Episode 31
Again we headed to the coast to have a look at it further south. Once again it was wet and dismal when we did so: Roughly we were due west of Coimbra, perhaps a little to the south and we drove through a large area of pine forest with soft sandy tracks heading off over dunes towards the ocean. We could hear the roar of the waves on the other side of those dunes.
Came to a medium sized resort town that was dam near deserted; we did see two cars on the street and in a car park there were 3 others. One cafe was open. All of the holiday units were closed up tight, all the shutters down and gates locked. The beach was wide and sandy for the most part with one rocky headland and thundering surf rolling in from the Atlantic. Although it wasn’t nice weather it really wasn’t cold, only chilly. I didn’t try the water:
A few k’s further south and we came to another place with just a shade more activity, well, a few more cars anyway, and two or three shops open though I must say that the units and villas appeared to be just as tightly shut. After this we turned back inland and headed for the town of Batalha where the King of Portugal had an Abby built to honour a promise he made to the Virgin Mary for her help in his wining a decisive battle against Spain.
The Abby, and what a decorative piece of architecture it is! Was begun in 1388 and took over 100 years to construct, though one chapel was never finished and still remains without a roof. Constructed in limestone it is showing quite a bit of deterioration from pollution and acid rain. Its caramel coloured with a dark mould growing on it in places. Inside the wear of many feet on the limestone has worn away some steps to the stage that something will have to be done about them very soon, and the dripping of water in another part has also worn down some floor stones leaving deep holes in them.
This is a very large building and has towers, two not finished; flying buttresses topped with turrets and all around is decorated with fine fleur de lis. A great many stone carvings adorn those exterior walls too. Inside though is a different matter, its quite plain really with massive multi columned stone pillars that reach up very high to the vaulted roof. Here the lime stone has retained its much lighter colour and even though there are only small stained glass windows it seems quite light.
In the centre of one side chapel is the tomb of King Joao 1, he who had the place built, and his wife Phillipa of Lancaster (daughter of the duke of Lancaster who aided him in the battle). Around the walls of the chapel are the tombs of his sons including that of Prince Henri the navigator who discovered the Azores and Madeira.
The exterior of the one of the cloisters is just as highly decorated with fancy stone screens along the verandas, carved stone pillars and fancy gargoyles. In one room is the tomb of the unknown warrior guarded by a couple of perfectly still military sentries. Another cloister adjoined to the first through an entryway is very plain, yet built at the same time. All have the same terra cotta tile roofs that are still the principal roofing used all over Portugal to this day.
In the unfinished chapel there is the most beautiful arch doorway with stone carving in the columns and around the arches. Although this doorway seems to be protected from the rain the other parts that are open to the elements are beginning to wear away, though I suppose it has lasted 600 to 700 years without a great deal of decay. It truly is a beautiful building:
There are many limestone caves in the hills just to the south of Batalha and we visited one of them. By chance this happened to be the one at Mira de Aire, and it’s the one with the largest caverns and was the first one discovered back in 1947, some of the others weren’t discovered until the 1980’s. This cave gets a lot of visitors in the summer months but we were the only ones on this morning. Inside it is lit by coloured lights that are positioned to highlight little nooks and crannies that hold small stalactites or some other thing of interest. Just enough light to illuminate the concrete steps and path so I didn’t trip over anything. Down we went, past a waterfall that is about 20m high, down past little pools that people just love to toss coins into, down past small clusters of stalactites. The stalactites are not large and don’t form columns here, in fact there is only one or two stalagmites, but there are large flows over the side walls and along the bottom. The limestone in these flows has formed a crust over the surface that is hollow underneath in places. All the time we could here water flowing through a stream. At one point we could look down a hole about 60m to the water at the bottom.
Nearer the bottom there were more stalactites forming shells with fringes and shapes like harps but it was the size of the caverns that was the most impressive thing. They were huge and we went from one down a few steps to the top of the next one and so one, each one at a lower level. At the bottom we were 110m below where we’d entered, in probably the biggest cavern with a ceiling about 30m above us. Here in some little pools there were some man made fountains with coloured lights playing. From here we took a lift that put us outside still well below our starting point.
These caves are nice and I’m glad I saw one, but they are nothing on Jewel Cave in Western Australia, that one is the most outstanding I have ever seen.
Next we came to Fatima: This is the place where 3 young girls, shepherdesses, saw a vision of the Virgin Mary sitting on the branch of a holm oak tree on May 13, 1917. Only one of them could hear what the VM had to say and that was that she would make 5 more appearances on the 13th of each month until October. Two of the girls died in the Spanish flu epidemic a couple of years later but the third one became a nun and was still alive a few years ago, I forgot to ask if she still is. The poor oak tree suffered too, souvenir hunters brought about its demise though a new replacement was planted a few years ago.
A huge square with a large Basilica at one end and a just completed massive round, very modern style church at the other, and two smaller chapels one of either side half way between, covers the area that was once a meadow where sheep grazed. One of the side chapels, the chapel of the Apparition, is where the tree once stood; the new tree is not in the exact same spot. This square can hold hundreds of thousands of people but today there were probably only 60 to 70 about. Like Lourdes the faithful flock here hoping for a repeat performance or miracle cures.
Another thing we saw just a few k’s away was more dinosaurs footprints. These were larger and more ‘paw’ shape. They are is a layer of rock that has been uncovered during quarrying so they have been a little damaged but if it hadn’t been for the quarrying then they would never have been unearthed at all. There are 3 distinct sets of tracks going off across the rock. The type of dinosaurs that made these tracks was an herbaceous one and very large. These prints are about 600mm across. Wouldn’t like him to step on my toes:
Spent a while wandering about the town of Santarem, many parts of it are in similar state of decay to its Brazilian counterpart on the Amazon. Really the only thing worth seeing is the view from what was once the castle walls on top of a steep escarpment overlooking the wide fertile valley of the Tejo River. Pity it was misty and hazy with some showers around, really couldn’t see very far at all. The main churches that didn’t look is a good state of repair from the outside were all closed anyway, so to a ‘time’ museum with lots of clocks.
The one thing we saw a lot of in this general area are the tile pictures. Mainly in blue and white tiles they were all around the market place depicting scenes from long ago. Similar tiles are also used for window decoration, and we also saw some tile ‘pictures’; one was a landscape another was a more religious theme.
A lot of melons and strawberries are grown around here and we saw large fields that are being prepared for planting with sheets of cream plastic laid on top of raised beds. Big irrigation systems are currently standing idle across the fields. Plenty of vineyards in various stages of being pruned and the ever present olive trees. There are some cork around too so I read but as yet I have not been able to identify a cork tree.
In the town of Alcobac̨a we had a look at the huge monastery. It dates from the late 12th century and is one of the most important religious sites here in Portugal. It’s not an attractive building; it has a frontage of about 100m with the church right in the centre with a stone entrance, fairly plain, but most of the rest is white washed plaster with a terra cotta tile roof. It fronts a very large open Prac̨a (square). The church is very plain inside with high vaulted ceilings.
Up to 999 monks used to live here at one time and apparently they lived very well indeed, according one British writer who visited here. Not sure if there are any monks here now, but I don’t think so. The town is very tourist orientated with a street facing the Monastery full of sidewalk cafes and the side streets full of tourist shops. Unlike Batalha just a short distance away with its beautiful abby and very little tourist infrastructure:
Visited a small walled town called Obidos: David had seen the long aqueduct from quite a distance away; it leads right up to the city wall though the last few metres are missing where it was possibly removed when the road was built: It leads back into the hills three k’s to a spring and was built in the 16th century. It was a gift from the Queen of Austria.
This walled town is another of narrow lanes and stepped alleys. Some streets are wide enough for cars, but only one way traffic and not through the gate we entered by, that was pedestrian only. Once inside there are a large number of artisan shops and souvenir shops. A popular item seems to be the tile pictures that we have seen a lot of in this area. They are really lovely with sailing boats being a popular theme.
All the houses are whitewashed with blue paint around the bottom and look quite pretty though some are in need of a refresher coast. Naturally there are several churches and we looked in them. Two had tiles all around the walls and the only parts not tiled was the frescos. At the north-eastern end there is an old fortress and there had been some sort of stage and stalls set up in there probably for Christmas and New Year functions; the whole area was covered in some white stuff that was meant to be artificial snow. We climbed up on the walls and walked along some way with a good view out over the countryside then when the path got too narrow we climbed down again.
More tourists here than we’ve seen anywhere so far. Being within 100k’s of Lisbon I expect that some of the coaches are day trips from Lisbon. A large group of school kids wearing orange and yellow paper hats: Several foreign cars in the car park too.
Out on a small peninsular connected to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus is the town of Peniche. Along the north shore of the Isthmus are sand dunes and a lovely beach with a gently rolling surf. It looked so good that we went for a paddle, boy! Was that water cold; it took my breath away as it washed over my feet. The day had been so warm that we had got out our sandals:
This was a quiet and sleepy little town after all the tourists at the last place. Everything was closed up for the lunch time break when we arrived but opened up again at 2pm. There is another fortress here that was used by Salazar as a prison especially for political prisoners.
From a high vantage point we sat and watched the sardine fishing boats returning to port. These are modern boats not the old brightly painted wooden ones. Further around the headland we came to the lighthouse and could see several offshore islands. These islands are a nature reserve but there are some fishing families that live on them too. Just below the cliffs here there are a number of rocky sea stacks. With the warm sunshine and deep blue sea, it was really lovely.*
Followed the coast around to a town called Cascais, it’s a distant beach suburb of Lisbon almost. Linked by commuter train that runs every 20 mins most of the day we thought it would be a good place to stay a couple nights while we had a look around Lisbon. So that is what we did.
We started in Prac̨a do Comercio, a large square with colonnaded buildings on 3 sides, open to the waterfront on the 4th (south). It had a lovely arched entrance to the commercial centre of the city through the north colonnade. This is the Baixa district; built on a grid design it was all rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake that flattened the city. In fact most of the city was destroyed and ideas were put forward to abandon the site altogether and build a new city elsewhere but in the end it was rebuilt. The streets in the district have been named designating the trade that went on in them. Names like Goldsmith Street, Silversmith Street, cobbler street etc. Many buildings are all very much alike, mid to late 18th century and square concrete blocks though there are some very attractive ones sprinkled about if you look about as you wander along.
That district ends as the land starts to rise and beyond that past the lovely Rossio railway station with its 2 horseshoe shaped entrance doors there is a wide avenue, 90m wide and 1000m long, it rises steadily uphill leading into a large parkland area, Parque Eduordo 7th, named after the English King who visited in 1903.
Just as the avenue starts at the lower end there are some high steep hills off to the sided and up these funicular run linking the higher suburbs with the lower ones. There are at 2 funiculars: A large part of the not so steep areas of the city are serviced by trams, very modern looking ones except for a few of old wooden ones on certain routes, for the rest of the city there are busses, and a metro system.
A large red brick round building with blue onion domes, built with a definite Moorish influence is the ‘bull ring’. In Portugal the bull is not killed so I have been told and read. Under the bull ring is a large underground shopping mall. A walk along a long straight road from here brought us to the Gulbenkain museum. On display here is the once private collection of art and artefacts put together by the ‘Father of the oil industry in the middle east’. It is a beautiful collection that includes Persian and Central Asian carpets, both wool and silk, Egyptian pieces that have been raided from tombs including a gold death mask. Ming and Qing dynasty china, and enough paintings and sculptures by European masters to make any gallery drool.
We had taken one of those open topped busses for a tour around the city and to get acquainted with it somewhat. We got off and waked about and looked at things then caught a later bus, they run every 20 mins and it was really good. As we went along the audio guide gave us some of the history and told us something about what we were seeing. We passed part of the old aqueduct; it runs for some 30k’s and was not damaged in the earthquake.
In Belem, a waterside suburb 6k’s west of the centre that used to be the main port back in the era of discovery, a quite new monument stands at the waters edge; representing a Caravel in shape it is to honour the discovers, people like Henri the Navigator, Vasco de Gama, Pedro Cabral etc. Behind this 150m further back is a huge Monastery that was built especially to honour Vasco de Gama who is entombed there. Built with money raised by a tax on the spices that could then be brought back and sold to the rest of Europe after Vasco de Gama discovered the passage to India and the far east.
It is a beautiful building built in the Manualine style with highly decorated entrance archways and around the windows, plenty more ornamentation around the roofline and towers too. It is built in a light coloured stone. The interior has low vaulted ceilings at the entrance then in the Nave, the high vaulted ceilings are supported by decorated pillars that look almost like palm trees as they meet that vaulted roof. It’s quite impressive:
We rode around on the buses and old trams, though there are modern ones too, just that the routes we took only the old trams ply. Saw the castle that has been rebuilt to a great extent since I sat on the old ramparts with my friend Vicki when I was last here in January of 1970. Rebuilt castles don’t have the same ambience as the ones that have been left in their ruined state. This one was destroyed when the Moors were finally beaten and driven from Portugal.
There is an elevator that goes from the Baixa district and lifts you up about 6 stories through a wire mesh cage and deposits you at the top on a bit of a viewing platform with a steel walkway that connects to a street in the Barrio Alto district next to an unfinished church. The church has been in that state for a very long time. From the top of the elevator you can then climb up two more stories of winding narrow steel steps and come to a cafe and a higher viewing platform where there is a great view of the city below and the rebuilt castle on the hill opposite.
We looked in souvenir shops and sat in cafes drinking coffee and eating pastries. Lisbon is a very pleasant place for such past times. They made the best pastries here, it used to be London that had the wonderful pastry shops, and perhaps they are still there but so expensive now, while here a coffee and a pastry is probably cheaper than in would be in Brisbane, and certainly cheaper than Sydney. We also rode the funiculars and had to laugh when, as we were sitting waiting for it to depart we saw some cars driving up and down its path, they just squeeze in and can manage to turn into side streets. This is quite legal but they must give way to the funicular. Along these routes too, there is a narrow pavement on both sides and houses and small shops line both sides. Can’t say that I would like to live overlooking a funicular:
Many of the drivers are women, same with the trams and busses. The tram drivers do have a lot of problems with cars parked in their path. They are extremely good as they edge past a parked car with barely a millimetre to spare. People tend to just park anywhere though there are marked zones and parking and no parking signs, these signs are mostly ignored and only once have we seen anyone that actually looked like a traffic cop. Still, we would hate to try it ourselves as they may ignore the locals and target foreign cars, this happens in lots of places.
One thing in particular that strikes us in Lisbon is the number of beggars on the streets. On Sunday morning there were a lot out and about, especially in one area, but on Monday there were even more, on the train into the city and the everywhere we went. The vast majority seem to be older people too.
© Lynette Regan January 22nd 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Episode 30
Episode 30
At the southern end of a flat sandy peninsular is the little town of Sao Jacinto, as villages go its not much, it does however have a very nice wide sandy beach facing the Atlantic Ocean with some low grassy dunes. The wild gray surf was crashing on the beach when we went for a look. From what we could see it looks as if there may be a life guard on duty here during the summer months.
The road follows the edge of the lagoon and there are some large flash looking houses facing this none too attractive outlook. It’s got muddy marshy shores where we watched some people in small boats dig for some sort of shell fish. Using a pole 5 to 6m long with a rake and a net on the end they would push it out into the water, work the rake back and forth in the mud, then haul it in so that the net collected what the rake dislodged from the mud. Not very much usually, though at another point a bit further along small bags of shell fish were being loaded from the boats into a small refrigerated truck. David said they look to be whelks, but as I don’t know what a whelk looks like I can’t give an opinion.
In the town of Santa Maria de Feira we saw a castle that stands on a hill overlooking the town. It has a couple of towers and high fortified walls. There are underground passages that connect the different parts of the battlements and a long straight Roman road that leads from it up and over the hills beyond. Not that we could see much through the misty rain. At least it wasn’t cold here.
Now we headed back inland to the town of Arounce. Here we saw the old convent where there is an organ in the church that has 1352 notes and is occasionally played by a visiting expert. We could only look at it through a gap in a curtained petition as that part of the church was all closed off.
We drove up into the Serra da Arada (mountains) through more pine and eucalypt forest. It should have been a trip with brilliant view over the mountains and valleys but the fog filled the valleys and over much of the mountains too: In just a couple of places we saw pretty small villages clinging to mountain sides with all about them small terraces on which grapes and citrus are growing; and on the surrounding hills, pine forest. Looming through the fog on the high tops are several new wind turbines, they were working despite the quite gentle breeze blowing. Workmen were preparing base for another one.
Two stone huts beside a water channel both had horizontal water wheels in them, neither were working but it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to get them back in working order, a third hut just a little higher up the hill no longer had its waterwheel but it did have a brand new stainless steel holding tank beside it, for what purpose who knows!
In Sao Pedro do Sul we saw another castle on the hill overlooking the town, but like the one yesterday it looks better from a distance than up close. Some way further on at the town of Celorico do Beira we crossed a little dry stone bridge that Napoleon had marched his troops across in the early 1800’s, probably at the same time he had his horses stabled in the church in Porto. Near here too we saw an ancient Visigoth burial ground. Here small graves have been dug out of the granite rock, the body was then placed in the grave and a granite slab, hewn from another rock, put over the top. There are 11 graves here, one of which is obviously that of a child. They date from the 8th or 9th century AD.
In the town of Trancoso there is another walled city and a small castle that was once occupied by the Knights Templar. Those fellows sure got around: The castle and city walls are in good order having been restored several times over the centuries the latest being in 1940. In fact most of this small old city in is good repair, except for an old ducal palace that was once the home of a Polish princess. About the main thing to see here though are the old houses that were the homes of the Jewish community that fled here from Spain. All of these houses have two doors, a large one that opens only onto the downstairs room that was for trade and a smaller one that leads to the top floor where the family lived. One such house has a Lion of Judea embossed on the outside wall, it is thought that this was the house of the Rabbi. Several other have small rough crosses scratched into the stone work above the door; this was done by the Inquisition to show that the family had converted to Christianity. Again it was a very clean old city.
I noticed that there is a number of very good quality shops in the commercial parts of this walled city and that they had taken over 2 or 3 of the small pokey little shops and combined them into one of a decent size. But with the low ceilings and small window display space they still feel somewhat confined.
Heading north towards the town of Villa Nova da Foz Coa we came into a very mountainous region yet again. Here the steep hills had to a large extent, been terraced from top to bottom. Many of these terraces are very new and in fact we saw them still under construction in a couple of places. Those new terraces have been planted with either olives or grapes. You can easily pick out the more modern terraces because they are longer and more even and follow the curve of the hill having been made with modern earth moving equipment. However, there are still quite a few large olive groves and vineyards that aren’t terraced; these mostly have older well established trees and vines.
We took a drive around some of the tiny back roads and passed through several villages that are just how I remember those I saw in 1970, and even these mountains seem somewhat familiar. It is really an extremely pretty area but the main thing we came here to see is the old stone carvings that were discovered here in the 1990’s at the time a large controversial dam was beginning construction. That construction was halted because of the discovery.
