We are off to Buitrago del Lozoya, home of the world's smallest Picasso museum.

We started out from Miraflores de la Sierra, above Madrid, where we had rented a house. Our route would take us southeast through Guadalix de la Sierra, then north, up the N-1 to reach Buitrago. About 40 km. Along the way, we saw some interesting sights.

We stopped in Guadalix, a small, modern town. This is where we met the balloon man. I saw a car with a trailer, about twenty feet long, parked on one of the streets. On the side of the trailer was a picture of a balloon, shaped sort of like a blimp. After a while, the guy with the trailer let down the ramp of the trailer and pulled out the balloon, which resembled more a WWII-era barrage balloon.

It was a tethered balloon, anchored to a harness that the guy wore on his shoulders. Slowly, he let out the cable from a reel until the balloon was about 200 feet in the air. We walked over to get a closer view. It turns out that the balloon had cameras mounted on it, controlled from the guy's harness contraption. We talked for a while. His business was taking aerial photos of properties, sporting events, etc. He asked me if I'd like to try this setup out, and I said yes. Pretty soon, I was wearing the harness and controlling the view on a little TV-like monitor by using several joysticks that panned and zoomed the camera.

Along our route, I took the picture above, of a brightly colored moth, resting in the sun by the side of the road.

Just goes to show... You never now where your next adventure will be.