14th January 2016
Ice, cold, snow, and Muslim
towns
Last night was C-O-L-D
!! I woke a few times during the night
but was basically warm as toast – I just had to pull my sleeping bag hood over
my head to make it perfect.
Unfortunately Janet has a harder time in sleeping bags and had cold feet
which prevented her from having a good nights sleep. Ah well, the joys of camping !! How cold was it ?
Well, at 8 am, it was minus 0.4 deg C, so not THAT cold !!!
Due to the cold it took a
while to get moving in the morning, but we hit the road just after 10 am and
headed towards Burgos Castle, situated on top of a hill overlooking the town –
Well, I guess that is where one builds castles !! Interesting place in that the
origins of the city were here in 884 AD, and it was a bastion against Islam in
the 10th Century. Even the
Duke of Wellington lay siege to it, before the French blew it up when they
abandoned it in 1813. Unfortunately it
was closed today, but we enjoyed looking over the outside if it, and the
magnificent view from there out over the city of Burgos. Interesting town, Burgos……..
Heading down the winding
cobbled streets from the castle we passed Islamic style gateways and other old
churches and buildings from the past.
Lot of history here, and what I find interesting is that unlike central
Europe where many of the historical buildings were damaged or destroyed in the
war and have had to be rebuilt, many of the buildings here are original. Sure, they have been renovated recently due
to the ravages of times, but essentially many of them are as original as you
can get.
Out on the open road again,
we headed SE towards Soria. Due to the
poor weather in the north, as well as a
change in plans by some friends on the east coast of Spain, we are heading
towards Alicante, form where we will head south. I will then come back up through Portugal and
N Spain after we have been to Morocco.
We are well and truly up on
the plateau of N Spain – We hardly went under 1000 metres ASL all day, with a
high of over 1200. And the temps were about 2-3 deg C all day, so it was quite
chilly ! We passed some amazing
scenery, with rock outcrops and dip slopes, and many log-carrying trucks – This
is a major logging area, and several saw mills along the way, while much of the
scenery is heavily forested. In one
village we saw a tall old brick smoke stack that was leaning rather heavily,
and as we got closer we noticed there was something on the top of it – Turned
out to be a white stork.
All along the way you pass
big churches in little villages – I have a growing opinion of all this opulence
of the church, while the peasants were left to fend for themselves as best they could………Hmmm
!! While the magnificence of the
buildings is without doubt, their need is to my mind a little more
doubtful. Eventually we came to Soria,
and the temperatures were still about 2 degrees when we stopped beside a 12th
Century monastery and made a quick sandwich.
Silly us – By the time we had finished our sandwich and headed to
inspect the
monastery, it was 5 minutes to 2, and of course many things around
here close between 2 and 4 pm !
Whoops. Must get used to Spanish
time ! Anyway, the lady let us in for a
quick look, and there were some amazing stone archways combining designs of
both Christian and Muslim heritage.
After a quick look at the monastery, we headed off to a Knights Templar 13th C church and castle, but once again were caught between 2 and 4 pm. We could have walked closer, but since it
would be closed when we arrived and it was VERY cold, was hardly worth the
effort, so we decided to head on down the road a bit further, enjoying the
warmth in the car !
Only about 30 minutes further
along, we caught a glimpse between some houses in the village of Almenar of an
impressive castle with a big church next door.
There was no obvious directions to it, so we did a U turn and nosed
around up some small alleyways until we found it. Quite an impressive church, and the castle
maybe even more so – Big walls, a moat, and an old bridge crossing to the main
gate. As so often happens, not much
information in the guide books, so one has to plan to go back to google later
on when one has wifi……….
(Later - It is the 10th Century Castle of Almenar de Soria).
After Almenar we continued across the plateau for another 100 kms or more, passing some amazing rock formations, especially one carved by the wind that looked very like a castle with towers at each corner ! Soon afterwards we turned off the main highway into Daroca that someone on the ferry from Portsmouth had told us was a worthwhile detour - And indeed it was. Driving past the city we could see the old walls on the surrounding hills, and the old city below. Eventually we found our way into the city, entering through the impressive Puerta Baja, or Lower Gate, and then driving
up the very narrow main street, Calle Mayor. After getting a little information from a Tourist office, and then parked in the Piazza de España, underneath the walls of the Church of Santa Maria. The whole city is steeped in history, and is largely original. A one time Muslim stronghold, it later became Christian Aragon's fortress town in the early medieval wars against Castilla. The rocky hills surrounding the town still have the crumbling remnants of the once-extensive walls, which originally boasted 114 military towers.
We spent sometime walking around the city, exploring alleyways and walkways, but as evening drew in, we had to leave the city to find somewhere to camp. There are no campsites anywhere in the area, but on the way into town we had spied some suitable laybys - parts of the old winding road that were off the main road, and sheltered behind trees. So we headed the 10 kms back to the layby we had chosen, and in the increasingly bitter wind, we sheltered behind some trees as best we could, and settled in for the night. It was a case of cooking some instant noodles inside the van because it was just too cold to cook outside - Below freezing by the time we climbed into our sleeping bags, and a clear starlit night. We even used chemical handwarmers in our socks to make sure we stayed warm during the night !
Pics are here :-
https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0397BurgosToDaroca?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKY3Z3ZmOfS3AE
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