These petroglypths are believed to be up to 28000 years old, but not all of them are the same age. They are also one of the biggest sites ever to have been discovered in Europe, there are more than 100 different sites spread along this valley of the Coa River. All these sites are on open exposed schist surfaces, whereas all former discoveries of this kind of drawing have been in caves.
Three different techniques have been used to make the drawings. The one that is perhaps the hardest to see because it is so fine like a single pencil line is a very fine single stroke groove. It must have been made with an especially hard and sharp piece of flint to cut into the schist surface as it did. The second method is the thicker outline left by short sharp strokes; and the third is by tapping a sharp pointed piece of flint with a hammer, just as you would with a chisel. In fact one of these tools was found by an old fire place in the vicinity.
Our guide took us to a number of different rock faces and at each one only a small area of the surface has drawings, some are done over the top of the older ones. Considering the time span the weather seems to have had little effect on them though the rock has cracked and crumbled in some places so that parts of the drawings are missing. The surfaces the ancients carved on was the vertical face of the schist, whilst some carvings done in the 19th century are on the horizontal face and are deteriorating much more rapidly. The animals that are represented are horses mainly with some deer, goats and bulls, some are very large whilst others are very tiny drawings. I did read somewhere that there is also a drawing of a bison amongst these, an animal that has been extinct from Europe for a very long time.
One of Portugal’s top Port Wine producers is in this area and we considered going to have a look. Another couple that were on the petroglypths tour wanted to do so too, so they phoned up but there was no reply and the place turned out to be in a very difficult to get to location so we all gave the idea a miss.
On a high plateau we saw Castelo Rodrigo standing on a hill top overlooking the village below and a vast area of farmland all the way to the Spanish border. Inside the fortified walls there was once a palace from the 16th century. Not very much remains and most of that has been rebuilt: The whole place is floodlit and at night it is probably quite a site but not at this time of year. The Portuguese don’t waste electricity; they only use it when there are plenty of people around to appreciate it.
A short distance further on and there is another fortification on a hill top with a commanding view. This is the military fortifications of Almeida: Here there are some impressive gateways into the walled compound; there was once a moat too, and a couple of drawbridges. Inside the walls is the old barracks building now a row of flats with washing hanging under the arches, and not sprucely painted as in the brochure photo.
As we drive around this part of eastern Portugal we see more ruined castles; they seem to date from a similar period around the 12th century. Several contained palaces within: Roman bridges and roads are other things we keep seeing, oh, and old olive presses that are no longer used can often be found as a centre piece in a roundabout or town prac̨a
In the city of Guarda we were all set to have a look about, we parked the car and set out with map in hand and dressed in our wet weather gear as it was tipping with rain. After a long walk up hill all the way we eventually arrived in the old city centre and dam near got blown away. The maps and literature got wet and the wind blew them to bits. We got more from the tourist office but the same thing happened again.
The cathedral was about the only thing we actually saw, built of gray granite it has high flying buttresses topped with small turrets and a fringe of fleur de lis. Inside is very plain compared with all the other cathedrals and churches we’ve seen in Portugal, no gilded carvings here or highly decorative altars and chapels though there is an impressive sandstone carving on 4 tiers as an altar piece featuring the apostles and other religious scenes and topped with Christ on the Cross. Another interesting feature inside are two pillars with twisted columns, all the other pillars are made up of straight upright columns. These twisted columns also appear on the west door. I can’t remember ever having seen it before.
I am sure there were other things to see in this place but David was very cold and extremely cranky so I just gave up the battle with maps and the weather and we went and had a hot coffee and a lovely pastry before heading back to the car, putting the heater on and warming up.
In the smaller town of Belmonte yet another castle stands on the hill, in ruins naturally, but with a big crane that looks as if it’s maybe being used to reconstruct some of the ancient wall. I could be wrong: This is another town that had a large medieval Jewish community, but unlike most of the others even though these people appeared to convert to Christianity many secretly keep up their Jewish faith. After the revolution of 1974 that ended the dictatorshop they were once again allowed to openly practice their faith and now they have a new Synagogue here is this place. There must be quite a large Jewish community all through this area because they produce a Kosher wine and olive oil.
This town also has one other claim to fame; it is the birth place of Pedro Alvaras Cabral. Ok! Ok! I can hear you all asking just who the heck was he? Well my friends, he was the fellow who discovered Brazil. In fact if memory serves me correct, and it probably doesn’t, he was the one who sailed into Rio harbour and thought it was the mouth of a river hence naming it Rio de Janiero. Anyway this chap was the son of the prominent family here and was born in the castle. He and his family are entombed in the church just below the castle walls. This small church has some faded 15th and 16th century frescos too.
There is one tiny ski area in Portugal: Its in the Serra da Estrela National Park on the highest part at a place called Torre ( tower), its only 1993m above sea level so in the late 1800’s the king at the time had a square tower built there to bring the height up to a more impressive 2000m, what good that was going to do I really can’t say. It certainly isn’t an attractive addition.
With snow beginning at around 1400m there was quite a good covering up near the top and being a Saturday there were big crowds out and about making the most of the short snow season they get here. It had been sunny right up till we arrived then some cloud came over and we were wandering about in thick fog that drifted and almost cleared a couple of times. The snow was powdery in places where it was thick but where it was thin it had an icy crust and hundreds of people had small plastic toboggans and sleds and were having a great time sliding down icy slopes. Wherever there was enough snow to slide on whole families, including the dog were doing so.
Right on top of the mountain there are a number of small shops and the main things they sell are hams and cheeses, probably from this local area. Also on sale were woolly slippers as well as some other warm clothing and there were a couple of cafeterias. The one and only ski lift was doing good business with a continuous flow of people getting off at the top to ski back down, but we have no idea how far down it went as the fog was far too thick to see. As we drove down the west side of the mountain we saw a few ski hire places several kilometres from the lift area. Only had to drop a little in altitude too, and we were back in sunshine for a little while at least.
Headed east again to the Spanish border to another town with a thermal springs and public baths. As we headed in that direction the rain tipped down yet again, the fog persisted and the wind blew small branches all over the road. Then when we got there we found that the baths are closed to the end of the month. We called in to see the castle and village of Monsanto; it is built of granite rock and sits in amongst huge granite boulder but alas, the rain was so heavy and the fog so thick we could barely make out that we were in the village.
In the town of Oliveira do Hospital the church there has a huge lime tree in its yard. Its asleep at this time of year, this is not a citrus lime tree, but is still impressive. Its 25m high and 4m round the trunk, in summer it must provide great shade.
It’s really quite surprising how large some of these villages are. They seem quite small from a distance but when we arrive and drive through they turn out to be much larger. They all seem to have very narrow cobbled streets in the centre that doesn’t do the suspension any good at all. In many gardens I have seen persimmon trees loaded with bright orange fruit, and large loquat trees quite heavily in flower.
The old university city of Coimbra is a pleasant place with its steep narrow lanes leading up the hill past the old Cathedral to the University that sits right on the highest point overlooking all else.
This premier University of Portugal was established here in 1537; through the preceding 3 centuries it had been moved back and forth between here and Lisbon. During the 20th century many new buildings and facilities have been added most of which are in other parts of the city.
Perhaps the most interesting part of it to see is the old library. This is a magnificent building on the inside though it’s quite plain from the outside. With stone walls over 2m thick it keeps the temperature a fairly consistent 20˚C and this is necessary to preserve the books that are kept here. There are over 200,000 volumes that date as far back as the 16th century.
The inside is divided into 3 rooms with archways separating them. The books are lined on shelves all around the walls; floor to balcony, then from the balcony to the ceiling. Making a total wall height of about 7m or so: Above that it the cornice decorated with gold leaf and a frescoed ceiling in each room: There is also much carved and gilded decoration around the shelves and pillars. Several large intricately inlaid tables are on display, they are made of mahogany, rosewood, ebony, and jacaranda.
The shelves are make of oak and this provides some protection against insect infestation, but there is also another factor that helps keep the insects in check, it’s the bat colony that live in the hollow wooden pillars that look like stone. At night the bats come out and eat any insects that dare to be about. Special leather cloths are placed over the tables to protect them from the bats.
Another special room in this university is in the main building, it’s the “Room of cowls”; this is the room in which doctorates are awarded. Other major university functions are held here too. It has a lovely ceiling that is painted in small panels. No photographs were allowed in these buildings:
St Michaels Chapel stands next to the library and it has an impressive organ and a brightly painted ceiling that reminds me of some brightly painted plates that I’ve seen in many different places. Painted in bright blues and oranges on a white background on the rounded Romanesque ceiling: A baroque clock tower stands in the corner of the square overlooking all:
The new Cathedral was closed but we had a quick look in the old cathedral, it’s quite a plain Romanesque structure with the only thing of note being the large clam shells that hold the holy water. There are several of them spread around the place inside.
© Lynette Regan 14th January 2008
At the southern end of a flat sandy peninsular is the little town of Sao Jacinto, as villages go its not much, it does however have a very nice wide sandy beach facing the Atlantic Ocean with some low grassy dunes. The wild gray surf was crashing on the beach when we went for a look. From what we could see it looks as if there may be a life guard on duty here during the summer months.
The road follows the edge of the lagoon and there are some large flash looking houses facing this none too attractive outlook. It’s got muddy marshy shores where we watched some people in small boats dig for some sort of shell fish. Using a pole 5 to 6m long with a rake and a net on the end they would push it out into the water, work the rake back and forth in the mud, then haul it in so that the net collected what the rake dislodged from the mud. Not very much usually, though at another point a bit further along small bags of shell fish were being loaded from the boats into a small refrigerated truck. David said they look to be whelks, but as I don’t know what a whelk looks like I can’t give an opinion.
In the town of Santa Maria de Feira we saw a castle that stands on a hill overlooking the town. It has a couple of towers and high fortified walls. There are underground passages that connect the different parts of the battlements and a long straight Roman road that leads from it up and over the hills beyond. Not that we could see much through the misty rain. At least it wasn’t cold here.
Now we headed back inland to the town of Arounce. Here we saw the old convent where there is an organ in the church that has 1352 notes and is occasionally played by a visiting expert. We could only look at it through a gap in a curtained petition as that part of the church was all closed off.
We drove up into the Serra da Arada (mountains) through more pine and eucalypt forest. It should have been a trip with brilliant view over the mountains and valleys but the fog filled the valleys and over much of the mountains too: In just a couple of places we saw pretty small villages clinging to mountain sides with all about them small terraces on which grapes and citrus are growing; and on the surrounding hills, pine forest. Looming through the fog on the high tops are several new wind turbines, they were working despite the quite gentle breeze blowing. Workmen were preparing base for another one.
Two stone huts beside a water channel both had horizontal water wheels in them, neither were working but it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to get them back in working order, a third hut just a little higher up the hill no longer had its waterwheel but it did have a brand new stainless steel holding tank beside it, for what purpose who knows!
In Sao Pedro do Sul we saw another castle on the hill overlooking the town, but like the one yesterday it looks better from a distance than up close. Some way further on at the town of Celorico do Beira we crossed a little dry stone bridge that Napoleon had marched his troops across in the early 1800’s, probably at the same time he had his horses stabled in the church in Porto. Near here too we saw an ancient Visigoth burial ground. Here small graves have been dug out of the granite rock, the body was then placed in the grave and a granite slab, hewn from another rock, put over the top. There are 11 graves here, one of which is obviously that of a child. They date from the 8th or 9th century AD.
In the town of Trancoso there is another walled city and a small castle that was once occupied by the Knights Templar. Those fellows sure got around: The castle and city walls are in good order having been restored several times over the centuries the latest being in 1940. In fact most of this small old city in is good repair, except for an old ducal palace that was once the home of a Polish princess. About the main thing to see here though are the old houses that were the homes of the Jewish community that fled here from Spain. All of these houses have two doors, a large one that opens only onto the downstairs room that was for trade and a smaller one that leads to the top floor where the family lived. One such house has a Lion of Judea embossed on the outside wall, it is thought that this was the house of the Rabbi. Several other have small rough crosses scratched into the stone work above the door; this was done by the Inquisition to show that the family had converted to Christianity. Again it was a very clean old city.
I noticed that there is a number of very good quality shops in the commercial parts of this walled city and that they had taken over 2 or 3 of the small pokey little shops and combined them into one of a decent size. But with the low ceilings and small window display space they still feel somewhat confined.
Heading north towards the town of Villa Nova da Foz Coa we came into a very mountainous region yet again. Here the steep hills had to a large extent, been terraced from top to bottom. Many of these terraces are very new and in fact we saw them still under construction in a couple of places. Those new terraces have been planted with either olives or grapes. You can easily pick out the more modern terraces because they are longer and more even and follow the curve of the hill having been made with modern earth moving equipment. However, there are still quite a few large olive groves and vineyards that aren’t terraced; these mostly have older well established trees and vines.
We took a drive around some of the tiny back roads and passed through several villages that are just how I remember those I saw in 1970, and even these mountains seem somewhat familiar. It is really an extremely pretty area but the main thing we came here to see is the old stone carvings that were discovered here in the 1990’s at the time a large controversial dam was beginning construction. That construction was halted because of the discovery.
These petroglypths are believed to be up to 28000 years old, but not all of them are the same age. They are also one of the biggest sites ever to have been discovered in Europe, there are more than 100 different sites spread along this valley of the Coa River. All these sites are on open exposed schist surfaces, whereas all former discoveries of this kind of drawing have been in caves.
Three different techniques have been used to make the drawings. The one that is perhaps the hardest to see because it is so fine like a single pencil line is a very fine single stroke groove. It must have been made with an especially hard and sharp piece of flint to cut into the schist surface as it did. The second method is the thicker outline left by short sharp strokes; and the third is by tapping a sharp pointed piece of flint with a hammer, just as you would with a chisel. In fact one of these tools was found by an old fire place in the vicinity.
Our guide took us to a number of different rock faces and at each one only a small area of the surface has drawings, some are done over the top of the older ones. Considering the time span the weather seems to have had little effect on them though the rock has cracked and crumbled in some places so that parts of the drawings are missing. The surfaces the ancients carved on was the vertical face of the schist, whilst some carvings done in the 19th century are on the horizontal face and are deteriorating much more rapidly. The animals that are represented are horses mainly with some deer, goats and bulls, some are very large whilst others are very tiny drawings. I did read somewhere that there is also a drawing of a bison amongst these, an animal that has been extinct from Europe for a very long time.
One of Portugal’s top Port Wine producers is in this area and we considered going to have a look. Another couple that were on the petroglypths tour wanted to do so too, so they phoned up but there was no reply and the place turned out to be in a very difficult to get to location so we all gave the idea a miss.
On a high plateau we saw Castelo Rodrigo standing on a hill top overlooking the village below and a vast area of farmland all the way to the Spanish border. Inside the fortified walls there was once a palace from the 16th century. Not very much remains and most of that has been rebuilt: The whole place is floodlit and at night it is probably quite a site but not at this time of year. The Portuguese don’t waste electricity; they only use it when there are plenty of people around to appreciate it.
A short distance further on and there is another fortification on a hill top with a commanding view. This is the military fortifications of Almeida: Here there are some impressive gateways into the walled compound; there was once a moat too, and a couple of drawbridges. Inside the walls is the old barracks building now a row of flats with washing hanging under the arches, and not sprucely painted as in the brochure photo.
As we drive around this part of eastern Portugal we see more ruined castles; they seem to date from a similar period around the 12th century. Several contained palaces within: Roman bridges and roads are other things we keep seeing, oh, and old olive presses that are no longer used can often be found as a centre piece in a roundabout or town prac̨a
In the city of Guarda we were all set to have a look about, we parked the car and set out with map in hand and dressed in our wet weather gear as it was tipping with rain. After a long walk up hill all the way we eventually arrived in the old city centre and dam near got blown away. The maps and literature got wet and the wind blew them to bits. We got more from the tourist office but the same thing happened again.
The cathedral was about the only thing we actually saw, built of gray granite it has high flying buttresses topped with small turrets and a fringe of fleur de lis. Inside is very plain compared with all the other cathedrals and churches we’ve seen in Portugal, no gilded carvings here or highly decorative altars and chapels though there is an impressive sandstone carving on 4 tiers as an altar piece featuring the apostles and other religious scenes and topped with Christ on the Cross. Another interesting feature inside are two pillars with twisted columns, all the other pillars are made up of straight upright columns. These twisted columns also appear on the west door. I can’t remember ever having seen it before.
I am sure there were other things to see in this place but David was very cold and extremely cranky so I just gave up the battle with maps and the weather and we went and had a hot coffee and a lovely pastry before heading back to the car, putting the heater on and warming up.
In the smaller town of Belmonte yet another castle stands on the hill, in ruins naturally, but with a big crane that looks as if it’s maybe being used to reconstruct some of the ancient wall. I could be wrong: This is another town that had a large medieval Jewish community, but unlike most of the others even though these people appeared to convert to Christianity many secretly keep up their Jewish faith. After the revolution of 1974 that ended the dictatorshop they were once again allowed to openly practice their faith and now they have a new Synagogue here is this place. There must be quite a large Jewish community all through this area because they produce a Kosher wine and olive oil.
This town also has one other claim to fame; it is the birth place of Pedro Alvaras Cabral. Ok! Ok! I can hear you all asking just who the heck was he? Well my friends, he was the fellow who discovered Brazil. In fact if memory serves me correct, and it probably doesn’t, he was the one who sailed into Rio harbour and thought it was the mouth of a river hence naming it Rio de Janiero. Anyway this chap was the son of the prominent family here and was born in the castle. He and his family are entombed in the church just below the castle walls. This small church has some faded 15th and 16th century frescos too.
There is one tiny ski area in Portugal: Its in the Serra da Estrela National Park on the highest part at a place called Torre ( tower), its only 1993m above sea level so in the late 1800’s the king at the time had a square tower built there to bring the height up to a more impressive 2000m, what good that was going to do I really can’t say. It certainly isn’t an attractive addition.
With snow beginning at around 1400m there was quite a good covering up near the top and being a Saturday there were big crowds out and about making the most of the short snow season they get here. It had been sunny right up till we arrived then some cloud came over and we were wandering about in thick fog that drifted and almost cleared a couple of times. The snow was powdery in places where it was thick but where it was thin it had an icy crust and hundreds of people had small plastic toboggans and sleds and were having a great time sliding down icy slopes. Wherever there was enough snow to slide on whole families, including the dog were doing so.
Right on top of the mountain there are a number of small shops and the main things they sell are hams and cheeses, probably from this local area. Also on sale were woolly slippers as well as some other warm clothing and there were a couple of cafeterias. The one and only ski lift was doing good business with a continuous flow of people getting off at the top to ski back down, but we have no idea how far down it went as the fog was far too thick to see. As we drove down the west side of the mountain we saw a few ski hire places several kilometres from the lift area. Only had to drop a little in altitude too, and we were back in sunshine for a little while at least.
Headed east again to the Spanish border to another town with a thermal springs and public baths. As we headed in that direction the rain tipped down yet again, the fog persisted and the wind blew small branches all over the road. Then when we got there we found that the baths are closed to the end of the month. We called in to see the castle and village of Monsanto; it is built of granite rock and sits in amongst huge granite boulder but alas, the rain was so heavy and the fog so thick we could barely make out that we were in the village.
