July 20, 2014 Siguenza, Spain

Yesterday, we left rainy Galicia and drove east to the Guadalajara region of Spain. Where Galicia has a climate similar to the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Guadalajara is more like the southwest, dry with scrub brush vegetation.

The drive took as back over some of the very areas we had walked just days or weeks before. We drove way overhead of Herrerias on the Autovia.  Just a couple of weeks before, we took a picture of the flyovers from below. 

All that green wheat we photographed a month ago - is now golden and being harvested. 

After so much walking, it's amazing how much ground can be covered in a car - we drove more than 500 miles in 8 hours. 

We arrived our lodging, a medieval castle, a little after 6 pm. The Spanish government has restored some old government owned buildings and turned them into hotels. The best are called Paradors. We are staying in the Parador de Siguenza. 

Although we felt guilty about it (we hadn't walked 12 miles), we spent the rest of the evening lounging about.  

And since Dave booked the honeymoon suite, what's not to like?

We held off going to dinner as long as we could, trying to act more like Spaniards. So when we finally went to dinner around 9, we yawned over most of the meal.

A sound nights sleep, and a leisurely Sunday buffet breakfast, prepared us for the town tour. We saw most of it in an hour, and decided to walk it again just because we're used to walking all day.   :)

Beside the castle, the 12th century cathedral is the main attraction. 

On our first go round we saw half of the cathedral because a mass was being said. 

This Madonna statue has been in this church since the 12th century. 

After leaving the church, we walked up a side street and saw this sign. We tried to google translate Casco, and came up with helmet. Mmmm...not sure that's accurate. Since three out of four signs recommended going straight, (even though two were clueless), that's what we did, since we were also clueless. 

Seems like we were inside the castle fortification - found several old portals. 

This last one took us outside the old city onto the Don Quioxte Trail. 

We thought about another hike, but decided we'd snap a few photos and head back in to see the rest of the cathedral and have lunch. 

The backside of the castle. 

The backside of the Cathedral. 

When we went back to the church, we stopped near a tour group. Even though it was in Spanish, we could pick up a few words here and there, enough to get the gist of the lecture. 

When they moved towards a very large closed door, we drifted along with them. It had to be something cool - the key to the door was about 9 inches long and must have weighed a pound.

Just as we were about to enter what looked like an ornate chapel, the tour leader asked for our receipt. BUSTED.  We sheepishly headed back to part of the church reserved for the common serfs. 

Having pretty much exhausted what there was to see in the town, and not caring to visit any more trinket shops, we popped into a cafe for lunch, finding something different than jamon bogadillos. We shared 6 sliders made up of a variety of meat, sausage, and chicken. 

After lunch we walked back up the hill to the hotel, and "good" internet service, needing to plan our upcoming Madrid visit. "Good" internet service consists of finding the right corner of the lobby or courtyard area that has weak wi-fi (pronounced wee-fee). Fortunately, the courtyard cafe had an open table. 

Dave figured out the logistics of dropping the car off at the airport and either taking the subway, or taxi into the center of Madrid. To deter vehicular traffic, the government makes it very expensive to drive and/or park in the city center. It's much easier to take public transportation.

I found a bicycle tour that will give us an overview of the Madrid highlights on Tuesday, and then we will decide what to delve into on Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday is the day we fly home.