Where's Bertie? To his surprise he's still in the Aire at Minas de Riotinto.
Weather: wall-to-wall sunshine, but still low-mid teens with a cool breeze.
I went for a very short run/walk this morning. My first movement faster than a walk since the marathon and after catching a cold. After months of running on roads, it was nice to be on technical terrrain with small but steep undulations. I also confirmed what I suspected from yesterday's walk: the tracks shown on Gaia maps hereabouts do not exist on the ground, but today when I found myself atop a slag heap with no hint of an onwards path, I decided to backtrack rather than fighting my way through the scrub to the track I knew lay beyond the next slag heap.
Glorious morning, if a bit cool
A few chores and a quick wash and I was back out again, abandoning Mick (still suffering from a cold) to read his book whilst I visited the mining museum. We'd walked past the entrance yesterday, but I was concerned that it would be busy on a holiday. Today I arrived to find three coaches outside. Hmmmm.
Buying a ticket took forever - or at least, it took forever for the two couples ahead of me. My transaction took a minute, although I was only visiting the museum, not the various mines, nor was I doing the train ride, so I didn't need great lengths of explanation as to where to find the various sites which are, I understand, several kilometres apart. Happily, in the time that I was queuing, all of the school groups (the reason for the coaches outside) left. I ended up having the museum almost entirely to myself.
If I was fluent in Spanish, I'm sure the museum would have held my attention for a couple or three hours as there must have been a whole book's worth of written information on display. As it is, I could more or less understand most of what I was reading, but I'm so incredibly slow at reading comprehension that I was getting bored after a few paragraphs. So, I just walked around, looking at the exhibits and reading the odd bit here and there.
A whole room was dedicated to trains. Another to archeology. I also took a tour through a sizeable reconstruction of an underground mine.
Poor photos due to reflections (and a lack of effort on my part), but the most interesting exhibit was a set of four representations of the town and surrounding landscape, depicting the extent of the mining activity from 1885 to 1995
Verdict: for me probably not worth the €5 entry fee*, but only due to the language barrier.
After being so busy the last few days it was a surprise to get back to the Aire to find a mass exodus had occurred. All that remained was Bertie, one other motorhome and the illegal caravan that has probably taken root here.
Back at Bertie about an hour and a half after I'd left, the intention had been to then leave town. However, my museum ticket also allowed me to visit Casa 21 - one of the houses in the English Neighbourhood (which happens to sit less than 100m from Bertie). The problem was that Casa 21 is only open for two hours per day, from 1630. So, we decided to stay.
Objectively, probably not worth it, as the tour of the house took me a grand total of ten minutes, including reading the three information boards (I got on much better with these, perhaps because I'm more accustomed to the language around daily life than I am versed in the Spanish terminology around mining and engineering). But, I was happy to have seen it - and yes, inside the house was decidedly English in appearance.
Casa 21 is the yellowy coloured one, mainly obscured by a huge cactus in the garden of the neighbouring white house.
The only other activity of the day was a walk over to the supermarket to buy a potato (goodness, loose potatoes are expensive over here!) and a crusty roll. Bertie's fridge is getting bare, and those were the ingredients I needed to be able to make a fabada-esque bean stew for tea tonight.
Weather: wall-to-wall sunshine, but still low-mid teens with a cool breeze.
I went for a very short run/walk this morning. My first movement faster than a walk since the marathon and after catching a cold. After months of running on roads, it was nice to be on technical terrrain with small but steep undulations. I also confirmed what I suspected from yesterday's walk: the tracks shown on Gaia maps hereabouts do not exist on the ground, but today when I found myself atop a slag heap with no hint of an onwards path, I decided to backtrack rather than fighting my way through the scrub to the track I knew lay beyond the next slag heap.
A few chores and a quick wash and I was back out again, abandoning Mick (still suffering from a cold) to read his book whilst I visited the mining museum. We'd walked past the entrance yesterday, but I was concerned that it would be busy on a holiday. Today I arrived to find three coaches outside. Hmmmm.
Buying a ticket took forever - or at least, it took forever for the two couples ahead of me. My transaction took a minute, although I was only visiting the museum, not the various mines, nor was I doing the train ride, so I didn't need great lengths of explanation as to where to find the various sites which are, I understand, several kilometres apart. Happily, in the time that I was queuing, all of the school groups (the reason for the coaches outside) left. I ended up having the museum almost entirely to myself.
If I was fluent in Spanish, I'm sure the museum would have held my attention for a couple or three hours as there must have been a whole book's worth of written information on display. As it is, I could more or less understand most of what I was reading, but I'm so incredibly slow at reading comprehension that I was getting bored after a few paragraphs. So, I just walked around, looking at the exhibits and reading the odd bit here and there.
Verdict: for me probably not worth the €5 entry fee*, but only due to the language barrier.
Back at Bertie about an hour and a half after I'd left, the intention had been to then leave town. However, my museum ticket also allowed me to visit Casa 21 - one of the houses in the English Neighbourhood (which happens to sit less than 100m from Bertie). The problem was that Casa 21 is only open for two hours per day, from 1630. So, we decided to stay.
Objectively, probably not worth it, as the tour of the house took me a grand total of ten minutes, including reading the three information boards (I got on much better with these, perhaps because I'm more accustomed to the language around daily life than I am versed in the Spanish terminology around mining and engineering). But, I was happy to have seen it - and yes, inside the house was decidedly English in appearance.
The only other activity of the day was a walk over to the supermarket to buy a potato (goodness, loose potatoes are expensive over here!) and a crusty roll. Bertie's fridge is getting bare, and those were the ingredients I needed to be able to make a fabada-esque bean stew for tea tonight.
The chorizo was hiding at the bottom. It may not look pretty but it's mighty tasty.
(*If in the definition of 'good value' I include the aspect of giving some money to a museum in a town that's given us three night's free parking, then it was excellent value for money.)
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