The Weekly Don Quixote – Meet The Wicked Windmills!

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Last Sunday, Maria and I took a trip to Don Quixote’s infamous public enemy number one: The Windmills. Before moving to Spain, I assumed Cervantes had just made them up, but the ‘ferocious giants’ his anti-hero battled against really do exist, and they are none the worse for wear!

Said windmills can be found not far from Toledo, about a half hour drive away, stuck on a hill by a small town called Consuegra. The town itself… erm… how to put this delicately… has not much to commend it, but this set of ancient pre-industrial buildings was definitely worth the trip. Each one of them even has a name.

Consuegra Windmills

Windmill

As a backdrop, Consuegra has its merits...

As a backdrop, Consuegra has its merits…

Maria taking a break

Maria taking a break. We were in our winter coats – in the middle of May! And it was very windy, as you’d expect…
The sign on the right-hand side of the door is the windmill’s name plate

WindmillsFor the other posts in the Weekly Don Quixote series, click here.

57 thoughts on “The Weekly Don Quixote – Meet The Wicked Windmills!”

      3. Expat Eye

        I’m having a dilemma about what to wear tonight – I’ve given Latvians such a lambasting that I have a feeling I will be judged pretty harshly! Couldn’t blame them for that! 😉

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      5. Expat Eye

        Oh, good way of looking at it! Just hope that a post about egg cups isn’t the last anyone ever hears of me – seems like a very banal way to go! 🙂

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      15. Expat Eye

        Good lord! She sounds totally nuts! Glad somebody else has had the ‘Baltic Experience’ 😉 One of my student’s mother used to feed her raw onions for breakfast when she was a kid for the same reason. Can you imagine the beatings you’d get in Britain or Ireland showing up at school after that?!

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      17. Expat Eye

        Well… haha, no probably not. But I’ve never lived with any of them! My friend in Dublin took in an American flatmate to help with the mortgage. All sorts of weird things started happening, they had real problems getting her out of the place and when she left, she did all these bizarre things that they were still discovering weeks later as everything looked normal on the surface. Like she’d take the batteries out of things like remotes but leave the remote in the same spot, empty the salt and pepper shakers, take the lightbulbs out of lamps… But I don’t think she was representative of all Americans either 😉

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      18. ladyofthecakes Post author

        Aw, flatmates….! I shared with different people for about a decade, and the experiences were overwhelmingly positive. Only three nutters among that lot, two of whom I wrote about. Did you see (probably not) that in the comment sections under one of these pieces, a production company working for Channel 4 left me message about making a documentary? Things that happen in the blogosphere! lol

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      20. ladyofthecakes Post author

        Nope. I do not want to be on telly slagging off ex-flatmates, no way. Also, they wanted to speak to people who were still living in London, so it wouldn’t have applied to me anyway. Still, it cheered me up that week 🙂

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      21. Expat Eye

        I’m sure! Amazingly flattering! Wouldn’t much fancy going on TV here doing my thing either – the human library will be as public as I go. And that may be a step too far. I hate public speaking. You’ll probably hear my knees knocking all the way from Toledo!

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      23. Expat Eye

        I have to write a 5-minute monologue but not sure if I have to read it to everyone at the beginning or read it to each person/group who ‘takes me out’ – time will tell I guess!!

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      28. ladyofthecakes Post author

        No, no! You don’t want to be turning up tomorrow with a black eye, glass in your gums and bloody knuckles.
        Give them the bottle. Mix in plenty valium in first…

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      30. ladyofthecakes Post author

        Growing smaller and wrinklier by the minute, and it’s only a matter of weeks till I start mumbling all my sentences back to front. In fact, I do that already.

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      31. Expat Eye

        I hear ya on the smaller and wrinklier bit! Suppose I better go to bed. Want to be at my best tomorrow – will need all my wits about me! Hopefully we’ll chat again – if not, it’s been great and thanks in advance for the obit! 😉

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  6. Karolyn Cooper

    I’m only two months late commenting on this post. And you won’t notice this comment anyway, at the end of all the Latvian-Spanish gossip. But I love those windmills. They have real character – it’s easy to imagine them as giants.

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    1. ladyofthecakes Post author

      That post is as fresh as a daisy 😉
      They were impressive, those windmills. Not so much for their size (they are weenie), but indeed for their character. I wasn’t expecting anything quite like this.

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  7. joannesisco

    OMG! They’re so cute 🙂 What’s not to love about a windmill? I had no idea there were so many different designs. I don’t understand why he called them feracious giants though. I think of them a gentle giants 🙂

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