Chasing Castles

Life feels cleaner after a good rain. The dust has settled; the temperature has gone down. When I left Lupe's house in Córdoba on Saturday morning, the city was actually cool. (This is saying something, since it has the highest average summer temperature in Spain and Europe!)

The land changed as I drove the three hours north to Mérida. Mountains gave way to broad, flat plains. I saw a Roman tower behind a gas station.

In the middle of the plain, an enormous rock pile suddenly loomed up. To my utter delight, a castle perched precariously atop it. I did not realize just how precarious it seemed until I drove around it.

I found out later it was the Castillo de Belmez, built originally in 1245 and last used by the French when they were attempting to overrun Spain (Napoleon=idiot, remember?).

I thought about going to see it, but I had a lot I wanted to do and I needed to be in Sevilla to turn in the car that evening, so I kept going.

I've discovered that there are few things that make me happier than driving through unfamiliar territory without the fear of getting lost.

 I could thoroughly enjoy sailing along at 90km/hr. I began passing through fields upon fields of solar panels - small wonder! The sun was beating down and there were few, if any, clouds to be seen.

Once I passed the solar panel fields, I began to go past acres of sunflowers, all pointing toward the sun.

In Spanish, the sunflower is called a "girasol". "Girar" means to turn, and "sol" is, of course, the sun. They are sun-turners! It's an apt name.

Of course, I was stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle for most of this, but once I went around it, the sheer emptiness of road stretching out in front of me was simply glorious.

I was driving along happily when in the distance I saw another hill fortress, this time looking like a crown. I determined I was going to go find it.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw a small brown sign with an arrow pointing toward the castle, with "Roman theater" written on it. Naturally, I immediately turned off the main road onto a winding road toward the hill and the castle atop it. My GPS proceeded to have a panic attack.

The road led steadily toward the castle, winding up and up the mountain and right through the small whitewashed town of Reina.

It was a sleepy Saturday morning; the only stirring inhabitants of the town were three women. They looked at me curiously, but without much interest.


My quest for the castle ended rather ingloriously and abruptly. I simply could not find a way to go farther.

As I backed my car back down what turned out to be a sheep track and did a 3-point turn on the side of a mountain with a steep drop no more than a yard behind my back tires, I reflected that this whole situation probably counted against the promise I had made to a friend to "not do anything stupid" while in Spain.


After heading back through the still-sleepy town, I headed off to find the Roman Theater. This detour turned out much better.

A bored and sweaty security guy emerged from his air-conditioned trailer only just long enough to not answer my question of how much the theater cost to see and merely tell me it was "that way". He then immediately went back into the trailer. I therefore assumed that it was free.

The path to the theater was lined with fences to keep sheep in. It was an intensely hot day by this time - 11:45 in the morning! I felt like just lying down in the shade like this poor sheep.

A word about this Roman theater: it was completely deserted and remarkably intact. I could climb down the steps, stand on the stage, go "backstage", and explore as much as I liked. 

                     




There was a Roman town in the field nearby, and I could see plainly where the foundations of the buildings were. An informative sign told me in good Spanish and Google-translated English that the town had been mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy; that the Emperor Vespasian had been involved in the planning of the city; and that centuries later the hill fortress had been made by the Moors, using Roman stone.








I only spent about half an hour at this fantastic spot, but it was absolutely worth it. It isn't every day that you get to have an entire Roman theater all to yourself. Well, as much as you can have it "all to yourself" when you're sharing the space with about a hundred sheep and one completely uninterested security guy.








To be continued...

113 Degrees and Humid

The thing about the Alhambra is that it is not only vast, but overwhelmingly detailed. I could probably spend the rest of my life there and not understand it or discover everything there is to know. However, I didn't have the rest of my life; I had an Airbnb reservation in Cordoba to get to in the afternoon, and the drive would be a couple hours.

