Structure

A winding drive on back roads brought us to a fantastic overlook to
discuss structure for stop #2 today.

First Outcrop

We have our entire group together now, and with all their luggage, so
it's time to get down to some serious geology! After a quick lunch of
bocadillas in Huete, we are at our first top just outside of town.
Here we are looking at Oligocene sandstones in the Loranca or Huete
Basin. [Apologies now for my terrible Spanish-spellings in this post
and the rest to come!]

Judiones de la Granja

After most of the students took a couple hours to clean-up and catch a quick nap we meet to explore the city of Segovia.  Some of the highlights of our walking tour included a Roman aqueduct, which runs more than 35km from its source in the Central Mountains, an ancient castle, which played an importan role during many historic events in the area, and numerous architectural, cultural, and historical sites.  We then dispersed for a couple hours before dinner for further napping and exploration of the city as individuals desired.  For dinner students were treated to a local speciality, Judiones de la Granja, a type of giant broad bean.

Tomorrow we begin our geological explorations in earnest and head back through Madrid to pick-up one more student and a bag that missed our flight earlier today from Amsterdam.  Then its off to Huete to begin visiting outcrops, with a number of stops planned from there to Sigūenza, where we'll stay for the night.

Segovia

We arrived safely in Madrid, meet up with Maribel and Emma and a
couple more students, picked up our rental vans, and headed to
Segovia. After a brief tour of town we checked into our hotel. Some
folks are sampling the siesta lifestyle, others are enjoying the view
in the square. We'll get together again in a couple hours and tour the
town and outcrops as a group for a few hours before dinner.

Arrived Amsterdam

About 15 minutes late arriving in Amsterdam. Now begins the mad dash
across the airport, as it looks like our Madrid flight is still
scheduled for an on-time departure. A good way to wake everyone up I
guess... One more hop to Madrid!

First Flight

After arriving with plenty of time to spare to enjoy Detroit Metro's various amenities, and a change of aircraft and a shuffling of seats, we are all onboard Flight 252 to Amsterdam. Hopefully, folks will be able to get some sleep before our first day in the field tomorrow. For the next flight, it's going to be tight, we only have 55 minutes -- if we are on time -- to clear Passport Control and make our connection to Madrid; currently they're estimating a late arrival. Well keep our fingers crossed...

Officially Underway

The field trip is officially underway.  Everyone showed up a the department on-time.  We loaded our gear and ourselves onto our chartered U-M bus, which meet us conveniently at the C.C. Little bus stop. Now we off to Detroit Metro Airport!