In the town of Oliveira do Hospital the church there has a huge lime tree in its yard. Its asleep at this time of year, this is not a citrus lime tree, but is still impressive. Its 25m high and 4m round the trunk, in summer it must provide great shade.
It’s really quite surprising how large some of these villages are. They seem quite small from a distance but when we arrive and drive through they turn out to be much larger. They all seem to have very narrow cobbled streets in the centre that doesn’t do the suspension any good at all. In many gardens I have seen persimmon trees loaded with bright orange fruit, and large loquat trees quite heavily in flower.
The old university city of Coimbra is a pleasant place with its steep narrow lanes leading up the hill past the old Cathedral to the University that sits right on the highest point overlooking all else.
This premier University of Portugal was established here in 1537; through the preceding 3 centuries it had been moved back and forth between here and Lisbon. During the 20th century many new buildings and facilities have been added most of which are in other parts of the city.
Perhaps the most interesting part of it to see is the old library. This is a magnificent building on the inside though it’s quite plain from the outside. With stone walls over 2m thick it keeps the temperature a fairly consistent 20˚C and this is necessary to preserve the books that are kept here. There are over 200,000 volumes that date as far back as the 16th century.
The inside is divided into 3 rooms with archways separating them. The books are lined on shelves all around the walls; floor to balcony, then from the balcony to the ceiling. Making a total wall height of about 7m or so: Above that it the cornice decorated with gold leaf and a frescoed ceiling in each room: There is also much carved and gilded decoration around the shelves and pillars. Several large intricately inlaid tables are on display, they are made of mahogany, rosewood, ebony, and jacaranda.
The shelves are make of oak and this provides some protection against insect infestation, but there is also another factor that helps keep the insects in check, it’s the bat colony that live in the hollow wooden pillars that look like stone. At night the bats come out and eat any insects that dare to be about. Special leather cloths are placed over the tables to protect them from the bats.
Another special room in this university is in the main building, it’s the “Room of cowls”; this is the room in which doctorates are awarded. Other major university functions are held here too. It has a lovely ceiling that is painted in small panels. No photographs were allowed in these buildings:
St Michaels Chapel stands next to the library and it has an impressive organ and a brightly painted ceiling that reminds me of some brightly painted plates that I’ve seen in many different places. Painted in bright blues and oranges on a white background on the rounded Romanesque ceiling: A baroque clock tower stands in the corner of the square overlooking all:
The new Cathedral was closed but we had a quick look in the old cathedral, it’s quite a plain Romanesque structure with the only thing of note being the large clam shells that hold the holy water. There are several of them spread around the place inside.
© Lynette Regan 14th January 2008
Episode 29
Episode 29
A brilliant sunny day, except where we were in Chaves. This town is in a valley and was enveloped in a heavy fog; a hot spring feeds into the river at 78˚C so I suppose that helps to create the fog: You would think that with a nice supply of hot spring water there would be some pools open for bathing, not on your Nelly; the spa complex was shut up tight and seems only to offer ‘treatments’ anyway. I think the place is missing out on a lot of tourist Euros by not having public bathing pools.
Apart from the spa the place doesn’t have a lot to offer. There is another old Roman bridge that loomed through the mist as we approached; it is much shorter than the one over the Lima River but still functions as a traffic bridge taking one way traffic out of the old city. Walking along beside the river was one of the warmest spots in town because of the hot spring. The battlements of two old fortresses remain and from the high one it’s possible to get a good view of the city but not the day we visited. The houses in the narrow cobble streets often have narrow wooden balconies on the first floor that overhang the cobbles, some neighbours could just about shake hands across the street. Often you see the weeks washing hanging out to dry on such balconies but very few people had any out today, like me, they probably had little faith in it ever drying in such weather.
Despite the sign stating the opening hours and we were well within them, the tourist office remained firmly shut but we managed to find our way around quite well as at least there were street manes on the corners, that helps a lot.
As we drove out of town on the lookout for a supermarket that we never did see we passed several shops selling copper stills. Now what do they distil in those stills do you suppose? No tourist office open to ask so some time I will have to try and find out. There must be a big demand for the stills though as three shops within 60m each had a large display of them for sale.
Out of town and the fog, we are once more in the higher drier part of the Portugal. The elevation is around 800+m and it can get very cold here. The high trellises for the grapes have given way to the low growing varieties that are used for wine making. Red wine and port are produced in this area I read somewhere. Many of the hill sides are covered in almond trees and some chestnut trees both of which are asleep at present but in February/March it is said to be just a mass of white almond blossom. Hopefully we will see some further south where they bloom in January on the Algarve. Some small fields of green that I think is oats and rye crops offer a little relief from the bleakness of the winter landscape. Apart from the nut plantations and just a few olive and pine trees many of the hills are bare and quite barren. Any native forest is long gone, though I have seen some ‘broom’ shrubs
Part of the area through which we travelled on our way to the town of Braganc̨a is in a fairly newly created Nature Park. Just what this is supposed to mean I cannot say, but I think it protects the few native animals that just might happen to have survived until now. One of these parks in Portugal does have a small population of wolves the only place in Western Europe where they have lived continuously since ancient times, but I don’t think it’s this one. The villages through which we passed are only tiny but they usually have at least one coffee shop and a small grocery store, and always a church. Often they are very close together with only 2 or 3 k’s separating them and I wonder what the people do here as I’m sure the agriculture can’t support them all. In fact you see very few people about at all, maybe a tractor with a trailer going along the road, or someone driving three cows through a village, a sheppard on a hill looking after 4 sheep or 5 goats, and an odd donkey peering over a wall.
We’ve seen several milking cows lately but the only milk we have been able to buy for some time now is UHT. In some places in Spain we could get fresh milk but not everywhere. There is however, a wide variety of locally produced cheeses and yogurt is available, but I don’t know where it’s made. Smoked ham is said to be a speciality of this area but I haven’t tried any yet, have to find a shop open first.
Another place that was wrapped in a cotton wool fog was Braganc̨a as when we visited it on New Years morning. The cobbled streets were slick with thin ice and any sound was muffled because of the fog. With hardly another soul around we wandered the streets and easily found the Cidadela looming through the mist; the old fortified city with imposing high walls that once had 13 towers around its length. One large square tower has been restored and it houses a military museum that was, of course, closed. One of the towers used to be called the Princess Tower because a Princess was once imprisoned here for being in love with a Troubadour.
Within the walls, right on top of the hill is a pentagon shaped building, the Domus Municipalis; a council chambers, and below this is a huge cistern that holds water from a spring and run off water. The place was built in the 13th or 14th century and held a very strategic position right on the border with Spain.
A great many Jew settled here during the time of the Spanish Inquisition having fled across the border from Spain. The church in Portugal didn’t bother with the small places in the provences. Many of the people bear Jewish names but the Synagogue no longer exists so they must have all converted to Catholicism at some point in time.
After having looked about as best we could with the fog we found about the only cafe open and went in for a coffee. There were only about 4 other in there, all men and some of them engaged us in a one sided conversation. One spoke a little English, he is a maths teacher, another one kept telling him things he wanted translated to tell us, and a third one was a keen Rolling Stones fan, about the same age as Mick Jagger. They we all drinking beer or wine and thought we were weak only having coffee, they wanted to buy us a pork roll each but we couldn’t come at that as the pork was barely warmed on either side, just a little too rare for us, so we made excuses of a very large breakfast that was fairly true anyway.
Our drive to the border town of Miranda do Douro was through a world enfolded in cotton wool with visibility down to about 40m most of the way. We passed through a couple of supposedly interesting villages of which we could see nothing. Then just as we approached Miranda the fog lifted leaving heavy cloud and a thick haze but at least we could get a look at the gorge that we had come to see. The gorge on the Douro River forms the border with Spain at this point. A strategically placed narrow dam wall holds back the water and floods the deep narrow gorge to a depth of 50m or so. The only vegetation of the steep slopes being the small stunted ilex oak trees, a tiny olive green leafed evergreen shrub, the leaf being similar in shape to that of a holly tree.
Here too, is an old castle, well the remains of one anyway, an explosion in 1762 during the Spanish Wars, blew away a good bit of the castle, and some 400 people were killed. It must have been some explosion as the walls were 3m thick, you can see this from what is left standing.
Turning west again we passed through a mountainous area with gorges and steep sided hills many of which were planted with olive groves, the trees planted in straight lines up and over the tops of the mountains. Some of these were quite old plantation too with trees that had thick twisted and gnarled trunks: As the Jews have a saying that an olive tree never dies, I wondered just how old these trees might be.
Just travelling along quietly without another car or soul around and suddenly with a gentle ‘thup’ and the back window shattered. Well that altered any plans we might have had: With the showery weather we had and the risk that the glass might fall out at any time, we started looking for a place to get it attended to. In the next town we found a wreckers yard but they couldn’t replace the glass only, they would have had to replace the whole back hatch door and with a green one, our car is white. They suggested we head back to Braganc̨a where there is a Citroen dealership. Which is what we did but it was at a garage not the dealership where we got it done, by which time the day was over, daylight had long gone and the rain settled in with grim determination, the cold too.
In one small town the pride and joy of the place is a granite pig. This pig sits atop a high pedestal in the central square for all to see. It’s carved in a light cream coloured granite, is said to be a male pig and believed that it was some sort of fertility symbol to the ancient people who carved it in about 500BC approx. This village Murc̨a, also boasts another Roman bridge, just a single arch one along with a rock paved Roman road that is in good condition for several k’s. We would have walked along its length but it was just too wet to take pleasure in such an exercise. In the town of Mirandela some 30k’s to the east stands another Roman bridge, that one is quite long and has many arches.
This whole area produces a lot of wine and olive oil. Apparently the olive oil is especially good and has won gold medals at international competitions. There are certainly enough olive groves in this area they cover the hill sides.
In the steep hills outside Villa Real we came to an old Roman Temple. There really isn’t much to see, and probably never was though it is believed that three small temples were here, one of each of the granite boulder that constitute the temple. Looking uphill, there are 3 outcrops of granite in a slightly curved line each about 50m apart. The lowest one has inscriptions carved into it, 3 are in Latin, one is in Greek but they all tell of the Roman senator who was a high ranking local official in this area dedicating the temple to the Gods, Serapis in particular, though several others are thrown in for good measure including some from the local indigenous tribes.
Each of the 3 boulders has holes of various sizes carved out of the rock. Each of these holes had a specific purpose and all to do with the sacrifice of animals, or so the literature says. Small holes were for the blood offered to the God of the underworld, larger ones were where the intestines were burned, another larger one where the meat was cooked, and yet another one for cleaning up after. The highest most of these rocks, on top of the hill, has 4 large rectangular holes, the size and shape of coffins and a set of steps carved into the rock leading up to these holes. The beast was brought here to be prepared for sacrifice so I heard and read but just how or what was done isn’t mentioned. To us it all looked the right size for sacrificing humans but we were assured that wasn’t the case. This all dates from the end of the 2nd century AD: Never seen anything like it before:
Not far from here we came across some ‘standing stones’. Just a few standing in an elongated curve, possibly part of an elongated oval: Then on a hill top just a few k’s away there is a stone lined tomb built into a man made mound, something similar to what we have seen in Scotland. No dates or information on any of these but it would be my guess that they are all Iron Age, perhaps around 300BC.
In this area the grapes seem to have taken over and they are growing up and over the hillsides, and down in the valleys. Small areas have been terraced but mostly not. There are also a few apple orchards, and I saw some persimmons growing in household gardens. Just a few citrus too: Along the road you never seem to run out of the village, it’s continuous.
The city of Lamago has a similar religious monument to that at Braga. Here it dedicated to Nostra Senhora de Remedois (our lady of the remedies?). To get to it also involves climbing up steps, this time over 600, passing fountains and statues along the way. The view from the top should have been great except for the drizzly rain and foggy conditions.
The fairly small church at the top is mostly 18th century though there is a small part from the 16th century. The rounded ceiling is painted in blue and white and around the walls are mosaics in blue and white tiles with gold trim that tell the story of Jesus at aged about 12 when he was an apprentice carpenter.
Travelling down the Douro valley towards the city of Porto the rain and foggy conditions continued otherwise it would have been very pretty. All the way the steep mountains sides are terraced, very small ones mostly; in the higher areas there are apples and other stone fruit, some pine forest and always some grapes: As we got further down stream and lower in altitude there are citrus and grapes and eucalypt forest. All along the way we twisted our way back and forth over the mountains descending to villages along the river bank only to climb back high over the next ridge. The river is quite wide, and in one village we saw a small marina with several power boats moored there. Never really get out of a village, no more that 60m or so at the most between the houses along the road unless there is a strip of forest.
The city of Porto near the coast and the mouth of the Douro River is not the prettiest place in Portugal at all. As we drove in we passed rundown areas with boarded up and decaying buildings with much graffiti on the walls, though the streets weren’t dirty with litter. Pulled into the first parking station we came to and took the elevator down and came out into the food court of a big, quite new shopping complex on four levels, this opened onto an upmarket shopping street that had a surprising amount of people about for a Sunday morning, or any morning for that matter.
One of the first things we saw was an old wooden tram car; at least it was well maintained. After finding the tourist office in one of the main squares beside the Camara Municipal (town hall) up the hill at the top of the prac̨a, we set out, map in hand to have a look about this city:
A short walk brought us to the Sé, (the cathedral) and the bishops palace, the former is a very drab looking structure and the latter is of white painted plaster with the decoration around the windows and doors both have a great deal of scaffolding erected around them. From the terrace here we could look down and across much of the old city that is world heritage listed though I really do think that in this case that old city is past the point of preservation. It seems to be in quite a rapid state of decay with rickety old buildings all of which have the terra cotta tile roofs, some very wobbly, that really must leak like sieves in this moist winter climate. Many of the building are in eminent danger of falling down too. Wandering down the narrow alleys towards the river we did find that they were quite clean too, bit of doggy do, nothing like France, but they didn’t stink as I expected they might. Perhaps the recent rain had washed them well.
From the terrace we had looked down on a public laundry; a square building with open sides and full of laundry tubs, not a laundrette. We thought we’d take a closer look, but we didn’t find it as we meandered down the alleyways. Came out on the waterfront of the river Douro (river of gold) and saw several tourist cruise boats moored by the esplanade. A large steel arched bridge was just upstream. It had a vehicular bridge on one level and on a much higher one was a train line and a pedestrian walkway. In clear weather the view would probably be great but today, well, at least it wasn’t raining at this point in time.
We came to an old church that has been deconsecrated and was once used by Napoleon as a stables for his horses. The Igreja de Sao Francisco is nothing special from the outside, quite plain really and dates from the 13th to 15th centuries. It is the inside that is special; it was redecorated in the 17th and 18th centuries in the gilded, ornate, lavish Rococo style carvings. Between 400 and 800kgs of gold was used to gild this place. These carvings just ooze off the walls; the only bit that isn’t covered is where Napoleon had them removed to make room for his horses. Not really supposed to take photos but I think David sneaked a couple of shots.
We did come across a part of the city that had been rebuilt in the early 1900’s in art Nouveau style and it looked quite nice, but that was outside the preserved old city. Then over near the main market there is another large area that has been rebuilt in the last few years with smart new buildings but not skyscrapers. In this central area of the city, the street where we’d parked was the upmarket street with several brand name stores and most were open when we arrived back there in the late afternoon. The whole area was alive with people. Like Spain these people tend to do everything in the late afternoon and at night. Mornings are slow.
It was across the river and a couple of k’s south where we came to the wide streets and some flash shops and shopping centres in amongst an area 8 storey apartment blocks, a sea of them.
I had thought that in Brazil when we had seen many buildings with tiled exteriors that it was done to help preserve them in the hot humid climate but now I know that it’s a Portuguese style of decoration. A great many of the buildings in this country have tiled exteriors, something I didn’t notice when I visited many years ago. Predominately the tiles are blue and white. Often they are in the form of a mural or mosaic called an ‘azulejos’, azule being the word for blue. Some are really quite beautiful and the train station in Porto has a huge interior one that covers three walls. It’s in two parts, a battle scene is one and the other is the development of transportation, though it all needs a thorough cleaning to see it properly.
© Lynette Regan January 6th 2007
A brilliant sunny day, except where we were in Chaves. This town is in a valley and was enveloped in a heavy fog; a hot spring feeds into the river at 78˚C so I suppose that helps to create the fog: You would think that with a nice supply of hot spring water there would be some pools open for bathing, not on your Nelly; the spa complex was shut up tight and seems only to offer ‘treatments’ anyway. I think the place is missing out on a lot of tourist Euros by not having public bathing pools.
Apart from the spa the place doesn’t have a lot to offer. There is another old Roman bridge that loomed through the mist as we approached; it is much shorter than the one over the Lima River but still functions as a traffic bridge taking one way traffic out of the old city. Walking along beside the river was one of the warmest spots in town because of the hot spring. The battlements of two old fortresses remain and from the high one it’s possible to get a good view of the city but not the day we visited. The houses in the narrow cobble streets often have narrow wooden balconies on the first floor that overhang the cobbles, some neighbours could just about shake hands across the street. Often you see the weeks washing hanging out to dry on such balconies but very few people had any out today, like me, they probably had little faith in it ever drying in such weather.
Despite the sign stating the opening hours and we were well within them, the tourist office remained firmly shut but we managed to find our way around quite well as at least there were street manes on the corners, that helps a lot.
As we drove out of town on the lookout for a supermarket that we never did see we passed several shops selling copper stills. Now what do they distil in those stills do you suppose? No tourist office open to ask so some time I will have to try and find out. There must be a big demand for the stills though as three shops within 60m each had a large display of them for sale.
Out of town and the fog, we are once more in the higher drier part of the Portugal. The elevation is around 800+m and it can get very cold here. The high trellises for the grapes have given way to the low growing varieties that are used for wine making. Red wine and port are produced in this area I read somewhere. Many of the hill sides are covered in almond trees and some chestnut trees both of which are asleep at present but in February/March it is said to be just a mass of white almond blossom. Hopefully we will see some further south where they bloom in January on the Algarve. Some small fields of green that I think is oats and rye crops offer a little relief from the bleakness of the winter landscape. Apart from the nut plantations and just a few olive and pine trees many of the hills are bare and quite barren. Any native forest is long gone, though I have seen some ‘broom’ shrubs
Part of the area through which we travelled on our way to the town of Braganc̨a is in a fairly newly created Nature Park. Just what this is supposed to mean I cannot say, but I think it protects the few native animals that just might happen to have survived until now. One of these parks in Portugal does have a small population of wolves the only place in Western Europe where they have lived continuously since ancient times, but I don’t think it’s this one. The villages through which we passed are only tiny but they usually have at least one coffee shop and a small grocery store, and always a church. Often they are very close together with only 2 or 3 k’s separating them and I wonder what the people do here as I’m sure the agriculture can’t support them all. In fact you see very few people about at all, maybe a tractor with a trailer going along the road, or someone driving three cows through a village, a sheppard on a hill looking after 4 sheep or 5 goats, and an odd donkey peering over a wall.
