This time, we decided to concentrate
on the northern inland part of Spain. We try to avoid
the
school holidays, which means that sights like these
are common. Our first stop was the Parador at Alcañiz,
which is also where the left picture was taken. We
had 2 nights
there and visited some of the smaller villages round
about before heading off to La Rioja.
The second picture,
on the right, is taken in Alfaro. This is the place
to go in La Rioja to see the storks' nests on the
church roof. Unfortunately we missed the really spectacular
church roof - by looking at the wrong church! Still
it
also had lots of nests too - all occupied, as you can
see in the pictures down a little on the page. |
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It surprised us to learn that the most important area
for dinosaur tracks in Europe is in La Rioja. There are
lots of small sites around the eastern end of the region.
They are only signposted in Spanish - Yacimiento.
The
most impressive site we visited was a few km up a
dirt track, but had these really huge footprints along
with
quite a variety of other tracks. |
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These are the pictures of the "wrong" church in Alfaro.
This is ithe church of St. Francis, which I thought was
very appropriate. But we should have been looking at
the St. Michael's! At least we have an excuse to return
in the early summer again some time. |
Part of the one of the Pilgrims' routes to Santiago
passes through this area of Spain. You can still see
people walking along the route - especially if you take
the side roads. Many of the towns along the route still
have the special accomodation for pilgrims travelling
under their own power (foot or bicycle). The potter is
in Nájera, one of the smaller towns along the route.
Briñas lies at the western end of La Rioja.It is a
small village on the northern bank of the river Ebro,
surrounded by vineyards. |
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We stayed at a wonderful friendly hotel in Briñas
called the Hospederia Señorio de Briñas (right).We
read about
it in an article in "Brigitte woman" and
are glad that we
decided
to stay here.
The inside of the house is decorated
with lots of Trompe l'oeil paintings (see below).
The rooms
are all individually decorated. We were given a tour
of the most interesting rooms that were unoccupied
by one of the chambermaids the first morning, who
had seen
us taking pictures of the public areas. The staff
were all very friendly and obviously all quite proud
of there
place of work. It was a lovely atmosphere. |
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Both in La Rioja and Navarre we saw lots of wild flowers.
The most striking were the poppies. Some of the wheat
fields had quite a high proportion of poppies mixed in.
I suppose you get the poppy seeds added directly to the
flour for baking! |
We visited the town of Vic at the end of our stay.(It's
actually in Catalonia.) It was a pleasant surprise. It
is a lovely old town with a large Plaça Major
surrounded by
some very
attractive
houses - some of which are in the Modernisme style -
the Spanish Art Nouveau. There is a signposted route
through the town which takes you (on foot) past all the
important sights. The cathedral has the most unusual
murals that we have ever seen. Mostly in black and white
and very striking. |
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One of the older monasteries in the town is now a school
of art. We just wandered into the courtyard and discovered
some of the art work of the students on display. |
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