the times Saturday April 30 2022
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GETTY IMAGES; ALAMYwhere to find a petrol station I grabbed
the can and turned right, following the
road uphill into the dusk. After a mile I
saw Uruena, its medieval walls orange in
the setting sun, and I wondered for a
moment if I’d stumbled through a time
portal. In effect I had; little in this village
of 200 has changed since Doña Sancha
had the new church built in the 12th
century. There are four museums, a
church occupied by storks, and 11
bookshops — that’s two more than the
number of children in the village school.
There’s no petrol station (that was half
a mile to the left). Stay at Hotel Rural
Pozolico — it’s like being in a book —
or the Casa de la Anunciada, a restored
medieval house with a courtyard garden
close to quite a few bookshops.
Details Room-only doubles at Casa
de la Anunciada from £42 (villa
deuruena.es). Fly to Madrid or Bilbao
10 Tazones Asturias
There’s something of Robin Hood’s
Bay, or Gorran Haven, in the Asturian
village of Tazones, where fishermen’s
cottages spill like sugar cubes down to a
beach and tiny harbour. The weather is
similar too, with an average of 18 rainy
days in November and 14 in June.
September, when temperatures reach
22C and the summer crowds have gone,
is the driest month, so book into the
one-star Hotel Pescador, which could
become your favourite seaside hotel ever,
spend the days hiking the superb local
footpaths (the six-mile Ruta de Carlos V
follows the bendy Villaviciosa River
inland through gorgeous woodlands) and
the nights consuming scallops and cider
in Tazones’ seafood joints.
Details Room-only doubles from £43
(turismovillaviciosa.es). Fly to Bilbao11 Bagergue Lleida
High in the Val d’Aran at a
breathless 1,425m, Bagergue
has been described as the
prettiest village in the
Pyrenees. But it presents a
dilemma. On sunny days,
while your restless soul
wants to cycle up the
valley, hike to the 2,881m
summit of Mauberme
(easier than it sounds) or
go rafting on the Aran, your
lazy heart prefers to take a
picnic to a sunlit meadow and
let the beauty come to you.
After all, mountains are for
looking at, not climbing, right? Stay
at Hotel Seixes, a dependable three-star
with mountain views on the edge of
town.
Details B&B doubles from £75
(hotelseixes.com). Fly to Barcelona12 Teguise Lanzarote
I say Teguise and you think of the
all-inclusive high-rise fun factories andleave in the 15th century. The second
part refers to the caves, ideal for storing
wine and the superb pork products
for which the village is famed. Don’t
drive here. Park instead in Alcala del
Valle and walk two miles to Setenil
along the beautiful Arroyo de los
Molinos. Stay in El Nogal, a
three-bedroom villa with pool ten
minutes’ drive north of Ronda.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering for
six from £900 (vintagetravel.co.uk)14 Mirambel Te r u e l
Sensitive souls, it’s said, can hear echoes
from the past in the silent streets of
Mirambel — today a walled village of
barely 150 in a forgotten corner
of Teruel, but formerly the site of a
uniquely Spanish game of thrones
between the kingdoms of Aragon and
Valencia. After serving as a base for the
Knights Templar, Mirambel became a
key battleground in the Spanish War of
Independence, the Carlist Wars and the
civil war — if only as a setting for Ken
Loach’s Land and Freedom. He’s not the
first artist to find inspiration here: in 1931
the Basque writer Pio Baroja published a
collection of tales from Mirambel,
describing the place as “a closed, hieratic,
mysterious town”. You’ll find it stays with
you long after you have left. Stay in the
Templar Wall suite at
the historic Las Moradas del Temple
and listen for echoes.
Details B&B doubles from £120
(lasmoradasdeltemple.es).
Fly to Valencia15 Bulnes Cabrales
Bulnes is a mountain hamlet so remote
that there isn’t even a road to get here.
Instead you walk in from Poncebos: an
hour between the limestone teeth of
the Picos, following the gorge of the
roaring Tejo River. It’s easier, though less
rewarding, to take the £19 round trip on
the funicular, built at a cost of about
£10 million in 2001, up to the huddle
of 15 houses at Bulnes de Abajo. This is
as far as most visitors come, but if you
continue uphill and east for another five
minutes you come to the Mirador de
Bulnes, with fab views of Naranjo de
Bulnes, Spain’s most sacred mountain.
There are more views from Bulnes de
Arriba — ten minutes’ walk west, and
uphill, from the main village. The bar
there has the best views in Spain. Stay
at La Casa del Chiflon and keep an ear
cocked for wolves.
Details B&B doubles from £55
(lacasadelchiflon.com). Fly to Bilbao16 Alcala del Jucar
Albacete
The Rio Jucar rises on the rocky slopes
of the Sierra de Valdeminguete, flows
south until La Roda, then swings east,
running fast and shallow though the
limestone tablelands, the bridges
getting wider as the valley goes deeper.
From Alcozajeros, the old Arab road
runs alongside, narrow, perilous and
beautiful. And then it reaches Alcala
del Jucar. Here the rocks are layered
like millefeuille, honeycombed with
caves and topped with the Moorish
fort after which the town is named.
To experience the staggering scale of
the town’s cave system, go and see
Juanjo Martinez Garcia at the Cuevas
del Diablo (cuevasdeldiablo.com). To
stay in one, book La Bodeguilla in the
Calle de la Asomada.
Details One night’s self-catering
for four from £63 (casarural
labodeguilla.com). Fly to Valencia Wbusy beaches of the Lanzarote’s Costa
Teguise. I’m talking about its namesake,
though — ten miles inland and an
altogether more charming place. It is the
original capital of Lanzarote, built
behind a volcano far enough away from
the coast, they hoped, to deter attacks
from the pirates to whom the town’s
museum is dedicated. It’s little
changed from its 15th-century
origins: bright, white and
with the spartan, fortified
feel of a colonial outpost
unsure of its future. The
day-trippers come on
Sundays, when the
island’s biggest flea
market takes place. Stay
at the Hotel Palacio Ico,
a historic house in the
heart of the casco antiguo.
Details B&B doubles from
£113 (hotelpalacioico.com).
Fly to Lanzarote13 Setenil de las
Bodegas Cadiz
When living in caves went out of fashion
elsewhere in Europe, the citizens of
Setenil, hidden in a limestone gorge ten
miles north of Ronda, simply built
house-type façades on theirs and carried
on as normal. The first part of the name
is derived from the Latin for seven times
nothing — a reference, it’s thought, to
attempts to persuade the Nasrids toTazones in AsturiasOld town, Alcudia, MallorcaThe Moorish fort at
Alcala del Jucar, Albacete