Friday 10th April
I got it right today!!
I bought some postcards in Salamanca yesterday. I asked where I could get stamps and was told at a tobacconist. We didn’t see one. I found a Correos (Post Office) 5 minutes from the site, so off we trundled. I had to wait while two ladies either taxed their cars or similar. When it was my turn I was told they don’t sell stamps and I would need to go into Salamanca to get some!!
It was motorway almost all the way to Villamuriel de Cerrato. I managed to find a Carrefour supermarket which was just off the motorway at Valladolid. I could see on Google maps that one entrance had a height barrier but the entrance at the other end of the car park didn’t. That doesn’t make sense to me, the car park either welcomes vehicles over 2.3 metres, or it doesn’t 🤔
We came off the motorway and were going round a roundabout when we saw a man lying in the road tangled up with an e-scooter! I had seen him as we approached the roundabout and wondered what on earth he was doing on such a main road. He got up and as nobody seemed very bothered about him, we drove on!
We found our aire, a concreted area on the edge of the town - it even had FREE electricity 🥳. We parked at the far end with our door opening onto a large grassy space - Rio couldn’t believe his luck and enjoyed some zoomies. He hadn’t had a good run around for a couple of days. He walked 3 miles yesterday in Salamanca, but it’s not quite the same for a little dog!!
We walked to the Canal de Castilla which was only about 300 yards from our aire. It was about 28 degrees and hot! We walked alongside the canal until we reached Lock 33 which only appears to have one set of gates. There is a derelict building beside the lock which used to be a flour mill which was strategically placed to use the water drop at the lock to turn massive turbines or millstones, providing a reliable energy source that didn't depend on the wind.
We walked back through the town so we could take advantage of the shade from the buildings. The town has a lovely church, the Church of Santa María la Mayor, which is a stunning 13th century monument that blends Romanesque and Gothic styles. Originally associated with the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar) and later serving as a summer residence for the bishops of Palencia.
You can see from these photos how the trees alongside the road are holding hands. It’s really sweet and clever.
It was a fairly hot evening and night.
Saturday 11th April
My birthday 🎂 🍾🥳
I started the day with croissants 🥐 in bed and I didn’t drop any crumbs! I had birthday video calls with both Robert (+Laura and Bobby) and Victoria. I’m not sure what time I got up but we didn’t leave until 11.45!
The saga of the stamps continued! I found a Tabac and, yes, they did sell stamps but only for inside Spain. I would need to go to, wait for it, a Correos and they were closed on a Saturday!
It was mainly motorway all the way to Frias which we drove in the dry, then we turned off and started to climb up into the Montes Obarenes Natural Park which, Jem told me, is a massive natural wall between the Cantabrian Mountains and the Ebro Valley. There should have been some lovely views, but the weather deteriorated and we couldn’t see very much. We passed some pretty spectacular rock formations.
Our aire for the night was a Campingcar Park, a French company who seem to be expanding into Spain. I like them as you can book and have to have either a membership card or a code number to enter. This one cost €6 (£5.23). For that you got services but no electric. The bonus was the view of Frias 😃
Frias, despite its tiny population (usually hovering around 300 residents), holds the title of city. King John II of Castile granted it this status in 1435 because of its strategic importance. It holds the title of the smallest city in Spain, and in Spain, once you are a "City," you stay a city, regardless of how many people leave. Most places with 300 residents would be called a village.
From our aire my eyes were drawn to the hanging houses then suddenly I saw the Castillo de los Velasco.
The Casas Colgadas (hanging houses)are built right into the cliffside, maximizing every inch of the rocky terrain. They largely date back to the 12th to 15th centuries. Most of the houses in the historic centre are very narrow and have four or five floors but each floor might only be about 450 square feet.
The Castillo de los Velasco is a 10th-century castle perched precariously on a rock formation called La Muela, a jagged rock needle. It looks like it’s balancing precariously over the town. Because of its fragile foundation, parts of it have actually collapsed three times in history—most recently in 1830, killing several people in the houses below. While its roots go back to the 9th century defensive lines against the Moors, the current stone structure was mostly built in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is one of the most striking castles in Spain due to its daring architecture.
It rained almost all of the afternoon, but we donned our raincoats and went for a walk. Richard’s knees wouldn’t take him up to the castle, but we walked through the “lower” village and kept looking up! The perspective of the tower kept changing and at one point I felt that the rock looked like it was hugging it.
Richard offered to cook dinner, but as I had planned macaroni cheese, I ended up doing it!
When Richard took Rio out for his final wee, he saw that the
town was lit up. It looked stunning.
Sunday 12th April
We were up early and away by 9.20am. We said goodbye to Frias, but we will be back, there is so much more to see.
We had a lovely drive alongside the Embalse de Sobrón (The "Gorge" Lake) is a long, narrow reservoir created by a dam where the Ebro has carved a massive canyon through the mountains. At one point we were in and out of short tunnels which had been blasted out of the rock. It was almost a wow moment but not quite. I think if the sun had been shining then it would have been a full wow!
We entered the village of Salinas de Anana where we saw an extraordinary sight. Richard thought it might be a large archaeological site, but Jem told me it was one of the world's oldest salt factories, where salt has been produced continuously for over 6,500 years using traditional evaporation methods. The site features a complex system of wooden channels and thousands of evaporation platforms (eras) built on stone and wood stilts to harvest "white gold" from natural brine springs. Añana Salt which is produced here is highly regarded by world-renowned chefs for its purity and mineral content.
We suddenly realised that we must be in the Basque region as the road signs were in Spanish and, what we realised was, Euskara (Basque). It is one of the most fascinating languages in the world because it is a language isolate. This means it has no known linguistic connection to any other living language (like Spanish, French, or English). It existed in the region long before Indo-European languages arrived and is the oldest language in Europe.
One of the reasons for leaving early this morning was to try and get a space in an aire in Pamplona that had electricity. We arrived about 11.30am to find that at least half the spaces were empty, so we chose our spot and moored up. By 2.30pm all 33 spaces were taken. I guess though, that I shouldn’t be surprised as €10 (£8.72) a night with electricity in the middle of Pamplona, is bound to be popular.
We took Rio for a walk in a park opposite where there was an off lead area. We couldn't quite understand though, why there was a children's play area where off lead dogs go. Then, the lightbulb moment when we realised it was a dog agility area!! Rio was not impressed but managed to go up a ramp, jump 30 centimetres but when the see saw banged he wasn't having. I don't think he will be at Crufts this year - or in fact any year!
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