To the North and the Basque Country

Driving from Sandra's family in Madrid to Marina's family in Pamplona was quite a trip across some beautiful terrain, with some spectacular weather.  When I arrived, Marina, Iñaki, and Ana greeted me enthusiastically, and I was treated to another amazing Spanish dinner.  The following day they had arranged a tour (in English) of old Pamplona (the walled city), a visit to Ana's job, and several other activities, ending the evening with a couple of games of cards.

Monasterio de Piedra National Park, about mid-way
between Madrid and Pamplona, had about a dozen
amazingly beautiful waterfalls.

Monasterio de Piedra National Park

Very large thunderstorms loomed ahead as far as I could see,
in the direction I was headed.

On a "shortcut" 2-lane road that cut the corner of the triangle
to bypass Zaragoza.  Several places along the road were flooded,
with (muddy) water and some uprooted bushes spilling across the
road from right to left.  

First of several awesome meals.  This is lasagne, but of a variety
I've never tasted before.  It was delicious!

Iñaki and Marina by the river on our way to the old city.

A visit to Ana's workplace, a company which manufactures and
distributes electrical equipment, including the wiring harnesses
used to control windmills.

Her colleagues were extremely cheerful and gave me a great tour of
the facility.  It's nice to be going to places that don't get a lot of
American tourists, and people are eager to practice their English.
By the way, they always looked like this, not only when their photo
was being taken.  Gerard, on the left, was my main tour guide and
his English, which he had learned through evening conversational
classes, was a good as many native Spanish speakers I've heard who
have lived in the U.S. for years.

Marina plays beautifully, Basque ethnic music on
the Trikitixa, which, by the way...

...is a lot harder to play than it looks!!  Ouch.

Before she started to explain the game to me, I asked Marina if
it used normal cards, to which she replied "yes".  When we got
them out, they looked like this.  She thought these were "the normal
cards that everyone uses all over the world".  (Of course, I've always
thought that the ones we use in America were "the normal cards
that everyone uses all over the world".)

We played 2 games of "Mus", which I looked up afterward in
wikipedia, which said it's a Spanish card game, which most likely
originated in Basque country.  It involves cards, stones, and some
facial cues that you try to give to your partner to clue them in on your
hand without your opponents seeing it.  Definitely the funniest part.
Marina and I won both games, probably due to "the luck of the first
time player".