JulietteThe welcome at my first overnight stop was very enthousiastic & cuddly.
Since that first night, I've done some driving, so... Ola España! Estoy por ti.
Seriously... ? Apparently that song now needs to be changed to "The *hail* in Spain...."
_sigh_ okay, I think I got the message. Enough with the jokes.
View from my hotel room -
Last night - This morning
Visited the Monasterio de Valvanero. Impressive to think this was build at least five centuries ago.
P.S.: in case you didn't realize - mouse over any of the photos I'm posting to see a more detailed description (ALT text), which may also provide some additional context for the photos.
Beautiful landscapes, lots of ruines, castles etc etc to be seen. Even saw a fox (?) cross the road.
Unfortunately today's snowstorm means that none of it was very photogenic...
I've been told the weather will clear up tomorrow... we'll see. Seeing is believing after all.
Started off the day with sorting out a minor car repair (all good) and then had the pleasure of an _almost_ completely dry day.... just a bit of rain towards the evening.
Narrowly missed having deer-steak for dinner though. Luckily my breaks are good ;-)
Some roadtrip stats so far:
* 8.5 days in
* ~3.250 km
Visited:
* 2 archeological excavation sites
* 3 monasteries
* Ruins of various other historic/religious buildings
* Lots of pretty and historic towns/villages
* A couple of protected nature reserves
Wildlife count:
* 4 deer (1 in France)
* 4 wild boars
* 1 fox
* 5 storks
* 4 rabbits
* 2 squirrels
* Plenty of cute cats & dogs
* Lots of birds
After a slow drive via Colmenar Viejo, I'm now in Madrid.
Had a lovely dinner with @ViejoViajero today and I'm looking forward to meeting the people in the #PHPMadrid usergroup this Wednesday.
Oh... and to feel tall again #MetroMadrid
Visited two art exhibits in auxiliary locations of the Reina Sofia museum in #RetiroPark.
Can't even remember the last time before this.
Balm for the soul.
If someone would have told me last week to attempt a 9 km hike, I'd have laughed in their faces. Nevertheless, today I did.
Ended up doing nearly 6 km, which is amazing considering my general physical condition.
Saw some rabbits playing tag early on and soon after, this lovely, gentle giant came to "protect" me against those naughty rabbits. He clearly recognized I could use some encouragement and company, so he stayed with me for most of my walk. Such a sweetheart!
Lunch at the beach on La Manga off the Spanish east coast.
Am I doing this taking a break correctly ?
Made some friends on the Andalucian east coast / Cabo de Gata-Nijar.
Stayed the last few days near the artificial Viñuela lake.
A "new" lake which didn't exist yet when I lived in this area.
I've been told the idea for this lake was conceived in the 19th century, but it took over a hundred years, until 1998, for the dam and the lake to become a reality.
Made some friends on my way to Puerto del Sol (top of a 1085 m high mountain).
What with all the improvements and changes I see in Spain, it bugs me that the parking problems are still just as bad, if not worse than thirty years ago.
Also seeing plenty of half-finished buildings, where work has clearly stalled (for years).
Maybe some of those could be turned into parking garages ?
Just a reminder/service notice:
** If you suffer from "choice stress" - do NOT go on a roadtrip.... ** 😂
So many choices/decision to take each and every day....
Oh and if you ever visit Spain in January/February: be aware that ~80% of hotels are closed for the season and that the other 20% is hard to find and often full...
Not as bad here in the South now, but that's mostly because there are just so many more hotels. (20% of 5 vs 20% of 40 does make a difference).
I've been lagging behind with picture posting recently.
I suppose, in part, this is because most of my current travels feels like familiar territory to me from having lived in this area and traveled through it extensively before.
All the same, the landscapes are gorgeous, though posting tons of landscape pics would get boring very soon...
Guess I better post some pics anyway.
So, to start: one of my favourite villages in Andalucia: Istán.
