Musings

Today’s first stop was a Celt-Iberian settlement, apparently called Sekaiza, on this hill, named Poyo de Mara. We know the name of the fortification from coins the Romans allowed the city to mint—and pay taxes with. I hypothesize that it controlled passage through this valley and especially…

…broad farmlands to the east and south. Here’re the remains of houses/structures on northeast shoulder of a major terrace about half-way up/down the side slope of the landform. View to SSE.

The Romans “destroyed” (conquered?) the settlement, and established their own settlement south of the hill, called Segeda. View north (see the hill?).

Here’re more foundations even further south. This was a big place, yet only occupied less than 200 years, I think.

South of Calatayud on a broad hilltop was another Celt-Iberian-then-Roman settlement, today called Valdeherrera. It was contemporaneous with Sekaiza and similarly suffered Roman degradation later, as well as becoming a Roman settlement. I think the plow zone was removed with mechanical equipment, then hand excavations began. This was a residential and artisanal area of a much larger settlement. Valdeherrera and Segeda are about 8 miles apart, as the crow flies.

Mid-afternoon, we created our own walking tour of Calatayud. Here’s the main (WNW) façade of the Basílica-Colegiata del Santo Sepulcro.

Low side passage with wooden beams supporting the rooms above.

The late-day sun made the parochial church of San Andrés, with its famous octagonal Gothic-Mudéjar tower, glow. Mudéjar refers to Christian architecture design and decorative detail modeled on Arabic styles used during Al-Andalus times, when Muslims controlled much of Iberia.

Abandoned compound.

South door of Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor, built, I think, in the 14th C, rebuilt in the 15th C.

West door of Church of San Pedro de los Francos, with its famous leaning tower.

Tiny Plaza Goya, view to west.

Monument set in astroturf honoring Covid victims and everyone for their solidarity, in Plaza Joaquín Costa. I couldn’t find out one thing about Sr. Joaquín Costa in a quick web search. Shrug.

Backlit moto.

Thank you for your patience.

Posted at 2:16 PM | Comments Off on Roman x 2, more recent religious

Our hood at 11:15am; car was in the shade all morning. Brr, yet nice in the sun.

Here’s a stab at the layout of Bilbilis (sometimes with accent), a Roman fortified town on a hilltop and slopes. You can see the city wall clearly in this reconstruction. The forum is the rectangle with the red circle-numbers. It’s close to north-south, with the nose looming over the valley to the south. This location controls a major pass to the east, which today includes the important train route from Madrid to Zaragoza, and was a significant transportation corridor well before the Romans arrived.

Looking southwest across the forum and into the northeast-ward flowing Jalón River valley.

View west from the northwest corner of the forum, down into the amphitheater, which is nested into what would otherwise have been a ravine. A sign indicated there was a previous Roman structure of some sort here.

We set off to check out the eastern hill of the settlement, and looked up to see that we were disturbing a herd of grazing Iberian ibex. What a treat. The harem-boss is fourth from the left facing us, perhaps trying to stare us down. He’s got a large set of back-curving horns.

The Romans apparently built this as a cistern, and later Christians repurposed it as a chapel by creating a doorway, and no doubt adding interior features.

Back in the main part of the site, north-northwest of the forum, is a modest bath complex. This is the only one in this prosperous city—it even had a mint—due to the hilltop locations. The Romans built three cisterns to provide water just for the baths (not only for bathwater, but also for the steam-heat.)

View west of the east hill, with the cistern-church to the left and what looks like another chapel with a round window hole to the right…not discussed on the signs likely because the site managers didn’t want tourists visiting it.

We thoroughly enjoyed our hotel’s restaurant’s prix fixe lunch to recover from our Bilbilis adventure. It included a first and second course, dessert, and a choice of beverages. I chose the ¼ liter of red wine, and was surprised when a whole, full (opened) bottle (a local garnacha) was delivered…I asked, eyes wide I’m sure…she said, just drink two or three glasses, whatever you like, that’ll be fine. Okay! With tax, all of the above for €16. A fine deal! BTW, that’s my dessert, a sorbet of lemon with a few drops of vodka.