We’ve seen several milking cows lately but the only milk we have been able to buy for some time now is UHT. In some places in Spain we could get fresh milk but not everywhere. There is however, a wide variety of locally produced cheeses and yogurt is available, but I don’t know where it’s made. Smoked ham is said to be a speciality of this area but I haven’t tried any yet, have to find a shop open first.
Another place that was wrapped in a cotton wool fog was Braganc̨a as when we visited it on New Years morning. The cobbled streets were slick with thin ice and any sound was muffled because of the fog. With hardly another soul around we wandered the streets and easily found the Cidadela looming through the mist; the old fortified city with imposing high walls that once had 13 towers around its length. One large square tower has been restored and it houses a military museum that was, of course, closed. One of the towers used to be called the Princess Tower because a Princess was once imprisoned here for being in love with a Troubadour.
Within the walls, right on top of the hill is a pentagon shaped building, the Domus Municipalis; a council chambers, and below this is a huge cistern that holds water from a spring and run off water. The place was built in the 13th or 14th century and held a very strategic position right on the border with Spain.
A great many Jew settled here during the time of the Spanish Inquisition having fled across the border from Spain. The church in Portugal didn’t bother with the small places in the provences. Many of the people bear Jewish names but the Synagogue no longer exists so they must have all converted to Catholicism at some point in time.
After having looked about as best we could with the fog we found about the only cafe open and went in for a coffee. There were only about 4 other in there, all men and some of them engaged us in a one sided conversation. One spoke a little English, he is a maths teacher, another one kept telling him things he wanted translated to tell us, and a third one was a keen Rolling Stones fan, about the same age as Mick Jagger. They we all drinking beer or wine and thought we were weak only having coffee, they wanted to buy us a pork roll each but we couldn’t come at that as the pork was barely warmed on either side, just a little too rare for us, so we made excuses of a very large breakfast that was fairly true anyway.
Our drive to the border town of Miranda do Douro was through a world enfolded in cotton wool with visibility down to about 40m most of the way. We passed through a couple of supposedly interesting villages of which we could see nothing. Then just as we approached Miranda the fog lifted leaving heavy cloud and a thick haze but at least we could get a look at the gorge that we had come to see. The gorge on the Douro River forms the border with Spain at this point. A strategically placed narrow dam wall holds back the water and floods the deep narrow gorge to a depth of 50m or so. The only vegetation of the steep slopes being the small stunted ilex oak trees, a tiny olive green leafed evergreen shrub, the leaf being similar in shape to that of a holly tree.
Here too, is an old castle, well the remains of one anyway, an explosion in 1762 during the Spanish Wars, blew away a good bit of the castle, and some 400 people were killed. It must have been some explosion as the walls were 3m thick, you can see this from what is left standing.
Turning west again we passed through a mountainous area with gorges and steep sided hills many of which were planted with olive groves, the trees planted in straight lines up and over the tops of the mountains. Some of these were quite old plantation too with trees that had thick twisted and gnarled trunks: As the Jews have a saying that an olive tree never dies, I wondered just how old these trees might be.
Just travelling along quietly without another car or soul around and suddenly with a gentle ‘thup’ and the back window shattered. Well that altered any plans we might have had: With the showery weather we had and the risk that the glass might fall out at any time, we started looking for a place to get it attended to. In the next town we found a wreckers yard but they couldn’t replace the glass only, they would have had to replace the whole back hatch door and with a green one, our car is white. They suggested we head back to Braganc̨a where there is a Citroen dealership. Which is what we did but it was at a garage not the dealership where we got it done, by which time the day was over, daylight had long gone and the rain settled in with grim determination, the cold too.
In one small town the pride and joy of the place is a granite pig. This pig sits atop a high pedestal in the central square for all to see. It’s carved in a light cream coloured granite, is said to be a male pig and believed that it was some sort of fertility symbol to the ancient people who carved it in about 500BC approx. This village Murc̨a, also boasts another Roman bridge, just a single arch one along with a rock paved Roman road that is in good condition for several k’s. We would have walked along its length but it was just too wet to take pleasure in such an exercise. In the town of Mirandela some 30k’s to the east stands another Roman bridge, that one is quite long and has many arches.
This whole area produces a lot of wine and olive oil. Apparently the olive oil is especially good and has won gold medals at international competitions. There are certainly enough olive groves in this area they cover the hill sides.
In the steep hills outside Villa Real we came to an old Roman Temple. There really isn’t much to see, and probably never was though it is believed that three small temples were here, one of each of the granite boulder that constitute the temple. Looking uphill, there are 3 outcrops of granite in a slightly curved line each about 50m apart. The lowest one has inscriptions carved into it, 3 are in Latin, one is in Greek but they all tell of the Roman senator who was a high ranking local official in this area dedicating the temple to the Gods, Serapis in particular, though several others are thrown in for good measure including some from the local indigenous tribes.
Each of the 3 boulders has holes of various sizes carved out of the rock. Each of these holes had a specific purpose and all to do with the sacrifice of animals, or so the literature says. Small holes were for the blood offered to the God of the underworld, larger ones were where the intestines were burned, another larger one where the meat was cooked, and yet another one for cleaning up after. The highest most of these rocks, on top of the hill, has 4 large rectangular holes, the size and shape of coffins and a set of steps carved into the rock leading up to these holes. The beast was brought here to be prepared for sacrifice so I heard and read but just how or what was done isn’t mentioned. To us it all looked the right size for sacrificing humans but we were assured that wasn’t the case. This all dates from the end of the 2nd century AD: Never seen anything like it before:
Not far from here we came across some ‘standing stones’. Just a few standing in an elongated curve, possibly part of an elongated oval: Then on a hill top just a few k’s away there is a stone lined tomb built into a man made mound, something similar to what we have seen in Scotland. No dates or information on any of these but it would be my guess that they are all Iron Age, perhaps around 300BC.
In this area the grapes seem to have taken over and they are growing up and over the hillsides, and down in the valleys. Small areas have been terraced but mostly not. There are also a few apple orchards, and I saw some persimmons growing in household gardens. Just a few citrus too: Along the road you never seem to run out of the village, it’s continuous.
The city of Lamago has a similar religious monument to that at Braga. Here it dedicated to Nostra Senhora de Remedois (our lady of the remedies?). To get to it also involves climbing up steps, this time over 600, passing fountains and statues along the way. The view from the top should have been great except for the drizzly rain and foggy conditions.
The fairly small church at the top is mostly 18th century though there is a small part from the 16th century. The rounded ceiling is painted in blue and white and around the walls are mosaics in blue and white tiles with gold trim that tell the story of Jesus at aged about 12 when he was an apprentice carpenter.
Travelling down the Douro valley towards the city of Porto the rain and foggy conditions continued otherwise it would have been very pretty. All the way the steep mountains sides are terraced, very small ones mostly; in the higher areas there are apples and other stone fruit, some pine forest and always some grapes: As we got further down stream and lower in altitude there are citrus and grapes and eucalypt forest. All along the way we twisted our way back and forth over the mountains descending to villages along the river bank only to climb back high over the next ridge. The river is quite wide, and in one village we saw a small marina with several power boats moored there. Never really get out of a village, no more that 60m or so at the most between the houses along the road unless there is a strip of forest.
The city of Porto near the coast and the mouth of the Douro River is not the prettiest place in Portugal at all. As we drove in we passed rundown areas with boarded up and decaying buildings with much graffiti on the walls, though the streets weren’t dirty with litter. Pulled into the first parking station we came to and took the elevator down and came out into the food court of a big, quite new shopping complex on four levels, this opened onto an upmarket shopping street that had a surprising amount of people about for a Sunday morning, or any morning for that matter.
One of the first things we saw was an old wooden tram car; at least it was well maintained. After finding the tourist office in one of the main squares beside the Camara Municipal (town hall) up the hill at the top of the prac̨a, we set out, map in hand to have a look about this city:
A short walk brought us to the Sé, (the cathedral) and the bishops palace, the former is a very drab looking structure and the latter is of white painted plaster with the decoration around the windows and doors both have a great deal of scaffolding erected around them. From the terrace here we could look down and across much of the old city that is world heritage listed though I really do think that in this case that old city is past the point of preservation. It seems to be in quite a rapid state of decay with rickety old buildings all of which have the terra cotta tile roofs, some very wobbly, that really must leak like sieves in this moist winter climate. Many of the building are in eminent danger of falling down too. Wandering down the narrow alleys towards the river we did find that they were quite clean too, bit of doggy do, nothing like France, but they didn’t stink as I expected they might. Perhaps the recent rain had washed them well.
From the terrace we had looked down on a public laundry; a square building with open sides and full of laundry tubs, not a laundrette. We thought we’d take a closer look, but we didn’t find it as we meandered down the alleyways. Came out on the waterfront of the river Douro (river of gold) and saw several tourist cruise boats moored by the esplanade. A large steel arched bridge was just upstream. It had a vehicular bridge on one level and on a much higher one was a train line and a pedestrian walkway. In clear weather the view would probably be great but today, well, at least it wasn’t raining at this point in time.
We came to an old church that has been deconsecrated and was once used by Napoleon as a stables for his horses. The Igreja de Sao Francisco is nothing special from the outside, quite plain really and dates from the 13th to 15th centuries. It is the inside that is special; it was redecorated in the 17th and 18th centuries in the gilded, ornate, lavish Rococo style carvings. Between 400 and 800kgs of gold was used to gild this place. These carvings just ooze off the walls; the only bit that isn’t covered is where Napoleon had them removed to make room for his horses. Not really supposed to take photos but I think David sneaked a couple of shots.
We did come across a part of the city that had been rebuilt in the early 1900’s in art Nouveau style and it looked quite nice, but that was outside the preserved old city. Then over near the main market there is another large area that has been rebuilt in the last few years with smart new buildings but not skyscrapers. In this central area of the city, the street where we’d parked was the upmarket street with several brand name stores and most were open when we arrived back there in the late afternoon. The whole area was alive with people. Like Spain these people tend to do everything in the late afternoon and at night. Mornings are slow.
It was across the river and a couple of k’s south where we came to the wide streets and some flash shops and shopping centres in amongst an area 8 storey apartment blocks, a sea of them.
I had thought that in Brazil when we had seen many buildings with tiled exteriors that it was done to help preserve them in the hot humid climate but now I know that it’s a Portuguese style of decoration. A great many of the buildings in this country have tiled exteriors, something I didn’t notice when I visited many years ago. Predominately the tiles are blue and white. Often they are in the form of a mural or mosaic called an ‘azulejos’, azule being the word for blue. Some are really quite beautiful and the train station in Porto has a huge interior one that covers three walls. It’s in two parts, a battle scene is one and the other is the development of transportation, though it all needs a thorough cleaning to see it properly.
© Lynette Regan January 6th 2007
Monday, January 7, 2008
Episode 28
Episode 28
We travelled along some of the northwest coast of Spain; the road we followed was a bit disappointing in the fact that we didn’t see much of the shore, just for a few short stretches here and there. Can’t say that it was a particularly nice stretch of coast, it was in the vicinity of Vivero west towards La Coruna. Sometimes we saw a small stretch of sandy shore, usually in a small bay and there were some large towns with marinas crowded with pleasure craft of all sizes. Two nice surfing beaches we saw from a distance but we couldn’t seem to get near for a closer look.
The hills immediately inland from the coast are covered in eucalyptus plantations, tall, straight, thin, and growing very densely packed. The eucalypt forest cover a huge area, in just a few places the big trees had been harvested and then left to revegetate without replanting.
We went into the city of La Coruna to see the harbour that the Spanish Armada set sail from in 1588 on its ill fated voyage to England. What we saw was a marina packed solid with large yachts and a fleet of fishing boats. In a small plaza we came across a bronze statue of John Lennon, just as well there was a notice to tell me that because I would not have recognized him. In another large plaza there is a statue of the local heroine Maria Pita who somehow or other was instrumental in stopping Sir Francis Drakes invasion of the town in 1589 (I think).
In a rather nice building on this plaza, and I have no idea what the building is, the ground floor had a rather unique nativity scene set up. It incorporated all the things you would expect to see in a 3 dimensional format with painted backdrop that was meant to represent Jerusalem on one wall, Bethlehem on another and a seascape on the third. Also it included many local and Spanish identities, like the local heroine dressed as a serving wench in a pub serving two other local characters. Picasso was sitting there painting a picture, and the sheppards were sitting around a camp fire while the sheep were sleeping beside them and an angle was hovering above. The whole thing was really meant for kids but it seemed that it was the adults who were the most interested.
It was Christmas Eve and the narrow pedestrian streets were crowded with Christmas shoppers, it seems that the Spanish are no different to the rest of us and dash about madly on Christmas eve fearful that they have forgotten something.
A very wet Christmas Day saw us in Santiago de Compostella. It is believed that it was here that St James is buries. His body having been transported here after he died in the 1st century AD: It was rediscovered in the 9th century and the first church built here in the 10th century. Because of this it became a place for pilgrims to visit and there are two or three different caminos that all end up here. A caminos is a walking trail meaning the ‘way of the pilgrim’: Santiago means Saint James:
The Cathedral is not all that large and was first begun in the 11th century in the Romanesque style most of which is still apparent but much more has been added in other styles since then. The main altar piece is very decorative and has much gold leaf and features many women both naked and scantily dressed. There is much more gold ornamentation around the outside of this main chapel. The original facade that is now under the cover of a newer larger one is the work of the 12th century master sculpture Maestro Mateo and features Christ risen and the four evangelists as well as angels, musicians and Santiago. It called the Portico de la Gloria:
We walked around some of the plaza and narrow streets in what is supposed to be a pedestrian zone and nearly go run over by cars several times. Only a few other people were out and about and though we saw many cafes and restaurants open elsewhere none were so in this central part of the city. The rain was so heavy that the water was several inches deep as it rushed down the cobbled streets seeming to easily avoid the many drains positioned to take it away.
The little resort town of O Gove is on a small peninsular and to reach it you drive across a causeway. Driving west towards it we passed some beaches that would be your worse nightmare to live near. Slimy mud covered with green algae and an assortment of flotsam that gets washed in on the high tide and stuck there, the smell was putrid. When we reached O Gove we saw more mud flats and many people out in the shallow water of the receding tide equipped with a container and a funny looking two handled shovel. We stood and watched them for a while. The shovel thing is used to scoop in the mud and rather than a solid spade it has a sieve that lets the mud fall through but catches any lumps and those lumps are some sort of shell fish that people were collecting. Further out in the bay in the sheltered water we could see lots of platforms, these are were a variety of shell fish are farmed, muscles, scallops and oysters. The people digging were possibly after those that escape from the farms, there are usually some escapees.
Further round the island we came to the town proper and here we walked out on a jetty where we could see a great many of those platforms. In the summer a couple of tour boats run an excursion out to have a closer look at the shell fish farms, two of those boats were tied up here at the jetty. In the little harbour there were dozens of small wooden boats with a centre seat and a couple of benches, specially set up to go out with the necessary equipment to collect those shell fish I expect. All these little boats were painted up in bright colours and on this bright sunny day they looked really pretty bobbing on the water. Looking down directly into the water it appeared to be very clear and we wondered if the green algae is something to do with the shell fish farming. These shell fish are raised for the export market as well as local consumption so they would be checked for any contaminants I would have thought especially seeing as Spain is part of the European Union.
According to the Lonely Planet book this is a resort town, a bit like Blackpool in England but we saw no sign of amusements here though there certainly was an abundance of hotels. Just why people would want to come and holiday here I have no idea because the beach is horrible but just a few mile away back on the mainland on the Atlantic coast we came to some lovely sandy beaches: A gentle surf was rolling in, there is a life guard tower and showers on the beach neither of which are operating at this time of year, the sun was shining brightly and two people were walking along the sand. Some way further on at another beach with better surf we did see two lads surfboard riding. Inside the next bay south in the calm water there is more of the platforms and the shell fish farms. The weather, once the rain had cleared is certainly warmer than in the mountains, it probably got up to about 16˚C, though the light breeze kept it from getting really warm.
This area of Spain is not where the foreign tourists come in their droves; this is where the Spanish come for their holidays. We have seen only one resort hotel and that wasn’t a really good one, not like you get on the Mediterranean coast, the “Costa Lota” or the “Costa del Crims”. There is however a great many small family run hostels and hotels.
On a bright and sunny morning with frost on the ground we crossed into Portugal with just a sign and an old customs shed by the roadside to mark the spot. What a boom this European Union is to us travellers, no border formalities and no currency exchange, such an improvement on the old ways. I don’t know just how many hours I have stood in queues and waited at border crossings or to get visas at embassies but it must amount to several days so I’m all for the expansion of the EU it makes life just so much simpler. It does the banks out of some profit too from exchange charges. But it does have a down side, the fact that these countries are getting more expensive by the minute as prices catch up with their more northern counterparts.
Driving down the valley of the Rio Lima it was built up most of the way with small towns and the hillsides are terraced and planted mainly with grapes grown on trellises about 170/190mm high that form an overhead canopy. The grapes stems are not allowed to branch until they reach the top, then they can spread all over the trellis and the bunches of fruit hang down and can be easily harvested. Saw them being grown the same way in Taiwan: Along with the grapes there are plenty of citrus trees and these are just loaded with bright orange fruit and the ground is littered with the fallen pieces. A few olive trees around too: Some small patches of forest with pines and eucalypts, they seem to like living in Portugal and Spain.
Like Spain there is a vast amount of road construction going on here. New roads recently opened or still under construction and not on our maps or in the Sat Nav maps. All the new motorways seem to be toll ways, so far we have managed to avoid the toll ways but its not easy as they are not clearly marked. In Spain even the minor roads have been upgraded over very recent years and it might prove to be the case here as well.
Our first major city was Viana do Castelo on the north coast. Here we found quite a pleasant old city centre with narrow cobbled streets and small shops. Along the river we found a wide open parkland with some gardens and there is a small marina. On the hill behind the town stands a Basilica so we took the funicular railway up to it though we could have walked or taken the car. The Basilica is modern and of no particular interest but there is a lift and a climb up some very narrow winding stairs to a viewing platform on top of the dome and the view is worth the climb and the 80cents. All the coast south of the river mouth is wide sandy beaches where the Atlantic rolls in, north of the river mouth the coast is rocks, well as far as we can see anyway, though all the information I have seen says that its a wide sandy beach all the way to the Spanish border. For the 1st Kilometre leading back from the shore there is agriculture with just an odd farm house, not even the town spreads right out to the mouth of the river. There does not appear to be any holiday resorts in this area. Just as we were about to go back down in the funicular a group of teenage boys came up in it bringing their mountain bikes, I always though that mountain bikes were meant to be ridden up mountains, not just down them.
