Tomb Raiding, Magical Virgins, and Cave Exploration.

Two weekends ago we went on our first excursion since the winter vacation ended.

The first place we went was the Toya Sepulchral Chamber.  It was one of my favorite parts of the excursion, but unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car and we walked a good long way to get there by the time I realized it.  So here’s a weblink so you can see pictures of it on someone else’s website:  http://www.ffil.uam.es/catalogo/lourdes_toya.htm
It was an underground tomb that once held the urns of important political figures, as well as their valuable belongings.  When some farmers first discovered it, they ransacked it, of course, and little of it’s original contents has been recovered.

Our next stop was the Roman Villa of Bruñel.  It has the largest collection of mosaic in situ in Spain and is irresponsibly just left out in the open exposed to the elements.


Here’s a view of the villa’s walls.


Admiring mosaic while David tells us all about it.


This was my favorite design.


As you can see, there really was a lot of this stuff still left.  This particular portion is probably 20 feet long.


This is the most famous part of the mosaic.  I can’t remember her name, but David said it’s some Roman goddess.


This is a supposed vomitorium, which I was very excited about until I looked up the term in the dictionary to make sure I spelled it right. Much to my dismay, this is what I found: “1 each of a series of entrance or exit passages in an ancient Roman amphitheater or theater.  2 a place in which, according to popular misconception, the ancient Romans are supposed to have vomited during feasts to make room for more food.
ORIGIN Latin.”  Blasted popular misconception!


Kate resting on one of the ruin’s walls.

The third place we went was Tiscar, where we checked out three different historically significant sites.


First we had to climb way up to the Castle of Peñas Negras.  It was hellish, and the castle itself wasn’t very impressive.  You couldn’t even go up into the tower because the wooden stairway crumbled a long time ago and no one has bother to reconstruct it.


My family apparently lives in this cute little house in Tiscar on the tiny path up to the castle.


The view from the castle was magnificent.


Here’s a close-up of the tower we couldn’t ascend.


Kate appears to have her foot in the sanctuary of Tiscar, the last place we visited.

Next we went behind and way below that sanctuary to the Cave of the Water (original name, I know, but trust me, it sounds better in Spanish).  It is itself a sanctuary where people of just about every religion have come to worship since the beginning of time.


This is a shot from the path leading down into the cave


Stalactites!


This is the big cavern where people come to light candles, pray, etc.  Nowadays there is a statue of the Virgin Mary up in that big hole.


Inside looking out.


I loved these long viny plants that were hanging from the rocks.  I dared Kate to swing on them but she declined.


Here’s one of the many deep blue water pools inside the cave.  The blue color comes from the algae that lives on the bottom.


My companions stayed and admired the cave from the lookout, while I descended the muddy rocky slopes to get better pictures.


Such as this one.


A memorial to Ramona Padilla Berbel, Feb. 2, 1929 - Oct. 8, 1998.


These candles were lit in this mini cave below the lookout.


Rock formations are neat!


Kate is in awe.  Unfortunately, none of the pictures of this part of the cave turned out.  It was indeed spectacular.


The entrance to the cave.  To the left of the path is a little stream of water.


Tiscar, bottom left, and it’s unremarkable castle above.


The entrance to the town.


The front of the Tiscar sanctuary which guards an alleged magical black statue of the Virgin Mary.  Legend has it that there have been several attempts to destroy the statue by various non-Christians who have conquered the town.  In one such attempt she was supposedly thrown from the castle wall and reduced to dust when she crashed against the rocks.  Rumor has it that the next day she was whole again and in her place on the altar in the sanctuary.


The inside of the sanctuary. It was all made of sandstone and had a light pink color to it.  It was soothing.


A close-up of the interesting carvings around the altar and the “magical” virgin.  She doesn’t look so tough, I bet I could break her.


Cool art of a blue Saint Somebody in the priest’s office.  The priest was a young, long-haired, very modern-looking dude.  We arrived at the hour of confession so there was a gaggle of little old ladies waiting to talk to him,  meanwhile socializing in the sanctuary.


This is where you come to get baptized.

That excursion took place back in what we were calling “Spring”.  It was probably 60º that day and had been for a couple weeks.  Then suddenly, winter came.


It snowed all day in Úbeda and then again the following night.  Nobody knows how to drive or even walk in it so it's been kind of a mess.

The aftermath:






In case some of you haven’t heard yet, I have decided to return home early for various reasons, so the exotic blogs from abroad will be coming to a end in a couple weeks.  There will probably be at least one more because I’m going to visit Kate in her new city, Barcelona!  From there I will fly to Zurich (Yay for Switzerland!... even if it’s only the airport) and then back to the States.  Until next time...