Where's Bertie? He's in a Camping-Car Park in Morella at a cost of €12 including electricity.
Weather: Mainly overcast and cooler (although partly because we've spent much of the day at altitude)
A couple of days ago Conrad (conrad.blogspot.com) commented that the prominent hill in this photo looked inviting:
After weeks of sunshine, I managed to pick an overcast day, and although there were more patches of blue sky around than I expected, at the relatively early hour, the very top was shrouded. I could only hope that the cloud would rise quicker than I did.
The cloud did not rise one bit, so I didn't get to enjoy the views from the summit, although it was clear for most of the way up and down, giving me sight of a most pleasing landscape. The ascent gradient was easy enough, so the only slowing factors were a few rocky steps and the combination of the narrowness of the path and the spikiness of the scrubby bushes lining it, which saw me finish with scratched and bloody legs. Mick and I timed our rendezvous perfectly, both arriving at the pick-up point at the exact same moment.
Our onward route to Museu de la Valltora, involved a relatively narrow and very winding road, just wide enough for Bertie and a car or small van to pass (fortunately, it's not a heavily trafficked road, which kept stress low). The subject of the museum is cave art, and it comprises four main rooms with a couple of other minor exhibits in the entrance hall, but the main attraction is a visit to one of the caves to the see the art. The latter has to be as part of a guided group, the tours are only in Spanish, and they happen at 4 different times during the day. We were timed nicely for the 11am tour, but after consultation with Mick, we decided we weren't that fussed about it. Having visited a cave in France to see the art, it was difficult to see what we would get out of another similar visit, particularly when we would likely understand almost nothing that was being said.
I did, however, understand most of what the chap on the reception desk explained to us about the museum, then we set about seeing the exhibits. Interesting stuff - if only we could more readily have understood more of the explanatory text. I started learning Spanish on Duolingo a little over 6 years ago, have missed two days in all that time, and have almost finished the course, yet still I've not met my objective of being able to understand exhibits in museums.
Leaving the museum, the question was 'where next?'. One option was the Aire at Tirig, and we did pause outside its entrance and consider going in, but the final decision was to continue another 45 minutes to Morella.
The reason I wanted to visit Morella is because this is its striking appearance when you drive past on the N232...
...which had caused me to put a pin in Google Maps when we drove by last year, reminding us to visit. On our outbound leg this year, the Aire was marked on Park4Night as being closed for renovation, but I'd since seen that it was still possible to park here, but the Service Point was out of action.
So, we drove to the Aire, to find that as of 3 days ago, it has had a barrier installed and is now part of the Camping-Car Park scheme, taking it from a free stop-over with a service point, to a €12 per night stop with electricity and a service point. That feels rather expensive for what it is, in rural Spain, but it is in a tourist hot-spot. We deferred the decision as to whether to stay by driving up towards the town car park, but nabbing a free spot by the aqueduct on our way.
Wrapping up warm (11 degrees feels awfully cool after the last few weeks of warmth), we headed off for the city walls, thence to the castle. Having taken the trouble to do that, I thought it was worth the entrance fee to go inside. It turned out to be slightly cheaper than it should have been, as having asked for one adult and one senior, I was sold two senior tickets. I didn't complain, but was also slightly insulted.
It proved to be worth the admission price, and we wandered around at some length. Unfortunately, the App advertised on various signs around the place as offering an audio tour no longer exists, but there was a good smattering of tri-lingual signs. I approved of how brief they were - using very simple language (I could even understand the Spanish!) they just gave a sentence of explanation about each feature. Incidentally, the (literal) high point of the castle stands at 1070m; when I topped out at 837m on Montegordo this morning I had absolutely no expectation that I would be walking up to an even higher point today, although granted our starting point was somewhat higher this afternoon.
On leaving the castle, we dropped down to the far side of the town before walking all the way back around to Bertie, thus seeing a fair smattering of its streets.
By now the afternoon was marching on rapidly towards teatime, and a swift decision had to be made: to fork out for the Aire that was a 2-minute drive away, or to continue another 45 minutes to Alcañiz. If the Aire here hadn't had electricity, we would have driven on, for a lower altitude and a warmer temperature, but if we're paying €12 for electricity, we are darn well going to run our electric heater!
No comments:
Post a Comment