Oh and let's also post a random selection of other photos... may as well ;-)
Oh and these were some signs I encountered today at the entrance towards a pretty local highway. You'd think most of this would be common sense, but apparently not 😂
Cadiz
I have to admit, I never visited this city before and was very pleasantly surprised.
Compared to the chaos of most Spanish towns, Cadiz felt very well organized and very welcoming.
I like it!
While driving, I previously already saw lots of "half naked" trees, which didn't seem a natural event. Made me curious what the bark is harvested for and whether this isn't damaging the trees worse than it should.
Guess I found out why it's being done now anyway. Still not sure about the answer to the second question.
Been a bit quiet as I was staying with a friend.
Had a lovely time with my friend and her family. It was awesome getting the chance to catch-up and see each other again after six years.
Also became good friends with their lovely (and naughty!) dog 😂
Ipstenu (Mika E.) 🏳️🌈@jrf_nl Half naked trees like that are pretty common in Southern California. It's fine on some trees, it's not on others, so you have to know thy tree.
Also it depends on WHEN you do it. Out here, they tell us never do it in summer, as it will encourage fungus and bugs.
The gardeners near us strip the bark from some trees that 'shed' their bark for fire prevention. The fallen bark is super flammable.
Looking at that photo, I think it's actually a cork tree! And if so, totes okay :)
@ipstenu That's useful information to know. Thanks for enlightening me!
Jaapio@jrf_nl this is why you should include not exclude in if statements right?
annekekassteele 🥂@jrf_nl wat een mooie reis maak je, fijn om op deze manier een beetje mee te genieten!
@annekekassteele Was er ook echt aan toe, te lang doorgebuffeld.
Mike van Riel@jrf_nl could it be that the half-finished buildings were left unfinished on purpose. I remember some countries having laws that you only pay certain taxes on completed properties?
@jrf_nl after searching for citations or backing evidence, I am seriously entertaining the thought that my previous post is actually an Urban Legend .. so yeah .. let's pretend I didn't post that 😉
@mvriel Not an urban legend. I'm pretty sure it's true in Peru.
Except there, they build the building and then have a half-unfinished "let's add another floor" bit, while they do actually live in the building.
Here, what I am seeing is skeletons of complete buildings, like large apartment complexes or hotels. Makes me suspect that they started building while the permits hadn't been issued yet or something. Still, such a waste of capital.
ThomasToSpace@mvriel @jrf_nl I think it comes from the 'Half a House' project in Chile.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/half-a-house/
It doesn't seem tax related. It seems focussed on 'Give people a home with less money, and make sure they can expand it themselves in the future'.
Half a House - 99% Invisible
On the night of February 27th, 2010, Luis Enriquez had just gotten home from his job at a lumber factory in Constitución, Chile. At around three o’clock in the morning, Luis started to feel the earth shake. It was an earthquake—a bad one. With a magnitude of 8.8, the quake that hit Constitución was the second biggest that the world
@ThomasToSpace @mvriel What I observed in Peru is from before that time though. I was there in 2008, while this project didn't get started until after 2010.
Gerión@jrf_nl Pantano, hoy día a mínimos de agua, debido al abuso de regadíos y la escasez de lluvias.
Luc Princen@jrf_nl What an amazing picture of a real-life giant!
bueltge
Matthew Weier O'Phinney
Marcel Bootsman@jrf_nl absolutely! Enjoy!
Denis Žoljom@jrf_nl looks amazing! Enjoy the vacation 😄
Julie Lerman@JulieLerman Exactly, he was so, so sweet!
Kevin Bruce@jrf_nl that second one may as well be the Windows Vista desktop! Gorgeous pics :)
@kevinbruce My thoughts exactly (see the ALT text).
Mette
Courtney Robertson@jrf_nl I really should make some day trip plans by myself to visit the art museums in Washington DC
@courtneyr_dev You definitely should! (and so should I when I get back to regular life)