Day 31 - Valencia de Don Juan to Aguila de Campoo

 

It may be grey of sky but this must be the cleanest most well designed aire we’ve been to. Despite its proximity to the road there was no significant traffic noise and whilst there’s an absence of birdsong for the first time in a while, we do get to watch a stork!!

The castle opens at 12 and we are the first to arrive. This means that the first ‘tour’ is now in English. Which also means it’s just for us! A Spanish family are asked to come back in 15 mins and the guide gets up from behind the till, locks the office, unlocks the castle and takes us in. He gives us a potted history of the castles origins and building style. The impressive stone facade would have hidden a building largely made using the more common local technique of earth construction which unsurprisingly has not survived as long so there is little to see within the walls but he does well at painting a picture of its history to English people with limited knowledge of local aristocracy. 

 We are then left to explore the on site museum. This is housed in a beautiful glass buiding set into the cast walls with its floors aligned to the original ones which are long gone. It tells the story chronologically from bottom to top from Iron Age settlers to its later high status existence. 

On the top floor it’s also possible to look out and take in the setting . The only hill of any sort for miles it’s an obvious strategic location and no suprise it has such a history. 

On leaving the castle it’s lunchtime and the town is still silent. It feels almost abandoned! The cafes and restaurants appear closed, and a coffee looks unlikely, until we spot a bar in a side street. 

 When we go in there are two or three tables occupied but with half a  hour it is heaving, mostly with people that pop in drink a quick glass of wine and leave again! Great village vibe. Lovely people! 

 On the way back to the van we stop at a partly-built house we had noticed coming in. It is almost Gaudí in style but with none of the finesse! We had to search online to discover that it’s actually been a one-man project that’s been a work in progress for about 30 years. It looks like the flats above may be more finished than the ground floor is, though none looks inhabited. 

Its hard to believe the walls at the bottom have the strength to support it. It seems that every window is s slightly different shape and there are some very OTT sculptures on the roof turrets too … there’s a lot to take in!!

Just opposite the parking we notice that the local earth building also seems to extend to building backwards into earth banks as there are chimneys coming out of the soil. Fascinating town for architecture!!

Still planning to reduce our journey we hope to cover some miles today. I started with Bilbao as an end point and looked for things on any slow route. That seemed to work for last night so sticking with it! We are going to move towards the Las Loras Geoparc for no other reason than it’s somewhere different and Graham likes s bit of geology! Looking at the routes I notice there’s a Roman villa museum near Saldana which is on one of the routes so we plump for that one. 

 It’s a good choice of road. Small but smooth and straight and we hardly pass a single car all the way. It’s a bit unfortunate that one of the few that do pass is a truck which throws a stone up and chips the windscreen but thankfully it doesn’t crack. 

When we arrive at the villa its a huge building, the size of a large supermarket, with just a couple of cars in a massive carpark. 

The sight inside is a jaw dropping one! It is vast! The building completely covers the floor plan of the huge late- Roman villa that stood here. It was discovered in 1968 by the farmer who owned the field and in the subsequent years has been excavated to reveal a 4400 sqm building with 35 rooms, of which a large majority have complete or near complete mosaic floors including an amazing one in the principle room with scenes of domestic life and portraits of the houses inhabitants. 

 The building is well-designed and allows you to walk above the rooms on walkways and see the mosaics clearly, as well as understanding the uses of all the spaces. 

When we tear ourselves away we realise that it would be foolish not to head into the town to see the museum that houses some of the artifacts found here. It’s only five minutes away and it wasn’t difficult to find parking nearby. It’s another lovely building in a converted church and well laid nout   

This time there are English translations so we learn more of the history. Lovely museum and included in the same entry price. 

We have a quick walk around the rest of the old town in Saldana which is really pretty (though once again empty!) It’s around 7pm on a Saturday night and feels like more of the restaurants should be open! But we do get clear views of the towns pretty buildings snd squares. 

It’s tempting to hang around and see if it wakes up later, especially after seeing a large gathering of youngsters in suits for a reason we’ll never know, but if we can get a bit more distance covered well have more time to look elsewhere tomorrow so we look at heading to Aguila de Campoo on the edge of the Geoparc. Google offers three slow routes and with no real knowledge of any ot them we plump for the one that’s in the middle in terms of length and geography. Another beauty of a road in fact, straight, clear and not long before there are mountains on the horizon. The clouds are sitting low on the mountain ranges and the occasional showers make for good skies. There’s even snow on some.of the highest peaks.  We’re at around 1000m  in altitude and it’s winter again! Admittedly mostly later trees like oaks, but they are bare with conifers and hawthorn the only real signs of life.

When we get to Aguila de Campoo we head straight to the reservoir hoping for a countryside spot for tonight and we park in what feels a bit like a roundabout at the end of the access road. Level and with good views of the water, though we do get an occasional passing car. Had it been earlier we may have looked around a bit more but the light is lovely now so it will do just fine!

Cumulative Mileage: 1580 

Overnight: Embalse de Aguilar de Campoo, P4N 34810

Spending: Castle entrance (2) €3 Coffees €3.20 , Villa/museum entrance (2) €6, Supermarket € 25.69