Same Shirt, Different day-2012 Adventures of the "Devonport Wonder Babes"

Friday 21 September 2012 Soria, Spain.

Pretty good breakfast at the hotel  and then went in search of a walk along the  banks of the River Duera that runs along outskirts of Soria.

Had a lovely walk through shady groves of trees about 2.5 km down to a church ( Ermita de San Saturio) built high up on top of a hill above a cave where various monks had lived.

 

 

Well worth the walk on a warm morning and there were many local people also out walking. We watched a man fishing in the river and later spoke to some older women who were washing a whole bucket full of snails and an older man who showed us his little bucket full of small lobsters he had trapped in the river.

 

 

It hasn’t rained here or up in the surrounding hills  for some time ( ? months)  and the river level is very low especially below the last weir.

Tried to find shop open to buy something for lunch but ended up having tapas and beer in small restaurant in newer part of town.

Back to hotel for siesta, slept soundly for 1 ½  hours and then refreshed we headed off about 6pm to a placed called Numantia about 7 km north of Soria near a village called Gallay.

This is the excavated remains of a Celtiberian-Roman city situated on La Muela hill at the confluence of the rivers Duero and Tera on the only route between the northern mountains and the Duero Valley. Humans have inhabited this site intermittently since about 3000BC through Bronze and early Iron Ages. The Celtiberian city was founded about 300 BC and after a siege by the Romans in 133 BC was settled by them until 4^th century AD and there was some later medieval occupation.

 

There were quite a lot of excavated remains of buildings and  reconstructions  of a family house  from both major settlements, plus a portion of the city wall. We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the town, a nice little visitor centre with DVD display and gift shop with very good quality souvenirs.  Plus senior citizens get into site for free !!

 

Stayed at site until closing time at 7.30 pm and then headed back into old town looking for restaurant in Plaza Mayor. When we got there we realised it was the same square we were in the night before, and again filled with people, young and old, eating, drinking, talking and walking about. 

 Restaurant we were looking for wasn’t open but found another one in side street where with assistance from very nice waiter (us not much Spanish, him not much English) we had a very nice meal ( not tapas).