We headed off this morning for a day trip to the town of
Monzon, about 60km from Corbins. Our research showed that there was a 10th
century Moorish castle that at one time was occupied by the Knights Templar, plus
a few other attractions worth seeing.
Our research failed to inform us that Monzon is basically closed on
Tuesdays (and Mondays). On our arrival
we went looking for tourist information office, however nobody seemed to know
where that is (and a call to the number listed on the ‘net went unanswered), so
we stopped for elevenses and the only highlight of the day – Elizabeth had a
hot chocolate so thick and rich that she could literally stand her teaspoon up
on it. We then drove up the hill towards
the castle, which is visible from miles around, and trekked the last few
hundred metres uphill, only to find that it doesn’t open Mondays or Tuesdays
(our research was vindicated by a young English couple we spoke to who had also
done their research and believed that it would be open). So we had to view it from a distance.
We wandered down the hill to the 12th century
Cathedral Santa Maria del Romeral, originally a Moorish mosque. Small, but interesting and at least it was
open. On the other hand, when we walked
more than a kilometre to another of our objectives, the Assocacion Belerista de
Monzon, allegedly containing a display of four hundred nativity scenes from
around the world, we found it to be firmly locked up and unassailable. So we continued on, pausing at what once was
a monastery (and contained a thorn from the cross of Jesus), then became a
hospital and is now the Conservatorium, with a plaque out the front dedicated
to George Orwell, who spent a night in the hospital after suffering a neck
wound in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
We stopped at a Turkish café for lunch, then walked all the way back up
the hill towards the castle and our car, and drove back to Corbins.
Later in the afternoon we took a long walk around our
village. It is very quiet, with just over
one thousand residents. We passed the
local church (closed) and an old, small castle, or perhaps a former military
outpost, with a Knights Templar crest over the door; we chatted with a couple
of small groups of schoolkids sitting at the village lookout and on a doorstep;
we looked over the fields from our elevated position and noted a large array of
solar panels in a nearby field, and also noted that a stork had built a nest on
an electricity tower – very innovative, and took us back to seeing similar
evidence of storks using public towers to make their nests, in Morocco. Last night we also witnessed a few dozen storks
fly overhead just on dusk, no doubt heading to Africa for the winter.
Seafood barbecue over charcoal on our deck tonight, then a
spot of reading before the sun went down.
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