After sleeping late again and having determined that Juan’s cousins were probably coming today after all, it meant that Juan and the boys could not join Laurie and me for an excursion to the mountain woods and Argentine place in Valsain (Tio Pepe). Laurie and I headed to the Argentine place and got there around 1:30pm. This is the place we went to twice last year. The first time was a pleasant surprise all around; the second time was a little testy because we hadn’t made a reservation on a weekend. This time the owner (a most gregarious and twinkle-eyed Argentinian) set us up outside and for most of the next hour we were the only ones there. 
Had 3 nice little empanadas (beef chimichurri and the spinach with garlic were winners). I had a tender beef tenderloin with chimichurri and fries; Laurie had ravioli. All were delicious, but we also had a problem with flies (learned that the (new) cooling mist spray system can also deter flies, though not entirely). Shared the chocolate cake for dessert and rolled out very satisfied.
We headed up to the woods at Boca del Asno. 
Laurie and I visited this incredibly peaceful and tranquil setting last year and I was eager to return. It was another beautiful day, sunny and warm enough but cool and pleasant under the trees. We walked upstream through the woods and found spot with no people in the immediate area. I found a stump that had my name on it and read a few chapters of Hemingway. This remains one of the world’s perfect places. The water is clear and the babbling brook is usually all you can hear, tall pine woods are free of undergrowth, birds sing in the distance, and somehow there are very few bugs intruding on your solitude.
After a couple of hours, it was near 5:00 and we headed back to Maggie’s once again. Juan had agreed to let us use his Audi wagon for our drive. I thought it was because they would also be gone the same time, but it turned out they were headed to Malaga on the coast to visit family just for the weekend, while we were taking the car for an extra week. Very kind and generous of him and Maggie.
Laurie and I drove his car down to Segovia, stopping to give it a wash and vacuum along the way. Laurie was very glad to have made the swap, saying how much better the Audi drove than her little car. We took a quick walk through Segovia hunting for a likely tapas spot, but as it was getting unseasonably cool, we headed back to the house where Laurie whipped up a nifty noodle stirfry using what was left of the beef tenderloin from lunch. Very tasty.
I generally didn’t have too much trouble with jet lag, but in these first few nights if I did wake up I wound up reading more of “The Sun Also Rises“. By the third or fourth night I finished it, and while I enjoyed it I wondered to some extent what the fuss was about. It’s Hemingway’s first novel; I haven’t read any Hemingway since high school and even then not much, but I was looking to read more “classics” and the Spanish connection was enticing. I could tell Hemingway was playing with rhythms and run-on sentences and I came to wonder how many times he used the word “and” in the book. While the style seemed clean and straightforward, the actual plot felt thin and I was surprised there wasn’t more death and mayhem. The book is basically a group of 1920’s Americans and Eurotrash in Paris getting bored then taking a trip to Pamplona to see the bullfights, fish and drink too much. I had also checked out and brought a companion book, “Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises” by Lesley Blume. I would have to read that to get a better sense of the story and its impact.
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