The town is quite clean and tidy, there is not the huge amount of construction going on here as there appears to be in Spain, but in some ways the buildings seem in better repair. In Spain there are huge cranes everywhere and the amount of construction is staggering. Here it does have almost a 3rd world atmosphere, and I’m not real sure why: A big fruit and veggie market with all the stalls run by women just as you would see in Asia or Africa. Many of the older women still carry their goods on their heads, but I haven’t as yet seen any young ones doing so. Hundreds of tiny little shops just specializing in a few items, no big department stores though there has been a new shopping centre recently built that includes a supermarket and a number of speciality shops just as you would find in England or Australia.
Although there is still frost in the mornings and snow probably in the high mountains the days are getting warmer as we head further south. Portugal is on the same time zone as Britain, and one hour behind Spain. In western Spain it was getting a bit ridiculous really with the sun setting soon after 6pm but not rising till after 9am.
Ponte de Lima has a lovely old Roman bridge with many arches. It is about 150m long and 3m wide and as I strolled across I could just imagine the Roman legions tramping across in formation, shields held in one hand and spear in the other, helmets gleaming in the morning sunshine, and the swish of their leather garments. Too much imagination me, that’s my problem. On the far side stands a small square pavilion open on three sides and its pillars each have claws at the bottom, it dates from the 13th century and was built as a shelter for pilgrims. Not in wet windy weather obviously:
In the main praςa (plaza) a group of youngsters, 6 to 20 years olds and wearing Santa hats were going around standing outside each shop and singing a few bars of Jingle Bells, then a few bars of another song, over and over again whilst one of them went into the shop cap in hand, requesting a donation. It got a bit monotonous after 10 mins and they were still at it an hour later. The girl in the library told David that it happens each Saturday; Good Gracious!
It was very heavily overcast and trying to drizzle with rain as we reached the city of Braga, the religious capital of Portugal and the smog and haze had reduced visibility to about 200m. The city was busy with Saturday shoppers and is a maze of winding narrow streets that got us quite confused and to make matters worse we never did see one street name in the whole place. We got a map from the tourist office when we found it and fortunately it had little pictures of the main places that helped us identify each place that we came too, even then it wasn’t easy as many are built in a very similar style so I had to check detail to make sure.
The municipal buildings, the Bishops Palace and others have white painted plaster exteriors, there is much stone or concrete ornamentation around all the windows and doors, and there is a little narrow balcony with steel railings outside all those doors. All are two stories high and the type of ornamentation varies so as I said I had to look at the detail to work out which place I was looking at. The churches are mostly quite small but are usually richly decorated inside. Its no wonder these Catholic countries are the poor cousins of the rest of Europe, the Holey Roman church took all their money and a great lot of it went on the decoration of the interiors. The most important church in the city is The Se, the church of Santa Maria; it stands on the site that was once a Mosque in the days of the Moors. Built after the Christian reconquest the south door is from the earlier building. It incorporates a number of styles and is a bit of a rambling place inside, but has a lot of ornamentation on the exterior roof. Its built is a dirty yellowish stone, but that dirty colour may well be from the smog etc.
Under the shelter of a long arcade we came across another group busking in the street. These people were all adults of mixed ages and they were singing, clacking castanets, and a fellow was playing a clarinet to accompany them but they just seemed to sing the one song over and over again for the enjoyment of quite a large crowd.
One of the main religious attraction of the city is just a few k’s outside, it’s called Bom Jesus, and I have not idea what that means translated. But its a church and it sits atop a high mountain that overlooks the city, if only you could see it for the smog and haze. There is a great long stairway leading up to it with fountains all the way up. Looks very impressive from below: Apparently in summer its a popular place for a weekend picnic so perhaps its just as well we’re here in the winter without the crowds. A funicular runs from the bus stop at the bottom of the mountain, but by car we arrived at the start of the stairway.
It was fairly early in the morning when we walked up the steps pausing on each landing to look at the statues, one was a woman with the water pouring from her eye sockets, perhaps she is meant to represent the weeping Mary: Joggers out on their morning run frequently overtook us. We arrived at the church at the top just as Mass finished so we entered as the congregation left. Its not a particularly large church but it has a striking 3 dimensional altar piece. Centred around Christ on the cross with Mary, a Roman soldier and several others at the feet of Jesus. It is framed by two columns each topped by an angel supporting the ceiling. The scene was brightly backlit by orange light so photos don’t come out well.
Beyond the church is quite a large area of parkland with several small pavilions and grottos. Two hotels are within a few metres and at the top of the hill is a small lake with a few row boats. Pine trees and some eucalypts are the dominant trees in the forest; I did see a few yew trees too. Plenty of birds about and bird song filled the air. As we looked back over the city the sun came out, there were a few patches of fog in the valleys.
At this point I have seen enough churches so I think its time for another trip into the mountains to look at something different for a bit. There is a good National Park here supposedly but the weather isn’t really suitable for rambling about in the woods. The girl in the tourist office says that it never gets this cold usually, so much for global warming!
We headed east along a scenic route towards the town of Chaves. Wending our way around the mountains we could look across the valley and see small villages on remote hill sides. In the valley floor a series of small dams meant that there are lakes with villages around the shores. The hills beyond the villages are quite rugged and are part of a national park. Very bare, rocky and stark in appearance.
In one small village we parked after nearly getting jammed in the narrow lanes. Then following the sign to a waterwheel we set out walking giving a wide berth to the local cows that were wandering the lanes. These cows have large curved, twisted and extremely pointed horns; they could do a lot of damage if they had a mind to, though they did appear to be docile.
Eventually we came to the stream and a set of large stepping stones across it, also there was a really good stone slab bridge. Off this, on a side stream are several stone buildings that once held waterwheels. David had a good look around and decided that there could have been 3 waterwheels here altogether. In one shed we found an old quorn stone once used for grinding flour. Following a track along the stream we came to another stone shed that also looked as if it may have housed a waterwheel, then further on we came the medieval bridge, this is what we’d come into the village to see in the first place. It has 3 arches each a different size, the smallest on one side and the largest on the far side, there are buttresses to break up the strong flow of the water against the stanchion, just as the Romans used to build and it is still in good order and used by farm traffic.
Made our way back up through the village of stone houses and cobbled lanes without meeting the cows this time, and just as we got to the car we were approached by an elderly lady wanting a lift. I sat her in the front seat whilst I sat in the back and we took her about 6k’s up the road to a small village just below a huge dam wall.
We let her out where she asked and she hugged me and kissed me, then we drove onto the dam wall and sat in the sunshine to eat our late lunch. This is a very high and very wide dam wall yet the dam behind it is not as large as one might expect. Below the wall there is a hydro station.
© Lynette Regan 30th December 2007
We travelled along some of the northwest coast of Spain; the road we followed was a bit disappointing in the fact that we didn’t see much of the shore, just for a few short stretches here and there. Can’t say that it was a particularly nice stretch of coast, it was in the vicinity of Vivero west towards La Coruna. Sometimes we saw a small stretch of sandy shore, usually in a small bay and there were some large towns with marinas crowded with pleasure craft of all sizes. Two nice surfing beaches we saw from a distance but we couldn’t seem to get near for a closer look.
The hills immediately inland from the coast are covered in eucalyptus plantations, tall, straight, thin, and growing very densely packed. The eucalypt forest cover a huge area, in just a few places the big trees had been harvested and then left to revegetate without replanting.
We went into the city of La Coruna to see the harbour that the Spanish Armada set sail from in 1588 on its ill fated voyage to England. What we saw was a marina packed solid with large yachts and a fleet of fishing boats. In a small plaza we came across a bronze statue of John Lennon, just as well there was a notice to tell me that because I would not have recognized him. In another large plaza there is a statue of the local heroine Maria Pita who somehow or other was instrumental in stopping Sir Francis Drakes invasion of the town in 1589 (I think).
In a rather nice building on this plaza, and I have no idea what the building is, the ground floor had a rather unique nativity scene set up. It incorporated all the things you would expect to see in a 3 dimensional format with painted backdrop that was meant to represent Jerusalem on one wall, Bethlehem on another and a seascape on the third. Also it included many local and Spanish identities, like the local heroine dressed as a serving wench in a pub serving two other local characters. Picasso was sitting there painting a picture, and the sheppards were sitting around a camp fire while the sheep were sleeping beside them and an angle was hovering above. The whole thing was really meant for kids but it seemed that it was the adults who were the most interested.
It was Christmas Eve and the narrow pedestrian streets were crowded with Christmas shoppers, it seems that the Spanish are no different to the rest of us and dash about madly on Christmas eve fearful that they have forgotten something.
A very wet Christmas Day saw us in Santiago de Compostella. It is believed that it was here that St James is buries. His body having been transported here after he died in the 1st century AD: It was rediscovered in the 9th century and the first church built here in the 10th century. Because of this it became a place for pilgrims to visit and there are two or three different caminos that all end up here. A caminos is a walking trail meaning the ‘way of the pilgrim’: Santiago means Saint James:
The Cathedral is not all that large and was first begun in the 11th century in the Romanesque style most of which is still apparent but much more has been added in other styles since then. The main altar piece is very decorative and has much gold leaf and features many women both naked and scantily dressed. There is much more gold ornamentation around the outside of this main chapel. The original facade that is now under the cover of a newer larger one is the work of the 12th century master sculpture Maestro Mateo and features Christ risen and the four evangelists as well as angels, musicians and Santiago. It called the Portico de la Gloria:
We walked around some of the plaza and narrow streets in what is supposed to be a pedestrian zone and nearly go run over by cars several times. Only a few other people were out and about and though we saw many cafes and restaurants open elsewhere none were so in this central part of the city. The rain was so heavy that the water was several inches deep as it rushed down the cobbled streets seeming to easily avoid the many drains positioned to take it away.
The little resort town of O Gove is on a small peninsular and to reach it you drive across a causeway. Driving west towards it we passed some beaches that would be your worse nightmare to live near. Slimy mud covered with green algae and an assortment of flotsam that gets washed in on the high tide and stuck there, the smell was putrid. When we reached O Gove we saw more mud flats and many people out in the shallow water of the receding tide equipped with a container and a funny looking two handled shovel. We stood and watched them for a while. The shovel thing is used to scoop in the mud and rather than a solid spade it has a sieve that lets the mud fall through but catches any lumps and those lumps are some sort of shell fish that people were collecting. Further out in the bay in the sheltered water we could see lots of platforms, these are were a variety of shell fish are farmed, muscles, scallops and oysters. The people digging were possibly after those that escape from the farms, there are usually some escapees.
Further round the island we came to the town proper and here we walked out on a jetty where we could see a great many of those platforms. In the summer a couple of tour boats run an excursion out to have a closer look at the shell fish farms, two of those boats were tied up here at the jetty. In the little harbour there were dozens of small wooden boats with a centre seat and a couple of benches, specially set up to go out with the necessary equipment to collect those shell fish I expect. All these little boats were painted up in bright colours and on this bright sunny day they looked really pretty bobbing on the water. Looking down directly into the water it appeared to be very clear and we wondered if the green algae is something to do with the shell fish farming. These shell fish are raised for the export market as well as local consumption so they would be checked for any contaminants I would have thought especially seeing as Spain is part of the European Union.
According to the Lonely Planet book this is a resort town, a bit like Blackpool in England but we saw no sign of amusements here though there certainly was an abundance of hotels. Just why people would want to come and holiday here I have no idea because the beach is horrible but just a few mile away back on the mainland on the Atlantic coast we came to some lovely sandy beaches: A gentle surf was rolling in, there is a life guard tower and showers on the beach neither of which are operating at this time of year, the sun was shining brightly and two people were walking along the sand. Some way further on at another beach with better surf we did see two lads surfboard riding. Inside the next bay south in the calm water there is more of the platforms and the shell fish farms. The weather, once the rain had cleared is certainly warmer than in the mountains, it probably got up to about 16˚C, though the light breeze kept it from getting really warm.
This area of Spain is not where the foreign tourists come in their droves; this is where the Spanish come for their holidays. We have seen only one resort hotel and that wasn’t a really good one, not like you get on the Mediterranean coast, the “Costa Lota” or the “Costa del Crims”. There is however a great many small family run hostels and hotels.
On a bright and sunny morning with frost on the ground we crossed into Portugal with just a sign and an old customs shed by the roadside to mark the spot. What a boom this European Union is to us travellers, no border formalities and no currency exchange, such an improvement on the old ways. I don’t know just how many hours I have stood in queues and waited at border crossings or to get visas at embassies but it must amount to several days so I’m all for the expansion of the EU it makes life just so much simpler. It does the banks out of some profit too from exchange charges. But it does have a down side, the fact that these countries are getting more expensive by the minute as prices catch up with their more northern counterparts.
Driving down the valley of the Rio Lima it was built up most of the way with small towns and the hillsides are terraced and planted mainly with grapes grown on trellises about 170/190mm high that form an overhead canopy. The grapes stems are not allowed to branch until they reach the top, then they can spread all over the trellis and the bunches of fruit hang down and can be easily harvested. Saw them being grown the same way in Taiwan: Along with the grapes there are plenty of citrus trees and these are just loaded with bright orange fruit and the ground is littered with the fallen pieces. A few olive trees around too: Some small patches of forest with pines and eucalypts, they seem to like living in Portugal and Spain.
Like Spain there is a vast amount of road construction going on here. New roads recently opened or still under construction and not on our maps or in the Sat Nav maps. All the new motorways seem to be toll ways, so far we have managed to avoid the toll ways but its not easy as they are not clearly marked. In Spain even the minor roads have been upgraded over very recent years and it might prove to be the case here as well.
Our first major city was Viana do Castelo on the north coast. Here we found quite a pleasant old city centre with narrow cobbled streets and small shops. Along the river we found a wide open parkland with some gardens and there is a small marina. On the hill behind the town stands a Basilica so we took the funicular railway up to it though we could have walked or taken the car. The Basilica is modern and of no particular interest but there is a lift and a climb up some very narrow winding stairs to a viewing platform on top of the dome and the view is worth the climb and the 80cents. All the coast south of the river mouth is wide sandy beaches where the Atlantic rolls in, north of the river mouth the coast is rocks, well as far as we can see anyway, though all the information I have seen says that its a wide sandy beach all the way to the Spanish border. For the 1st Kilometre leading back from the shore there is agriculture with just an odd farm house, not even the town spreads right out to the mouth of the river. There does not appear to be any holiday resorts in this area. Just as we were about to go back down in the funicular a group of teenage boys came up in it bringing their mountain bikes, I always though that mountain bikes were meant to be ridden up mountains, not just down them.
The town is quite clean and tidy, there is not the huge amount of construction going on here as there appears to be in Spain, but in some ways the buildings seem in better repair. In Spain there are huge cranes everywhere and the amount of construction is staggering. Here it does have almost a 3rd world atmosphere, and I’m not real sure why: A big fruit and veggie market with all the stalls run by women just as you would see in Asia or Africa. Many of the older women still carry their goods on their heads, but I haven’t as yet seen any young ones doing so. Hundreds of tiny little shops just specializing in a few items, no big department stores though there has been a new shopping centre recently built that includes a supermarket and a number of speciality shops just as you would find in England or Australia.
Although there is still frost in the mornings and snow probably in the high mountains the days are getting warmer as we head further south. Portugal is on the same time zone as Britain, and one hour behind Spain. In western Spain it was getting a bit ridiculous really with the sun setting soon after 6pm but not rising till after 9am.
Ponte de Lima has a lovely old Roman bridge with many arches. It is about 150m long and 3m wide and as I strolled across I could just imagine the Roman legions tramping across in formation, shields held in one hand and spear in the other, helmets gleaming in the morning sunshine, and the swish of their leather garments. Too much imagination me, that’s my problem. On the far side stands a small square pavilion open on three sides and its pillars each have claws at the bottom, it dates from the 13th century and was built as a shelter for pilgrims. Not in wet windy weather obviously:
In the main praςa (plaza) a group of youngsters, 6 to 20 years olds and wearing Santa hats were going around standing outside each shop and singing a few bars of Jingle Bells, then a few bars of another song, over and over again whilst one of them went into the shop cap in hand, requesting a donation. It got a bit monotonous after 10 mins and they were still at it an hour later. The girl in the library told David that it happens each Saturday; Good Gracious!
It was very heavily overcast and trying to drizzle with rain as we reached the city of Braga, the religious capital of Portugal and the smog and haze had reduced visibility to about 200m. The city was busy with Saturday shoppers and is a maze of winding narrow streets that got us quite confused and to make matters worse we never did see one street name in the whole place. We got a map from the tourist office when we found it and fortunately it had little pictures of the main places that helped us identify each place that we came too, even then it wasn’t easy as many are built in a very similar style so I had to check detail to make sure.
The municipal buildings, the Bishops Palace and others have white painted plaster exteriors, there is much stone or concrete ornamentation around all the windows and doors, and there is a little narrow balcony with steel railings outside all those doors. All are two stories high and the type of ornamentation varies so as I said I had to look at the detail to work out which place I was looking at. The churches are mostly quite small but are usually richly decorated inside. Its no wonder these Catholic countries are the poor cousins of the rest of Europe, the Holey Roman church took all their money and a great lot of it went on the decoration of the interiors. The most important church in the city is The Se, the church of Santa Maria; it stands on the site that was once a Mosque in the days of the Moors. Built after the Christian reconquest the south door is from the earlier building. It incorporates a number of styles and is a bit of a rambling place inside, but has a lot of ornamentation on the exterior roof. Its built is a dirty yellowish stone, but that dirty colour may well be from the smog etc.
Under the shelter of a long arcade we came across another group busking in the street. These people were all adults of mixed ages and they were singing, clacking castanets, and a fellow was playing a clarinet to accompany them but they just seemed to sing the one song over and over again for the enjoyment of quite a large crowd.
One of the main religious attraction of the city is just a few k’s outside, it’s called Bom Jesus, and I have not idea what that means translated. But its a church and it sits atop a high mountain that overlooks the city, if only you could see it for the smog and haze. There is a great long stairway leading up to it with fountains all the way up. Looks very impressive from below: Apparently in summer its a popular place for a weekend picnic so perhaps its just as well we’re here in the winter without the crowds. A funicular runs from the bus stop at the bottom of the mountain, but by car we arrived at the start of the stairway.
It was fairly early in the morning when we walked up the steps pausing on each landing to look at the statues, one was a woman with the water pouring from her eye sockets, perhaps she is meant to represent the weeping Mary: Joggers out on their morning run frequently overtook us. We arrived at the church at the top just as Mass finished so we entered as the congregation left. Its not a particularly large church but it has a striking 3 dimensional altar piece. Centred around Christ on the cross with Mary, a Roman soldier and several others at the feet of Jesus. It is framed by two columns each topped by an angel supporting the ceiling. The scene was brightly backlit by orange light so photos don’t come out well.
Beyond the church is quite a large area of parkland with several small pavilions and grottos. Two hotels are within a few metres and at the top of the hill is a small lake with a few row boats. Pine trees and some eucalypts are the dominant trees in the forest; I did see a few yew trees too. Plenty of birds about and bird song filled the air. As we looked back over the city the sun came out, there were a few patches of fog in the valleys.
At this point I have seen enough churches so I think its time for another trip into the mountains to look at something different for a bit. There is a good National Park here supposedly but the weather isn’t really suitable for rambling about in the woods. The girl in the tourist office says that it never gets this cold usually, so much for global warming!