The "interstate" system in Spain is a bit different to the one in the States. I took the non-toll roads, which wind around a bit more than the direct toll roads. You see more countryside and pretty towns, I suppose, but it takes longer.

Not that I minded countryside. I loved it. True, I didn't love that there were seven roundabouts in a row with six different directions I could choose, according to my GPS. I did not love the fact that one of those six was a dirt road that looked like a Flavius or Julius could conceivably have been the last person to take it. Nor did I love the fact that the next roundabout had a dirt road that didn't make it onto the map, despite it being well-worn and much-traveled.

I found out quickly that it's best to just go with whatever exit you think might be right and make a U-turn if it isn't. After all, it's not like there is anyone around - except for the exact moment you decide to make a U-turn.

So it was a good thing I had my GPS.

Cordoba turned out to be a bustling city with fairly quiet streets. I don't know how that works. Driving in it wasn't a problem, and I seemed to have turned up at the precise moment when there was exactly one parking place open. This was better than I could have hoped!

After a short rest, I felt ready to see the sights. Lupe, my host, had kindly brought me a glass of ice water when I arrived. It melted completely in 10 minutes, with the A/C on. Everyone was dripping sweat. No one was prepared for the heat this early!


I'd heard great things about the Mosque-Cathedral, so I knew I wanted to see it. It used to be a grand mosque when the Moors ruled Cordoba, but ages ago some Catholic architect had asked permission to build a church in the middle. The Holy Building Permit Office (I assume), rather than go to the trouble of going over to look at the proposed site, gave permission sight unseen. Hence why it's called the Mosque-Cathedral: there is a cathedral built in the center of the mosque, incorporating the side aisles but completely removing and rebuilding the very center.

Getting there took some doing. I took the wrong bus twice, ended up I-know-not-where, walked until I got to the river, and figured out my way from there. The heat and humidity pressed down on me and fogged my mind.

After the Alhambra, the Mosque-Cathedral was a disappointment. The ceiling still soared above my head, ancient and mesmerizing, but it was dingy and discolored.

I left, hot, sweaty, sunburned, and feeling like the drive to Cordoba had been a waste. I wandered around a little, looking for the palace of the kings of Cordoba. I found it! It was closed.

Somewhat discouraged, I stopped at a small heladería (ice-cream shop) nearby and decided to eat my dulce de leche ice cream across the street by a large and rather out-of-place monument (to Columbus, I think). The ice cream was melting rapidly in the 113°F heat, and so was I.

Just past the monument, a several-times-rebuilt Roman bridge spanned the Guadalquivir River. When I looked at it and mentally shrugged, I knew I was overly tired. Normally anything with the word "Roman" in it captures my attention. This time it did not.

I stopped to fill my water bottle from a fountain on the street, forgot to take my camera off my wrist, and stuck it directly into the stream of ice-cold water. Getting upset would use too much energy, so I sat on a park bench, took out the batteries, let the thing air-dry for a few minutes (Everything just evaporated. It was scary.) and it was just fine.

I decided to do the smart thing and go back to my room, eat something, and go to bed early. I wandered around, smelling the bitter orange trees that dot the city, glad for the shade.

The "smart thing" involved getting on several buses, not knowing where I was going. Somehow my heat-addled brain deciphered the maps and told my body where to go. Somehow, without knowing what I was doing, I got back to my room with not a single bit of backtracking.

After a short rest, I set out again, this time in search of supper. I found a small store nearby, selling fruit and cheese and bread. The wind was picking up, and the heat was not so bad anymore. Dust was flying everywhere, though, and static electricity crackled in the oppressively humid air. The clouds were black and roiling by this point, the sun either sinking fast or completely obscured.

I hoped desperately for rain.

120 km/hour

I don’t know whether it was stupid or dumb, but it was a good decision. I rented a car to travel from Madrid to Granada, Córdoba, Mérida, and Sevilla. I bought a GPS before I left home because it would be cheaper and smarter in the long run, but I would be driving solo, so it promised to be stressful.

