Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, June 5,6,7 - Madrid and home

We slept in and took our time leaving beautiful Cuenca. We got lost when we entered the section of new town and I grabbed a cop who directed us to the road to Madrid.

Freeway all the way to Madrid in various condition from brand new to wishful thinking. Madrid has a spider web freeway system of several concentric rings and many radial branches, the outer rings of which are in farmland as they’re wisely (?) expanding the system before growth catches up to it. The roads were all very well labeled and, as we arrived during the early afternoon siesta, weren’t as choked as they are in the morning. We approached the airport wondering what “rental car return” is in Spanish, and conveniently the signs said “Rental Car Return” so we easily maneuvered into the huge garage and left our wonderful red VW Golf and grabbed a taxi to our hotel.

We had made a reservation at the Santo Domingo Best Western as it was recommended as a great small city hotel and it was just that. We got a corner room on the top floor with a wrap-around balcony and views of cafés and shops below. I was feeling peckish, so we went out and stopped by one of the cafés and I was thrilled to see chicken salad on the menu as both chicken and mixed greens are almost impossible to get in restaurants in Spain. Turned out to be mixed greens with small pieces of grilled chicken with a frothy fruity dressing; a little strange but filled the bill. We walked across downtown and reached the Prado which, in Madrid’s strange time sense, remains open until 8; as it was six-ish by then we went in and had a wonderful time looking at all the El Grecos, Velázquez, and Goya that we’d ever heard of and more. Staggered back to our hotel for a Cuba and collapsed in our room for a while. At 10:30 PM I was feeling hungry again and we decided we might as well be real madrileños and went out for a light dinner of delicious pizza with great slices of fresh mozzarella and basil on top and carpaccio of pineapple (paper thin slices of pineapple drizzled with syrup and pistachios) with pistachio ice cream on top for dessert.

Wednesday we started out at another café for fresh OJ (everyday, everywhere in Spain) and the #3 breakfast for RRZ: 2 HB patties, fried egg and French fries! Walked over to the huge, lovely Royal Palace (2800 rooms) on the edge of an enormous and wild city park, and decided to hop onto a double-decker Madrid Vision bus that takes one to all the sights and lets one hop on and off at will. We got off at the Reina Sofia Museum that houses 20^th century art and had another amazing art experience seeing lots of Picassos, Mirós and Dalís. A whole room is dedicated to Guernica and it was quite a moving sight to see the whole huge piece. Connecting rooms contain the many studies Picasso did for Guernica and also a series of photographs of the work in progress showing the interesting changes Picasso made as he painted. Many groups of well-behaved school children were being lectured to, although I wondered what they were being told about some of the more graphic Dalís!

We got back on the Vision bus and continued around Madrid, both historic sections and modern commercial ones. We finally got off just before three and walked over to where we had seen a closed Peruvian restaurant on our walk Tuesday in hopes that it would be open for lunch. Both our Peruvian restaurants have closed in Santa Barbara and we were in need of a fix. We were ushered in and handed Pisco Sours and had two kinds of ceviche, tamales and potatoes with peanut sauce. With beers and a complementary liqueur of some kind, we reeled out of there and returned for a siesta, venturing out only for some late ice cream before we packed and went to bed.

Thursday: fast taxi ride to the beautiful modern airport, reached Miami by 2 PM and LAX by 7. Home to a yowling Jane Cat by 11!

Sunday & Monday, June 3 & 4- Alcañiz & Cuenca

Brilliant sunshine. Bade farewell to Mario and David and headed south through land resembling the American west: juniper and oak woodlands down into the rolling wheat plains, leaving the Pyrenees behind. South of Zaragoza the land is more arid and has beautiful red/orange buttes rising from the plain. We turned off the highway and drove through arid farmland and scrub of the Belchite Plain in our last chance for the bustard. Didn’t see that but did see the Tawny Pipit and the Calandra Lark.

A little after five we arrived in Alcañiz, a small city set on a hill that rises from the surrounding farmlands and is capped by an oversized castle which turned out to be our next Parador! We circled up the hill and arrived to find the castle filled with noisy niños and confetti. Three little girls had just received their first communion and everyone was celebrating. We managed to weave amongst them and got to our room with a pastoral view of green and gold fields. This Parador has wi-fi and a good restaurant set in a large hall and decorated with colorful quilts of various coats of arms.

Monday we drove south and west, leaving the A23 freeway to drive on a slower scenic road across the Serranía de Cuenca Mountains. This road had very well marked turnouts with geological and historical markers. We explored a Roman aqueduct, walking through tunnels cut into the stonewalls, surrounded with more glorious wild flowers. We also happened upon the small town of Albarracín that dates back to 1012 when it was an independent Islamic state. Now narrow winding streets dramatically wind up a steep hill to a castle. Beautiful houses cling to the cliffs.

