[To see the pictures of the events, click on the picture above]
One of the great things we love about living in Zaragoza is that it is close to
so many wonderful places. Last Sunday we did a day trip to a new area for
us, the Somontano wine region. Somontano literally means 'under the
mountains' and this lovely area is in the foothills of the Pyrenees. On
this trip we weren't visiting wineries; instead we had heard good things about
the medieval town Alquezar.
In the 16 months we have been in Spain we have seen a number of fabulous medieval towns so our expectations were quite low. Well the first delight was the drive through green fields, small forests and blooming orchards. It is times like this that we are reminded of how much of a desert landscape Zaragoza is, green is 'wow' to us. We were also interested to find out that the pale pink blossoms were Almond trees! I never knew how almonds grew.
The drive was only 1.5 hrs and as we approached we still could not see the town, then we came over one last rise and WOW! Alquezar is set down on a ridge with a narrow river valley on one side with hills rising up higher. The main feature is the Castle which is at the top of the ridge at the far end of the town. We walked up to it and found that it was first build in 1038. The views are open on all sides which was really appealing to us. Another remarkable feature of this area is the large population of carrion birds. We could see 20 huge birds sitting on a ridge and then watched them all take off into flight.
In the 16 months we have been in Spain we have seen a number of fabulous medieval towns so our expectations were quite low. Well the first delight was the drive through green fields, small forests and blooming orchards. It is times like this that we are reminded of how much of a desert landscape Zaragoza is, green is 'wow' to us. We were also interested to find out that the pale pink blossoms were Almond trees! I never knew how almonds grew.
The drive was only 1.5 hrs and as we approached we still could not see the town, then we came over one last rise and WOW! Alquezar is set down on a ridge with a narrow river valley on one side with hills rising up higher. The main feature is the Castle which is at the top of the ridge at the far end of the town. We walked up to it and found that it was first build in 1038. The views are open on all sides which was really appealing to us. Another remarkable feature of this area is the large population of carrion birds. We could see 20 huge birds sitting on a ridge and then watched them all take off into flight.
The town is beautifully preserved and has a
lovely warm feeling to it. There are
many restaurants and bars and we lucked out and had our first real bacon and
eggs breakfast here in Spain! We ended
our time sitting on a terrace overlooking a grove of trees with a view back to
the Castle sipping on Sangria (Anatolijus had a cerveza) and looking forward to our
next visit to this lovely place.
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