Albarracín – all to ourselves…

After a short drive through the clouds that had dropped down to see us as we headed further inland and higher into the mountains to see ‘Spain’s most beautiful town’ we arrived at our campsite (Ciudad de Albarracín) just as the rain set in. Luckily, the campsite had anticipated this and laid on free wifi from all pitches and lashings of hot water in the showers. Not quite what we’d anticipated when we left the UK for Spain, but it could have been a lot worse…

We woke after a peaceful night’s sleep to a day that promised a 100% chance of rain – and a ‘tormenta’ (storm) to add insult to injury, but as the sky looked like it might stay dry long enough for the 2km dash into the old walled town, we decided to don our wet weather gear and give it a go.

The old town is dominated by a massive walled fortification that rises up the mountain side.

Originally an independent Islamic taifa, or state, and then a Christian kingdom before being absorbed into the province of Aragon, the old town has been extensively and carefully restored, with a consistent use of a red/pink tinted rendering (Yeso – my favourite Spanish building material from years of working on our house in Spain) blending the really old with the ‘recent’ old.

No doubt the promise of a tormenta had put most visitors off and for a lot of our wanderings we had the place pretty much to ourselves – except for the cats….

The small number of people we did bump into were Spanish – leaving us wondering where all the other northern Europeans from the campsite had gone to….

The town is not that big and after a pretty scary walk along the top of the battlements (my favourite bit being a 50m dash across a fairly narrow walkway with nothing either side – except a 10m drop) and a mooch around the fascinating narrow, winding streets, we decided to head for lunch in one of the restaurants with panoramic views across the town.

Two hours later, and after a bottle of red to wash down our mountain-meat platters, we headed for the scenic walk back to the campsite along the river – the ‘via fluvia’. This was great fun and a classic example of Spanish ingenuity – where the river (the Guadalaviar, which gives a boundary to the town) had eroded the path over the years, elevated walkways had been built to enable a proper ‘paseo’ to be taken – the walk (often of an evening) that brings the locals of a town out for a natter and a stroll.

By now the sun had shown itself and we ended the walk back to the campsite with some fabulous views of the town. And as soon as we got back in the van, the tormenta arrived with a vengeance – what a lucky escape!

So, ‘Spain’s most beautiful town’? I’ll keep my powder dry for now but it was certainly spectacular and a real treat to see without the throngs of tourists we’d thought might be there when we originally added it to our itinerary.

Next stop – the coast!

S.