Admit it... you have never heard of the mountain town of Alquézar... put a map of the world in front of you and you are just as likely to press your pin into Mexico as you are to choose the Spanish side of the Pyrenees... sitting on a mountaintop... surrounded by ravines... chosen by an Aragon king for his impenetrable castle.
This place is remote. To get here, we traversed some of our most daring driving to date. Here is how it happened... we came upon council roadworks. We followed one of the big trucks delivering road base for 3 klms... politely eating his dust without comment... but becoming ever more eager to overtake to get a breath of fresh air. Finally, the chance came... we accelerated rapidly through the dust... great driving. In our excitement, we failed to see the detour sign. We accelerated, only to go up the loading bay where the trucks were refilling with road base. We stopped... the same truck overtook us, then stopped... the guy driving a front end loader threw his hands in the air... we all sat looking at each other. The front end loader man started pointing up to some cleared land running beside his pile of road fill. "He must be kidding", Joye and I said to each other. The front end loader man was losing his patience and added instructions in Spanish to his gesticulations. We nudged forward... then realising a half- hearted effort was not going to work... hit the accelerator... closed our eyes and hoped for the best. Somehow, we avoided boulders, cliffs and potholes... arrived at the top without incident... rolled down back onto the road on the other side of the truck reloading area... and continued on our way.
We enjoyed our drive to Alquézar through canyon country... canyons surround the town. Half the tourists are young adventurers... here for the canyonning. The photos in the windows of the canyonning adventure companies don't really work for me... in fact, they scare me. Pictures show climbers in the air... suspended by wedging themselves between the two walls of the canyon. No, we'll content ourselves with a visit to the ancient church and castle. Our hotel room has a great view of both.
The church is perched high on the rock overlooking the village. Initially built by the Arabs in the 8th-9th century, the interior shows lightness in architecture... in contrast to the block defensive style of its exterior. The Aragon kings added to its design... and restoration work means you need to look closely to see the 8th century work.
It's hot here... our landlady said the temperature on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees would be 5° hotter... and she was right. We crossed the border through a 3 klm tunnel at 1,700 metres altitude... you could immediately see you were in a different country... differences in village buildings... differences in people's manner... the way they wear their clothes... their facial expressions. You wouldn't think a line on a map would make so much difference... perhaps it's the mountain range that makes all the difference.
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