Last time we told you about our time in Toledo. It was a great
start to the trip around central Spain with our lovely guests, Katie's brother
James and his girlfriend Emily. This time we’re sharing the highlights from our drives through the regions of Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura, and a fascinating cave
complex that we visited.
I have been listening to an audiobook version of Don Quixote
(in English) and really enjoying it. Between Valencia and Madrid is an area of
the country where the famous dreamer wandered with Sancho Panza and had the
infamous fight with the giants, aka windmills. Before we reached Toledo, we went
to a very cool spot called Alcázar de San Juan and saw some of the giants! It's
a beautiful part of the country and we absolutely loved the old fashioned
windmills and tributes to the wonderful Miguel Cervantes' book.
There's just something special about exploring this area that was so wonderfully described hundreds of years ago. It also makes me thankful I have a car and am not travelling around on a donkey like Sancho Panza, taking weeks to travel a few hundred miles. Seriously, how difficult would it have been to have a travel blog and making virtual reality travel experiences if we only had a donkey?! Luckily the rental car companies don’t stock donkeys and everyone knows a rental car is the fastest car in the world…
After Toledo, we drove up into the mountains and saw a lot
of fog, and not much of the stunning views that lay beyond the fog, which would
become a bit of a theme in this trip. We had planned several routes so it was a
real shame that we didn't get to see what we were driving through. I guess
we'll have to go back at some point and capture the beauty of it all.
What wasn’t hidden behind fog was a cave called Cuevas del Águila.
These caves are three million years old and lay undiscovered until 1963. The
cave complex is huge and we took a number of 360 shots to create a virtual reality experience, that captures the
majestic nature of the stalactites that seem to hang precariously from the
ceiling, and the stalagmites that rise powerfully from the ground. The colours
of these formations are amazing, ranging from off-white to oranges, browns,
green and there was even some purple! Apparently the differences in the colour
are due to different minerals in the water, but as the guide was speaking
Spanish, we didn’t pick up all the details.
As you can see, it was spectacular and we were blown away by
the beauty. It really was something special and a great sight that was well
worth the reasonably steep entrance fee (€8 per person).
Interestingly the caves are consistently a cool 17 degrees,
which ensures stability of the structures throughout the year. It was pleasant
to experience this warmer temperature on a cold winter’s day, and I imagine it
would be a pleasant relief during the hot summer too!
One final curiosity we
saw while driving around the Extremadura region was the town of Losar de la
Vera. The main road running through this town was lined with dozens of shrubs
pruned into amusing shapes. It was very amusing to see and if you’re into that
kind of thing, this place would be your idea of Utopiary!
That's about that for today. Next time, we'll be writing
about our trip to Salamanca, a beautiful, old city north-west of Madrid. Ciao.
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| Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (and our shadows!) |
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| Don Quixote was everywhere! |
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| Interesting shell-shaped stalactite in the cave. |
