The morning dawned bright and sunny which always cheers us up. I went ashore to the panadaria ( open even on Sunday's ) to get a fresh loaf for lunch, it was a strange shape being fat at either end and flat in the middle but it tasted delicious with ham, cheese and tomatoes.
I had decided to swim and try and free the two remaining mechanical logs, they are only really possible to clean in situ or when the boat is out of the water but I thought I would give it a go. The tide was very strong and it proved difficult to stay in position on the surface let alone a couple of meters under the boat not only that but the ebb tide being loaded with silt the visibility was poor as well so I contented myself with scrubbing a bit more of the hull while Lynne practised rowing the new inflatable dinghy.
After lunch we answered an email from aunt Mary who enquired about the church so around mid afternoon we walked over the bridge that forms part of the way of Saint James and followed it up towards the old town. The signs are everywhere if you know what to look for.
There is an interesting map of the Camino ( northern ) way outside the Church of Santa Maria de Los Angeles.
Both aunt Mary and myself had been puzzled by the lack of Windows of any appreciable size in the church.
so I decided to try and show the position of the building a little better. Particularly its defensive role. It is situated at the end of a long thin ridge which is surrounded by the walls of the old town. These provide a lovely walk now.
However they had obviously provided a very secure defence in days past. As you can see from this angle of approach the church is hardly visible. We walked down below the walls at the east end to admire the view towards the Picos.
The limestone cliff below where Lynne is standing would have been the first line of defence.
This is a photo of the east doorway and you can see a really tiny window above it. The architecture style is known as Cantabrian gothic, it seems a long way from gothic architecture that is familiar to me and is unique to this area of Spain.
We walked west along the walled part of the old town passing the " palace of the inquisitors"
This was the home of the inquisitor Corro who is buried in the church. It's now a public building of some sort.
We continued on and were on time for the opening of the Castillo Del Ray, 5 pm. Everything seems to open at 5 pm in Spain!
The castle is small but perfectly preserved or restored, take your pick. The first room opens out and has been converted into an exhibition space.
The walls were hung with great photography from a local photographer featuring the town.
As we moved up a floor there was a room filled with historical artefacts and a fascinating model of the town as it was in the 14 th century.
The castle, unchanged externally is near the right hand end and the church at the left, the long narrow aspect of the walled town can clearly be seen.
Apart from a lot of the information being in Spanish hence difficult for us to understand fully there were some great exibits, I particularly liked the canon! Above in the tower was a film show again in Spanish but with some superb shots of the town from above and an explanation of its history and part in the pilgrim trail.
Eventually we made our way to the roof and battlements and my word what a view! The whole town was spread out below and Dark Tarn was clearly visible lying quietly in the creek furthest away. ( Hint, she is below the white building extreme right........)
This is the view back towards the church. The tower has an exhibition of old photos of the town.
Both Lynne and I felt it was well worth the €1.40 entrance fee and again we're thankful that Spain never thought of a National Trust!
After all that history we felt we had earned an ice cream so decended towards the harbour and a gelateria.
Lynnes on tutti frutti, and although mine is just plain vanilla its in a chocolate cone! Scrummy.....
We walked back trying to find the disappearing circus ( advertised everywhere but nowhere to be seen ) and finished the walk back in the beach bar having a coffee.
We had tried a coffee in the bar visible with the green shades and had been disappointed. This coffee however got Lynnes approval for having the correct caffeine " kick".
We planned to walk around the headland in the distance that evening.
Sorry aunt Mary we are really no wiser as to the lack of Windows in the church, looking closely the two largest ones ( which are still pretty small) are obviously later additions and are both on the town or north side, it seems to me that the west east and south sides were part of the defensive walls. I found lots of little gargoyles and things I hadn't noticed before studying the walls so it was really interesting.
We went around the headland to watch the sun go down. The path leads to the narrow entrance channel and a glorious beach La playa melon. As we walked towards the far end of our beach I took this photo of DT and the beach bar " Dias de surf" a bit of an odd name as our beach is as still as a mill pond!
The entrance mole was hosting a few fishermen as we walked past on to la Playa Melon.
There were a few surfers out in the break ( this is a surf beach open to the Biscay swell ) we wandered along found a seat and watched the sun set.
Not a bad day........
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