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The one about the Jewish doctor, the tiny peer and the virgin

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  Cedillo del Condado is ahead of us -and why not. People debate its name.  Is Cedillo a thing that means ‘little lord.’ Is it named after an important Jewish physician at the court of Alfonso VI? Probably the first. The |Spanish wiki page is fulsome in its historical account.  Basically, the usual stuff happened. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedillo_del_Condado It is another of those places which bumbled along at just over 1000 people, with a slight dip in the late Twentieth century then a huge rise after 2001. Today 4525 people call it home and the PSOE hold sway. Luis Andres Martin Carrasco has been mayor since 2007; first as part of the UCIT, then Citizens and now the first PSOE mayor since 1983. https://www.cedillodelcondado.es/alcaldia   That is full PSOE, not Independent PSOE - which does make you wonder what goes on. Tomorrow is the Feast of the Virgin of the Nativity. It is fiesta time! She is the patron of the pueblo and the school is named after her but,...
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Tall trees and tales from the olive and saints, greater and little.

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  We are approaching Recas and they have a cheerful little sign telling us we are welcome. Spain hides its multiculturalism in open view. Recas has arrived via the Arabic for caravan.  The town centre is situated where two steams flowed underground.  Generally winters are cold and wet, with lots of frost.  Snowfall, wiki tells me, is low at this low altitude - 571m. This would be roughly equal to Black Hill, the 5th highest point in the Peak District.  Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures in July and August in excess of 37oC. Our old friend the GSH Dictionary points us to how things were.   situated on very uneven terrain, it has a temperate climate ; the east and west winds prevail, and gastric and catarrhal illnesses are common: it has 100 houses ; the town hall is a jail; a school endowed with 1,460 reales from public funds, which is attended by 28 children; a parish church (San Pedro) with a second-class curacy and ordinary provision; a hermita...
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intermittent rains and dropsy where the winds are from the north and west

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  Having taken a wrong turning we are off the road and going somewhere that Streetview has not been so strap yourselves in, it is going to be a bumpy ride. We are going to edge through Yunclillos.  It is either side of the Guadarrama river and is a quarter of the way from Toledo to Madrid. Our dear friend the GSH Dictionary gives us a mid 19th century view,   situated between two hills, through the center of which runs a stream that divides the town; it has a temperate climate , the north and west winds prevail, and intermittent rains and dropsy are common: it has 130 houses ; the town hall, with good granaries for the public storehouse; jail in the same building; school endowed with 1,825 reales from public funds, attended by 55 children of both sexes; parish church (San Andrés) with a curacy of the first rank by ordinary provision. It is supplied with drinking water from a spring within the town and 6 in the vicinity, of medium quality. The land is uneven, suit...
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Where the thatched hut meets the enclosed fish

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  We are heading into the beating heart of Bargas but why it called that.  People argue. Some say it is a Celtic word meaning hut. Some point to the Arabic word meaning a thatched hut. I think we can go with hut although in Leon it might mean an enclosure located in a marshy area, surrounded b a palisade, intended to catch a fish - which sounds more fun but less likely. Having said that the Guadarrama flows through here, just before it meets the River Tagus. Bargas was one of those places which was depopulated when it was in the Marches between Northern Christian and Southern Muslim kingdoms. Alfonso VI began to repopulate the place in 1085. Pedro Ibanez de Vargas,  a royal favourite, was given this land.  Pedro has a wiki page. It tells you just what I said and little else. The place mooched along throughout History. The roads, apart from the Toledo one, were irregular and poor. They grew cereals and olives and even got a railway station and an electricity. They als...
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