Ken's 2nd ancestral tour through Spain -
Day Three Huesca to Bilbao

Tuesday 11th May 2004 Grey day at first but looked as if it would get better. Hmmm. Breakfast was strictly portion controlled but not expensive. We were away at about 08:45 & soon found the free motorway to Zaragoza. This was forty-odd miles & we were soon there & found a place to park on a housing estate about ten rainy minutes walk from the Aliferia Palace, which we looked at.

Zaragoza Aliferia Palace front

Zaragoza Aliferia Palace side

Ken's ancestors here were the Banu Qasi, an odd bunch of Goths who embraced Islam for apparently successful political reasons in about 730. There was not much point in 'doing' Zaragoza, as there were no traces left of really early times & the Palace, to my delight, seemed to be a working municipal building still after 1,000 years.

Getting out of Zaragoza was sheer murder. The road signs are totally confusing & inconsistent. It took about an hour to work out just how to get out to the West & really needs careful plotting beforehand! When on one's way, the N232 is at first labelled as the A68 motorway but the 'real' A68 is parallel. One might as well stay on the free N232! We filled up with our second cheerful Spaniard, fluent in very good French (our car has French plates, of course). The route to Soria takes the N122, which passes several attractive towns, the best being Tarazona, which rain prevented exploration. Soria was no great shakes but the lunch at the Restaurant La Parrilla was superb: fish & potato soup, followed by a leg of lamb done even better than a kleftico (E37.25 for 2).

Then, on to the N111, labelled a 'green' road all the way. At first over plainer land, it was just nicer farmland but then, it climbed to the Puerto de Piqueras in thick mist, requiring great care on both sides. This is clearly, a beautiful road & we had unclear intimations of it all along, stopping to take photos at Villanueva de Cameros, despite the rain. This held off for a few minutes when we turned up to Viguera by a ghastly cement works. The village looks none to prepossesing from the outside but is interesting inside. More to the point, it has strong family connexions, as Sancho Garces, the 'Optimo Imperator'conquered the Rioja area, fighting at least two battles here. His son, Garcia Sanchez, set his son Ramon Garces up there as the local king. The son is not a grandpa but Garcia is.

Viguera - enter through the arch

Viguera Church 1300s

The Gorge

The valley is full of striking rock formations & there is a noted viewpoint above Viguera but not in this weather! We went on, dodging Logrono by turning left by Entrena & left again at Navarete for Najera. The outskirts of Najera are grottily industrial (a good thing, economically-speaking) but the middle is rather nice, with the river flowing through & the Old Town, to which we walked, on the other side. We went into the Santa Maria la Real & looked at the tombs of the Kings & Queens. The oldest was that of Sancho Abarca, another son of Garcia Sanchez. He was the brother of Granny Urraca Garcia who married William of Gascony. Avis said he looked just like Ken!

Najera	Santa Maria la Real	Cloisters
King Sancho Abarca	Virgin - click on her for a big image (792kb)	Old Najera

It was clear that we had time, rather to my surprise, to get to Bilbao. This Rioja country is obviously more prosperous than the other areas we had been through & the villages were better kept. We went back to the N232 (!) past Haro & on a very good road towards Vittoria, rather than take the expensive & not much shorter motorway. North of Vittoria, there were some natural lakes & it was a welcome change to see some water. But we did not realise they were at the top of a considerable hill & the road wound down many zig-zags for 17 km towards Bilbao. From Bedia onwards, we were obviously in the real economy & the road (N634) took us to right above the Guggenheim Museum, rather to our surprise. We drove into the traffic jams, parked, worked out a hotel, Hotel De Deusto in Deusto, just across the river, found it & booked in for two nights. Simple.