Sierra de Francia and La Alberca
Photos. (Sierra de Francia and La Alberca)
At Sierra de Francia. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous, reminded me of being in New Mexico a little bit. And now I can´t decide which is scarier: driving up a really narrow mountain road in a huge custom coach type bus, which can´t really pass anything as it drives, or driving up in a 15 passanger van packed full to the brim of people and crap and absolutuely no way to see, driven by someone who hasn´t slept in 30 hours. Deanna, Annie, you decide!
The view from.
The convent at the top of the mountain. Inside the actual church is a piece of wood that resembles the Virgin Mary, thus the religiosity of the place.
If you look out through these scopes, you can see the towns to which they are pointing.
We also stopped in La Alberca for lunch, which is a prime example of rural mountain towns in Spain. They also have very good candy. Also, they have a pig that runs around the town all year living off scraps that the townspeople give it, and then at the end of the year they slaughter it.
Okay, I know this is an awful picture, but it is interesting. When all the Jews in the town were forced to convert to Christianity, instead of leaving or actually converting, they just carved symbols (like this one) into their doorways so that they wouldn´t get in trouble...but could cover up that they were still practicing their own religion.
I like flowers. Anyway, all the houses in La Alberca have three levels. Originally, the first was for the animals, the second for the family, and the third for smoking/storing the meat. All the homes are structured like this.
More later.