At some point Air France moved my flight from Denver to Paris to a day earlier. So we adjusted our schedules accordingly. On the afternoon of 06 August, Suzanne met me at the airport in Madrid following her three week stay in France. We didn't adjust our car rental, which we picked up the afternoon of the next day. So we used the hotel shuttle to get to our accommodations for the next two nights. Went out to eat at a local restaurant, and then I finally got some sleep. The next day Suzanne joined Graham Meech in Madrid while I mostly slept.
In two previous trips to New Zealand, we had to replace vehicles due to problems. This time we didn't even get out of the car rental parking-lot with the original car. The tire low pressure light was on, and one of them was obviously leaking. So we got "upgraded" to a slightly larger hybrid with automatic transmission. (Manual transmissions are common in Spain. I used to drive a manual pickup, but Suzanne never has.)
The eclipse was going to occur at just before 20:30, about 45 minutes before sunset. In the days leading up to the big event, if possible we would take a look at the sun at that time to get a feel for what angle to expect. The sun would be low in the sky, no more than 10 degrees above the horizon. The weather forecast for the three days centered on Wednesday, eclipse day, were for sunny skies for all of central Spain. (Wildfires to the west were another matter…) Because of the low altitude of the sun, clouds far to the west could've been an issue.
The next day we stayed in the mountains of Canabria, then headed to Bilbao. On the way we were informed by our host of our eclipse viewing accommodations that he had to cancel the reservation because a previous tenant had damaged the place and it needed major repairs. This was after the free cancellation deadline. We figured that that meant we didn't need to worry about not having a place to stay, and so had already dropped our backup accommodations. Thus leaving us with no place to stay both the night before and the night after the eclipse.
By the next morning, the host contacted us and said had found us an alternative at a location that had a totality duration four seconds longer than the original. We don't know how he did it, as the best we could find was a listing for 2600 Euros. (There were places to stay the night before with availability at normal rates, including our Madrid hotel. Worst case, we figured we would spend Wednesday night in the car watching the Perseids.) We got a place to stay and that was all that mattered.
In Bilbao, we visited the Gaztelugatxe, a small islet with an ancient (but repeatedly rebuilt) chapel perched at the top, requiring a 80 meter climb up a rock staircase. The entrance on the mainland was at 200 meters, and the causeway was only 15 meters above the ocean. A lot of steep climbs and drops. (note: in Basque, the "tx" is pronounce like "ch".)
On Tuesday, the day before the eclipse, we explored some of our viewing options. From satellite images, we'd settled on trying to see the eclipse from north of Torresandino, a small town northwest of Arranda de Duero. In Spain, you don't seem to find homesteads and farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. Everyone seems to live in the small villages instead. From the maps, the area seemed mostly flat, but crossed by gravel roads allowing access away from the public.
We turned onto the gravel road, and almost immediately noticed a small butte a couple of kilometers from there. We went beyond to check things out, and found several possible sites. As we wanted to get checked into our hotel and no longer worry about where we were staying, we left intending to return around sunset.
Got ourselves checked in, and visited our original host at his winery for a quick tasting. I was driving, but Suzanne partook of some samples from the barrel and bottles, and made arrangement to settle accounts. Then we returned to the Cañada Real Merinera near Torresandino to check out the viewing location. We found a suitable place to park, and walked up the hillside only to discover, in the middle of nowhere, a couple also walking up. They were from Torresandino, and with the language barrier, we weren't able to communicate much. But they said that the butte was "a wasteland", and accessible.
At the top was 360° of unobstructed viewing. At the time of the eclipse, the sun was above much of the haze. We concluded that this was where we wanted to see the eclipse.
Driving back, the sun was a deep red as it dropped into the haze layer. I tried driving an alternate route to the hotel, one that avoided more of the A-1 autovia/expressway in case it was jammed solid.
On the big day, we took our time getting started. Finally left our hotel at 12:30, eight hours before totality. Once again, drove some back roads instead of direct route, just to get a feel for any alternate routes we might need. As it was, we took our time and spent four hours that the directions app said should take 45 minutes. We arrived at our desired location and settled in to wait about three hours before we needed to set up. It was hot, with a slight breeze, no humidity, and too many flies. Shortly after we arrived a car with a couple arrived, investigated the area, and settled in to wait as we were. Theirs was the only vehicle we saw during the wait.
When 19:00 arrived, we started to prepare to head up to the top of the butte. First contact was around 19:30, and I was able to get my camera setup to start taking some photos by then. I took a quick shot every five minutes, just to document what we were seeing.
The people from the car joined us. They were from the UK, and it was their first eclipse. Like us, they found this location by scouting the satellite maps and views. The top of the butte was had lots of thorny plants and a few rocks, but there were plenty of spaces to move around. We spread a sheet for shadow bands, just in case, but didn't expect them with the sun so low. The sheet was suspended on top of the plants and a bit lumpy, so took a little effort to get it reasonably flat. (Also figured it would be a place to dump something during the eclipse.)
Fifteen minutes before totality, I turned on the camera to continuously record the view of the setting sun. I also took a couple of panoramas of our observation location.
A couple of minutes before totality, I turned on the phone camera to record what I could. While I prefer to not see the event on a little screen, I had to keep glancing at it to recenter it.
As the eclipse started, I could see the corona start to appear as the diamond ring effect took place. Then suddenly it got much darker. It was strange to see it so near the horizon. Because of the haze layer, the corona seemed more orangish red than the pearly white I'd seen before. There was a huge prominence on the left side, and a corona was distinctly flattened at the bottom.
I also tried to take a jerky panorama of our horizon, considering that was one of the features of the location that made us want to be there. The colors weren't as uniform as I'd expected them to be. I never thought to look for planets, although in my video I see Venus just on screen in one corner.
Because of the shorter length, it was over too soon, even more than in the previous eclipses I've seen. We never saw shadow bands.
For a short time, we watched the ending partial phase drop into the haze layer and turn red. By the time we left, the sun could not be seen through the #14 Welder's filter we brought for looking at the sun. The group from Torresandino was still gathered on the top and appeared to be finishing the meal they'd started during the wait.
The drive back was uneventful. Not much traffic anywhere, including the autovia, so all the exploration of side roads wasn't needed. But still useful for seeing areas that don't normally get tourists. Got back with the end of twilight.
Today will be a rest day, with a less than two hour drive back to our hotel in Madrid, then an early start Friday before dawn for our flights home via London and Dallas.
Next year's eclipse will be different, as it'll be early in a cruise visiting Mediterranean islands.
Photos and videos to come in a future posting, once we get home.