Spain 32 - Ponferrada and how to lose a Knights Templar Castle

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We had a lovely nights sleep and woke up refreshed and ready for the off. Before the other campers were awake we had hit the road . We had loved this site and would use it again. Some of these aires/sostas and stellplatz are wonderful. They can be free or charge a small charge to put your van on them. They have space around you although technically you should not take your chairs out nor your table as that is seen as camping. What we are doing is overnight sleeping in a van. Some have amenities like water and electricity. Most of the time free but again possibly a nominal charge. Some we have found have WiFi and even showers and washrooms. They are hit and miss but they are there if you are happy to be without campsite facilities for a night , have enough water to last and your toilets are empty. We had to find a campsite for the next night as our grey water needed emptying and it is not etiquette to do it anywhere other than a proper place. We needed topping up with fresh water and more importantly as Sion would say "the bog wants emptying"

Perhaps in the future we will use the aires system or even French Passion more. It would be nice to bumble about from one location to the next just a few miles apart. Take in the local amenities and the village sites knowing we were not in a hurry to get anywhere . Free to boot.

So off we set and almost immediately Suzy sent us the wrong way. Up and into the mountains, through tiny sleepy villages with very little life, through fields of sweet chestnut trees. We climbed higher and higher up narrow thin roads into the mountains. We came across a town with the market in full swing, with the barber busy cutting hair and life going on much in the same way it always has. Eventually we came to the invisible line high up in the mountains where Portugal ended and Spain began. Both sides of the imaginary line looked the same. There is little difference to an imaginary line. Heather grew on the roadsides and snow poles lined the edges. A hint about the cold harsh winters here in the mountains in the Sierra de Nogueira . 1360 metres above sea level.

We joined the A52 free motorway to get to Ponferrada eventually and picked up speed as we headed towards our destination for the night. We had entered in co-ordinates for Suzy but they were vague as we had no internet for days. We guessed the road called Castle Street in Spanish must lead to the castle . How wrong could we be? We could not see the castle which surprised us as you always see a castle from miles away. Ponferrada had disappeared. Cars and vans cut in front of us cutting us up. Pedestrians risked their lives jumping in front of us. It felt as if they crossed the road , raced to the next crossing and jumped out again . They were playing chicken with us or so it felt. Still we couldnt find the castle even though I looked for signs and we drove slowly through the town. So what were we missing then?

The castle of the Templar knights of Ponferrada is a magnificent building. That was why we wanted to see it . It houses the Templars’ Library and the Ponferrada Investigation and Study Centre, which contains almost 1,400 books including facsimile editions of works by Leonardo da Vinci.

It was originally a hill-fort and later a Roman citadel. At the beginning of the 12th century, the Templar knights took possession of the fortress and reinforced and extended it to use it as an inhabitable palace and for protection, on the route of the pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela. The building has an irregular square plan and the outstanding features are, above all, the entrance which involves crossing the moat on a drawbridge and, further on, two large towers with crenellations joined by an arch. Its twelve original towers reproduced the shapes of the constellations. But we never found it and in the end sadly gave up. There is only so much driving round you can do. Sometimes you have to give up.

We arrived at our campsite for the night where we had intended to stay two days. Reception was friendly . It was an ACSI site and we were told to park anywhere. This seems normal at this time of year. We could order bread which would be available at 15 minutes past 8 or 20 past in the morning . The toilets and showers were not that brilliant, there was no WiFi and the restaurant had closed weeks ago. It had the feeling of a site in the process of winter close down. When we arrived there were only us and a Dutch caravanner but as the afternoon progressed another couple of caravanners Dutch again turned up. Later we feel into conversation with a young lad and his wife in a Bongo van and lean to who were on their way home via Santander. We spoke to a young girl biking on her own around Spain . How brave I thought.

We decided after emptying everything that tomorrow we would move on and head towards home. There are still a lot of miles and a lot of things to see before we get home and the holiday is over.

Sadly I have to say nought decent on the picture side of things . Tomorrow we head for Roman walls at Lugo so better luck next time .

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Sorry you couldn't find the castle...
I plan to stay in Ponferada at the AC Hotel, a Marriott, on 23 Sep 2016. Mostly I will stay at albergues, but I need an occasional break. I love to plan trips just like you!

[JenGog]

2016
This will come round quickly Bob before you know it. I would have loved to see the castle but some you win and some you lose. I think walking the one thing you probably will look forward to at the Marriott might be a bath to soak those aching feet in. We saw a few more pilgrims on our way back through Spain and followed a bit of the camino in southern france as we turned the border from Spain to France. Now so far behind with the blogs we are sitting on the banks of the Loire believe it or not. We thought of having a few days in Paris but the weather has turned cold and we have resorted to Plan B or should I say Plan H as we keep changing our minds. Are you now totally planned for the trip?