12th July 2017

Another grey day at 20 degrees. On recommendation from our neighbours at the campsite we decided to visit the artisan village of Barcena Major about 45km away up in the mountains. We drove through Comillas and then under the A8 motorway and made our way inland through picturesque scenery up a winding valley with sheep cows and horses in the fields. We passed through several small villages all with traffic lights and 50kph speed limits.

When we arrived in Barcena Major we found that you could not drive into the village but there was a very large free public car park a short distance from the village. We walked into the village and explored the sandstone cobbled streets, it reminded us of a prettier Albarracin. Some of the houses were very old and typical of the area with space downstairs for the animals and living accommodation upstairs. The walls were made from thick wooden vertical and horizontal beams with sandstone filling the gaps between the vertical beams.

There was a stream running through the edge of the village. We stopped and spoke to an elderly Spanish man who was making walking sticks, he explained, in Spanish, how he bent the handle around some pegs and a heated metal former when the wood was green and once it had dried the curve was maintained.

We found an excellent restaurant for lunch and had a great menu del dia for €15 a head. After coffee we walked back through the village to the car and the temperature dropped and it rained as we drove down the valley but the rain stopped the closer we got to the coast and it was just grey. We certainly had the best of the weather inland.