Posts

Welcome to the Slovenia of the West

Image
  Another day on the road. It bypasses Peralveche. Maybe we should have visited, but we didn’t. We are still in Castilla-La Mancha. Let us do some comparisons. Castilla-La Mancha has a population of 2,104,433 people. That makes it 9th most populace province in Spain.  If it was a country   This makes it about the same size as Lesotho and Slovenia. The total area is 79,463km2 - the third in Spain.  That makes it a smidgeon larger than Czechia and a smidgeon smaller than Scotland. The GDP is 55.560 billion euros. This makes it about the same as Cameroon or Jordan. The GDP per capita is 26,134 euros. This is about the same as Malta, a little less than Italy and a little more than Slovenia.  Tomorrow, as they say, is another day and a day in Castilla-La Mancha is roughly equal to those in other places.  Actually, come to think about it, it is on the same meridian line as Brittany, Cornwall, West Wales, east Morocco, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana.
Post a Comment
Read more

Where once there were as many students as there are today people

Image
  Into the countryside and a day of thinking about things and all that. We will get to 966m above sea level at our highest.  This is equal to the peak of Lata Mountain, the highest point of American Samoa. Heading round Europe The Faroe Islands high point is 880m, the Netherlands make it 870, Belgium 694m, Denmark 171m, and Vatican City 75m. If it helps, and why should it, Andorra’s lowest point is 840m. We are heading for Mantiel.  Currently 28 people live here. Once it was different.  Yes, we are going to the GSD. MANTIEL: village with town hall in the province of Guadalajara situated on the slope of a hill that protects it from the south winds, and is freely exposed to the others: its climate is cold and the most common illnesses are chest ailments; it has 100 houses , the town hall with a granary for the storehouse, whose fund consists of 55 fanegas of wheat; a primary school attended by 25 students of both sexes, under the charge of a teacher who is also the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The auto-bots are restless

Image
  To be honest it is a day to enjoy upland scrub and the ingenuity of chaps who can engineer their way through it. On the other had, if you wanted perky villages and slender castles then you will be gravely disappointed. I began this as a piece of whimsy, an excuse to discover and the hope that social media may be constructively put to providing harmless diversion. About four years ago we were in Normandy and I was looking to buy Norman Cider to celebrate.   Without reviews let us do a bit of self reflection. At the time of writing 76 people belong to this Facebook Group.  Most of whom are real people. To the Blog, Same content but with amusing titles.  Apparently 33,600 views have been made but not a single comment. If nothing else the bots are happy although if AI is learning from all this it is more A than I. One can never be sure what attracts people but the most viewed entry was from 30th December 2023. It was entitled ‘In which a Roman Bridge and a funeral...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where has all the water gone? Oh, it's here.

Image
  Well.  Wrong turn yesterday if we are to take the cross country route I planned.  Back we go, seeing as the Embalse de Entrepenas is in our way. Lets do dams.  The origin of this expanse of water was 1929, when the plans to damn the RIver Tagus was made. A plan went to the Ministry of Public Works in 1931.  The whole thing was launched in 1936 and sunk by the Civil War. Post War the plan was revived in 1941, and then begun in 1946. In January 1956 and on 14th July 1958 it was ceremonially opened. The reservoir covers 3213 squared hectares, contained by a 87m high dam. It creates 37 mw of power  and was responsible for the closure of some sections of the Tajuna railway. We will stroll passed the during to Duron, pretending we meant to do that, and look in on the Finca de Gaia.  The web link doesn’t work but a month ago Oscar said  ‘ Thanks to my girlfriend, we managed to get a room to see the eclipse (it was nearly impossible). It was two unforge...
Post a Comment
Read more