Before discussing some photos from today's hike, I wanted to share (or vent about) some cultural differences that we've come across during the trip and are still tryng to adjust to. In no particular order, they are:
- 4 of the last 5 hotels have not had air conditioning, which I know is the norm in a lot of Europe. However, the rooms had no fans, either. We would open our 1 window at night to try to cool off the place, but there was nothing to draw the air into the room. Last night, we tried leaving the door to our room open for an hour or so before going to sleep, to no avail. We still ended up with a very restless night due to the room being too hot.
- To compound matters, when we leave the window open, then we also get to hear all of the different noises from the neighorhood. Two nights ago, there was a loud party down the street that went until at least 4:30am. Some of the other people staying in the hotel commented on the noise as well. While the hotel itself was really nice, it still ended up being the worst night's sleep so far on the trip.
- 2 of the last 4 nights, we have also had emergency exit signs IN our room that remained lit ALL night long. Fortunately, we both kept the eye covers that were handed out on our night flight to Europe, so we can put those on, but still, why do we need a bright exit sign in our room? It's not like we're going to get lost in a space that is essentially 10 feet by 10 feet (for anyone who has not been to Europe, the hotel rooms here are much smaller than hotel rooms in the US).
- Why don't they put a full shower door in their shower stalls? 90% of the places we've stayed in have a shower door that only covers half of the shower. Which of course results in a lot of water ending up on the floor outside the tub. In 2 of the places we recently stayed, I could see water damage to the bathroom door because of how frequently water was getting out. The cost to fix the water damage will be way more than the cost to just buy a full size shower door.
- Why do they give you one long pillow (that looks like a big sausage roll) instead of 2 pillows. If we had 2 regular sized pillows, then we could either stack them if they were too soft, or we could cover our heads with one of them if the noise outside our window gets to be too much. Instead, we end up with one long pillow that's oftentimes uncomfortable and difficult to manuever.
- In all but the biggest cities, siesta time is alive and well in Spain. From 2pm to 4 or 5pm, all of the stores, museums, churches, etc. close. The only things open during this time are the bars (which probably explains why a lot of people have to get a quick snooze in before returning to work). One time, we walked up to a store just as the owner was getting ready to close for siesta. We asked when the store would open again and he said, "4pm, or maybe 5pm". Given that punctuality is not considered a virtue here, we waited until 5pm to return to the store. The one upside of the siesta is because nothing is open, it almost forces us to take a nap during that time because there is nothing else to do (and we could definitely use the nap, given the other sleep related issues mentioned above).
Okay. Enough venting. Now to the pictures. The first photo is just after sunrise this morning at the top of the last meseta (mesa) that we had to climb and then cross. The closest hill in the photo is right above Castrojeriz, where we stayed. If you look real closely, you'll notice a bump on the top of this hill. That's the old castle that I put in yesterday's blog. Also, further in the background you can see some of the other mesetas that make up this region of Castilla & Leon. Again, if you look really close, you'll see that there are wind farms on top of these mesetas. Because they are elevated flat plains, they tend to have a fair amount of wind, and thus are good places to put wind turbines. We are moving into a new region within Castilla & Leon, so there are no more mesetas to cross. While we didn't think the mesetas were too hard, they were very flat with no trees, so we tended to bake out there. Bottom line, they are beautiful to look at, but I'm glad we don't have to hike any more of them.
The second photo is of the Camino as it ran along the Canal de Castilla, an 18th century canal that in it's prime was used for moving products by boat within this region. And the last picture is of the locks that were used to move boats from one level of the canal to another (you see the lower level canal in the background). Clearly, though, the locks are no longer in use (there are no doors to close). There is talk about trying to renovate the locks and make them usable again, but given the state of the economy in Spain, I think they have other things that are more important to spend their money on.
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