I walked to the train station to get my car (remember how I said after London that you should always get the car at an airport? Yeah, I ignored my own advice. Don’t do that.).

And then I spent the better part of an hour making sure I knew how the car worked and what buttons to push and if I knew where my GPS charger was and why did I think it would be a good idea to not remember where that went?

But, after asking for help because the car wouldn’t start and finding out that I just wasn’t pushing the brake hard enough, I was good to go.

Did you know that Madrileños use their indicators? It’s easier to drive in Madrid, not knowing a thing about where you are, than to drive in Chicago. Of course, one of the first things my GPS said was, and I quote, “Turn right at rtrtrtrtrplmbsrtsmz”. Well, it was easier to just change it to Spanish after that.

I didn’t get lost. I missed one turn, thankfully in a part of the city that followed a grid pattern, but the GPS just kept right on “recalculando”, giving usted commands and using the present subjunctive. I now know usted commands very well.

I was out of Madrid’s city center before I could do anything other than pay attention to the GPS. 

Then, once I got the hang of highway driving in Spain, I looped my camera strap around my wrist and turned up a Spanish radio station that finished a Spanish song and then played the theme from “Salvando a soldado Ryan”. 

Cruise control set to 120 km/hr, camera on and snapping here and there, air conditioning up so high I was actually starting to feel something other than hot – it was great.

A couple hours later, I was cruising along a country road at 90 km/hr. And then! I saw my first ruined castle. It was high on a hill since obviously no one with sense puts their fortifications in a valley, even if it did ultimately work out for George Washington.

About half an hour later, I saw my first Don Quijote windmill. 

I stuck my CD of the El Cid soundtrack in the player and turned it up. There was a reason for this: I was going to the castle that was used for the fortress of Calahorra in the 1961 El Cid movie. (The fortress of Calahorra itself is distinctly less castle-y looking, and besides, it's historically inaccurate to say that Doña Urraca ruled Calahorra, but it was the 1960s and I don't think they were too worried about it.)

Castillo de Belmonte is located in Cuenca, Spain. It’s been around for ages and will be around for ages more, since it was restored in the last 50 years. I had the run of the castle, pretty much, from the dungeons (probably a cellar, but a girl can dream) to the battlements. Isn’t it great?

The entrance to the keep

Notice the lowered drawbridge.

Entering the castle

Layers of walls and battlements

A full armor chamber!

The passages were cool and echoing.

The servants' quarters.

Either creepy dungeons or a cellar.

The gate looking toward the walls.

What a view! From the highest battlements accessible to visitors, I could see for what felt like miles.

Leaving Belmonte Castle by a small, little-used road.

On the road again - this time for 3.5 hours. I was tired - five hours of sleep the night before, four the night before that, little to no sleep on the airplane, everything seven hours off. So I stopped mid-way and got myself a sandwich at a little gas station. The locals (by which I mean the check-out lady) were busy fanning themselves with receipts and complaining about how hot it was.

Having finished the El Cid soundtrack, I started listening to other, more Spanish, music. And Bolero. Since it’s 15 minutes long, it was long enough to get me through about 7 tunnels and 30 bazillion miles of innards-squeezingly high bridges.

The most stressful part of the day came in the evening when I was trying to find my Airbnb. My GPS still doesn't know where it is, and my directions were very unclear, so Yvalis and Andrés (the hosts) came out to show me where to go. I took a shower while they were at the pool because I was practically manufacturing gallons of sweat by that point. Afterwards, I tried to sit on my bed to put in the wifi (pronounced wee-fee) password, fell over, and woke up an hour later, when I removed my laptop from my lap and went to sleep for another hour.

In one day I had traveled over 500 km, from Madrid in the center of Spain, to a point less then 100 kilometers from Africa. The terrain had changed; the culture had, too. Arabic and Spanish now shared road signs. Buildings had taken on a distinctly Moorish look.