We stopped in the village of Uña at a nice looking café/bar which appeared a little rough when we entered it, with tiles on the wall saying “We permit smoking here and maybe that’s what God wants anyway” and some less printable ones, but we sat at the bar and split a tuna and tomato on a baguette and beers served by a gruff pot-bellied man. We took a short detour to visit La Ciudad Encantada which is an area of strangely eroded rocks, most resembling giant mushrooms. Took a pleasant walk and managed to pick up the Crested Tit, a very cute Chickadee with a finely striped crest.

We arrived in Cuenca at five via a back road that winds along a narrow green canyon and the Río Huéscar, and suddenly there we were in city traffic. Fortunately I spotted a sharp left-hand uphill turn and the sign “Parador” and we zoomed sharply up to the hotel in the large Convento de San Pablo.

We got a nice room with a quiet view of the lovely inner courtyard, but I figured we were here only one night and I wanted a view of the city, so we managed to switch rooms to #303, high up in the convent walls with a magnificent view of Cuenca! The city is across the river gorge and so built out that some of the houses are cantilevered out over the river for a very dramatic effect. There is a narrow footbridge from the Parador to the old town, built 100 years ago for the monks that we took to walk through this town of winding streets and colorful houses. There are long walks that one can take down the canyon and along the hillsides, so I hope we can return to this lovely place again sometime.

Saturday, June 2 - Exploring Aragón 2

Today we awoke to perfectly clear sky and skipped breakfast since it’s served at nine and we wanted to get going early. Left at 8 and headed north via a different route to another French border crossing. We got to a large ski area with several very high scary lifts. It was sunny but the blasting wind and chill made it pretty difficult to do much, particularly photographing flowers. As usual, no birds of interest, but we saw a patch of lilies very similar to our chocolate lilies: Pyrenean Snake’s Head, Fritillaria pyrenaica. Stopped at a bar and got a burst of French when we ordered coffee. Maybe we’ve crossed the border?

Headed back towards our hotel and drove into the national park of Ordesa and Monte Perdido and entered an area that looked like a mixture of Yosemite and Utah: conifer and deciduous tree-covered slopes topped with orange cliff tops. There are many interesting hiking trails and areas to explore.

Got back to the Casa and actually had a few hours to relax! Campari and soda and my sketch book in hand, I sat on the terrace with Mimi the cat and enjoyed view.

Friday, June 1 - Hiking in Aragón

Buffet breakfast at nine and off we went in search of alpine birds, once again.

Drove just short of the French border and took a hike near a Parador; slight sprinkle of rain, but other than that, sun, cold and wind. Got up to a snow bank with a lovely overview of the mountains and the hotel. Split a bocadillo sandwich at the Parador which unfortunately seems to be the only one in the chain without wi-fi, as I had brought my computer along in hope of sending out a few blogs.

We drove to a lower elevation and took a tiny side road to the no-longer existing village of Revilla that Mario had recommended for a hike with views and sightings of various eagles. Drove along with the usual long drop-off on one side, past beautiful deserted stone houses and an occasional remote hotel to the trail head and set off on an easy 2 mile hike with views of mountain peaks and a deep valley way below. Passed a ancient hermitage beneath a towering cliff reminiscent of Utah and on to an overlook. Just a few common birds, but the usual great flowers. We’re thinking of changing our emphasis to botany instead of birds. I’ve never been in a place that’s so difficult to see any bird, let alone rare ones!

Back to the Casa San Martín, where it was announced that dinner tonight will start at 9:30, because there is a full house and several guests are Spanish. Yikes! We’re finding it difficult to eat a multi-course dinner with wine, finish after 11 and try to go right to bed. That probably won’t generate a lot of sympathy! Anyway dinner was gazpacho with soft curd cheese, a pesto pasta course, then a large piece of baked bacalao (cod) in a coconut sauce. Really great but way more than I could eat!

Thursday, May 31 - to the Pyrenees

We left the Arresi at nine and headed south to the A8 freeway that runs along the north coast of Spain. It’s a major truck route and was constricted in places due to repair work and so was tedious and scary at times. Turned south at Donostia-San Sebastián to Pamplona and as soon as we left the coast, the road became more tranquil and the villages smaller and lovelier with brilliant green hills and distant mountains. We managed to circle around Pamplona but missed our exit on to a small highway as the government is in the very early stages of making it into a freeway and has changed the number on the exit sign to a freeway number even though the road essentially doesn’t exist! Grumble, grumble! We eventually found a little country road that got us back in the right direction and entered Aragón and left the Basque Country and bilingual signs behind.

