Gillian and I left Madrid on a cool, rainy day and headed off for Ciudad Real (south of Madrid) via train. We chose this destination primarily because we could pick up a car there, it was close to Madrid but wasn't a major city and........ it is part of the Don Quijote trail. There are many statues of Don Quijote characters in the city centre and they have a Don Quijote museum, among other monuments, museums etc.
For those not familiar with Don Quijote (where have you been?), it is the second most read book in the world after the bible apparently and was written by Miguel Cervantes (Spain's answer to Shakespeare). It is primarily about a fictional nobleman of Spain who was very idealistic, spent too much time reading knightly tales and went a bit mad. His adventures are recounted in the book called "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha" (in
Unfortunately, due to the rain, the cold and the lateness of the hour, after we had visited the local church, museum and parts of the city centre, Gillian and I retreated to our hotel to warm up, dry out and get ready for the start of our road trip the next morning. Hence I didn't get to the Don Quijote museum (couldn't find it) and forgot to take photos of the statues. So, nothing to show re the first town of our trip.
The main adventure in Ciudad Real was trying to get out of town! We picked up the car easily, plugged in the navigator, got out the maps (to be on the safe side) and then kept getting stuck in one-way, dead end streets. It took about 40 minutes to drive approximately 1 km to get to the roundabout out of town! First lesson in driving in Spain, take very good maps!!! (and binoculars for locating street sign as they don't have them on at the roadside).
Finally on our way - but are we on the right road for our next destination? All roads in Spain are numbered: A - major highway, AP - major road (likely to be a toll road), N - smaller highways usually a bit slower and go through towns, C - country / local roads and E - European roads. There are also other smaller roads as well with other letters. However, some roads have 3 names, they may be part of the A road, also part of the N road and also a smaller road as well. Therefore, when following signs out of town, you often start of on the A or N road but then it gives you another name; one sign will say to e.g. Cuenca with the road name, the next will say a totally different town and road name. So are you heading for Cuenca or did you miss a turn? Was a bit confusing from time to time. Also, some of the smaller roads don't have the road name listed at major intersections and often aren't listed on most maps, so if you are following them, it can be an adventure finding your way. We had this experience leaving Cuenca for Teruel.
So, back to Cuidad Real. After finally getting out of town, we took the N road towards our destination, only to end up being uncertain of the right exit and finding that even if you get the right road, there are roundabouts everywhere. We were in Castilla-La Mancha at this stage, wide, open flat country for miles and miles and miles with small towns here and there and some farms. Roads are usually fairly straight with no impediment in vision. However, if a country track crossed the road - a roundabout. Next intersection, a roundabout. No traffic that we ever came across, last intersection only a couple of kilometres behind, but here was another roundabout. Interesting experience. We decided it was to help us get used to changing gears in the car. We certainly had lots of practice before we got to our next stop. For those who were with me in Mexico & Guatemala, it was like the speed bumps everywhere. In fact, I think this part of Spain had more roundabouts than Mexico & Guatemala combined had speed bumps.
Anyway, Don Quijote country and we are heading for those famous windmills.
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