So much of Spain is history, whether violent or peaceful. So much of it spanned centuries, a man's life come and gone between major occurrences. I never quite feel history at home, but here it's part of the air. It's sobering and exciting all at once.

Dogs and a Cat

I don’t suggest trying to see the entire city of Toledo and the Prado Museum (for free!) in one day. Like a bunch of dogs and one cat in the bed of a pick-up truck, it might all fit, but it won’t be best. At least, it wasn’t best for my feet.

I had bought a ticket for a train to Toledo that left at 6:50, but I got a bit turned around (as always) and arrived at the station two minutes after it had left. There is a reason this blog is called the misadventures of Jewel! So I got a different ticket, ate breakfast, and left for Toledo at 7:50 instead.

This turned out to be a good thing, because nothing opens until 10AM anyway.

Do you know the feeling of centuries of history weighing down on you? It’s a weird feeling for a Chicagoan, but it’s unavoidable –

staring up at the Alcazar, the fortress of Toledo

looking out from a Jesuit church tower

finding an antique shop where I got 6 coins from Roman Hispania until the late 1800s for 12€.

Over the course of my day in Toledo, I walked from the Alcazar to the Iglesia de San Ildefonso, to the Cathedral, to the church of Santo Tomé, and to the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, running down my iPod battery to wend my way through medieval streets and alleys. 

Ahem – wend is too nice a word. I struggled my way up and down cobblestone streets, bumpy with age, smooth from wear, and slick with the water from air conditioners (I hope). They were narrow, from the days when all traffic was by foot or horse, cool from the shade and dusky from the high walls.

I ate my lunch in the church tower before realizing that I couldn’t,
but at least I didn't make a mess.

I sweated my way down steep staircases, through dusty alleys, up steel stairs, through pristine marble halls and echoing stone corridors. 

I also saw a well-preserved human skeleton over a door, but that’s par for the course.

Kudos to the people who manage to drive through medieval streets with five corners in one place and none of them marked. And to the people who manage to avoid getting run over.

By the time I left Toledo (passing the sign that said any sharp souvenirs had to be packaged and wrapped), it was 3:30. I had just enough time to arrive in Madrid, rest a bit, and set off for the Prado Museum – walking, of course. It was only twenty minutes from the apartment.

Every day, the Prado is free from 6-8 PM. This is the time to visit the Prado for Madrileños and idiotic tourists who would rather take their chances than plan ahead. I fell into the latter category because I didn’t want to pay twice, just in case.

Having taught art in Spanish 3 last year, I had a rudimentary knowledge of what I was looking for. Of course I had to see Las Meninas, but for some reason I was looking forward to seeing Gaspar de Guzmán, conde-duque de Olivares, a caballo far more. For those of you for whom that title makes about as much sense as why aliens wear hats, here’s the painting: 

Nice, isn't it?

I also saw a Mona Lisa that had been painted simultaneously with DaVinci’s more famous, more polished one. It was painted by one of his pupils, and I personally think that for all they say it isn’t perfect, it’s far closer than I would ever be in a million lifetimes. After all, my drawing of a bus in Spanish class ended up looking like a Cardinal’s logo, beak and all. 

Cardinal buses aside, I don’t recommend walking through the Prado in high heels when your feet are already blistering. It’s worth it; don’t get me wrong. It just isn’t smart.

On my way home, I stopped by a phone store to buy a cheap phone. My $10 Tracfone doesn’t work in Europe, so if I wanted to be able to communicate, I had to have a Spanish phone. 29€ and forty minutes talking with the employees later, my phone was all set. It will only work without roaming charges in Spain and Romania. Don’t know who chose that combination; I personally would have chosen Spain and Italy. But it’s nice to be able to plug it in directly to the wall without using my converter.

I finished up my packing, while Susana went to a picnic at 9 PM. When she returned at 11:30, we each enjoyed a glass of ice-cold water, because it was still crazy hot.