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The town of the splendid butcher

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  Welcome to Orgaz and straight to the castle. https://www.ayto-orgaz.es/rutas.php   The current castle is very intact and 14th century - with 15th century renovations. It was built on the site of a 12th century affair.  To be fair, it has not been all joy. During the 1520 Revolt of the Comuneros it was burnt down by Royalist troops. It is not, generally speaking, an easy place to visit. Weekdays you can get in from 1pm to 2pm. At weekends it throws the gates wide between 9am and 1pm. A month ago Marta said ‘ We loved the tour; they shared very interesting details, and the guide (whose name I can't remember, was it Luis?) was very friendly. It's great that they make the tour enjoyable; that's essential for a good experience. We booked a week in advance by phone, which I highly recommend. ‘ Orgaz is one of those places which has profoundly crowded old streets which are really easy to fall out of and into a scattered countryside. The Ermita de la Concepción. Is a well reno...
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A safe and healthy jail

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  We are going down! 182m to be precise  Mostly at the start of the journey and then it is flat.  We will even go off road a bit. To be honest not a lot happiness until we reach Orgaz so we better talk about that. If ita not DOn Quixote it has to be El Cid and  everybody's favourite rent-a-sword apparently got hold of this place when he married Jimena,  Various nobs squabbled over it or were awarded it for dubious services. On 26th March 1813 two squadrons [120]  of Catalan Volunteers Cavalry and 200 foot   took on 800 French horse.  Plucky Spanish infantrymen repulsed the dastardly French suffering one dead to the French 50.   Our old friend the GSH Dictionary says this… ORGÁZ: town with town hall in the province and diocese of Toledo. t has a cold climate , the NE wind reigns, sometimes the S. which is very unhealthy, and tertian fevers and typhoid fevers are suffered: it has 406 houses of a single floor in general and of little comf...
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The privileges of the long distant author

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  I remember my first Politics lecture at Poly. It was on Democracy. The whole point of the thing was to take a word we all thought we knew and show us our thinking was sloppy and it could involve freedoms to do things or freedom from things and people could use the word to mean different things without explicitly saying so.  I think the word privilege gets the same treatment. The privilege to do a thing or the privilege to avoid a thing. I suspect we all don’t like to think we are privileged as it doesn’t sound nice - clearly our share is just normal and fair.  All this is a 3.30 thought. A 3.30 thought is the new standard phrase for something that occurs when you - well, me - wake up at 3.30. More to the point it is 3.30, I have a busy day, none of which can be achieved till 5m at the earliest so I am getting done the stuff I didn’t do last night and wishing I had an off switch.  Where was I… It is a privilege to write for an audience. Maybe it isn’t and you are al...
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The spectacular tapa of Marticarmen

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It is a brief day today. The road is straight and sky big. We may want to put some country and western on. Spell checker suggested Countries and Western.  I am inclined to agree.  Cowboy hats, reggaeton and a pack up made of salted herring and Swizz Cheese come to mind - mostly because I am writing this far too early, it has been too hot, and I really could do with more sleep. We passed the Finca Navarredona - an agricultural place with 4 reviews and 2.3 stars. Chat jipiti gave a star and ‘Requena is better.’ Rodri spared three and said ‘beautiful landscapes.’ No words came with the Alex 4 or Juan one.  We will never know the truth of any of it. That’s it until we get to Las Lomas, the Castilian restaurant.  We are going to town on this one. 4.1 stars from 588 reviews.  The place opens 11.30am to 11,30pm Friday-Sunday and 11.30m - 6.30pm Tuesday to Thursday. Two days ago Ana said ‘ We stopped by on our way and it was a great find. They renovated it relatively re...
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The Uncertain Future of the Progressive Ruin

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  It seems like the sort of day where most of the excitement is happening just off the road- and that excitement is fairly limited. We will see farms old [and abandoned] and new and some stuff. One such excitement is the Castillo de Guadalerzas.  It gets 3.9 stars from a hungry public, which seems a bit harsh for a ruin. Dimitri probably says why ‘ Nice view but you cannot reach it. On private land’.  Fran is equally gloomy. ‘ Its future is uncertain; it's completely abandoned. Even so, its exterior structure is well preserved. Access requires crossing private property. Beware of cattle. ‘  Jose says ‘ Guadalerzas Castle, a castle located about 18 kilometers from Los Yebenez, a defensive castle that was used as a hospital for centuries, dates back to the 12th century, it was built on the ruins of a Muslim fortress, it is currently in progressive ruin, it can be visited although it is on private land. ‘  This didn’t seem to stop a group of chaps on motorbikes. ...
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