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Always thankful for the attention

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I know I said we were doing countryside but we will be doing the design new burbs fairly early  on in the process. Given the fact the gridded wonderful thing has an Aviation Avenue and a Street of the Engineer’s Academy I think we are on a reused space of a military origin. We are going into Horche. It does sound a bit German.  The English wiki page is a bit brief.  The Spanish is more fulsome. In fact this page’s author gets almost poetic….. ‘ The Arabs knew about good food, comforts, luxuries and comfortable homes, that is why Side Abdremen, Governor of Guadalajara in the 8th century , founded a farmhouse in which to enjoy his days off in this place of green vegetation, abundant and fresh waters and good climate which he called ORCHE, in memory of his Horche in Mesopotamia. ‘ Let us face it, the War of the Spanish Succession was a bit of busy time for Horche.  In 1706 the Portuguese turned up to collect coin and corn.  Shortly after the rightful claimant / utt...

Dark, moldy, and wet.

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  We are heading out into the countryside - and we will be here for many many weeks - so strap yourself in for a fair bit of diversions. Crossing the E90 we follow the road and make a stop at Cereales Ferrer , a generally well regarded animal feed shop that has been doing its thing since 1940.  http://www.cerealesferrer.es/   Generally it is five stars and no words. Sometimes a few happy notes and some deeply upset ones. |Jose felt 75 euros for straw is robbery, and Beatriz noted ‘ The packages were dark, moldy, and wet ’ - which I’ve put in for the blog title. We are wandering onto Iriepal.  It is a standard little place of 950 souls. The village is crossed by the Arroyo de la Cerrada and has done sensible things in its history, like having a hospital for the poor, a mill and an oven [in 1527.]   Yes, the GSH Dictionary went there in the mid 19th century. IRIEPALon a plain, surrounded by hills, it is mainly exposed to the north, northeast, and west winds. Its c...

Dirty and Very Old. Everything was perfect.

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  We are in Guadalajara. It is a name that quickens the pulse of those interested in the Spanish Civil War and so we will go there first. Unlike Germany, which committed specialists and equipment, the Italian Army itself took part in the War. On 8th March 1937 four divisions of the ‘Corpo Truppe Volontarie. Attacked Republican positions around the town. It was meant to be a diversion to support the Fasc attack at Jarama.  After four days of cautious advance in rainy weather Republican aircraft shot up the Italian columns . The deployment of Soviet made armour and Italian anti-fascist troops saw the Fascists defeated, with heavy losses of men and material. Guadalajara was founded in the 9th century, when a castle was built there. It was annexed by Alfonso VI in 1085 and in 1133 it got its first charter. The Mendozas dominated the town from the late Middle Ages and who hung around till 1657.   The town grew from about 5000 in 1842 to 19000 in 1950.  Cars and population...