The Road from Santiago

  We are on one of those avenues out of town, houses, parks, industrial and commercial concerns slowly fading into the bleached fields and long road to Toledo. We have will pass one of those art works which the Spanish pleasing decide to put on their roundabouts. The Escultura ‘Ante Rocin’ has no Goggle reviews.  I have found a website.  https://esculturayarte.com/010472/Ante-Rocin-en-Ciudad-Real.html   I learn Manuel Hidalgo Castaño   made it.  Here is an article about him and Ciudad Real. https://www.miciudadreal.es/2024/02/16/ciudad-real-los-aromas-de-manuel-hidalgo-llegan-al-lopez-villasenor/ We are passing an Orthodox Church - which is a thing.  And it has a Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/ParohiaSfantaMucenitaTatiana/   It posts things. The three reviews are five star and unworded. We are heading north and the satellite looks like either a world of roundabouts and byways were planned, maybe constructed, and then abandoned. My Spanis...

  We are heading into Ciudad Real and why not. Blink and we shall be through the other side and onto Toledo.  Ciudad Real was created in 1255 as part of the colonisation and resettling of the frontier with Moorish Spain. The hamlet of Pozuelo de San Gil had the new town plonked on top of it. The arrival of this royal domain in the middle of land held by the Order of Calatrava, it struggled for people to start off with especially when the order set up Miguelturra to act as a rival. To be honest it has not been entirely plain sailing for the city - many being own goals. Having established a Jewish population a 1391 pogrom was not a happy time. On a more architectural level the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and the Civil War did for others. I know, that is a few things in many centuries but the city never grew to great heights. So into town and the Museo del Quijote. https://www.ciudadreal.es/servicios-municipales/cultura/museos/museo-del-quijote.html   It opens from 10am to 1.45pm...

  It is a bit of a day of straight lines and rolling roads.  After all the excitement of yesterday I think we might need some restful views. We are passing La Torrecilla. It is an agrochemical supplier and maybe we need some of this to level us. Someone has posted a starry sky and a deer but they don’t say why.   Not one else does so we may never know what is going on. We end the day in Poblete. Its wiki English play carries the warning ‘ This article relies largely or entirely on a single source ’  This is the entire British coverage.  Poblete is a municipality in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. As of 2021 it has a population of 2,746. ’ Of the other 36 languages the Spanish has these tit bits.## As of 2025 2998 people lived here. You’d think they could have offered a young couple a few euros to move in to make the maths simpler. Our friend the GSH Dictionary reported the following in the mid nineteenth century. ‘It has 95 earthen houses ; a parish ch...

  Today is a day of mystery and exploration and why my internet search History is the way it is so yours doesn’t have to. Ok, I have looked up the reviews of motorway bridges but I was young and the big boys said it was alright. We are by the Caracuel lagoon.  The map shows vast amounts of water.  Turning, as our first photo shows you, to see it, the water is gone.  I have looked this up and the opening bit of the website explains all ‘The Caracuel Lagoon is a temporary wetland of volcanic origin where water, geology and wildlife combine to create one of the most dynamic and biodiverse ecosystems in the Campo de Calatrava.’  The pictures make it look much more exciting. https://www.turismocastillalamancha.es/es/naturaleza/microrreservas/microrreserva-laguna-de-caracuel   Today is a bit sparse so I will include the castle - which a few kilometres to the west.  Tomas reports ‘ Its most striking feature is its impressive pentagonal barbican tower, ten met...