Morella – one of the prettiest villages in Spain

Over the last few days we have driven over some fabulous roads and climbed to heights of around 1380m, as we have wound our way through mountains.  As we climbed higher the temperature dropped from 28° (from setting off today) to 22° but it was a comfortable temperature for driving. 

We are currently parked up on a free Aire at La Seu D’Urgell (N42.35918° E1.46438°) overlooking the Pyrenees Mountains, poised to head in to Andorra tomorrow. Basically a large style carpark, with water/chemical toilet and lovely views!

Down near the river, close to the Aire

Sonny's parking spot for the night, looking up towards the Pyrenees Mountains

When we left Valencia (a few days ago) we headed to Morella, and apart from a little bit of motorway, we cut in and took CV roads, as they tend to be a lot more scenic.  Morella is known for its castle and medieval walls, which is like a mountain in the middle of a valley with white washed houses.  It is described as a three layer cake - the calcareus stone and clay make it a water store and thus allowed it to endure long sieges, as it could retain the water.  The filtered water has created numerous caves that have been used since prehistoric times. The castle and its walls became a national monument back in 1931 and after decades of abandonment, restoration began a few years ago. Rain water has been conducted to avoid filtrations and dangers to the castle itself and to the town below.

The  pretty town of Morella

Walking up from the Aire you pass the old viaduct, which spans the road.

The old viaduct

View from the second floor of the castle

Climbing up to the third floor, to the parade ground and the royal rooms.

It was a long walk up to the top!

View from the top

View of the castle from outside the San Francisco Convent.

Church of Santa María la Mayor

Since we have been doing our motorhome tour, we have concluded that motorhomers are a strange breed when it comes to parking up their motorhome.  Be it on an Aire, a campsite or wild camping - we all have our funny ways.  Take us for example, we will come on to a place and have a quick glance around at the plots. Important for us is: that we are not too close to others so you have your own space; to check which way the sun rises and sets to maximise our time in the sun/shade; to ensure we are maximising the views to be had from our plot; and to get as level as possible using our little motorhome spirit level and go up on our ramps.  All that done, we get the chairs and table out, drinks/food sorted and chill before exploring the area!

Now, I wouldn’t want to single out any nationality, but I have to mention the French. We can be parked up in a spot with lots of spare places around but 9 times out of 10 a French motorhome will park in the spot closest to you or if there is another French motorhome then they will park next to them – must be a safety in numbers thing!  Then we have noticed with French that they can be in a plot and the next minute they move.  Why you ask, well it seems it is important that they can get their satellite up and access all their TV channels.  They don’t seem too bothered about much else, oh apart from having a good bottle of red wine to hand – not too dissimilar from us!

Then another time we watched a German motorhomer move no less than 6 times! They seemed to be concerned with motorhome movements near the plot, if it would be noisy, where the sun would rise and set, where they were going to put the washing line – there problems seemed endless, ha ha!  We watched them for an hour and half, before they decided on a plot and even then they didn’t look happy – Mel though it was better than watching a TV ‘soap’!  The Dutch seem to like to spread themselves out, they like a big mat outside and their Awning up.  Mostly we meet the Duch on campsites, rather than Aires and they tend to be the most chatty – probably because their English is really good!  Italians – the few we have met seem to travel in convoy and all park close to one another.  The Spanish seem no nonsense parkers – straight in, parked up and sorted. Other nationalities, well we have met only a few from Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Ireland, Belgium, and even one from South Africa, so hard to comment on their habits!

Now, you are probably wondering why I have rambled on about such facts.  Well….  yesterday afternoon we were parked up on a free Aire in Morella with a lovely view of the old castle on a hill. There was only us and one other motorhome (Dutch) and spaces for about 20 other motorhomes.  We walked up to the castle (about a 6km round trip) and back again and when we came back there was a massive Carthago Motorhome parked up next to us blocking our view of the castle.  Now, normally this wouldn't bother us but looking around there was about 15 other places he could have parked in, so why park right next to us.  Was it a French motorhome you ask?  No, would you believe it was another Brit!  So, that just goes to show you can’t single out nationalities for their little idiosyncrasies.  I’m sure people look at us and think ‘what are they doing’ because, more often than not I look at Mel and think the same thing!

The view of the castle and town from the Aire, when we first parked up

On the whole, the people we have met have been very friendly, and will always find time to say hello.  They are usually interested in our map of places we have visited on the back of our motorhome and like to ask us about our travels or when they see the scooter, they like to have a good old ‘scooter talk’ with Mel.

Map of countries visited so far in Sonny, (our motorhome)

From Morella, we headed north, with no plan where we would stop.  We took winding, mountainous roads, so knew the journey would be a slow one, and decided to just stop when we had had enough.  We passed by Rio Ebro (second longest river in the Iberian Peninsula), which burst its banks in March 2015 and caused massive flooding.

Rio Ebro

We ended up stopping at Font de les Bagasses (N42.03574° E000.88388°) – enjoying a night of ‘wild camping’.  It’s a fabulous setting in the Sierra de Montsec and is a climbers paradise.

Sonny (the motorhome) ready for his night of wild camping in Terradets Gorge .

Watching the climbers going up the sheer rock face - rather them than me!

Information about the area and the birds - really need to learn more Spanish to understand it!

We enjoyed a walk up through the mountains and it would appear that it is home to some incredible birds – including The Golden Eagle.  At one time there were 3 of them circling above us!

A Golden Eagle, flying high above us.

Zoomed in shot of the Eagle

Crossing the Puente de Bagasses for the start of our walk

Climbing higher!

Once the climbers had all gone, we were the only ones left.  A caravan came during the night and they were up and out early, as they were climbers.  A lot of people stop here to collect the spring water in big 5 litre bottles.  We are not sure why, perhaps it is the fountain of youth - quick Mel fill up our water bottles!

From here we took a lovely drive over to the 1412b to Coll de Boixols - plenty of winding roads for Mel to enjoy driving on.  Then on to the C14 to La Seu d'Urgell.

Sat Nav showing us our winding route - luckily it didn't take us a wrong way over the cliff!

Some great views down the valley from the top of the Coll (1380m)

Looking forward to going over the Pyrenees and in to the principality of Andorra tomorrow, will we be speaking Spanish or French - who knows!

Sally x