The Road from Santiago

  Sometimes I chat to the students about Spain and they have an image of Spain, not surprisingly, built around holidays. Spain is sunshine, pools and fizzy drinks.  We have affection for what we know. I think I have a deep rooted affection for the Spain of higher attitude villages in late autumn or winter sun; a Spain of leafless trees, bleached out grass and the sharpness of the air, bright, cold sun.  I say all this because today will be mostly spent pottering along a tree lined river in the embrace of October 2014.  But first, town. We will pass the townhall of Cuevas Labradas.  This Mayor has, unlike their neighbour, given us a welcome. Through these lines, we welcome you to the website of the Cuevas Labradas Town Council . We are committed, to the best of our ability, to technological innovation and the modernization of our town. Therefore, the promotion and revitalization of this tool as an information and communication resource is a basic and fundamental ...

  Today is the Dia de Castilla- La Mancha day.  We will go there. I will wax lyrical.  Fear not.  Meanwhile we will head out south and straight passed yet another deserted railway station.  La Estación de Tren de Peralejos has two reviews, each of three stars.  Seven months ago Ramon said ‘Abandoned station on a greenway with an area to sit and eat’.  Vincente noted ‘Vestiges of another era’ . We are heading off the road and following the Alfambra river, skirting the fields of the valley.  We are ending in Cuevas Labradas and we are just entering the town near the Ermita de la Virgen del Carmen.  Mary reviewed it four months ago.  ‘Very pretty Ermina, although it was closed when we were there.’  It is yet another place where 400 souls had dwelt from the 1860s to the 1960s and then the populace collapsed to 130ish in the 2010s. The current mayor is Diego Ibáñez Garfella is the PP mayor of the place.  https://www.eljuzgado.es/alc...

We are wandering off the road, just to visit Peralejos. This is the entire wiki entry in English ‘ Peralejos  is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 85 inhabitants.’ There are 36 different language entries for the place. Polish says Peralejos   – gmina w Hiszpanii, w prowincji Teruel, w Aragonii, o powierzchni 36,1[1] km². W 2011 roku gmina liczyła 83[1] mieszkańców. Lombard has ‘ Peralejos   a l'è un comun de la provincia de Teruel, cont una popolazzion de 89 abitant. Basque says Peralejos  Teruelgo udalerria da, Comunidad de Teruel eskualdean dagoena. 2009ko urtarrilaren 1eko erroldaren arabera 79 biztanle zituen. Esperanto is very fulsome as is Spanish. The place has been a village on the way somewhere for many centuries. The GSHD said in the mid nineteenth century ‘PERALEJOS: 1st with town hall in the province, diocese and Jewish part of Teruel (2 1/2 leg.), aud....

  After all that excitement yesterday we are back on short commons today.  We have a Repsol service station to look at - 58 reviews, 4,2 stars.    Ire rm said, two months ago, ‘Great gas station, friendly clerk, gentle cat and clean bathrooms’  . Who can not be impressed with a gentle cat. The land is fairly bleak.  The satellite shot shows you the thinning ribbon of fields, poking its way through the rocky uplands.   So, lets talk coats of arms.  The Coat of Arms of Aragon in its four quarters guise in 1499.  The Royal Academy of History approved in 1921.  All flags are created to serve a purpose and this coat of arms is definitely virtue signalling the hell out the late Middle Ages.  We are triumphant Chrisitians and the last 700 years was a bit of hiccup and, well, it was this constant battle against the invader’, honest. First quarter : a Latin cross above an oak tree on a gold background. Representing the Kingdom of Sobrar...