The Landscape in Northern Spain.

Before travelling to Spain, I asked a friend who knows the country well, what could I visit and see in the area of Spain south of the French border?
 
She said: ´´Nothing except the landscape.   But that is enough because it is beautiful.´´

She was right.  Miles and miles of hills, rocky land, occasional cornfields on the plains; here and there a single tree.   Moving further to the center of Spain towards the Madrid region, the land became more rocky.  

See below sad attempts to do this wonderful landscape justice.  - Even if one had not dropped and  broken one´s camera , I don´t think one could do justice to this landscape.

Note a symbol for Jacob´s Way above on the water trough.  There are a lovely feature to be seen all over Europe. 

We were amazed to see occasionally bright colourful little plants who managed to hold their own in the blazing heat. 

On a spontaneous whim, Romeo H. decided we should go ´off track´and climb up....

And up. And up..

In the photo you see below, there was an eagle´s nest in the trees.  We saw the parent birds flying over, and they taking note of our presence.  When we climbed higher, when the birds flew we could hear the movement of the wind under their wings.

We climbed up until we could go no further without climbing equipment.

Look closely above, there is a cow down there!  And see how well she maneuvers the undergrowth.

On another day´s walking we saw these craggy rocks high up in the middle distance..

Somewhere we took a wrong turn on the path, and ending up IN these craggy rocks high up in the middle distance!

The nesting eagles seemed unperturbed by us, but were perhaps not used to company.  Especially on a Monday morning when everyone else was at work.

The picture above is looking down the valley.

And this picture to the left is down in the same valley looking up.









Driving deeper into the region of  the of Castile and León, there were little villages every few miles.   Sadly not well populated these days, as most young people have moved to the bigger cities or left Spain to find work elsewhere.  One village we passed with about 20 houses, had only one person living there full time.  Many of the villages reminded me of pueblos you see on American cowboy films.  BUT then I remembered, it was the reverse:  The villages on the American cowboy movies, were a copy of these villages in Spain!































































This is Semmi standing proudly outside his family wine cellar.

Semmi is now retired, he used the time to build an apartment in the cellar -  complete with kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms... COLD - even in summer!  See below.

(More photos of  Semmi´s home in the following blog posting.) 

One corner - three houses!



























All over the world in small villages every where there are these wonderful little shops that sell everything; so you have under ware beside the glue beside the soft drinks, behind the children´s toys.... great stuff.   Indeed I have seen such ´small village shops´ in New York too.  And I love them all.

In this little shop in a small village some miles south of Valladolid in Castile and León they were not only friendly, but were very enthusiastic to get their photos taken.

The Village of Fompedraza, Castile and León
Without a doubt, my favorite village of all those we visited was Fompedraza where we stayed for a few nights.   It was otherworldly...



The village was on a little hill, surrounded by depressions in the land of grey white soil; in some areas where there was enough flat land, corn or fruit trees were cultivated.

It really was a trip back in time too.... see below a garden across the street from where we stayed.  And above the door to the garden if you look closely.........

 


.... you see a cock that crew every morning.  And for much of the rest of the day too!

And in the 1920s the village had washing pools built...

We actually met an older woman who had washed clothes in this wash area; she said it was used actively until the 1940´s or so when electricity was installed and people could have washing machines at home. 

The picture above was taken from the verandah of the house we stayed in; an elderly man brought the horse and donkey down to graze on the plot of land every afternoon.  As the animals grazed, he would cut some corn, seen in the right of the picture. This with a scythe.   As the sun got too hot, the man would go and lie in the shade for a few hours, and then continue with his task in the cool of the evening.

The Church of St. Bartholomew, which was built in the 1100´s, dominated the village.  It was a well loved and well kept church, of which the locals were justifiably proud.

And back to the other worldly business again....

On our last night in Fompedraza we visited the local bar-cum-community centre, which is open only a few nights a week.  The locals were gracious enough to chat away with us.  At about 11.30 p.m. I took off to take this photo of the moon below, which I could see to my right....

... Standing at the same spot and turning to my left...

The sun was setting .... most beautifully.






Ten minutes later, the sun had completely disappeared, and the moon shown down alone.

Magic!