Marion and Derek had told us about a Roman Villa site that
they had visited with the campsite owner and that caught our interest. The
owner gave us information as to its location and looking at it on the Internet,
we discovered that it is the one of the most important Roman sites in Spain. We
had thought about visiting it yesterday but decided that it would be better to
do it when we moved on.
We said goodbye to Marion and Derek, wishing them a good
winter and hoping that our paths would cross again in the future. The campsite
owner, having twigged that we were interested in archaeology, showed us a 10th
century stone sarcophagus laying in the campsite! He also gave us some anise
biscuits an English language brochure on the sights of the Burgos area.
The La Olmeda villa at Pedrosa de la Vega was really in the
wrong direction for us but it looked so good that we felt it was worth the
diversion. And it certainly didn’t disappoint. It is a huge villa with a large
area of mosaics, the star of which, the Achilles mosaic, is absolutely stunning
and is the best mosaic that I have ever seen. Although little exists above
ground level, the very clear plan and the quality and preservation of the
mosaics make up for it. English language boards and interactive stations plus
an English version of an informative video make for an interesting experience. A
very good visit and highly recommended.
Heading west, we had a few hours of driving before we
entered the Rioja region and within a minute we saw our first vineyard of the
day. After that it was vineyards all the way until we reached our destination
of Casalarreina and the aire at the municipal sports centre.
We decided to eat out but knew that we wouldn’t be able to
get a meal until much later so we had a wander around the town. The aire is
behind a very large monastery, not open to the public, so we walked into the
centre to take a look at the front. It is a massive building with a very
impressive carved stone doorway set in a square with other imposing buildings,
probably also belonging to the monastery. It must have been a very wealthy
monastery and must still have considerable income to enable it to maintain such
buildings.
We thought that we would check out the restaurants in the
town and followed signs to one. We walked for about half a mile until we found
it but it was obviously a very up-market restaurant with sky-high prices to
match. Plan B was initiated. There were lots of bars in the centre, some more
salubrious than others, and most had tapas. We chose a busy one with a limited
selection of tapas and just had one each. They started laying tables for dinner
so I attempted to ask the owner about the food and timing. He didn’t speak
English but I gleaned that there was no menu as such, probably a set meal or a
verbal list of a few dishes but he also told me that they wouldn’t be serving
until “nine” – said whilst holding up 10 fingers. I trusted the fingers over
the English and ten o’clock was too late for us.
A tapas bar crawl ensued with tapas taken in three different
bars. Not only did that give us a great selection of tapas but they also serve
small, cheap glasses of wine and we were able to sample six different red
Riojas – great fun.
Photos: On our way to Castrojeriz we saw many dovecotes used
to supply people with protein throughout the year. Every hamlet had at least
one and often many, sometimes restored and sometimes derelict. This was the
only one that we saw today but was in very good condition; One of the smaller
rooms in La Olmeda but with a most exquisite mosaic of unusual shape and
wonderful patterns; Three photographs of the Achilles mosaic, the first of
which shows the whole floor with a hunting scene at the front and the Achilles
scene in the middle; Detail of the hunting scene; Detail of one of the borders
– portraits, thought to be of the villa owner’s family, hang from the wings of
birds whose tails turn into dolphins.
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