Our holiday - Part 4

Wednesday 25th
Today we also got up pretty late and after a casual breakfast we made up a picnic, took some bottles of water, got into the cars and all 9 of us left to spend a day walking in the mountains.

 

Two vultures outside their cave

In these pools, believe it or not, I bathed my tired feet, for approximately 15 seconds! The water-was-freezing : )

Thursday 26th

Once more, we left mid morning-ish and decided to go visit the mediaeval village of Vallderoures, meaning Valley of oaks. It has a very well preserved castle and plenty of little streets and alley ways. It is built on the river Matarranya.

Here is a bunch of us. Sadly the boys had to stay home to study. The words on the wall translate "The house of the beekeeper"

The castle, built at the end of the XII century

Vallderoures from the other side of the river Matarranya

Then the group split and some went back to the house and the rest went on to visit Morella in the afternoon. We stopped at the highest point in the area to have our picnic but it was so cold and so terribly windy that we had to stay in the car and eat. (Highest point - Torremiró at 1249m above sea level)

Morella is another very old town dating back to the times of the first Iberian settlers and even before. The castle, built on an enormous rock which reaches 1000m above sea level, is of Islamic design and dates back to the early thirteenth century. It is accompanied by a convent built in the same style. On the outskirts of the town there is an aqueduct, started in 1273, which brought the town its water from a spring higher up in the hillside. This aqueduct consists of bridges and tunnels through the hillside.

 

The church doorway

This is a detail from the church door. The eight - pointed star is typical of the "Mudéjars" - Muslims who submitted to the ruling of the Christian kings.

The castle

Part 5 - Dec. 27th and 28th.