Thursday, 5/2. Uber to Airport for the car. Audi. Not the kind that you see in America. The kind that reminds you that Audi is owned by Volkswagen. First gear is extremely finicky. Tiny pedals, close together. I hunger for my motorcycle, for many reasons.

Drive on highways easy. Arrived in Toledo with some routing confusion. Offline mapping software is faulty. The town was crowded (it’s another holiday). Did an audio tour of the cathedral. After St. Peter’s, it’s the most incredible I’ve seen. Since its construction bishops have sought to put their own mark on the building, so it’s layer upon layer of ostentatious additions. Sculptures run amok. Had a fine lunch, toured the shops. Knife’s are big here, both figuratively and literally.

Getting out of the city was maddening. Every sign seemed to point to Madrid!! I disregarded the navigator several times because she was directing me to a Madrid onramp, which made it worse. Very upsetting. “Road rage” is a misstated description of the actual direction of anger, but not in this case!

Finally got headed south to the La Mancha windmills. Getting up to the hilltop was a chore due to insanely narrow streets that appeared to me to be walking alleys. (I would soon learn better.) But the view from the top was 360 degrees great, though the tourists were annoying. Could have sat up there for hours, but we were behind schedule.

Drive to Granada was unexciting. Directions to the hotel were the opposite. Four pages, with photos. Many turns were guesses, but we in fact made none wrong. Streets got progressively narrower until we were on a street(?) that doubled as a walkway along a creek. A car behind assured me I wasn’t completely lost, but I was terrified that I’d taken a wrong turn with no way to get out. We successfully found the hotel. Breath of relief. Arabic style home converted to a hotel. Felt I was back in Morocco. Beautiful area. We had dinner at the place recommended by Andy and Jazzy. Walked, slept very well.

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