The rain in Spain.....

Well, I'm back from sunny Spain!

This is what the sky looked like during most of my 10 days in the land of sunshine. Of course, there were those unfortunate days when there simply was not one, single cloud in the sky but nothing's perfect, right?

Being the intrepid traveler that I am I checked on weather.com for the 10 day forecast before packing my suitcase. The forecast called for temperatures in the 50's and lower 60's with a 50% to 80% chance of rain. Why, oh why, did I pay attention to the forecast?

As a result my suitcase contained long pants, a jacket, long-sleeved shirts, etc. The years of Willamette Valley living infuse my soul still! In my defense, Laure told me to prepare for the worst. It had been cold and rainy for days. In fact, I discovered that the day prior to my arrival this was the case. The day of my arrival it was sunny and 82! And guess what? The day before I left it was rainy and 58. The sunshine arrived with me and it left with me. Yes, I have that kind of power.

The picture above is a stretch of original medieval road leading to the hilltop setting of Calatrava la Nueva. Near the city of Ciudad Real in Don Quixote's Castilla-La Mancha, Calatrava la Nueva was a castle-monastery founded in 1217 by the Knights of Calatrava. They were Spain's first military-religious order. Here's more on the Order of Calatrava.

Here are some pictures of Calatrava la Nueva as we approached the site. I'm really interested in medieval fortresses and castles so I took a lot of pictures. Unlike some of the inhabitants of former castles (if their rooms of torture instruments are taken into account) I have decided to be merciful and only share a few.






A note on Spanish notions of time. Hint....It's not like ours. We arrived at Calatrava la Nueva at about 10:45 to discover the sign on the entrance stating that the castle-monastery would open at 11:00.

Finding the castle was a bit of an adventure and so the fifteen minute wait didn't seem like too high of a price to pay. 11:00 came and went. 11:10 came and went. 11:25 came and went. We were headed to Granada for a night visit to the Alhambra so were on a bit of a schedule. I talked Laure into making this detour to feed my castle fetish and I could see my medieval moment in the sun vanishing with every second that ticked by.

In the meantime an adventurous soul pushed on the door and separated it just enough to squeeze through. First Laure and then myself followed suit. At least we would have a good look around inside before leaving.

This is Laure standing in the corner near the door in her pre-breaking and entering pose.

The scene of the crime.

What we discovered inside.


We took a few pictures on the lower slopes of the castle but the main entrance to the castle was locked and beyond our powers of petty crime.

We eventually squeezed back out through the door, got in our car and headed back down the very bumpy and very picturesque (see the first photo above) medieval road.

But the Man of La Mancha was with us! On the way down we ran into (almost literally!) the caretaker who was driving up the road like a bat out of hell! I was really happy. My love of exploring ancient fortresses was about to be indulged. The time, by the way, was 11:50. This is not the only time that I realized that we were on what I like to call "Latin time." But, really, who cares? We were on vacation!

Here are more pictures of the interior of Calatrava la Nueva.

The entrance of the castle. Notice the ancient equipment in the background!





In these next pictures you can see some of the beautiful country that surrounds Calatrava la Nueva.

As you can see it's very isolated and that fact adds to the feeling of power, solitude and majesty that the place evoked in me.

As this was also a monastery there is a church on site with a triple nave. It has a lovely rose window above the entrance.

Here's a picture from the inside of the church. It was fairly dark in there so most of the pictures did not turn out. You'll have to take my word for it that it is very beautifully restored.

The building was still in use as a monastery until 1802 when it was abandonded following fire damage.

This final picture from Calatrava la Nueva is of Salvatierra, a Muslim frontier fortress. It was captured by the Order of Calatrava in the 12th century. As we head further south to Andalusia we will find even more signs of Moorish presence and influence on the Iberian Peninsula.