Mick Paskins Blog

2024 Spain Part 2

2024 Spain Part 2

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  • Fri 5th Jan
    Still grey, mild and windless, but now wet. Although we have managed to avoid a soaking.
    Drove up the Urola river valley to Zestoa, a small town near Ekainberri, a recreated Palaeolithic rock art cave. The road from the town involved two alarming bridges.
    The first…..
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    The second…….
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    Both photographed on the way back.
    The road looked like it may get more difficult (it didn’t), and there may not be any parking. (There wasn’t). Josie and I ascertained this by walking there, after parking on some waste ground.
    A lady in very broken English told me the recreated cave is visit by tour, a tour in English at 4.00pm. (The website does not tell you any of this, after all why would anyone want to know).
    In fact the 4.00 tour was in Spanish, but we were given an audio guide.
    The paintings were not spectacular like the ones we saw in France a couple of years ago, the audio guide was OKish, and there was a lot of effort made to interpret the meaning of these paintings. My view was that this interpretation was fanciful, in some cases downright unlikely, and ultimately we just don’t know and never will.
    Josie and I did, however, go on an enjoyable walk further up the valley, a tributary of the Urola river.

  • Sat 6th Jan
    A mixed bag of a day.
    Really heavy rain overnight, a lot of rain today. Still raining.
    We drove to Loiola, and the basilica there. Well worth a visit.
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    The domed ceiling.

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    The church was circular, and there was a bloke walking round and round it. (Sue said afterwards she thought this was a way of preying, I don’t know that at the time). When I came to leave, with my eyes adjusted to the low light levels in the church, I was confronted with a pair of double glass doors in a frame, and when I tried to open them, I couldn’t work out how to unlock them. I went back inside, the circumnavigating bloke was the only other person in there. I tried to enlist his help as he walked past, but he completely ignored me and walked on, so I went back to the locked doors, and was now able to ascertain the rather complex bolt system was firmly locked. I went back inside, waited for the bloke to go past, and once again tried to enlist his help, again he walked past. I had horrible visions of being locked inside this church with this bloke, walking round in endless circles.
    Again I tried to stop him, by opening the first door (that led to the locked doors), and this time, he did stop, and I gestured the locking mechanism. As I did so, my elbow went clean through the glass……..there was no glass, just an empty frame! I burst out laughing, leaving a very bemused bloke, who clearly had no idea what I was on about.

    Next stop was the railway museum. Rather going to it because it was there, and so were we. But, it was shut. Today is a public holiday in Spain, so not a great surprise.
    So we drove further on up the Urola valley, now very swollen from all the rain, to Zumarraga, and an interesting looking church there. The SatNav clearly got into a mess, and told us to turn right where there was no road, straight into a hillside. There never had been a road there. After a series of further contradictory instructions, we eventually started heading in the right direction, very uphill, on a narrow single lane road, winding round very steeply. Eventually, we came to a particularly steep bit, I couldn’t see what was over the brow of the hill, and SatNav told me to turn sharp right. As we reached the summit, going slowly, and suddenly confronted with an impossible right turn, I tried to turn left, but too late, with the loss of momentum, the front wheels started spinning. With great anxiety, we backed really slowly down the steepest bit, a drainage ditch on my side, and a very steep drop on Sue’s side, and very little room if I deviated towards the edge of the road. After a couple of false attempts at the summit, we reached a less steep bit, and where able to just make it onto the other road, with a lot of spinning and banging from the front wheels. Phew! The other road, although steep, was very clearly the way to go.
    Anyway, the church…..
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    Not built as a church, and not known when it was built. The earliest record of it is apparently 1360, when ownership changed hands. Quite surprising it has survived so well considering it’s age. Pity the beams haven’t been dendrodated. They were certainly massive, and very old.

    Then drove to Mirandaola, an abandoned mining area, and now a museum. Shut. No indication when it is open. Why would anyone want to know that?
    Have now ascertained, from someone passing, that it doesn’t open until Monday. Not waiting.

  • Sun 7th Jan
    Another very wet night. Drove to Idiazabal, and a cheese museum. At any rate, that was how the name was interpreted, more a description of Idiazabal cheese making, how the reputation for the cheese grew, and the establishment of a Domain. Followed by a tasting. All very interesting, and of course, then followed by a purchase, as the cheese was very nice indeed.

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    The one on the left is smoked, the other two are not.
    Lots more rain, weather in this region set to deteriorate further, snow in a couple of days. So, very reluctantly, we have decided to skuttle across to the Mediterranean coast. A real pity, because the North Atlantic coast of Spain is such an interesting area. Now in Zaragoza, parked on an Aire with a tram stop straight across the road, which we will try tomorrow. Dog regulations in this province state that dogs must be carried in an approved carrier. Will find out tomorrow if I am an approved carrier!

