The Road from Santiago

  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...

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...

  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. ...

  Today the  road is straight. Today the road is unpopulated.  Today is a five things sort of a day.  We will theme it on Toledo Province.  Toledo Province has 208 municipalities.  The smallest one is El Puente del Arzobispo. It is less than a kilometre square and is the home to 1143 people. It is on the border with Extremadura; has a heliport and was famous for green pottery.  The town was founded by the Archbishop of Toledo, Pedro Tenorio, in the second half of the 14th century .   The present President of the Provincial Council is PP  Ma Concepcion Cedillo Tardio.  https://transparencia.diputoledo.es/t/representantes/1183   She may be seen on youtube should you wish it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTBiW9d7lxk   The Spanish Wiki says this.  Good luck.  In the vicinity of the town of Mazarambroz , there is a significant mylonitic deformation zone associated with the wall that separates the Toledo migmatiti...

  It is a day where we seem to be climbing and we do, but only 50m, and pass nothing, well almost nothing - but more of that later. We are in Toledo Province, which has 775,000 people living in it. This makes it the 22nd most populous province of Spain and accounts for 1.5% of the total population.  But first, a restaurant.  The Restaurante la Serrana is temporarily closed, according to Google. The images are from May 2024 and it seems up and running then.  It is woman owned and LGBTQI+ friendly and a year ago Mila said ‘ What a nice place on the road! We went in for coffee and we were pleasantly surprised with how clean and tidy everything was. Can't give a full 5 stars because we didn't stay to eat. However, the staff was attentive and the place was very inviting, especially because of the cleanliness. That's not always easy to find when you are out on the road. We will go back to eat someday soon! ‘  Manuel added around the same time ‘ I stumbled upon it by ...