We headed east along a scenic route towards the town of Chaves. Wending our way around the mountains we could look across the valley and see small villages on remote hill sides. In the valley floor a series of small dams meant that there are lakes with villages around the shores. The hills beyond the villages are quite rugged and are part of a national park. Very bare, rocky and stark in appearance.
In one small village we parked after nearly getting jammed in the narrow lanes. Then following the sign to a waterwheel we set out walking giving a wide berth to the local cows that were wandering the lanes. These cows have large curved, twisted and extremely pointed horns; they could do a lot of damage if they had a mind to, though they did appear to be docile.
Eventually we came to the stream and a set of large stepping stones across it, also there was a really good stone slab bridge. Off this, on a side stream are several stone buildings that once held waterwheels. David had a good look around and decided that there could have been 3 waterwheels here altogether. In one shed we found an old quorn stone once used for grinding flour. Following a track along the stream we came to another stone shed that also looked as if it may have housed a waterwheel, then further on we came the medieval bridge, this is what we’d come into the village to see in the first place. It has 3 arches each a different size, the smallest on one side and the largest on the far side, there are buttresses to break up the strong flow of the water against the stanchion, just as the Romans used to build and it is still in good order and used by farm traffic.
Made our way back up through the village of stone houses and cobbled lanes without meeting the cows this time, and just as we got to the car we were approached by an elderly lady wanting a lift. I sat her in the front seat whilst I sat in the back and we took her about 6k’s up the road to a small village just below a huge dam wall.
We let her out where she asked and she hugged me and kissed me, then we drove onto the dam wall and sat in the sunshine to eat our late lunch. This is a very high and very wide dam wall yet the dam behind it is not as large as one might expect. Below the wall there is a hydro station.
© Lynette Regan 30th December 2007
Episode 27
Episode 27
Still wending our way around the mountains of this dry region looking at various dinosaur foot prints and a petrified tree trunk, a conifer tree it was too, we kept seeing more wind turbines. A small patch of snow was on one ridge top beside some of those turbines. In one place we also saw some large sets of solar panels:
Suddenly we came into an area where some of those small terraces are being cultivated; some were just ploughed and left in fellow whilst a few others had some trees growing on them. The trees were asleep and it wasn’t until we saw some close to the road that we could work out that they are almonds. Just a few late nuts still hung on, or had dropped to the ground. It looks as if these trees can tolerate a very dry climate. Down in the villages where there was a little water we saw small allotments with vegetables growing, huge cabbages, and some sad looking silver beet. One valley was full of olive groves interspersed with a couple of almond groves, it looked really pretty from our vantage point beside the petrified tree.
Out in the mountains the stillness was often broken by the tinkling of cow bells, but it wasn’t only cows that were wearing them, some horses too had them tied about the neck. An occasional gun shot would ring out too, there were a lot of men out hunting but we don’t know if they were hunting deer or wild pigs, both inhabit the area. We did see a couple of pigs by the road side but there didn’t appear to be anything wild about them. The only donkey we saw was being used as a pack animal. In the area around Arnedo we came back into the wine growing area and saw a couple of Bodegas but neither was open, mostly they only deal with the trades people; they aren’t interested in the passing tourist trade. Not that there is many tourists at present, we are a bit thin on the ground.
On Sunday very little is open. We did see just one small service station, and the restaurants and bars were open but no shops at all. In France we had found that the only places to get petrol on a Sunday were those that had credit card facilities at the pumps; you couldn’t buy fuel using cash anywhere except perhaps on the toll ways, and those we didn’t use.
The nights are freezing and every morning there is heavy frost on the ground, in many places it doesn’t melt at all during the day. In just a couple of high places around the 1400 metres we have seen just a little snow. Even in the sun the temperature only rises just a few degrees above freezing.
As we drove up along one small river valley we passed 3 hydro electric stations, the one most upstream had a dam above it and the water level was very low, about 30metres down and this had left a ‘drowned’ village exposed again. From reading the sign, (it was in English too) I understand that it is not uncommon to be able to see this village. Its only a ruin now, it has been underwater for nearly 50 years. The dam was first started in 1935 but not completed until 1959, its slow construction due largely to the intervention of the Spanish Civil War and WW2. In this general area too, we saw one small frozen waterfall, and the river further upstream was frozen on the sides.
One evening there was just a little light snow down at our level but in the morning we could see that there had been quite a dusting on the higher tops. The frost was thick despite the dense low cloud.
Then we left the mountains behind and came out onto some flat plains, a wide river valley. A light wind melted the frost but the temperature in the large town of Aranda de Duero was a mere 2˚C and that was being generous. We saw a lot of vineyards and many fields that lay in fellow, probably wheat or barely I should think as there was big stacks of straw bales here and there. The heater in the car was on overtime as we passed along here. Oh! And we saw another very large wind farm out on these plains, pity they couldn’t generate electricity from the cold too, today it would do well:
In the small city of Palencia we stopped to see the cathedral. On the outside it is nothing special, rather austere in fact, as are most of the churches in Spain that we have seen so far. One portal is quite nice but several of the statues are missing. Inside the place is much bigger than you expect. It is rather unusual in that it has two transepts and two main chapels. One bishop was having a small cathedral constructed but then another bishop took over and didn’t really like the 1st ones ideas so he had more added. The alter pieces are both outstanding, one has carvings that depict the life of Christ and reach right to the beautiful vaulted ceiling, whilst the other has more paintings than carvings but is just as impressive in size and workmanship. One of the side chapels directly behind the main chapel has a magnificent silver alter that I think is beautiful. Another thing I really like is the intricate and delicate bas relief at the entrance to the crypt.
The fellow at the entrance had taken time to tell us about the cathedral when we entered seeing as we didn’t read the Spanish in the leaflet we were given. The crypt has one section right at the end that dates from the 7th century, while the rest of it dates from the 11th century. The rest of the cathedral dates from the 13th century onward, but there has been some sort of church here from the time Christianity came to Spain in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Some restoration work is underway on the interior.
Next we visited the old city of Leon. There has been a settlement on the river bank here since the 1st century AD when the Roman army had a camp here. It was on the ancient route to the Roman gold mines about 150k’s to the west. An Asturian King made his capital here in the 10th century, and some time later it was sacked. In the 13th century it was a capital again until the union with Castile in 1230.
Of course there is another Cathedral here to see. I suppose the most impressive thing about this one is the kaleidoscope of colour all those stained glass windows present. The glass is from the 13th to the 16th century and there is a massive amount of it. Some of the panel we noticed were the same design but in different colours. Three huge rose windows, one over the main portal, and one at each end of the transept, all extremely impressive. The carving at the entrance to the choir stalls was intricate and there is a lovely silver urn under the altar that contains the remains of Santa Froilan, the patron saint of Leon. We visited the Basilica San Isidoro a big dark and gloomy place on the inside with a very impressive altar piece of many religious paintings. There are many tiny narrow streets lined with shops selling just about everything, bars and restaurants that we walked around and we came to a lovely fruit and veggie market in one plaza.
One thing I must say about these towns in Spain that we have seen so far, they are quite clean. The streets are free of rubbish and doggy do, and even in the countryside there seems to be very little litter. The villages are untidy in the fact that buildings are often tumbling down or have never been completed, rubble and junk is left hither and non but no matter how tatty and in need of maintenance places are they seem to have been swept clean. The toilets I have used here are generally easier to find than in France and usually cleaner too, though in neither country have I found that hot water is available and sometimes the cold water is liquid ice.
Heading north out of the city towards a National Park we soon came into some mountains that had a dusting of snow. We climber up over a pass at 1536m on a road that was very slushy and slippery with icy grit and virtually no other traffic: With heavy overcast skies we kept on for fear that it might snow heavily at any time or clear and freeze over. At no point was the snow deep but it did look as if it was quite recent, and we did pass the snow plough going the other way, but not working. The mountains were very pretty in a bleak gray sort of way. Rock climbers would love them for their vertical rock faces and many rocky outcrops and pinnacles; we didn’t see any ski runs or resorts:
As we drove down the valley of the River Sil we passed a couple of coal mining towns. There were some coal stacks, not large ones by Aussie standards, and the smell of coal gas was strong in the air; also a haze partly caused by coal dust I should think. Following the river Sil we came to the city of Ponferrada with its ancient Castle perched on a hill overlooking the river and the modern city.
This castle dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and was built by the Knights Templar. Its open to the public and so we paid the small entrance fee and looked about some. Only a small section dates from that early period; the tower of the Catholic Monarchs and some of the ramparts. The foundations of many other structures can be seen in the middle and there has been a lot of construction done recently, but not yet open. This construction is very modern in style and materials so its not a reconstruction of the old castle but as I couldn’t read the Spanish language signs I don’t know the purpose of it.
A rather nice clock tower sits atop an arched gateway that was probably one of the city gates in some long ago time. This old town has some nice traditional streets that are pleasant to look around and seem largely deserted while the modern city is a bustle of activity just across the river.
On our way to the Roman gold mining area of Las Medulas we passed an interesting carved tree trunk. We later found out that it has only recently been placed on display. It has a Knight Templar in it, a crescent moon with a face in profile (a man in the moon), and a Star of David.
Las Medulas is the site of the old Roman gold mine. It was worked from around 70AD to late 3rd century AD about 200 years. The exact amount of gold taken from here is unknown and estimates vary greatly from 1500kgs upward. Likewise with the number of people employed in the mining, it varies from a few thousand to tens of thousands. Some believe that slaves were used other say that there were no slaves here, and so it goes on. Apparently all agree on the technique used for the mining and this is the first time I have ever heard of this method. Let me explain as best I can:
Water from the high mountains was harnessed in dams and reservoirs: Channels and aquaducts were built to carry it downhill and increase its force. Small tunnels were dug into the mountain to be mined, then the water released and sent down the channels and into those small tunnels; the effect of the water and the compressed air in front of it caused an explosion and whole sections of the mountains were blown out. This was then sent on down over sluices that used branches of heather bushes as filters and the gold was trapped in these filters and the mud and debris washed on. At this stage the biggest of the rocks were removed and thrown off to one side so that now you have small hills of these rocks. I had better explain that the gold here is in the form of dust and small nuggets and it’s trapped in the soft red conglomerate of which the mountain consisted, probably once a river bed or something. This method of mining is known as ‘Ruina Montium’, and it was coined by a traveller who saw these workings.
This mining has left a unique landscape: There are lots of pinnacles of red conglomerate that resemble some of those weird pinnacles you can see in the national parks in Utah in the US. What we had was a mountain what we have is red pinnacles: The mud and debris also altered things. It blocked up the stream that flowed through the hills and formed several small lakes that have developed their own eco systems over the past nearly 2000 years. As we wandered though this hollowed out mountain we saw a couple of caves that have been formed by the explosions I’ve mentioned. Around the walls there can still be seen some of those tunnels that were used and in one place one of these tunnels is open to the sky so that when heavy rain falls it continues to erode the rock in a similar fashion but to a much lesser extent, than when the Romans forced the water through.
Another thing special to this area is the ancient chestnut trees; they are between 400 and 600 years old and still bearing. The old gnarled stumps are large and you can see where thick limbs have been sawn off but the new wood on them now is probably only a few seasons old, and although the crop has been harvested there are still a few nuts lying on the ground under the trees.
The little lakes, they are little more than puddles, are home to several species of Salamander, some frogs, toads and eels. There also seems to be plenty of birds about and David saw a robin. In all our wanderings around here we only saw 2 other tourists all day.
We found one of the roman hill top forts, but all there is to see is a small section of reconstructed stone wall and the foundations of some other stone buildings that I doubt are 2000 years old. These forts were also used as towns where the people lived who grew the food, made the tools for the mining operation, and all the other things that were necessary to keep the place functioning even in Roman times. This area was on the western fringe of the Roman Empire.
After the gold mining area we headed west towards the city of Orense, but not actually wanting to go there but trying to find the gorge on the Sil River. By accident we got onto the wrong road and didn’t realize it until we were almost on the Portuguese border. We ended up by doing nearly a full circle that took us over several mountain passes, the highest was only 1052m and it quite a pretty route. The country changed quite a lot, in the south west we came into an agricultural belt with many young crops that I think are oats. A large number of poultry farms in that area too. Then as we came up the western slope of another pass the trees are still wearing their autumn colours so it was quite pretty.
Eventually we found the gorge. It seems to start quite suddenly as most do, just on the outskirts of a village. We came up the hill then it was there right beside us, dropping away from the road side. Sadly the view is somewhat blured by the thick smog that is hanging around and you can only get an idea of what it’s really like. The walls are very nearly vertical, and are of a gray rock, the Sil River at the bottom is fairly wide, I don’t know if its a dam or just the river but either way it’s well below its usual level, you can see this by the mark of the rock face. Even here it’s somewhat warmer than in the higher mountains and the prickly gorse is still heavily in bright yellow flower. We didn’t get to see any more of that gorge as next morning it was filled with fog and even though we hung around for quite some time it didn’t lift or disperse, in fact it stayed with us the rest of the day, just clearing in a few places.
In Lugo we walked around the old Roman Wall. This is now a world Heritage Site and the best preserved Roman Wall in existence: The city was founded in 15BC and named Lucus Augusti, the Wall was built in the 3rd Century AD. It is 2.2k’s long and had 85 semi circular towers spread around its length. Only the rounded bases in the wall is all that is left of these towers, though they stood up to 3 times the height of the wall. Of the gates only one is original, or rather how it used to be. The others have been widened and some new ones made from the late 19th century in to the early 20th century. There was a moat all the way around 5m deep and up to 12m wide, it has been filled in and built on so that no trace is left of it what-so-ever. The afternoon joggers were making the most of the wide sandy walkway on top of the wall pounding their way around it.
Some of the buildings in the city are from medieval times and the Cathedral dates from the early part of the 12th century though it took many centuries to complete and is a bit of a mixture in styles. Apart from the main chapel and its distinctive altar piece it is a very dark and gloomy place. It has a rounded ceiling rather than the more common vaulted type.
The narrow alleys, and the medieval buildings described in the brochure sounded much better than they actually appeared. One ally looked especially grimy and stank of stale urine, and the trees without their summer foliage don’t cover up near so many faults.
It was the afternoon of the Sunday before Christmas that we visited and a few of the shops were open and most of the bars and restaurants though I fear that they were doing very little business. Not one single soul was sitting at the outdoors settings, though I do think I saw a couple of people in one of the bars. Just a few other hardly souls wandering about; probably by 5pm though the locals would again be out and about in droves: The Spanish love to do everything late in the day, in the mornings some people are about but not early, after 2pm they all disappear till around 5pm ready to go all evening. We have found however, that some shopping centres, ones that stay open, have been quite busy through that otherwise quiet time of the day.
Just a word about shopping at this point: Legs of ham must be incredibly popular; in all the supermarkets and butcher shops there are hundreds of them hanging up. They have all been cured, but by a variety of methods as they came in a range of colours. Some are as you would see at home, others are much darker to almost black, or a greyish colour, a few look almost green. All the salamis and that type of thing came in a similar range of colours. Then there is the thing that really puts me off, the dead birds still feathered and all lined up in the chilled display case next to the rabbits still furred. Not quite my thing I fear. The range of cheeses is brilliant though David isn’t impressed as he can’t find a mature cheddar. In France we had bought an 800g Brie for around $6 AU, God it was good! Fruit and veg seemed to be cheaper and of a better quality in France, but its still quite good here. The range of booze is mind boggling and very reasonably priced, I saw a hazelnut liquor today, might get one of those for Christmas. The diesel that we buy for the car is cheaper here than in France or England but it does seem to have gone up 2c per litre today.
© Lynette Regan 23rd December 2007
Still wending our way around the mountains of this dry region looking at various dinosaur foot prints and a petrified tree trunk, a conifer tree it was too, we kept seeing more wind turbines. A small patch of snow was on one ridge top beside some of those turbines. In one place we also saw some large sets of solar panels:
Suddenly we came into an area where some of those small terraces are being cultivated; some were just ploughed and left in fellow whilst a few others had some trees growing on them. The trees were asleep and it wasn’t until we saw some close to the road that we could work out that they are almonds. Just a few late nuts still hung on, or had dropped to the ground. It looks as if these trees can tolerate a very dry climate. Down in the villages where there was a little water we saw small allotments with vegetables growing, huge cabbages, and some sad looking silver beet. One valley was full of olive groves interspersed with a couple of almond groves, it looked really pretty from our vantage point beside the petrified tree.
Out in the mountains the stillness was often broken by the tinkling of cow bells, but it wasn’t only cows that were wearing them, some horses too had them tied about the neck. An occasional gun shot would ring out too, there were a lot of men out hunting but we don’t know if they were hunting deer or wild pigs, both inhabit the area. We did see a couple of pigs by the road side but there didn’t appear to be anything wild about them. The only donkey we saw was being used as a pack animal. In the area around Arnedo we came back into the wine growing area and saw a couple of Bodegas but neither was open, mostly they only deal with the trades people; they aren’t interested in the passing tourist trade. Not that there is many tourists at present, we are a bit thin on the ground.
On Sunday very little is open. We did see just one small service station, and the restaurants and bars were open but no shops at all. In France we had found that the only places to get petrol on a Sunday were those that had credit card facilities at the pumps; you couldn’t buy fuel using cash anywhere except perhaps on the toll ways, and those we didn’t use.
The nights are freezing and every morning there is heavy frost on the ground, in many places it doesn’t melt at all during the day. In just a couple of high places around the 1400 metres we have seen just a little snow. Even in the sun the temperature only rises just a few degrees above freezing.
As we drove up along one small river valley we passed 3 hydro electric stations, the one most upstream had a dam above it and the water level was very low, about 30metres down and this had left a ‘drowned’ village exposed again. From reading the sign, (it was in English too) I understand that it is not uncommon to be able to see this village. Its only a ruin now, it has been underwater for nearly 50 years. The dam was first started in 1935 but not completed until 1959, its slow construction due largely to the intervention of the Spanish Civil War and WW2. In this general area too, we saw one small frozen waterfall, and the river further upstream was frozen on the sides.
One evening there was just a little light snow down at our level but in the morning we could see that there had been quite a dusting on the higher tops. The frost was thick despite the dense low cloud.
Then we left the mountains behind and came out onto some flat plains, a wide river valley. A light wind melted the frost but the temperature in the large town of Aranda de Duero was a mere 2˚C and that was being generous. We saw a lot of vineyards and many fields that lay in fellow, probably wheat or barely I should think as there was big stacks of straw bales here and there. The heater in the car was on overtime as we passed along here. Oh! And we saw another very large wind farm out on these plains, pity they couldn’t generate electricity from the cold too, today it would do well:
In the small city of Palencia we stopped to see the cathedral. On the outside it is nothing special, rather austere in fact, as are most of the churches in Spain that we have seen so far. One portal is quite nice but several of the statues are missing. Inside the place is much bigger than you expect. It is rather unusual in that it has two transepts and two main chapels. One bishop was having a small cathedral constructed but then another bishop took over and didn’t really like the 1st ones ideas so he had more added. The alter pieces are both outstanding, one has carvings that depict the life of Christ and reach right to the beautiful vaulted ceiling, whilst the other has more paintings than carvings but is just as impressive in size and workmanship. One of the side chapels directly behind the main chapel has a magnificent silver alter that I think is beautiful. Another thing I really like is the intricate and delicate bas relief at the entrance to the crypt.