Late in the afternoon fortified from our fine luncheon (and a nap for one of our duo), we drove up to the main castle above Calatayud, formally: Castillo Mayor del Emir Ayyub ibn Aviv Lajmi, named for the official mentioned late in yesterday’s post. It’s a darned narrow castle, as that’s all there’s room for on the sinuous hill. The curved side is facing downhill to the Río Jalón valley.

Here’s the west end from dead on. Ignore the nasty lights, far more acceptable before everyone was taking so many photos and instead watching and oooh-ing and aaah-ing at the night-time display.

Here’s the view of the east end from the northeast, a massive structure against the sky—and what a sky!

Returning to our hotel for the night, we spotted these storks circling and returning to their nests (two to the lower left; one high, just below the cone). I had to ask the ever-helpful Sandra, the afternoon desk person, what the Spanish is…cigüeña, pronounced something like see-gwain-yuh, very strange spelling for Spanish. Too long for Wordle, fortunately.

Posted at 4:32 PM | 2 Comments »

First time a pilot came out to apologize for a late flight—he did it twice, over the mic to all, then walked around and took questions. [Really: last night, but first part of flight in essence.]

First high-elevation corporate witticism I had to “share.” [We left about three hours late; our destination: Madrid.]

Best airline food I’ve ever eaten. Yum. Truly.

We took off in the rental car, headed north, and the first time we hit a dirt road we saw our first caballero.

First Roman villa. This is a late one, and the central courtyard-garden still sports a tree.

First five-arch Medieval bridge. Last modified in 1973.

First Neanderthal cave cluster (mostly protected from the elements with a roof or with small openings—fenced, so we couldn’t get closer).

First fabulous sky of the trip.

First mystery. Sign says the water isn’t potable.

First dramatic bottleneck/pass we’ve driven through.

First night’s hotel room view.

We’re getting into the swing of the Spanish lifestyle: we will dine tonight at 8:30; only two more hours to wait. Over and out.

Posted at 12:28 PM | 2 Comments »

We dined this evening on hoppin’ john slightly re-imagined, which I sure hope still qualifies to give us good mojo for 2025. The black-eyed peas were fresh, mmmm. I lightly cooked the collards. The grain is off piste—it’s wild rice, which of course isn’t rice botanically…. The broth of all three was from some turkey thigh bones I held back for this evening.

Posted at 9:05 PM | Comments Off on Fiber-loaded augury

I went down memory lane today and came up with this sunrise from October back when we were up in northern Michigan. What I was actually spending time delving into was the excavations in Cova del Toll and Cova del Teixoneres…although the caves are right next to each other, the excavated remains date to very different periods…early no-humans, then Neanderthal, then some human stuff. Cave deposits can be terribly complicated to figure out, and I’m only superficially delving into these (apologies)…anyway, pondering a sunrise is far easier.

Posted at 9:56 PM | Comments Off on Looking about

I’ve heard of tea towels now and then, and now I have one. I still don’t know the role they play in tea-time—to coddle the pot, perhaps? Speaking of time (or herbal thyme, here in French on this tea towel of “Paree”), isn’t that the essence of life?

Thanks for this thoughtful gift; you know who you are!

Posted at 8:02 PM | Comments Off on French time/thym

By some prominent calendars this is an important eve, as in the fading day before a day of huge import…so here’s a sky pic of the eve-sky that the Apple-land algorithm has made “lighter” than it was to my eyeballs standing there looking up. In short: stars! evening!

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Starlightbright

We just finished watching a season/year of Top Chef, if you can’t tell/figure out this visual clue.

Posted at 7:50 PM | Comments Off on Still avoiding USA political news

Street seating decoration…bar bow…or barbeau? I don’t speak French and my sense of its etymology is…poor. But I think barbeau is related to barbed, like a type of fish-face. This, however, is an inexpensive fake-velvet bow on the separator-fence of a neighborhood tavern. So, bar-bow?

Posted at 9:30 PM | Comments Off on What’s in a name?

Isn’t this a fab wreath! [It’s the neighbor’s, along with many other wonderful decorations, some even real and smelling…wonderfully evergreen.]

This makes a fine still-life, no?

Posted at 8:16 PM | Comments Off on Mantel, wreath, candlesticks