May 18th

We did make it up to the ruins of the castle last night, at a break in the rain. It said it was taken from the Moors in 1483, by Ponce de Leon's Christian troops, and the Keep, you can visit and see, was built around then. This imposing structure is 512 meters (1680 feet) above sea level. Supposedly the town does re-enactments of the taking of the castle – must be in the summer. We finished and just made it back to our place before the rain came back.

Anyway, this morning, we had our light breakfast and packed up. Another transition day. But we don't have far to go, so took our time. (Our final destination will be Arcos de la Frontera.) We went down to the lake edge. I think I mentioned it is down a whole bunch of vertical feet, with a lot of the dam showing on both sides, and the spillway on the lake side has medium sized trees growing where water should be. It has been dry here quite awhile.

Next we drove through a neighboring village. There were a quite a few of the town folk milling about, but we didn't stop. On to town of Bornos. This town is by a shrinking lake also, but the promenade is still close to the lake. We were able to park, sit on a bench in shade and have light, picnic lunch. It was pleasant as we watched some canoeists, and some emergency personal coming out of lake in SCUBA gear. It's the first we have seen anyone in a lake!

Now we just drove on into the town we will be at two nights. Arcos de la Frontera also has a little lake, but it is situated in more of a flat area, with farmlands around it. Still seeing some wheat/grain fields (harvested/unharvested), olive tree groves and sunflower fields. The town itself is on a rise and has couple of older sites at the peak. To get to our place the road was restricted access, so… I got out and hoofed, schlepped up with biggest roller bag while Jeff had to find parking and bring up (hoofing/schlepping) rest of stuff we would need. WOWZA! But it is crazy narrow streets. Our accom-modation is a pension above a bar, as in two flights above – no elevator here. One of the staff brought my bag up. So when Jeff arrived I took the bags while he did the final check-in. Unloaded, cooled off a bit, but went back out to tootle around town (it's supposed to rain in couple of hours, so take advatage of time while we can.) Our place is right next to a big cathedral (it's not a ruin), but it's closed. The other ruin looking place was a castle, but it's now private property, and not tourable. So struck out on visits but walked about – the views are grand. 

Went back out, the cathedral was open – Basilica Menor de Santa Maria de la Asuncion. First we went up the bell tower. Whew! We thought we had views before… the whole town is just surrounded by farmland and the lake, but it is seeing the town itself that was worth the climb. Incredible! We went by the tourism office and meandered some. We happened upon a free museum/gallery of three stories. Found another look out area. The air was definitely cooler. Arrived back at our pension, asked if we could order food (Jeff showed our room key), and, yes, yes we can. We both ordered “set menus”. I had salad of tomatoes and anchovies; main of grilled chicken with tarragon mayo/tomato sauce and frites. Jeff had soup of chick peas and meat; main of country plate: chorizo, sunny-side up egg, grilled (mild, long, slender) green pepper, and frites. Also included dessert: I had chocolate mousse, Jeff – a flan. Great meal for being in a bar (more like a pub). Finished we just went upstairs – we had to go out and in a different door, and it had started raining – so were calling it a night.