Wednesday 11th November 2015 – Ayegui, Spain

Mist again this morning but we didn’t have plans to climb any mountains so it wasn’t a problem. We headed to Olite (Erri-berri in Basque), which we had already identified as a place worth visiting and it looked really interesting as we drove through it late yesterday. As always in Spain, we had no problem in finding a place to park very close to the centre. The town has a really nice feeling about it – lived in, not just a tourist resort, with some interesting shops and lovely architecture. Our main target was the Palace Real, once a royal palace of the Kings of Navarra. It was built between 1402 and 1424 on the orders of the French-born Charles III (‘The Noble’), King of Navarre who was not the typical expansionist regent, constantly fighting military campaigns. Instead, he loved culture, living a life of luxury and was fortunate that this was a time of peace. The Navarra Royal family continued to live in the palace until 1512 when Navarre was conquered by Castile and from that time onwards the palace deteriorated. It was burned down during the War of Independence in 1813 and was a wreck in 1923 when the Council of Navarre decided to restore it. They did a fantastic job but it took 30 years and I hate to think how much it cost!

The palace, one of the most luxurious in Europe, looks like one from a fairy tale, with high walls and decorated with a forest of towers. With our English map and guide leaflet, we wandered through the building that is as it was in the time of King Charles III but bereft of furnishings. The King’s Chamber and Gallery and the Queen’s hanging garden on the first floor were impressive but the towers stole the show. I certainly got some good exercise walking up and down the towers and the views were really good, despite the mist in the distance. The most impressive tower was the Four Winds Tower or Tower of Three Windows where the King and Queen would watch the bullfights, jousts and tournaments that were staged in the boulevard below. King Charles loved keeping exotic birds and he kept them in a small walled courtyard that was covered in netting. As was the fashion of the time, he also kept exotic animals such as buffalos, giraffes, lions, camels and wolves in a park close to the castle. It must have been a very comfortable place to live.

The church of the palace, Santa Maria la Real has very restricted opening hours but fortunately is was open as we left the palace. It is a fairly low-key church but has a fantastic altarpiece and is historically important, being where the Navarra royal weddings were held.

We decided to head on to Ayegui and attempt to find a restaurant for a late lunch. The sat nav showed two restaurants within just over half a kilometre of the aire, 

so we parked up and headed for the main street. We found the first restaurant, which was closed and then saw a huge Coca Cola advert on the side of a modern concrete apartment block. This was for a café / restaurant and was the second restaurant shown on the sat nav. The surroundings were not at all inspiring but the café looked OK and the menu was quite impressive. We took a seat and found on the wall a Menu of the Day and that looked very good. I tried to order from the barmaid who looked a little confused and then led me through a door at the back to a very impressive restaurant with immaculately laid tables and plenty of customers. We had another excellent lunch, three courses with water, wine, bread and coffee for €13.50 (less than £9.50) and the roast rabbit was great!

We walked through the fog to the Irache Monastery but found that it had closed a few days before and it won’t open again until the Spring. However, on the way we were able to visit the Fuente del Vino (Wine Fountain) that Irache winery had set up in 1991 to continue the monastery tradition of offering free wine to pilgrims on the Santiago Camino. Small glasses were available for €1 from a vending machine by the fountain. Next to the wine fountain is a water fountain – equally welcome to the pilgrims in hot weather.

Photos: A view of Olite’s Palace Real from the Watch Tower; Just a few of the towers of the palace; A view from the Gateway Tower with vineyards and the wine museum; Two towers – left is the Four Winds (or Three Windows) Tower and right is the Guard Tower; A view through one of the windows of the Four Winds Tower.