Spanish views from a small town

Whenever I go on one of my rambles, whether alone or with my husband or daughter, I study a map beforehand. I either buy a physical map of the area I am visiting, or I download and print a more detailed map from the internet. The key to me is to have it in paper form in my hand. I love to trace the green and red roads along the paper, see all the different roads they interlace with, and the different places along the way. When I start the drive, the maps are in the passenger seat, either lying there for me to check, or for the passenger to advise me. I have never had a GPS thingee, whatever they're called; Tom-Tom Go, Garmin, I don't care. I have never had my phone programmed to give me directions, either. I have used Google Maps on occasion, but like a physical map, for me to check under my own power. I have always preferred to find out by myself how to get to a spot. If my powers of reading a map are not good enough for a certain area, then I will stop and ask someone local...

In U.S. cities and towns there's an invention that has facilitated life enormously. It's the street sign. Reach any corner, look up at the top of the pole stuck there, and you'll see at least two signs, each reaching down a different street, with the names of those streets. Searching for an address is child's play. Don't expect that in Spain. If it's difficult enough to find a road sign that will tell you what town you're in, it's impossible to find a street sign that will allow you to pinpoint a location. What has been done is to affix plaques on the corners of the buildings with the names of the streets. Normally, you just have to look up at the building on the corner and search for a plaque that looks like it has the name of a street. Which is not always easy, because some streets are named for people. With that person's entire name. So sometimes you might not be too sure if you're looking at a street plaque or the sign of an establishment...

Just when it seemed most drivers were getting the hang of not plowing into other cars inside a rotary, new rules have been put into practice at some rotaries. The intention is to facilitate entrances and exits, so that no lane changing is necessary within the rotary. Hah! In a normal rotary with two lanes, the right lane is always used to exit. The left lane is generally used to make a u-turn, or when the intended exit is the third or fourth. Approaching the exit, the driver should change to the right lane to take it. Most drivers don't follow those rules. Generally, when two lanes lead into a rotary, the drivers stay in their lanes, and exit from either of them. Eagle eyes are activated by drivers exiting from the left lane to make sure the driver next to them in the right lane won't cut them off by continuing around the rotary. After fifteen or twenty years of practice, drivers have gotten the hang of avoiding accidents. Usually. In the new turbo rotaries, you must enter ...

There are days when nothing new forms in your head, when it seems you are drifting through the world, catching what is thrown at you, and not reacting because you are simply too tired. Yesterday was such a day. And since it's my vacation month and since my daughter will begin classes on Monday, I decided to take her with me for a ride in the afternoon.  I tried to find a medieval bridge and waterfall in a neighboring township that is said to be a beautiful oasis of nature in the middle of quite a built-up area. I knew more or less in which direction it must lie, so I drove down the main road that bisects the township, thinking that there must be a sign on such a travelled road to lead the tourist. Well, I did find a sign, but that was it. It simply had an arrow to the "waterfall" and the "petroglyph". I turned onto the lane and followed it. And followed it. And continued following it. Finally, my daughter said we had just passed a homemade wooden sign saying ...