Tag: Aragon

We finally did some serious back country driving today.  Rather than take the freeways back to the coast we decided to cut across the mountains of Aragon to the coast.  The drive was up and down and for about 35 km’s on a pretty rough one and a half lane road.  The good news was that the roads were not busy at all and most of the time we could take our time traversing the many switch backs and curves.  While it was a lot of work we were rewarded with some incredible views and the most remote terrain we have seen anywhere in Europe.  We saw a great town right out of the movies called Morella which had an immense hilltop castle with a walled town under it.  The castle was originally built by the Knights Templar to defend against the Moslem kingdom in Andalusia.  While it was beautiful and remote it was obviously poorer than the areas we have been traveling in with none of the modern homes and apartments we have seen everywhere else.

Tonight we are parked in the town of Ampolla which is adjacent to one of the largest estuaries in Spain.  After the long drive we took some time to rest before going out to explore the local area.  Adjacent to the campsite is the estuary which is one of the major rice producing areas for Spain.  It is also a wildlife sanctuary hosting a wide variety of birds including flamingos even though we did not see any.

After dinner we walked along the boardwalk into town.  It is a pleasant little seaside resort, which was largely abandoned during off season.  We continue to be very impressed with how the Spanish set their towns up to make walking a pleasure with wide sidewalks.

After a string of big cities we decided to head a little more into the back country.  Teruel is in the mountains west of Valencia and is famous for it’s Mudejar style towers.  Mudejar architecture is a style developed by the Moslem residents of Spain in the 13th and 14th century.  

We arrived at Tereul and found a place to park across from the Guardia Civil Barracks in a free parking place.  The Guardia Civil are a national police force that are associated with the army.  In addition to doing police work in the country, they often serve as the Spanish representation on UN peacekeeping operations.  They also have one of the most distinctive hats of any military organization in the world, a patent leather tri-corner thing with an extension that comes off the back, completely impractical but cool.   I think we are pretty safe for tonight.

After a quick shop in the Mercadado Grocery across the street to stock up our depleted supplies, we headed into town.  The old town is quite nice, but it was a little dead as we arrived right at the beginning of the siesta from 2 to 5 pm.  As a result we had the town pretty much to ourselves.

The town did have some very nice Mudejar towers, and a really unique staircase that led into one of the towers.  The towers mark where the gates were when the town was fortified during the middle ages.  

Teruel is also famous for a Romeo and Juliet type love story.  Isabel and Diego were lovers who intended to marry after Diego returned from 5 years in the army.  Isabel waited the 5 years but Diego did not return and was reported dead, so she became engaged with another fellow.  On the day of her marriage Diego returned and asked for a kiss, but she refused.  Diego died of a broken heart.  Isabelle went to his funeral and gave him the kiss she refused when he was alive, and promptly died.  They are now buried together in the Cathedral of Teruel.