One last cave – but saving the best for last?!

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Hola!

A storm across the Atlantic moved in last evening, with predictions of severe weather. We decided, therefore, to pick up our laundry and hightail it back to the hotel for a picnic supper on our balcony. Laundry was ready to go – SOOOOO good to have clean clothes again! It is nice to know that our flat in Paris has a washing machine (and additionally, we know where there is a VERY good public Laundromat near our favorite place in the 5th). Oh! About our Paris flat…we received word that for some reason, the elevator in the building is being renovated – of course while we’re there…meaning that we’re going to have to walk/schlep stuff up FIVE floors. Neither of us happy at all about the prospect, but being notified so late (and having already paid), we don’t have many other options…they are giving us a 10% refund, but honestly – when the first two things you look for are: Elevator and Wifi, that’s not much!

Back to our little Campo to watch the lightning display from the balcony. Very impressive, but we didn’t really get too much rain out of it. I was hoping to be lulled to sleep by raindrops, but it didn’t happen…oh well! Great picnic – two cheeses from the Cantabria region, plus the Manchego, yummy jambon iberico and salami with bread and cherries; couldn’t ask for anything better!

Campo pictures:

Up about 7 (we truly cannot get used to this breakfast at 9 business; half the day is gone!) and again, those cute little anchovies on thin slices of cheese and served warm on toast! YUK!! Fortunately, R loves anchovies, so I very graciously give him my share!

Our goal today is El Pendo, the last cave on our list. (Note, however, that there are caves in the Basque region of Spain that are calling us for a future trip, as are the dinosaur footprints in the Rioja province! Next trip…) Our appointment at El Pendo was 9:40 a.m. but because of breakfast we were running late. To add to that, we now have not ONE but TWO GPS systems alive and shouting directions at me!
R has been in contact with Garmin over Emmy I’s issues. To be honest, she froze up at least four times on our way to Dan and Philippa’s last weekend, which was incredibly STRESSFUL when you’re sailing down the freeway at 70 mph and suddenly have NO idea what to do next!! The first Garmin response came in saying basically: Tough luck, Charlie, she’s had it. R was VERY unhappy about that, and before writing to the president of Garmin, tried one last time to express his unhappiness and his suggested solution to take Emmy I back to a previous version of the basic program, when she was running well. This time, another employee came back to R with instructions and programs to take Emmy I from her current 5.3 iteration with problems, back to 4.9 when things were fine.

So, he did that last night, and this morning was our test run. Two GPS units, both giving directions (sometimes the same, sometimes different, and R trying to translate and me trying (without much success!) to drive! We were obviously going to be late, and as we headed into someone’s very scary barnyard, based on GPS directions, I finally had had enough…meltdown on the road…picture me trying to back down a hilly driveway without falling off the edge!! [Note from R: For some reason, M has an awful time backing a car.] So…we turned off both GPS units, collected what wits we had left, and headed into the middle of the town closest to El Pendo cave, Escobedo. (Not to be confused with the “other” Escobedo, about 5 km away…) Fortunately, from town there were signs … heading up and up on smaller and smaller roads – definitely the kind of road where you are hoping that NO ONE is coming in the other direction! Whew! Reached the cave; late. The gal/guardian was there waiting for us, and asked if we’d mind waiting until the next schedule time – 10:40 a.m. in case someone else showed up. So – lovely time in the sunshine; great breeze! And, at 10:40 a.m. the three of us went into El Pendo cave.
Wow! It seems like each one of the caves is really distinctive in its own way. In this case, the cave mouth was absolutely HUGE, and at the very back of the cave, where it narrowed considerably, the cave paintings were all along one wall! The cave had been known from the late 1800’s, and excavated by Spanish, European and American archeologists down something like 25 different levels (showing occupation by Neanderthals and, later, by Cro-Magnons) – but the cave paintings themselves had been covered over by lichen, dirt and mold until 2003 when one of the archeologists found it on their last day digging! The walls were then very carefully cleaned revealing an entire panel of female deer (one pregnant), horses and symbols. They were beautiful! Apparently because the rock behind the paintings was very porous, and the original ocher paint had soaked in, the cleaning was possible! Truly incredible! Our guide, Mercedes, was great, and did the entire tour in English for us, which we really appreciated!

By the time we were finished and back on the road, it was after lunch time – which is what happens when your breakfast doesn’t begin until 9…we did a bit more driving, stopped for some sandwiches, and then headed back to the hotel for naps and Caltech business. (My kind of day!)

As you can see from these notes, we really love this area of Spain – the people, the landscape, the history, the lovely towns, beautiful houses…. But the one thing we have not been able to come to grips with is the Spanish eating schedule. Starting dinner at 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. is simply beyond us. Maybe if we were here for more than six or seven days, we would accommodate but for a short stay, we have gone with moderate lunches around noon and noshing somehow or other at around 6:30 or 7:00. Also, it seems that tapas are not as big around here as we found elsewhere in Spain.

I took a walk this afternoon, and took pictures. Here are "doors."

Here are local houses; Katy, a couple of these are just for you!

And finally, a few pictures of Suances!

Tomorrow we are packing up and pointing the rental car to Madrid for our train ride to Paris! It’s supposed to be about a 5 hour drive (mostly freeways) and we will drop the car at Madrid’s airport. Then, we’ll catch a cab from there to Chamartin, Madrid’s train station. (For anyone who is wondering why we just don’t drop the car at Chamartin, it’s because that option wasn’t available…sigh…) Our train, called the “Francisco de Goya” will leave about 6 p.m. and arrive about 8 a.m. in Paris on Monday. We’re traveling “Gran Classe” and have a roomette for two, and both dinner and breakfast is included in the price. And, we have a shower in our cabin! (Not as neat as traveling on Air Emirates, but fun nonetheless!) So…more later!

Much love,
m
xxx