The fellow at the entrance had taken time to tell us about the cathedral when we entered seeing as we didn’t read the Spanish in the leaflet we were given. The crypt has one section right at the end that dates from the 7th century, while the rest of it dates from the 11th century. The rest of the cathedral dates from the 13th century onward, but there has been some sort of church here from the time Christianity came to Spain in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Some restoration work is underway on the interior.
Next we visited the old city of Leon. There has been a settlement on the river bank here since the 1st century AD when the Roman army had a camp here. It was on the ancient route to the Roman gold mines about 150k’s to the west. An Asturian King made his capital here in the 10th century, and some time later it was sacked. In the 13th century it was a capital again until the union with Castile in 1230.
Of course there is another Cathedral here to see. I suppose the most impressive thing about this one is the kaleidoscope of colour all those stained glass windows present. The glass is from the 13th to the 16th century and there is a massive amount of it. Some of the panel we noticed were the same design but in different colours. Three huge rose windows, one over the main portal, and one at each end of the transept, all extremely impressive. The carving at the entrance to the choir stalls was intricate and there is a lovely silver urn under the altar that contains the remains of Santa Froilan, the patron saint of Leon. We visited the Basilica San Isidoro a big dark and gloomy place on the inside with a very impressive altar piece of many religious paintings. There are many tiny narrow streets lined with shops selling just about everything, bars and restaurants that we walked around and we came to a lovely fruit and veggie market in one plaza.
One thing I must say about these towns in Spain that we have seen so far, they are quite clean. The streets are free of rubbish and doggy do, and even in the countryside there seems to be very little litter. The villages are untidy in the fact that buildings are often tumbling down or have never been completed, rubble and junk is left hither and non but no matter how tatty and in need of maintenance places are they seem to have been swept clean. The toilets I have used here are generally easier to find than in France and usually cleaner too, though in neither country have I found that hot water is available and sometimes the cold water is liquid ice.
Heading north out of the city towards a National Park we soon came into some mountains that had a dusting of snow. We climber up over a pass at 1536m on a road that was very slushy and slippery with icy grit and virtually no other traffic: With heavy overcast skies we kept on for fear that it might snow heavily at any time or clear and freeze over. At no point was the snow deep but it did look as if it was quite recent, and we did pass the snow plough going the other way, but not working. The mountains were very pretty in a bleak gray sort of way. Rock climbers would love them for their vertical rock faces and many rocky outcrops and pinnacles; we didn’t see any ski runs or resorts:
As we drove down the valley of the River Sil we passed a couple of coal mining towns. There were some coal stacks, not large ones by Aussie standards, and the smell of coal gas was strong in the air; also a haze partly caused by coal dust I should think. Following the river Sil we came to the city of Ponferrada with its ancient Castle perched on a hill overlooking the river and the modern city.
This castle dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and was built by the Knights Templar. Its open to the public and so we paid the small entrance fee and looked about some. Only a small section dates from that early period; the tower of the Catholic Monarchs and some of the ramparts. The foundations of many other structures can be seen in the middle and there has been a lot of construction done recently, but not yet open. This construction is very modern in style and materials so its not a reconstruction of the old castle but as I couldn’t read the Spanish language signs I don’t know the purpose of it.
A rather nice clock tower sits atop an arched gateway that was probably one of the city gates in some long ago time. This old town has some nice traditional streets that are pleasant to look around and seem largely deserted while the modern city is a bustle of activity just across the river.
On our way to the Roman gold mining area of Las Medulas we passed an interesting carved tree trunk. We later found out that it has only recently been placed on display. It has a Knight Templar in it, a crescent moon with a face in profile (a man in the moon), and a Star of David.
Las Medulas is the site of the old Roman gold mine. It was worked from around 70AD to late 3rd century AD about 200 years. The exact amount of gold taken from here is unknown and estimates vary greatly from 1500kgs upward. Likewise with the number of people employed in the mining, it varies from a few thousand to tens of thousands. Some believe that slaves were used other say that there were no slaves here, and so it goes on. Apparently all agree on the technique used for the mining and this is the first time I have ever heard of this method. Let me explain as best I can:
Water from the high mountains was harnessed in dams and reservoirs: Channels and aquaducts were built to carry it downhill and increase its force. Small tunnels were dug into the mountain to be mined, then the water released and sent down the channels and into those small tunnels; the effect of the water and the compressed air in front of it caused an explosion and whole sections of the mountains were blown out. This was then sent on down over sluices that used branches of heather bushes as filters and the gold was trapped in these filters and the mud and debris washed on. At this stage the biggest of the rocks were removed and thrown off to one side so that now you have small hills of these rocks. I had better explain that the gold here is in the form of dust and small nuggets and it’s trapped in the soft red conglomerate of which the mountain consisted, probably once a river bed or something. This method of mining is known as ‘Ruina Montium’, and it was coined by a traveller who saw these workings.
This mining has left a unique landscape: There are lots of pinnacles of red conglomerate that resemble some of those weird pinnacles you can see in the national parks in Utah in the US. What we had was a mountain what we have is red pinnacles: The mud and debris also altered things. It blocked up the stream that flowed through the hills and formed several small lakes that have developed their own eco systems over the past nearly 2000 years. As we wandered though this hollowed out mountain we saw a couple of caves that have been formed by the explosions I’ve mentioned. Around the walls there can still be seen some of those tunnels that were used and in one place one of these tunnels is open to the sky so that when heavy rain falls it continues to erode the rock in a similar fashion but to a much lesser extent, than when the Romans forced the water through.
Another thing special to this area is the ancient chestnut trees; they are between 400 and 600 years old and still bearing. The old gnarled stumps are large and you can see where thick limbs have been sawn off but the new wood on them now is probably only a few seasons old, and although the crop has been harvested there are still a few nuts lying on the ground under the trees.
The little lakes, they are little more than puddles, are home to several species of Salamander, some frogs, toads and eels. There also seems to be plenty of birds about and David saw a robin. In all our wanderings around here we only saw 2 other tourists all day.
We found one of the roman hill top forts, but all there is to see is a small section of reconstructed stone wall and the foundations of some other stone buildings that I doubt are 2000 years old. These forts were also used as towns where the people lived who grew the food, made the tools for the mining operation, and all the other things that were necessary to keep the place functioning even in Roman times. This area was on the western fringe of the Roman Empire.
After the gold mining area we headed west towards the city of Orense, but not actually wanting to go there but trying to find the gorge on the Sil River. By accident we got onto the wrong road and didn’t realize it until we were almost on the Portuguese border. We ended up by doing nearly a full circle that took us over several mountain passes, the highest was only 1052m and it quite a pretty route. The country changed quite a lot, in the south west we came into an agricultural belt with many young crops that I think are oats. A large number of poultry farms in that area too. Then as we came up the western slope of another pass the trees are still wearing their autumn colours so it was quite pretty.
Eventually we found the gorge. It seems to start quite suddenly as most do, just on the outskirts of a village. We came up the hill then it was there right beside us, dropping away from the road side. Sadly the view is somewhat blured by the thick smog that is hanging around and you can only get an idea of what it’s really like. The walls are very nearly vertical, and are of a gray rock, the Sil River at the bottom is fairly wide, I don’t know if its a dam or just the river but either way it’s well below its usual level, you can see this by the mark of the rock face. Even here it’s somewhat warmer than in the higher mountains and the prickly gorse is still heavily in bright yellow flower. We didn’t get to see any more of that gorge as next morning it was filled with fog and even though we hung around for quite some time it didn’t lift or disperse, in fact it stayed with us the rest of the day, just clearing in a few places.
In Lugo we walked around the old Roman Wall. This is now a world Heritage Site and the best preserved Roman Wall in existence: The city was founded in 15BC and named Lucus Augusti, the Wall was built in the 3rd Century AD. It is 2.2k’s long and had 85 semi circular towers spread around its length. Only the rounded bases in the wall is all that is left of these towers, though they stood up to 3 times the height of the wall. Of the gates only one is original, or rather how it used to be. The others have been widened and some new ones made from the late 19th century in to the early 20th century. There was a moat all the way around 5m deep and up to 12m wide, it has been filled in and built on so that no trace is left of it what-so-ever. The afternoon joggers were making the most of the wide sandy walkway on top of the wall pounding their way around it.
Some of the buildings in the city are from medieval times and the Cathedral dates from the early part of the 12th century though it took many centuries to complete and is a bit of a mixture in styles. Apart from the main chapel and its distinctive altar piece it is a very dark and gloomy place. It has a rounded ceiling rather than the more common vaulted type.
The narrow alleys, and the medieval buildings described in the brochure sounded much better than they actually appeared. One ally looked especially grimy and stank of stale urine, and the trees without their summer foliage don’t cover up near so many faults.
It was the afternoon of the Sunday before Christmas that we visited and a few of the shops were open and most of the bars and restaurants though I fear that they were doing very little business. Not one single soul was sitting at the outdoors settings, though I do think I saw a couple of people in one of the bars. Just a few other hardly souls wandering about; probably by 5pm though the locals would again be out and about in droves: The Spanish love to do everything late in the day, in the mornings some people are about but not early, after 2pm they all disappear till around 5pm ready to go all evening. We have found however, that some shopping centres, ones that stay open, have been quite busy through that otherwise quiet time of the day.
Just a word about shopping at this point: Legs of ham must be incredibly popular; in all the supermarkets and butcher shops there are hundreds of them hanging up. They have all been cured, but by a variety of methods as they came in a range of colours. Some are as you would see at home, others are much darker to almost black, or a greyish colour, a few look almost green. All the salamis and that type of thing came in a similar range of colours. Then there is the thing that really puts me off, the dead birds still feathered and all lined up in the chilled display case next to the rabbits still furred. Not quite my thing I fear. The range of cheeses is brilliant though David isn’t impressed as he can’t find a mature cheddar. In France we had bought an 800g Brie for around $6 AU, God it was good! Fruit and veg seemed to be cheaper and of a better quality in France, but its still quite good here. The range of booze is mind boggling and very reasonably priced, I saw a hazelnut liquor today, might get one of those for Christmas. The diesel that we buy for the car is cheaper here than in France or England but it does seem to have gone up 2c per litre today.
© Lynette Regan 23rd December 2007
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Episode 26
Episode 26
Still heading south we discovered after studying the map that we are basically heading in the general direction of Lourdes so we might as well call in there. On the way we passed through a small area of vineyards and apple orchards. All the apple trees are going on trellises. This was in the general area of Auch. Each time we came into a town it started to rain heavy then it would clear and the sun come out when we were out in the country again.
It was a sunny but chilly day that we spent in Lourdes: This city sits in the foot hills of the Pyrenees Mountains, and above the town the high peaks had snow on them. The town centre is much more attractive than all the other cities we have passed through in France. I suppose the fact that the place has around 6 million visitors annually might have some bearing on the way it presents itself. Perhaps the city fathers encourage the use of paint, they also need to encourage the use of the ‘doggy do’ bag as a walk around the streets involves a ‘doggy quick step’ to avoid that ‘doggy do’.
Of course the main reason so many visitors come here is because of its religious significance especially for Catholics. In 1858 a young girl by the name of Bernadette claimed that she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in a small cave. Above that cave a Basilica has been built though the cave sits below the wall and is open for all who wish to visit it. As caves go its not very large or impressive; quite a shallow open cavern really. There was a spring running through it but the water from it has been diverted and feeds many taps where you can have a drink or a wash in the ‘holy water’, if you so desire. We each had a couple of mouthfuls but didn’t experience any miracle cure.
The Rosary Basilica stands at the end of a large open plaza and atop the cave. As you come from the town you approach across the plaza and as you do so some very impressive mosaic tile murals confront you. They look very new and are of religious scenes mainly with Jesus as the central figure. The Basilica has a central dome and on top of that is a huge gold crown, behind that is the entrance to the crypt that you reach by going up some steps onto the roof of the Basilica, then on top of that crypt is another Basilica, The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. To one side of the crypt and almost directly above the cave is a small Chapel where mass is held frequently and in several different languages.
Inside the Rosary Basilica we found that all the walls and the dome, the roof and the inside of the archways are covered in murals made of tiny mosaic tiles. From the transept around the Nave to the other side of the transept a series of panels depicted the life of Jesus including the crucifixion and his ascension into heaven. This dome is the one that is topped with a gold crown on the outside.
The crypt has a number of tombs in it and the other basilica is quite plane compared to the first. It is smaller but has twin towers in front and a central spire and high stained glass windows. There are many more shrines around this area.
With just the few people that were about on this lovely day, probably less than 100, we tried to imagine what it must be like in summer when the place is bursting at the seams. Glad we came in winter and not yesterday when it was teaming with rain.
A castle sits on top of a pinnacle of rock with sheer sides all around almost in the centre of the city. We were going to visit it but like most things in France it closes at midday and doesn’t reopen until well into the afternoon, so we didn’t go up into it. We did get a really good view of it briefly as we were driving out of the city but there was nowhere to pull off the narrow busy street to take a photo. We had walked around many of these streets, tiny narrow lanes, and up and down narrow sets of steps, during the morning but hadn’t come across a view anywhere near as good as this one.
As we headed west along the north flank of the Pyrenees we got some good views of the snowy tops of these mountains and some stunning views down some valleys. We could cross in Spain at any one of a dozen places but we are aiming to do so near San Sebastian on the coast.
After a very frosty morning we drove into Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay. There was a good surf running but I didn’t see anyone in surfing. We didn’t actually go into the city, it was a little to the south that we pulled into the beach. It was a pleasant sandy beach but with the rocky outcrops that would be hazardous if you were surfing. Plenty of people walking their dogs along the beach front but the car park was deserted. It was still very chilly outside despite the bright sunshine, about 6˚ to 8˚C, so not exactly sunbathing weather.
We headed on across the Spanish border, I didn’t even see a sign, to San Sabastian. We had planned to spend a bit of time here to have a look around but in the end we didn’t do so. We drove into the city getting onto the wrong road a few times. There is a great deal of road construction going on and also the maps in the SatNav are not all that accurate and roads run very close together or over the top of each other so it got quite difficult but we eventually navigated our way into the city centre and it looked vaguely familiar, I had been here in 1970.
We drove around the city centre that was packed with people and parked cars. The streets are very narrow and the cars are parked on the side often leaving room for only one vehicle to pass in a two way street. Couldn’t find any parking stations and David got quite stressed so we headed out without seeing anything. Another one of the problems was that with the narrow streets and the tall buildings, about 6 to 10 stories, the SatNav kept loosing contact with the satellite and going dumb on us. It was all just too much for David, so we got onto a highway and headed for Pamplona.
Driving into the city we passed through the old city wall with an enormous arch it in that straddles the 6 lanes of the highway. The old city is where they have the ‘running of the bulls’ each year as part of an annual festival. Its origins date back to Roman times:
It’s a pleasant enough place the old city; quite compact with many tiny plazas a few larger ones. Narrow streets and lanes many of which are shared zones with vehicular traffic that doesn’t always know what ‘shared’ means. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the place was, and not just in the old city, but in the new part as well, and we didn’t encounter one piece of ‘doggy do’; that was nice: Some of those lanes that the bulls run through are very narrow too, and they cross the small plaza in front of the lovely City Hall.
We walked around and looked into a few churches, Mass was underway in a couple so we beat a hasty retreat. An interesting old building was ‘the court of auditors’; some of it dates from the early 16th century. It was used continuously as part of the local government finance division until the early 1800’s then again since 1980. The old cobbled stone floor is done is small stones in geometric patterns and has been kept in good order. An old free standing wooden safe was on display too.
There are a few pieces of the old city wall that have been maintained. One part includes the ‘French Gate’ because it is the gate by which people entered the city if coming from the direction of France. Here, there is an old wooden draw bridge complete with winch and chains. It is used as a bridge by traffic using this entrance, and that’s only a small amount.
From the vantage point at the top of the wall we looked out over the new city, block after block of apartments. Not more than about 6 stories high and some up market areas that are just 2 story villas or townhouse type apartments. It is really high density suburbia. About 5k’s from the centre we passed a brand new suburb still under construction. Some of the blocks are finished and being lived in but many more are under way. It was a sea of cranes; at a guess I would say it is going to house about 20,000 people when complete. Parks, shops, and other amenities are being built as part of the development.
A game unique to this area, Navarre, Basque Pelota, is played on an indoor court. We went into a gallery where we could look down and watch it being played. As there was only 3 people on the courts I can only explain what we saw. One chap was just practicing by himself by throwing the ball up against the wall and hitting it back with either his left or right hand. The other two people were playing against each other and I suppose it is a bit like squash where first one hits the ball then the other one has to return it and so on. The ball made a loud clacking noise on the floor and it didn’t bounce very high, I have no idea from what material it is made. There is also another version of this game played with something like an oversized chinese soup spoon as a bat.
Just outside the old city is the Citadel. Built in the shape of a regular pentagon it was a walled fortification built between 1571 and 1645 for Felipe 2nd of Spain. It is now an enclosed green park and at festival time is where a great many of the visitors bunk down for the night in the open air.
We visited on a glorious winters day, crystal clear deep blue sky with a temperature of -4C displayed on the digital clock at 9.30am that we saw on our way in. This area south of the Pyrenees is much drier than on the French side. There is some agriculture around here and just a few grapes.
As we headed for Logroña, another city to the west of Pamplona and also on the camiño de Santiago (a walking and cycle route to Santiago, a pilgrims way) we passed through many villages. Initially they appear to be quite small but when you drive into them you realize that they are really quite large in population if not area. Usually there are several blocks of apartments of about 3 or 4 stories, separated by very narrow lanes, and the houses are crowded all together. No one lives on the farms, just like in Japan and several other countries I have visited everyone lives in the villages. I hadn’t really realized just how alike Spain and Mexico are. This Iberian peninsular is very dry, although I have travelled here before I really hadn’t noticed it as much as this trip. The type and quality of building are also the same, understandable really because it is the Spanish who colonized Mexico and took along their poor building standards.
Soon we came into the wine country of Rioja: Lots of vineyards all around in a wide river valley, the only trees seem to be the olive trees planted in groves and dotted about the countryside. Some of the grapes are grown on trellises but many are not. They are just left to grow with their vines appearing to be fairly vertical. We can see this from those that have not yet been pruned. When pruned they are cut back to the main stem completely and that is only about 1ft (300mm) above the ground. Some of these vines appear to be very old judging by the thickness and gnarled appearance of the main stem. Same can be said for the olive trees too.
In Logroño we spent a few hours having a look around. It seems to be a pleasant enough place. Wandered down a couple of old traditional narrow shopping streets, no traffic, lined with small shops on both sides and apartments above them. Many of the shops were small deli’s selling speciality hams and cheeses, but there was also just about everything else you could imagine, including a shop selling everything in miniature, it all looked like it should be dolls house furniture but I think it was meant to be ornaments, though I wouldn’t swear to it.
