Thursday 26 February - Albocàsser

Where's Bertie? He's in the municipal Aire just outside of Albocàsser. Exact location: 40.36516, 0.0209

Weather: After a foggy start, sunny and warm. 

I’d already put bread under the grill for toast by way of a pre-run first breakfast when I looked out of a window and saw, well not very much really, as we were fully enveloped in fog. I didn’t feel much inclined to dash out on a cold, foggy morning, and could justify the decision on the basis that I'd intended to run on the road today and visibility wasn’t good enough for that to feel safe. So, the run was postponed and, after no small amount of faffing around, we took ourselves off for second breakfast at the same place as we went for lunch yesterday.

It was, once again, busy, mainly with workmen, many of them (as is a cultural norm) drinking beer or wine with their breakfasts. I wonder how many of them would be back three hours later for lunch?

We only had coffee and a croissant, but just as we were leaving the table next to us were served cooked breakfasts and food envy ensued.

The sun had won through the fog whilst we had sat there, and it was warming up nicely by the time we stepped back outside. Resisting the urge to just stay put another day, we slowly got ready to move, via a long chat with our neighbours (a British/Portuguese couple).

I’d spent far too much of the morning contemplating where to go next, but with the sky now clear, the final decision was to come to Albocàsser, hoping for a spot at the Aire, and with the knowledge that we could carry on to Tirig if it was full. We arrived to find it empty!

This is another of the local network of Aires that offers electricity, needing to a token (€3 for 3kWh) from the town hall. With there being no competition for the hook-up points, we thought we may as well make use of it, so after a slightly early lunch, we wandered into town. We got a friendly welcome at the town hall, but I couldn’t quite keep up with the speed of the response we got, although I did catch that we didn’t need a token, we just needed to plug in. Resorting to the microphone function on Google Translate, the message was that they would send someone to the Aire to show us how to work the electricity. Thus, rather than looking around the town as planned, we hot-footed it back here, being overtaken by a council van on the way. It was duly waiting for us when we arrived and it all seemed like overkill, until the chap led me not to the obvious electric hook-up points next to the parking spots, but to a row of conifer trees off to the side. There he furtled around and showed me the extension lead into which we were to plug. There was no charge (as in fee; not electrical charge!). He waited around to be sure we were plugged in and everything was working, then off he went.

So, rather than giving the town hall a small contribution, we seem to have taken up their time and resources AND they are giving us electricity.

With that done, back into town we went, starting back at the Town Hall, where the Tourist Information interactive screen proved to be less useful than it looked. The adjacent QR codes were more useful, leading me to a website showing the points of interest in the town, starting with the church that’s directly opposite the town Hall.

Three Ermitas, a tower and the historic public laundry followed, all with short audio guides (only in Castillian or Valencian, but the former was clear and slow enough that I could understand enough of what was said). And, of course, in the process we also wandered many of the town’s streets.

Whilst the temperature was only forecast to be 17 degrees, it felt so much warmer than that on the sunny streets, and when we passed the pharmacy, the display outside (in the sun) said 24 degrees. With the town being at an altitude of 520m, I feel that the current temperatures are probably unseasonably warm. It may have been the influence of the clear blue sky and the warm weather, but this town was much more to our liking than the one we visited yesterday morning.

The whole tour was (according to an information sign; I didn't measure it) only 1.5km, so it didn’t take us awfully long to see everything, by which time we were right in the middle of the afternoon, when everything is shut. Few people were about as we wandered our way the 1km back out of town to Bertie.

As the sun was starting to burn through the early morning fog

Such a typical Spanish street

Quite a plain church on the outside; we didn't get to see the inside so can't report on that.

 

 The tower, the history of which I've now largely forgotten, was originally square and much smaller (the section to the left of the windows when viewed from the back) but was subsequently extended to the large rectangle of today. It's now a house. 

 

One of the Ermitas. Unfortunately the gates were padlocked shut, so we couldn't get closer than peering through them (I didn't think to snap a photo until we were walking away and was apparently too lazy to walk the few paces back to stick my phone through the gate to get a shot of the front)

View from the second Ermita on the route. The surrounding hills are around 900m. As we are at over 500m, it wouldn't be too big a job to go and visit the top of one of them.