The Trip:Day 10

I realie that I´m about three days behind, but whatever, I´ll catch up.

Saturday was a cold rainy day. It was our first day back in Madrid, so we mainly spent it relaxing and staying inside.

Juan, the father of the family, has two big dogs. Urco and Tyson. Urco is a boxer, full of life. Tyson is a mix. He is a new breed that is still relatively young and so has lots of problems with inbreeding and such. I may have mentioned before that he is deaf. When he is asleep at night you can walk right up to him baging pots and pans and he won´t wake up.

Rain or shine, Juan takes the dogs on a walk in the morning and at night. They live in a small development about 45 minutes outside of Madrid, and there is plenty of open space in the area. Spanish development tends to take place in small densely packed developments even when there is plenty of space to build. Single family homes with a backyard have no market here. You will be driving through fields of open space and rolling hills and come upon a high rise apartment building.

The walks take anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours. Weekend walks take longer. I have taken to going with him when he walks the dogs. We walk out of the development and across an ancient Roman bridge that spans the river then along the river for a while then up the hill. From the top of the first hill you get a view that is exquisite. You can see to the East, between the hills, Madrid. And down in the valley, the river as it flows over rapids. This view is, I think the reason he takes thes walks. He seems to visibly relax as we climb the hill and when we reach the top of the rock that marks the summit he never fails to exhale in wonder. The tension of life flows off of him in a way that equires no words. It is palpable.

Then if there is time we descend the hill to an even older Roman bridge. It is a single arch that soars up and over the river. It is steep enough that he has to give the dogs a boost up the first part. Then we climb the next hill and walk along the ridge, sometimes as far as the newer, third bridge.

It is amazing to me that in half an hour we can walk out into wild untamed land. On one of the first walks I took with Juan, I collected a bouquet of wildflowers for Adrienne. By the time we returned to the house I had more than thirty distinct species of wildflowers in my hand.

Saturday it was cold and threatening rain. But it was still beautiful. We could see the clouds descending on nearby hills. As we turned towards home it began to rain. We were drenched by the time we returned.

As we climbed the first hill, Urco decided to go to the bathroom. As most dogs do he squats, pointing his rear to the ground. Unlike most dogs, he is so excited to be out that he can´t help walking forward while he goes. On this particular walk he was constipated. So there he was doing his squat-waddle up the hill for like five minutes. Finally he had had enough and he threw himself down on a sandy patch of ground, Exhausted by his effort, he just plopped down. It was quite funny.