Man Of La Mota

(Editor's Note: You are thinking of "Man of La Mancha," which is a region just south of Madrid, but also include Toledo.  Writer: Your lack of understanding of any plays on words makes me wonder how you got your job as editor.)

Anyhow, the Castillo de la Mota ("The Castle of the Moat") looks cool, and it is, but the visit was sort of anticlimatic.  It’s just as well we couldn’t take a tour of it, because I had booked a visit to a winery at 1pm, so, by the time we got out of Vallalodid and drove to the castle, we only had an hour max to take in the castle.

It’s awesome from the outside, and we were able to walk around the inside a bit, but couldn’t go up the imposing tower.  Besides the look of it, the best thing about the castle is that it was for free.

We walked around the outside and then did the inside bits we were allowed in.  And then we walked back to the car and hightailed it to the heart of Ribera del Duero wine country.

The east side of the castle.

The view from the north.

Poppies just outside the castle.

The tower was closed to

climbing when we showed up.

Poppies as seen through

an arrow slit.