We pick up our car in the parking garage and leave Madrid behind. Traffic becomes sparse as we leave the Madrid suburbs and head south on Autovia del Sur. It’s a cloudy day and it only gets cloudier as we get more south. After two hundred kilometers or so we get of the highway to stop at a pin on our map. It’s a viewpoint, but we’re not sure what to expect as we have set these pins months ago. As we exit the highway we spot numerous vultures and stop the car at the first possible parking spot. We have to change lenses and track these Griffon vultures as the sheer over the tree tops. Not an easy feat with the heavy lens and a lack of practice so most shots are worthless. Nevertheless we enjoy the show as do the children although they are a bit more afraid of these birds as they are not as small as the ones they usually chase.
The mirador (viewpoint) is just a few hundred meters away and we get out once again to see what we are here for, or was it the birds? No, the landscape is also stunning as old mountain road lies beneath us and the hundreds of millions years old rocks is exposed to the elements. Just as we want to test the new drone it starts to rain, so we get back in the car and continue our way south.
Next stop is Banos de la Encina and the Burgaslimar Castle, the castle was built during the reign of caliph Al-Hakkam II in 967CE. From 1147 it changed hands between the christians and muslims several times until it was definitively conquered by Castille in 1225. The castle’s orange colour looks great against the dark grey sky, although the outer walls remain intact, not much is left of the inside of the castle. The castle walls do make a great background to our pictures. After a quick round trip, we get back to our car as it once again starts to drizzle.
It’s a short drive to our first stay in Andalusia, in the Baroque town of Baeza. We unpack our stuff and head into town, since it’s just a 10 minute walk from our apartment and we’ve sat in the car most of the day. It’s very cloudy and since the town lies on 900m height, it gets dark and misty very early. We do walk past all the beautiful baroque facades, but sadly most buildings are closed. As we climb up to the cathedral the tower is obscured by the clouds. We pay the entrance fee for the cathedral and marvel at the lustrous decoration. The children enjoy the VR tour of the cathedral and afterwards we stubbornly climb to the top, once there we can barely see anything through the clouds but it’s kind of mystical this way. We walk back along the city walls to our apartment and have dinner at home
