An Andrews Adventure: DAY 246

Tuesday 13 March 2012

We were up at 8 after a good night's sleep in the Badajos train station parking lot. With a restroom available and a restaurant serving good coffee first thing in the morning we were set.

The Jara flower

Sheep and a shoe-heap. You could hear their bells tinkle in the stillness of the countryside.

Heading to the town where Charles grew up, no wait a minute, that's Albuquerque with one "r" not Alburquerque, Spain, we drove through rolling fields dotted with wild flowers and from time to time a big grove of eucalyptus. We pulled into the sister city to New Mexico's about a quarter to 10 and went directly to the tourism office below the main square. There we introduced ourselves to Francisco who seemed pleased that we had made the journey and immediately presented us with a beautiful poster of the castle that towered over Alburquerque. With the information that it would be impossible to interview the mayor since he had just embarked on a WALK TO MADRID protesting some local environmental issues, Charles interviewed Francisco instead for a magazine piece. He turned out to be a wealth of information about the town's history, and after an hour we thanked him and left to explore.

Traffic jam?? In a city of just under 7000???

We finally put the Amoeba sticker on -- Peace Through Music

Downtown Alburquerque

Francisco and us (note the mug from the NM city)

Inside the tourism office

Enjoying our local pastries in the town square

The castillo had a view of the plains below that stretched for many miles and it was easy to see why it was a strategic stronghold for the Muslims, Jews and Christians over the centuries. We were told that the part where the gigantic cranes were working adjacent to the castle on a new hotel would be off limits but we were more than satisfied with the castle towers and ramparts we had all to ourselves.

Climbing the castle wall

Prince Charles

The potted geraniums reminded us of Uncle Tim

When we wound down through the old part of town we asked where a good restaurant was to have lunch. A wizened old woman said emphatically, "El Castille!" so that is where we ate. Earlier we'd sampled some local pastries and doughnuts, but getting down to business was not hard with such a delicious menu hand written in Spanish. The restaurant owner, Raphael, said we could have our choice of two courses on the menu plus a drink and dessert for nine euros. We ate till we were stuffed and took the rest back to the van. While we were at the restaurant we charged up our computer and checked e-mails.

The mayor, Angel, on local television!

Finally we said goodbye to Alburquerque, filled up with diesel (it was much cheaper in Spain) and headed back to Portugal (again, no border stations). With the autostrada tolls adding up we were glad to see the sign for Fatima around 6 PM and pulled off to find free parking. A nun gave us the go ahead to park in front of the mall where her religious articles shop was - would she lie? Charles made friends with Tony who owned the Internet cafe while Dian made dinner by headlamp and Nicole made us laugh.