Walled city and windy stary night

Darren is keen to find a mountain top for tonight where he can stargaze unhindered by clouds and light pollution so we find a likely spot that’s in the direction of Portugal. On the way we schedule a stop at an ancient fortified walled city (Ciudad Rodrigo). We figured that we’d be able to stay in the shade mostly whilst we do the tourist thing. It was a very interesting place to walk around and kill a couple of hours with the usual shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels and most prominently a cathedral that you could pay to visit if that’s your thing. But seeing as both paying and religion are really not our thing, we declined. We soon learn from various posters and photographs around the place that the main square is sometimes (even in this day and age) used as a stadium for the disgusting practice of bull fighting. This leaves us feeling a little sickened and puts us off staying any longer. It was getting a bit too peopley for us, and the folks here all seem a bit grumpy if I’m honest, not a smile to be seen anywhere even when you offer them your most friendliest, bestest cheesiest smileys first all you get is stoney faced crabbiness in return.
So we left for the quiet sanctuary of Ivy after picking up a few supplies at the local store.
We continued on our way up to the mountains, in the foothills there were large fields with many trees evenly spread across them that we surmised were planted that way to provide shade for the abundance of livestock in the area, lots of cattle and horses. We had made sure as much as we could that the roads were good on the way up there. It was steep with switchbacks but nice wide tarmac so not too scary.
We arrived at our destination to find a large gravel plateau surrounded by huge boulders that formed the edge of the car park. It felt like a safe place to stay the night so we got out to explore the area, the view was breathtaking and vast. You could see so far across the valleys below because it was such a clear day. Surprisingly even up here on the mountain it was 29º and there was a strong warm breeze. It was very warm inside Ivy as we didn’t dare open the windows or the skylight too wide for fear that the wind might damage them or take them completely off as it was seriously increasing in intensity. Bliss took refuge underneath Ivy as it was like a cool wind tunnel for her. She definitely had the most comfortable place to be in the heat. There wasn’t much of a sunset but once it got dark the sky was ablaze with so many bright stars. The wind gusts continued to batter Ivy through the night so we didn’t get much sleep. The van was rocking all night long (but not in a good way!) 😉🤣Okumaya devam et