Posts

Faithful El Cid and the much occupied hilltop

Image
What I love about this is by accident, whim or pure mischance we end up going to places I have never heard of but now want to go to,  Enter Morella. The fighting fantasy world is full of hill top bewalled towns, such as Blighty does not seem to provide. Spain does. Morella is one of them. It has a splendid and up to date website which has lots of pictures on it and the diary on it is up to date. Unfortunately we have just missed XI Trobada de Dimonis.  Nothing is down for today but I suspect it may be filled up by the time this is published. https://www.morella.net/   The area has been settled with the usual crowd. Unusually it has a cave painting of the earliest depiction of archery used in combat known to humanity. https://artrupestre.com/en/yacimiento/galeria-del-roure/   It is thought to dates from 7200-7400 years ago, The Romans took over a Punic town and made it there's, as did the Visigoths, the Moors and El Cid is reputed [i.e. probably didn’t] rebuild the wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

The use of weather in character building

Image
  La Mata de Morella is behind us and Forcall. Wiki says of it ‘ Forcall, a town with a strong personality and the geographical center of the region and neighboring towns of Aragon, experienced days of prosperity that we can still recreate today by strolling through its streets and squares. ’ Today it is the home of 475 people. In the late 19th and early 20th century about 2300 people lived. The populace gentle sloped down thereafter.  They don’t like change. The PSOE rule the people through the mayor. Manuel Monfort held the post from 1987 to 2003 and Santiago Perez Penarroya has been the man in the feathery hat ever since.  Here is a news report with him in it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIe2v5iRt4&forced   Wiki reported ‘ Patron Saint Festivals. Celebrated from the last weekend of August to the first of September in honor of Saint Victor and Our Lady of Consolation. Famous features of these festivities include the " toros embolados " (bulls with flaming ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Facilitated by the work of an entire fang

Image
  Well we are in Valencia, the community, not the city - unless a lot of regreening has taken place since last year and we will soon move away from the border so let us make progress, nipping off the road to make a quick visit to the narrow streets of La Mata de Morella. Blasco de Alagon was the chap who took the village from the Moors and incorporated it into the crown of Aragon. The place seems to have been a livestock centre and today about a quarter of its inhabitants were not born in Spain.  196 people dwell here today. 716 did in 1910.  It had been 804 in 1877 but was down to 547 ten years later, I don’t know why.  Up we go and on to El Forn, a cafe. It opens from 9am to midnight except Friday and Saturday, when you can drink till 2am.  A week ago Paco wrote ‘ I heard great things about this place, and they weren't wrong. A fantastic weekend menu for €25. It includes salad and two set starters, a choice of main course, a drink, and dessert. The grilled ski...
Post a Comment
Read more