Of course there were several churches to visit. Again we come across mass being read so made a hasty exit. The front of the Cathedral is really outstanding with the carving and bas relief of religious persons, in a tall curved facade above the entrance. It was closed so we couldn’t go inside. Another church has several gold altar pieces. The main one was huge, but all were very impressive; I am fairly certain they were covered in gold leaf and extremely intricately carved. The biggest was about 20 ft(6m) high and 12ft (3.6m) wide. Yet another church has a strip of bas relief across the front above the door. All of these churches are within a few metres of each other.
It was a clear sunny day but the temperature was not a lot above freezing. When you got in the shade you found that any place where water had dripped or run was frozen solid and quite easy to slip on for the unwary.
The girl at the tourist information had been very helpful and gave us maps of the city and the whole area and suggested a few places we might like to visit. So we headed off in a somewhat southerly direction to visit the spa town of Arnedillo. We travelled through an area thick with vineyards and past many bodegas (wineries), most seem to be closed, maybe that’s just the time of day that we passed I’m not sure but most things are closed from 2pm to around 4pm, though it varies somewhat.
This quite small village is in a very narrow valley and the main centre of the village is well below the main road. We had to wait a while for the tourist office to open at 4pm so we wandered about some. We came across an old press for olives. It works something on the same principle as a grinding wheel for flour but instead of the top quern stone being flat there are two cone shaped stones meeting together at their pointy ends and they roll around the bottom stone pressing the olives. The oil drains into a gutter then into some sort of container.
Walked along the riverside path and climbed some steps and came to an old tunnel. It was lit and open so we walked through it. Later we found out that is was an old railway tunnel and its over 600m long. It goes right below and behind the village that tumbles down the hill side. We came out not far from where we’d started our walk. When the tourist office opened we found out where we could have a dip in some warm water pools in the river, but it is only very shallow so you really just sit in it. There is no place to change your clothes nearby, and believe me, you wouldn’t want to walk too far in that temperature in a wet swim suit, it’s in the shade and the frost hadn’t melted on the grass. The one big hotel here has some spa pools too but they are extremely expensive to use unless you are staying there, from €16 to €21.
I really can’t work out what all the people do for a living in these parts. Some are employed in the farming and rural sector but what the rest do is a mystery. There are some big industrial estates around the big cities but it doesn’t seem near enough for the huge populations there is. Of course many are employed in the tourist industry but there’s not a lot of tourists about now and lots of the smaller places are closed.
In many of the villages in this area there are dinosaur footprints and believing that it would be a nice change from looking at churches we set out to see some. At least we got to see some pleasant small villages. A few consisted of just a few houses though we didn’t see many people about. Some of the sites involved a walk of several k’s but in the lovely sunny weather that is ok; walking in the sun it gets quite warm but if you pass through an area that is shaded then it can be near freezing with frost on the ground and frozen streams in the valleys. At one place we saw some kids playing with a radio controlled model ‘monster’ truck and they had it on the ice on the edge of the stream. In the middle the stream was running, only frozen on the shallow sides.
Some of the dinosaur prints are exceptionally well defined and clear. Each area has a large number of prints and the quality seems to have been determined by the consistency of the mud at the time they were made. All are in what was once a lake with a muddy shore, or perhaps it was drying up at the time, it’s quite easy to see that it was mud as it’s only silt stone now. It’s also believed that it was a far warmer and wetter climate than now. Many of the prints, some of the clearest are of a large 3 toe splayed foot, very similar to that of a bird. The largest ones seem to have been made by a more rounded toe animal. Around the sites there are numerous information boards but they are all in Spanish and though I can make out a little of what they say most I cannot understand. We did work out that the prints are believed to be 110million years old. From the prints it has been determined that there were several different types of dinosaurs together here; some were herbaceous whilst at least one species was coniferous. One print is 75cm from toe to heel, and because the prints lead across quite a large area the length of the stride is easy to measure. That helps with determining the size of the animal.
Another thing we saw was an old clay tile kiln: It is a bit overgrown but you can still see how it was built. Apparently there was also a spring very near it, but now the area is so dry the spring has long gone and the people that used to live here and work the land have left too. All through these mountains the hillsides have been terraced at some point in time. Very well done too, with neat stone walls creating small flat areas that could be cultivated: This covers a very extensive area, bigger than I have seen anywhere in Asia. Who built them and what was grown on them I can only guess at; there didn’t appear to be any information about that on the signs around the sites. I would have thought that olives and grapes would seem the most obvious but there is not a single olive tree or grape vine anywhere near them that I can see so I have come to the conclusion that it was probably wheat or some other cereal. Why they are no longer used? Well perhaps its just too dry now, it does seem very arid with just a bit of dry grass, some low growing thorn bush and a very occasional small tree that I think is a holly tree, one with tiny leaves. Wild roses, now covered in bright red rose hips abound in a few places and are just as dense as blackberry brambles and probably more thorny.
Another thing that abounds here are wind turbines: We drove up to one collection high on a hill top and found that when we looked around the horizon there were several other clusters of them on most of the high ridges. We estimate that we could see at least 200 such turbines. David said he could hear a low pitched roar from them but I couldn’t here that, nothing new for me.
©Lynette Regan December 15th 2007
Still heading south we discovered after studying the map that we are basically heading in the general direction of Lourdes so we might as well call in there. On the way we passed through a small area of vineyards and apple orchards. All the apple trees are going on trellises. This was in the general area of Auch. Each time we came into a town it started to rain heavy then it would clear and the sun come out when we were out in the country again.
It was a sunny but chilly day that we spent in Lourdes: This city sits in the foot hills of the Pyrenees Mountains, and above the town the high peaks had snow on them. The town centre is much more attractive than all the other cities we have passed through in France. I suppose the fact that the place has around 6 million visitors annually might have some bearing on the way it presents itself. Perhaps the city fathers encourage the use of paint, they also need to encourage the use of the ‘doggy do’ bag as a walk around the streets involves a ‘doggy quick step’ to avoid that ‘doggy do’.
Of course the main reason so many visitors come here is because of its religious significance especially for Catholics. In 1858 a young girl by the name of Bernadette claimed that she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in a small cave. Above that cave a Basilica has been built though the cave sits below the wall and is open for all who wish to visit it. As caves go its not very large or impressive; quite a shallow open cavern really. There was a spring running through it but the water from it has been diverted and feeds many taps where you can have a drink or a wash in the ‘holy water’, if you so desire. We each had a couple of mouthfuls but didn’t experience any miracle cure.
The Rosary Basilica stands at the end of a large open plaza and atop the cave. As you come from the town you approach across the plaza and as you do so some very impressive mosaic tile murals confront you. They look very new and are of religious scenes mainly with Jesus as the central figure. The Basilica has a central dome and on top of that is a huge gold crown, behind that is the entrance to the crypt that you reach by going up some steps onto the roof of the Basilica, then on top of that crypt is another Basilica, The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. To one side of the crypt and almost directly above the cave is a small Chapel where mass is held frequently and in several different languages.
Inside the Rosary Basilica we found that all the walls and the dome, the roof and the inside of the archways are covered in murals made of tiny mosaic tiles. From the transept around the Nave to the other side of the transept a series of panels depicted the life of Jesus including the crucifixion and his ascension into heaven. This dome is the one that is topped with a gold crown on the outside.
The crypt has a number of tombs in it and the other basilica is quite plane compared to the first. It is smaller but has twin towers in front and a central spire and high stained glass windows. There are many more shrines around this area.
With just the few people that were about on this lovely day, probably less than 100, we tried to imagine what it must be like in summer when the place is bursting at the seams. Glad we came in winter and not yesterday when it was teaming with rain.
A castle sits on top of a pinnacle of rock with sheer sides all around almost in the centre of the city. We were going to visit it but like most things in France it closes at midday and doesn’t reopen until well into the afternoon, so we didn’t go up into it. We did get a really good view of it briefly as we were driving out of the city but there was nowhere to pull off the narrow busy street to take a photo. We had walked around many of these streets, tiny narrow lanes, and up and down narrow sets of steps, during the morning but hadn’t come across a view anywhere near as good as this one.
As we headed west along the north flank of the Pyrenees we got some good views of the snowy tops of these mountains and some stunning views down some valleys. We could cross in Spain at any one of a dozen places but we are aiming to do so near San Sebastian on the coast.
After a very frosty morning we drove into Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay. There was a good surf running but I didn’t see anyone in surfing. We didn’t actually go into the city, it was a little to the south that we pulled into the beach. It was a pleasant sandy beach but with the rocky outcrops that would be hazardous if you were surfing. Plenty of people walking their dogs along the beach front but the car park was deserted. It was still very chilly outside despite the bright sunshine, about 6˚ to 8˚C, so not exactly sunbathing weather.
We headed on across the Spanish border, I didn’t even see a sign, to San Sabastian. We had planned to spend a bit of time here to have a look around but in the end we didn’t do so. We drove into the city getting onto the wrong road a few times. There is a great deal of road construction going on and also the maps in the SatNav are not all that accurate and roads run very close together or over the top of each other so it got quite difficult but we eventually navigated our way into the city centre and it looked vaguely familiar, I had been here in 1970.
We drove around the city centre that was packed with people and parked cars. The streets are very narrow and the cars are parked on the side often leaving room for only one vehicle to pass in a two way street. Couldn’t find any parking stations and David got quite stressed so we headed out without seeing anything. Another one of the problems was that with the narrow streets and the tall buildings, about 6 to 10 stories, the SatNav kept loosing contact with the satellite and going dumb on us. It was all just too much for David, so we got onto a highway and headed for Pamplona.
Driving into the city we passed through the old city wall with an enormous arch it in that straddles the 6 lanes of the highway. The old city is where they have the ‘running of the bulls’ each year as part of an annual festival. Its origins date back to Roman times:
It’s a pleasant enough place the old city; quite compact with many tiny plazas a few larger ones. Narrow streets and lanes many of which are shared zones with vehicular traffic that doesn’t always know what ‘shared’ means. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the place was, and not just in the old city, but in the new part as well, and we didn’t encounter one piece of ‘doggy do’; that was nice: Some of those lanes that the bulls run through are very narrow too, and they cross the small plaza in front of the lovely City Hall.
We walked around and looked into a few churches, Mass was underway in a couple so we beat a hasty retreat. An interesting old building was ‘the court of auditors’; some of it dates from the early 16th century. It was used continuously as part of the local government finance division until the early 1800’s then again since 1980. The old cobbled stone floor is done is small stones in geometric patterns and has been kept in good order. An old free standing wooden safe was on display too.
There are a few pieces of the old city wall that have been maintained. One part includes the ‘French Gate’ because it is the gate by which people entered the city if coming from the direction of France. Here, there is an old wooden draw bridge complete with winch and chains. It is used as a bridge by traffic using this entrance, and that’s only a small amount.
From the vantage point at the top of the wall we looked out over the new city, block after block of apartments. Not more than about 6 stories high and some up market areas that are just 2 story villas or townhouse type apartments. It is really high density suburbia. About 5k’s from the centre we passed a brand new suburb still under construction. Some of the blocks are finished and being lived in but many more are under way. It was a sea of cranes; at a guess I would say it is going to house about 20,000 people when complete. Parks, shops, and other amenities are being built as part of the development.
A game unique to this area, Navarre, Basque Pelota, is played on an indoor court. We went into a gallery where we could look down and watch it being played. As there was only 3 people on the courts I can only explain what we saw. One chap was just practicing by himself by throwing the ball up against the wall and hitting it back with either his left or right hand. The other two people were playing against each other and I suppose it is a bit like squash where first one hits the ball then the other one has to return it and so on. The ball made a loud clacking noise on the floor and it didn’t bounce very high, I have no idea from what material it is made. There is also another version of this game played with something like an oversized chinese soup spoon as a bat.
Just outside the old city is the Citadel. Built in the shape of a regular pentagon it was a walled fortification built between 1571 and 1645 for Felipe 2nd of Spain. It is now an enclosed green park and at festival time is where a great many of the visitors bunk down for the night in the open air.
We visited on a glorious winters day, crystal clear deep blue sky with a temperature of -4C displayed on the digital clock at 9.30am that we saw on our way in. This area south of the Pyrenees is much drier than on the French side. There is some agriculture around here and just a few grapes.
As we headed for Logroña, another city to the west of Pamplona and also on the camiño de Santiago (a walking and cycle route to Santiago, a pilgrims way) we passed through many villages. Initially they appear to be quite small but when you drive into them you realize that they are really quite large in population if not area. Usually there are several blocks of apartments of about 3 or 4 stories, separated by very narrow lanes, and the houses are crowded all together. No one lives on the farms, just like in Japan and several other countries I have visited everyone lives in the villages. I hadn’t really realized just how alike Spain and Mexico are. This Iberian peninsular is very dry, although I have travelled here before I really hadn’t noticed it as much as this trip. The type and quality of building are also the same, understandable really because it is the Spanish who colonized Mexico and took along their poor building standards.
Soon we came into the wine country of Rioja: Lots of vineyards all around in a wide river valley, the only trees seem to be the olive trees planted in groves and dotted about the countryside. Some of the grapes are grown on trellises but many are not. They are just left to grow with their vines appearing to be fairly vertical. We can see this from those that have not yet been pruned. When pruned they are cut back to the main stem completely and that is only about 1ft (300mm) above the ground. Some of these vines appear to be very old judging by the thickness and gnarled appearance of the main stem. Same can be said for the olive trees too.
In Logroño we spent a few hours having a look around. It seems to be a pleasant enough place. Wandered down a couple of old traditional narrow shopping streets, no traffic, lined with small shops on both sides and apartments above them. Many of the shops were small deli’s selling speciality hams and cheeses, but there was also just about everything else you could imagine, including a shop selling everything in miniature, it all looked like it should be dolls house furniture but I think it was meant to be ornaments, though I wouldn’t swear to it.
Of course there were several churches to visit. Again we come across mass being read so made a hasty exit. The front of the Cathedral is really outstanding with the carving and bas relief of religious persons, in a tall curved facade above the entrance. It was closed so we couldn’t go inside. Another church has several gold altar pieces. The main one was huge, but all were very impressive; I am fairly certain they were covered in gold leaf and extremely intricately carved. The biggest was about 20 ft(6m) high and 12ft (3.6m) wide. Yet another church has a strip of bas relief across the front above the door. All of these churches are within a few metres of each other.
It was a clear sunny day but the temperature was not a lot above freezing. When you got in the shade you found that any place where water had dripped or run was frozen solid and quite easy to slip on for the unwary.
The girl at the tourist information had been very helpful and gave us maps of the city and the whole area and suggested a few places we might like to visit. So we headed off in a somewhat southerly direction to visit the spa town of Arnedillo. We travelled through an area thick with vineyards and past many bodegas (wineries), most seem to be closed, maybe that’s just the time of day that we passed I’m not sure but most things are closed from 2pm to around 4pm, though it varies somewhat.
This quite small village is in a very narrow valley and the main centre of the village is well below the main road. We had to wait a while for the tourist office to open at 4pm so we wandered about some. We came across an old press for olives. It works something on the same principle as a grinding wheel for flour but instead of the top quern stone being flat there are two cone shaped stones meeting together at their pointy ends and they roll around the bottom stone pressing the olives. The oil drains into a gutter then into some sort of container.
Walked along the riverside path and climbed some steps and came to an old tunnel. It was lit and open so we walked through it. Later we found out that is was an old railway tunnel and its over 600m long. It goes right below and behind the village that tumbles down the hill side. We came out not far from where we’d started our walk. When the tourist office opened we found out where we could have a dip in some warm water pools in the river, but it is only very shallow so you really just sit in it. There is no place to change your clothes nearby, and believe me, you wouldn’t want to walk too far in that temperature in a wet swim suit, it’s in the shade and the frost hadn’t melted on the grass. The one big hotel here has some spa pools too but they are extremely expensive to use unless you are staying there, from €16 to €21.
I really can’t work out what all the people do for a living in these parts. Some are employed in the farming and rural sector but what the rest do is a mystery. There are some big industrial estates around the big cities but it doesn’t seem near enough for the huge populations there is. Of course many are employed in the tourist industry but there’s not a lot of tourists about now and lots of the smaller places are closed.
In many of the villages in this area there are dinosaur footprints and believing that it would be a nice change from looking at churches we set out to see some. At least we got to see some pleasant small villages. A few consisted of just a few houses though we didn’t see many people about. Some of the sites involved a walk of several k’s but in the lovely sunny weather that is ok; walking in the sun it gets quite warm but if you pass through an area that is shaded then it can be near freezing with frost on the ground and frozen streams in the valleys. At one place we saw some kids playing with a radio controlled model ‘monster’ truck and they had it on the ice on the edge of the stream. In the middle the stream was running, only frozen on the shallow sides.
Some of the dinosaur prints are exceptionally well defined and clear. Each area has a large number of prints and the quality seems to have been determined by the consistency of the mud at the time they were made. All are in what was once a lake with a muddy shore, or perhaps it was drying up at the time, it’s quite easy to see that it was mud as it’s only silt stone now. It’s also believed that it was a far warmer and wetter climate than now. Many of the prints, some of the clearest are of a large 3 toe splayed foot, very similar to that of a bird. The largest ones seem to have been made by a more rounded toe animal. Around the sites there are numerous information boards but they are all in Spanish and though I can make out a little of what they say most I cannot understand. We did work out that the prints are believed to be 110million years old. From the prints it has been determined that there were several different types of dinosaurs together here; some were herbaceous whilst at least one species was coniferous. One print is 75cm from toe to heel, and because the prints lead across quite a large area the length of the stride is easy to measure. That helps with determining the size of the animal.
Another thing we saw was an old clay tile kiln: It is a bit overgrown but you can still see how it was built. Apparently there was also a spring very near it, but now the area is so dry the spring has long gone and the people that used to live here and work the land have left too. All through these mountains the hillsides have been terraced at some point in time. Very well done too, with neat stone walls creating small flat areas that could be cultivated: This covers a very extensive area, bigger than I have seen anywhere in Asia. Who built them and what was grown on them I can only guess at; there didn’t appear to be any information about that on the signs around the sites. I would have thought that olives and grapes would seem the most obvious but there is not a single olive tree or grape vine anywhere near them that I can see so I have come to the conclusion that it was probably wheat or some other cereal. Why they are no longer used? Well perhaps its just too dry now, it does seem very arid with just a bit of dry grass, some low growing thorn bush and a very occasional small tree that I think is a holly tree, one with tiny leaves. Wild roses, now covered in bright red rose hips abound in a few places and are just as dense as blackberry brambles and probably more thorny.
Another thing that abounds here are wind turbines: We drove up to one collection high on a hill top and found that when we looked around the horizon there were several other clusters of them on most of the high ridges. We estimate that we could see at least 200 such turbines. David said he could hear a low pitched roar from them but I couldn’t here that, nothing new for me.
©Lynette Regan December 15th 2007
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