to LAX driving down the deserted coastal streets, checked in and went through Security by 5:45. While waiting for our flight, we munched almond pastries that Anita had kindly packed for us, and, then finding out that our upgrades had gone through, boarded, took our first class seats, and sat back drinking mimosas and eating a second breakfast! After an awful Diane Keaton movie and warm CC cookies, we arrived in Miami, took the half hour walk from Concourse A to E and got onto our jet to Madrid, this time back in steerage. Popped a sleeping pill.

Woke up over endless miles of Spanish patchwork fields. We landed in Madrid at 8 AM and breezed through Immigration. After several tries, finally got an ATM to disgorge some Euros, and picked up our spiffy bright red VW Golf diesel and set off. We drove north about 20 km and turned off the freeway onto small back roads in hope of spotting a Greater or Lesser Bustard, an ostrich-like bird that roams the plowed fields in search of insects. We saw amazing displays of RED poppies and other yellow and purple flowers, but no bustard. Maybe later when we’re not quite so jet-lagged… We drove on some 65 km more and started climbing into the mountains. The passes went up to 4500’ and we could see some snow and passed several ski resorts. Stopped in a pine woodland and got our first life bird, the Wood Lark, singing beautifully. Lunched on OJ and chocolate and staggered into Segovia at 3:30. Actually we’re outside Segovia in a Parador, the government-run chain of hotels that are usually in old monasteries or castles. This Parador is a modern building which overlooks a valley and the old city of Segovia. On our first day traveling we didn’t feel we could contend with trying to find a B&B in the rabbit* warren of winding and extremely narrow streets that make up old Spanish city centers! RR collapsed and I showered and set up house since we’re going to be here for three days. Made rum and cokes from the Servi-Bar and watched the sun set against the cathedral which towers over the small city and sits on a large stone ridge projecting up in the middle of a wide agricultural plain. The Alcazar, the castle on which Disneyland’s Fantasyland is modeled, sits below the cathedral and is somewhat obscured from our room. Went down to dinner at nine and I confidently asked for Spanish menus only to be confronted with all sorts of local specialties that even RRZ couldn’t translate. Had garlic soup with ham and a poached egg in it and Molletija which I think was sweetbreads with chili peppers. Tomorrow I’ll get the English menu and see what I actually had! Perfect bottle of light red Palacio de Sada wine for 13 euros! We could see the cathedral and castle which are both beautifully illuminated at night. Bed at midnight.

La Mapa

Four days and counting to lift off to Espana. Here's a map of our planned route, landing in Madrid and immediately setting off for three day of recovery in Segovia. Culture through Salamanca and then heading north for birding in los Picos de Europa, a mountain range supposed to contain birds for RRZ' life list. We'll see! Good food guaranteed and who knows what the weather will be like! Adios por ahora.