Nan of La Mancha

Here it is, my last full day in Spain - for this trip.

After a great buffet breakfast at the hotel, we headed back to El Alhambra for the morning.  We had a 1:00 p.m. tour time for the Nasrid Palaces, but plenty to see before that.  Because it had looked like a lot of ups and downs, and because my knee had been so bad during our brief stop yesterday, I brought my hiking pole.  I hardly used it, though I was tempted to use it in another way on some arrogant American tourists behind us in line for the palaces tour.  But that's another story.

                                                                         El Alhambra

The Alhambra is a huge complex of ancient buildings, a church, the Nasrid Palaces, and the Generalife, a separate building with massive gardens.  We went through the Generalife first, then moved to the Alhambra side until time for our tour.

                                                            Japanese tourist alert!
               Apparently, this one was planning on doing some welding while she was there.

The grounds were more beautiful at every turn.  You could almost imagine that, instead of Spain, you were somewhere in the Middle East, surrounded by cypress trees, palms, and flowers.

    If you look closely, you can see snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains beyond the Alhambra.

They only allow so many people to enter the Palaces every hour, but it seemed like we were in line with 1000 of our closest friends.  There were at least five tour groups in our hour, too, with the result being a massive traffic jam of people all trying to take pictures of the same thing (preferably with no one else in the picture) at the same time.  While it was beautiful, it was not as nice as the Real Alcazar in Sevilla, where also wasn't so crowded.  There was also quite a bit of renovation going on, which cut down on the areas you could be in, and the pictures you could take (unless you really wanted one of scaffolding or barricades).

                                                             In the Nasrid Palaces.

We had about a four hour drive to Toledo after we finished at El Alhambra.  Along the way, we stopped, and Gema and I got sandwiches, while Jorge washed the car.  When we hit the road again, as it so often does after you wash your car, it started to rain.  It was the first rain we have had all week, though, which isn't bad.  Oh, and the whole time we were at El Alhambra, the temperature didn't top 69 F!  It was a thoroughly pleasant morning.

                                 Olives and more olives - every available space contains trees.

Then we were out of Andalucia and in the La Mancha area, home of the real Cervantes and the fictional Don Quixote.  We saw a windmill or two at restaurants and such, and I asked if there were still any actual windmills like that.  Jorge said he was sure there were, but he didn't know where.  Then about 40 minutes from Toledo, he spotted a line of them on the ridge of a hill, and asked if I wanted to go see them.  Uh, YEAH!  So we drove up through this little town right to the base of one of the windmills.  The view from there was incredible - you could see for miles and miles across the plain.

As a result of the windmill stop, we got into Toledo later than planned, and I had a flight to check in for and stuff to organize.  I saw Toledo from a distance, but I passed on the chance to go with Jorge and Gema back into town.  I'll see it next time.  There WILL be a next time, after all.  Tomorrow, we leave early to get me to the airport in Madrid.  It has been the most rewarding, interesting, exhausting, entertaining, and exciting journey.  I am happy to have had the Vaughantown experience (and can't wait to do it again), and I am immensely grateful to Jorge and Gema for being such great hosts and travel partners.  I have already forgiven Jorge for putting me on a horse.  :-)