On the Trail of El Cid

Leaving the wine-drinkers to finish their breakfast in the hotel we left Teruel and headed further north.  For those of you fed up with hearing how great the weather is in Spain, the previous day was grey and raining and only 3 degrees at lunchtime.  Thursday dawned a bit brighter but as we climbed up into the Maestrazgo mountains of southern Aragón through a series of high mountain passes to an altitude of 1,700 metres, the temperature dropped below zero and we saw snow for the first time in Spain. 

The mini at 1700 metres with a light dusting of snow at the pass

The views in these remote mountains are jaw-dropping and there are two ski resorts in the area as well as a variety of old villages with names such as Cantavieja, La Iglesuela del Cid and Ares del Maestre.  The names of the villages recall the history of the christian reconquest from the 11th to 13th century when most were founded.  El Cid was the spanish nobleman played by Charlton Heston in the classic film of the same name who ran Valencia for a while until the Moors regained control in 1099.  His legendary heroics paved the way for the later reconquest by the King Jaume of Aragón and Catalunya who, having driven the Moors further south, used these mountains as a kind of buffer zone.  The reconquest was a war and recolonisation effort by the spanish that took more than 700 years to complete and the fortified nature of the towns reflects the almost endless war-footing that these places would have been on.  In order to maintain control the spanish handed operational control of the mountains to the christian military order, the Knights Templar after whose Grand Masters, the Maestrazgo area is named.



King Jaume I

After a beautiful day's driving with the hood down despite the cold we headed for Morella which, like our previous stop Ares, is a fortfied town perched on a hill with incredible views and lovely restored buildings in narrow medieval streets. 

Ares del Maestre

All the towns in the area seem to have something different to offer and Morella was certainly a friendly place with the owner of the restaurant we ate in telling us about the time he went to Brussels aged 13 to watch Valencia beat Arsenal in a European final.  We ended the evening wandering back to a bar we had visited earlier for a glass of wine until the locals started watching a film in serbo-croat with spanish subtitles and we decided that it was time to turn in.