  • Mon 8th Jan
    Outside the cheese “museum”, we were parked contemplating the rain when a flock of sheep were driven past.
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    A A bit blurry through the rain.
    Then, on the road…

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    Took ages to get past!

    The catholic cathedral in Zaragoza.
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    Impressively big inside, but not that memorable.

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    However, far grander and the Cathedral del Salvador. Two cathedrals about 200 yards apart.
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    The bell tower, and below, a side wall.
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    No No photos allowed, somehow these images jumped into my camera….

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    Incredible internal decoration. I often find European cathedrals overdoes the bling, but this one managed to pull if off without overdoing it.

  • Tue 9th Jan
    Taking Josie on the tram was no problem. All the trams we saw from the Aire were far from full, but the one we caught was absolutely packed, and the one returning was even packeder.
    This morning, I went back into Zaragoza and the Aljaferia Palacio. Sue went yesterday, but the palacio closed at lunchtime, before I could go in. Keep forgetting the difficult (to us) Spanish hours.
    Many years ago, on a previous visit to Spain, we had tried to park in the vicinity of the palace, but failed – Zaragoza is one of the cities devoid of available parking spaces – so we found a campsite, and found that buses wouldn’t take dogs. The guide book at the time described the palace as the best example of moorish architecture outside Alhambra in Grenada. Have always since then wanted to see it. And, what a disappointment it was.
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    Far to pristine to be real! Practically all of it has been rebuilt, and very much lost its original character.
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    Left Zaragoza around midday, and now in Teruel, south west of Zaragoza, and at an altitude of a tad over 3,000 feet. Cold! All round in the distance, snow capped hills.

  • Wed 10th Jan
    Teruel, unlike many places we have been to on the continent, is the opposite of oversold. A really nice place, but no attempt to lure visitors. Nowhere is information given in any language except Spanish, and opening times are a bit hit and miss.
    There were many attractive buildings, unfortunately in very narrow streets, making then difficult to see and photograph.
    A couple of churches, San Salvatore…
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    Attractive, but very dark inside.

    The Cathedral….
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    This is the ceiling. The plaque outside said 13th century, but I think it must have been like the proverbial medieval axe, which has had 14 new blades and 16 new handles, it looked very new and very plain.
    There was this, goodness knows what it was supposed to represent, a vaguely boat shape, looking decidedly unseaworthy.
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    And, a very decorative bell tower, squashed in by other buildings.
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    We had to buy a ticket to go in, which included entrance to a museum of religious artefacts. This really isn’t my thing, but was powerfully motivated to go in by the desire to go to the loo, and was might relieved (!!) to find a toilet inside. So, wandered round, and on the upper floor, a flat, dining room, bedroom, office and living room. The dining room was the most striking room.

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    No information, in any language, but a remarkably ornate staircase.
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    We are now in Mora de Rubielos, and a castle to storm tomorrow. And, we are now nearer 4,000 feet. Really surprised this part of Spain is so high, and further to the east, an information board shows the altitude rises to closer to 6,000 feet. We are not, however, going in that direction.

  • Thu 11th Jan
    Cold but sunny start to the day, some ice around.
    The castle opens at 10.00 am, so we arrived at 10.15.
    Closed.
    So, set off for Castello de Plana, not because we wanted to go there, but was on the coast at the end of the road. Two options, motorway or the old road. We opted for the old road, very slow, very scenic winding round hills, often very substantial. This area is described as the most sparsely populated area in Spain, and we saw hardly any people or vehicles, and drove through a few very small isolated villages. Then, as we approached the coast, became embroiled in the hubbub of a large city. Drove to an Aire close to the beach – full, motorhomes parked all over the place on the surrounding streets, but when we stopped, a policeman waved us on. Found another Aire, drove to it, and found it locked up and abandoned, clearly derelict. Would have thought that it would be worthwhile with so many motorhomes looking for a place.
    Now parked up in a very large car park opposite.
  • Fri 12th Jan
    Our overnight car park worked fine until lorries started up at 6.00am.
    Bit of a nothing day, went shopping, did the laundry, and parked up at yesterdays full site, a few spaces vacant this lunch time. Sardines again, of course.
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    The Mediterranean is the other side of the palm trees, this is of course why it is so full. And we want to run away.
    This afternoon, I went to the TIC in Castello, obtained useful information about the surrounding area, and it confirmed what we both felt, that Castello is not worth visiting. Have high hopes for Onda tomorrow.
    Doubtless we will have to repair back to the coast, that is where most of the aires are, and we do need them for water and waste emptying.

 

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