Blue Skies

Ella Fitzgerald must have been in Spain in the summer of 2017 when she sang her song, Blue Skies - ..."blue skies shining at me, nothing but blue skies do I see....never saw the sun shining so bright" as those words really sum up the weather we are enjoying (or maybe enduring!).

We moved further south west today from Toledo to Ciudad Real stopping off at Consuegra on the way. The distance was around 140kms and for at least 90% of that trip the view was of fields of trees which we took to be olive trees

If we received €0.01 for each tree we saw I reckon we would be Euro millionaires a couple of times over!

Consuegra is a town in the Castile La-Mancha region and looked to us to be seriously depressed however it is known for its windmills on the hill overlooking the town and that's what attracted us to make the slight detour.

The 12 windmills and the castle were categorised in 2008 as a Property of Cultural Interest. In La Mancha rivers did not have enough flow so they reverted to using wind to turn the grinding stones that turned the wheat into flour and these windmills were effectively the flour factories of their day.

Also the view out over the town gives a good impression of how arid and dry the land in this area is (Al-Mansha is from Arabic and signifies dry land or land without water)

Arrived in Ciudad Real around lunchtime so threw the car into a car park and then trudged through town trying to find something for lunch - this is not an easy task unless you want some fatty Iberian ham on a plate!

After lunch (as said not an easy task so by now it was well into siesta time) we found the hotel, booked in and straight into the pool - we would be like prunes if we were unable to take an afternoon refresh in a pool.

Also it ain't easy getting the 3008 into these underground hotel carparks which appear to have been designed for minis, however as yet the 3008 is free of any scratches but I'm not sure for how much longer!