Where's Bertie? He's still on the patch of wasteland at San Juan de los Terreros. He's the Billy-no-mates van on the left of this snap:
Weather: A few high clouds in the morning; sunny in the afternoon. Warm, particularly when out of the wind and in the sun.
We went to a castle when it was open! Our entrance tickets say 'El castillo San Juan de los Terreros', but 'castle' is a grand description of such a small fortification.
The northernmost of 13 fortifications built in line-of-sight along the coast.
Looking north up the coast
and south
It comprises a terrace, a roof terrace and three small rooms of exhibitions. Given that almost the same views can be seen from various places outside of the castle, the only good reason to go in is for the virtual tour of 'la Geoda del Pila de Jaravia'.
Here's a bit of the description of la Geoda taken from the mine's website:
"In December 1999, members from Madrid’s Mineralogist Group discovered Pulpí’s Geode in Mina Rica, a colossal mineral geode measuring 8 metres length times 2 metres height fully covered in huge gypsum crystals. It’s upholstered with gypsum crystals, some of them measuring 2 metres long. Its transparency and spotlessness make it a wonder of nature. Given its dimensions as well its crytals size, transparency and perfection, this is a unique phenomenon worldwide."
As we won't be visiting the mine in person (few slots available over the next few days, and €22 per head), the virtual tour was the next best alternative.
Arriving at the castle, having negotiated the steep entrance road in the company of a stray dog that *really* wanted to play and communicated that by running around us barking, we were informed that entrance to the castle was free today, but that there was a €1 fee if we wanted to do the virtual mine tour.
We were the only visitors (for the whole time we were there), so the receptionist led us straight into the Virtual Reality room, gave us hair covers to don and then fitted us with some VR googles and earphones. Then started the VR tour, which was absolutely excellent. It was an effort to remember that we were, in fact, sitting on office chairs on a solid floor, as it felt like we were moving through the mine, able to look 360 degrees around us, with our virtual headlight beams moving accordingly. The whole tour was only 7 minutes long, but well worth while.
The rest of the tour of the castle only took as long as it did because I wanted to get the gist of some of the exhibits and whilst my ability to read in Spanish is improving, I'm very slow.
Walking the 4km back to Bertie (we could have driven closer, but it was a nice day for a walk), we were tempted to stop for café y tostada, but with bread in Bertie from yesterday's bread van, that needs eating before it goes stale, we resisted.
This afternoon we've walked a few kilometres the other way along the coast, where there's a big urbanizacion development under construction. Neither of us was much taken with the appearance of the place - too many buildings that all look identical, even down to the plants in the window boxes. The walkway that has been installed in front is, however, pleasant, and allowed us to complete a loop, having walked out along the compressed-earth track alongside the beach.
As tempting as it is to stick around here until the fiesta for Andalusia Day on Monday, we feel like we ought to move on tomorrow. I spent a good chunk of time this morning looking at options as to where to go next and drew no conclusions, so I suspect we won't come up with a plan until about a minute before we leave tomorrow.
Weather: A few high clouds in the morning; sunny in the afternoon. Warm, particularly when out of the wind and in the sun.
We went to a castle when it was open! Our entrance tickets say 'El castillo San Juan de los Terreros', but 'castle' is a grand description of such a small fortification.
It comprises a terrace, a roof terrace and three small rooms of exhibitions. Given that almost the same views can be seen from various places outside of the castle, the only good reason to go in is for the virtual tour of 'la Geoda del Pila de Jaravia'.
Here's a bit of the description of la Geoda taken from the mine's website:
"In December 1999, members from Madrid’s Mineralogist Group discovered Pulpí’s Geode in Mina Rica, a colossal mineral geode measuring 8 metres length times 2 metres height fully covered in huge gypsum crystals. It’s upholstered with gypsum crystals, some of them measuring 2 metres long. Its transparency and spotlessness make it a wonder of nature. Given its dimensions as well its crytals size, transparency and perfection, this is a unique phenomenon worldwide."
As we won't be visiting the mine in person (few slots available over the next few days, and €22 per head), the virtual tour was the next best alternative.
Arriving at the castle, having negotiated the steep entrance road in the company of a stray dog that *really* wanted to play and communicated that by running around us barking, we were informed that entrance to the castle was free today, but that there was a €1 fee if we wanted to do the virtual mine tour.
We were the only visitors (for the whole time we were there), so the receptionist led us straight into the Virtual Reality room, gave us hair covers to don and then fitted us with some VR googles and earphones. Then started the VR tour, which was absolutely excellent. It was an effort to remember that we were, in fact, sitting on office chairs on a solid floor, as it felt like we were moving through the mine, able to look 360 degrees around us, with our virtual headlight beams moving accordingly. The whole tour was only 7 minutes long, but well worth while.
The rest of the tour of the castle only took as long as it did because I wanted to get the gist of some of the exhibits and whilst my ability to read in Spanish is improving, I'm very slow.
Walking the 4km back to Bertie (we could have driven closer, but it was a nice day for a walk), we were tempted to stop for café y tostada, but with bread in Bertie from yesterday's bread van, that needs eating before it goes stale, we resisted.
This afternoon we've walked a few kilometres the other way along the coast, where there's a big urbanizacion development under construction. Neither of us was much taken with the appearance of the place - too many buildings that all look identical, even down to the plants in the window boxes. The walkway that has been installed in front is, however, pleasant, and allowed us to complete a loop, having walked out along the compressed-earth track alongside the beach.
As tempting as it is to stick around here until the fiesta for Andalusia Day on Monday, we feel like we ought to move on tomorrow. I spent a good chunk of time this morning looking at options as to where to go next and drew no conclusions, so I suspect we won't come up with a plan until about a minute before we leave tomorrow.
Um... What's with this maze some 300m south of Bertie? Puzzled.
ReplyDeleteWhere have you seen that? I'm also puzzled, having checked out Google Maps, Google Earth and Open Street Maps, as well as having walked the area.
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