We drove due east and the countryside became drier with golden wheat fields and tiny hill top medieval towns sprouting up in the middle of them. We could see the snowy Pyrenees starting to appear to the north and turned towards them near Jaca. Upon entering the foothills, the towns started to be constructed of rough gray stone with crude, but very appealing, slate roofs, along with a few modern ski chalet towns.

Our next hotel’s address is Km 253 between the towns of Aínsa and Ascaso and is marked by a small sign to San Martín de Solana. We drove up a very rough road for 5 km and could suddenly see, across a lovely valley, a large old stone house surrounded by ancient stone terraces, full of tan cows grazing with their bells gently clanging. We arrived at the front door and were greeted by Mario Reis, one of the owners, and chef, who grew up in Brazil. He showed us around the house which he and David Richardson, a Brit, bought ---years ago and fixed up into this beautiful B & B. Our large room has stonewalls, tile floors and orange accent wall and views over the front yard where a family of geese graze along with two Portuguese Water Dogs and several British Shorthaired cats. Another window overlooks the valley and we’re lulled to sleep each night by the peaceful sound of cowbells. The only thing they lack is wi-fi!

A set-menu dinner, which we had with a Dutch couple, was served at nine consisted of delicious tossed green salad with local cheese and orange slices, followed by steak and pommes Anna, served by incredibly suave André and charming host, David. Truly a great hotel!

Wednesday, May 30 - Exploring the Basque Country

Bright sunshine this morning! Set off east along the coast and came upon a fantastic church set on top of a small island: the tenth century Hermitaqe of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. We climbed up the 231 stone steps to the church and had wonderful view up and down the coast. Continued on to the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve which covers the entire watershed of a long estuary headed by the town of Guernica for which the famous Picasso painting was done. We drove around the entire wetlands and couldn’t find any way to access it to look for birds. Beautiful scenery and great views of beautiful beaches and town and marsh, but, oh, well…

We found the little village of Akorda from which a short hike leaves for a few kilometers up to a small church high on a hill. We hiked through pine and eucalyptus plantations, which seem to cover a distressingly large percentage of the Basque country, and finally got to the native oak forest and climbed up to the church of San Pablo and overlooked the entire Biosphere as it started to rain once again! Down over an ancient slippery limestone road and back to Guernica. Revived with Magnum ice cream bars (which we also bought in Honduras last Feb) and made our way back to the Arresi.

The hotel advertises Wi-Fi and I can easily connect, but something is wrong with their system as Internet Explorer rejects it, so I haven’t sent out any blogs for a while. Maybe the next hotel?

We drove a few miles to another hotel and had very good meal, not as incredible as last night’s, but interesting in that my baked fish (hake?) was covered in tiny 4” baby eels that resemble white pieces of spagetti with a grey streak down one side. Interesting little crunch to them and, thank God, they don’t wiggle around like big freshly cooked eels of my youth! Bob had “steak cooked on a stone” which was potatoes, steak and peppers delivered sizzling on an extremely hot thick clay plate sitting in a metal rack that could cause any number of law suits in the States!

Tuesday, May 29 - to Amintza

After croissants, green gage plum jam and coffee, we said goodbye to Jasper, drove back to Potes and headed north through the Desfiladero de la Hermida, another narrow deep gorge with scarily large buses careening towards us. Partly cloudy.

We stopped at a couple of wetlands on the shore that were recommended for birds, but didn’t see much action. The Picos are still visible from the coast and it was a pretty amazing sight to see 8000’ snow-splotched peaks from sea level.

RRZ suggested I might look in the Lonely Planet guidebook to describe the passing scene and I found Santillana del Mar, a tiny Medieval village that passed strict planning laws back in 1575 and so has managed to preserve its lovely old buildings and cobble stone streets right up to today. As our route passed through it, I thought we ought to see what good planning laws can do and pass the word onto the SB City Council! It is an exquisite town, rather full of tourists and knick-knacks, but lovely just the same. The Cueva de Altamira was nearby and we probably should have seen it as it’s supposed to have fabulous cave drawings, but as we had a long ways to go and as one can only see an excellent copy, not the originals, we drove on.

We arrived in Basque Country, or Euskadi, and immediate noticed strangely worded street signs and hoped we wouldn’t have trouble navigating, particularly through Bilbao, but it was pretty easy and we arrived in Armintza, a tiny fishing village about 25 km north of the city. We found the ten-room Arresi Hotel on a hill overlooking the harbor and checked in. We have a spacious room with wrap-around glass doors on two sides and great views of the ocean and hotel vineyard. The only problem was that the town has three restaurants, none of which are open. Tourism in this area is pretty much confined to weekends which was a surprise as we had been told we could walk to dinner.

One of the family who run the Arresi told us about the Kaian Restaurant about 5 miles away in the town of Plentzia, so we thought we’d make a dry run and see if we could find it as it’s supposed to be a little tricky driving around these towns. We found the town and wandered around, finally asking three men standing on the side of the road. They argued a bit in Basque and finally decided that it was half a block away, which it was, and we could park right there. So we returned to the hotel and cleaned up and set our once again at nine. We turned out to be the only customers that night, but what a night! That meal should be get at least one star! We split an order of cuttlefish with onion sauce and then I had incredible piece of rare grilled duck sitting in a pool of creamed raisins with the local salty Idiazabal cheese grated on top, and Bob had a succulent lamb shank on a vegetable cake. For dessert I had the cheese, somehow whipped up and layered with air-dried quince slices with walnut ice cream on the side. Thanks to our GPS we managed to weave our way home.

Monday, May 28 - Up the Teleferico

Up at 7:30 to overcast and drizzle. Fresh snow on the mountain tops! After breakfast walked out of the hotel and nearly stumbled over Jasper, the huge St. Bernard who guards the front steps. Drove 10 km. to the end of the road at Fuente De. There is a Parador there and the teleférico station that sends small cable cars 3000’ up the mountain face. There was so much drizzle and sleet that we could hardly see the station at the top, so we left hoping for better weather later in the day. We went back to the hotel and walked around the village and followed a cowherd with their bells clanging as they left for summer pasture.

It started to clear a bit so we drove back up the mountain to pretty clear sky!! Got on the teleférico and it took off, zooming up into the air and toward the rock face and up it, passing the other car going down. Spectacular ride! Disembarked at the top and fortunately had our vest, windbreakers and scarves along as it was 35 degrees with a stiff wind blowing and quite a bit of snow. We immediately saw Alpine Choughs, crow-like birds with yellow bills and red legs, and set off on a hike to see some more of RRZ’ desired life birds, most of which are brown, black and white and blend in perfectly with the snow and mud. We had forgotten mittens and had a hard time holding binoculars with numb hands. Beautiful views of the green valley below, deciduous tree-covered mountains and rocky snow-streaked peaks.

Several more carloads of teenagers and other tourists appeared and the one main trail became rather noisy. We left the crowds and slipped and slid over to a rim of rock and spotted a chamois (rebeco in Spanish) standing silhouetted against the sky with beautiful curved-back horns.

After a few hours we rode the car back down and collapsed in the Parador for sandwich and beer and wi-fi catch-up as the del Oso has the world’s slowest connection.

After lunch we walked around the meadow next to the Parador. We had a minor standoff with a large goat herd and one billy with enormous horns. Found two gorgeous types of purple and white orchids and fields of yellow and white flowers.

Back to Hotel del Oso in sunshine. We think the weather is finally changing and it may be warmer and sunnier for the rest of our trip. Dinner at our hotel of wonderful vegetable soup, cod with pepper and tomato sauce and, for dessert, fig ice cream and tea with orujo, a local liqueur.

Sunday, May 27 - to Fuente De

Packed up and left the Parador about nine. It was overcast but the clouds had structure and we were hopeful of better weather. We got diesel for our wonderful little Golf (42 mpg; it also has individual temperature controls- a wonderful argument-avoidance device) and set off south through the Picos de Europa National Park to Fuente De where there is a funicular we hope to ride high into the mountains. As the crow flies, we were going only about 25 km, but actually had almost 100 very winding km to drive because the limestone mountains are cut by many small rivers into very deep steep-sided gorges. Our standards for good weather have sunk low enough so that we were overjoyed to see breaks in the clouds and actually get some sun.

We drove along the Río Sella, passing many fly fishermen, tiny villages with medieval bridges, past craggy peaks and lots of inviting trailheads, to the town of Posada de Valdeón where we had a delicious lunch of the remains of my sagely-saved sandwich of yesterday, water and chocolate. A single lane road runs 5 km through a narrow gorge and dead ends at the small village of Caín with many hiking trails and lots of parking. Fortunately the holiday season hasn’t started yet as that road must be hell to drive when there’s any traffic going back and forth. There was some sun so we hiked a ways along the Río Cares until it enters a high, very narrow stone gorge where there is a small hydroelectric dam. The trail crosses by a thundering waterfall and continues through a tunnel cut into the stone wall.

We returned to the town for a beer and continued on through craggy peaks and lovely pastoral valleys, reaching our small charming Hotel Del Oso by 5. It has a beautiful blue-tiled swimming pool with a large bear decorating the bottom and a lovely lawn full of lounge chairs. Ojalá that it were warm! Good dinner of veal steak and peppers.