Our final stop in Spain before our run through France to catch the ferry home. We chose Nuevalos via the ACSI book mainly for it’s proximity to Calatayud, not realising it’s a lovely area in it’s own right.
The drive was interesting with the SatNav taking us along a narrow, bendy road through the mountains for the last 20 or so kilometres. Luckily we didn’t see too many other cars, and when we did we were close to passing points (with the little car on the back it’s not so easy to reverse). For most of this section there was nowhere to go on the right hand side of the road. Calv would have loved it if we had just been in the little car; in the van – not so much! Anyway, we survived and made it to our campsite on the lake, Camping Lagos Resort, Nuevalos . This is a nice, terraced site overlooking a beautiful lake. Quite steep in places and unfortunately, at the time we were there in mid-March, there were alot of little, annoying, flies 😦
We stayed 4 or 5 nights and were lucky to enjoy some beautiful weather (although we couldn’t really sit outside the van due to the flies). We visited Calatayud, a pleasant town about 10 miles north, where we were able to stock up on groceries. We also wandered along the lakeside, around Nuevalos itself and took a longer walk to the Monasterio del Piedro.
Calatayud
Nuevalos
We started by visiting the castle looking building on the shore of the lake. As with many of these buildings it wasn’t as easy to get to as we had anticipated, not just the landscape itself but also broken bottles and various other detritus littered around…
We then walked along the shore (again, easier said than done) before giving up and rejoining the road into Nuevalos itself. We tried to get to some of the buildings that we could see bordering the lake, but found that these were inaccessible. We did get to see parts of the village that we would normally have missed though!
I think it was a Sunday that we took this wander and the bars and restaurants were heaving with locals. Bypassing all the hostelries (we’d eaten) we found our way to the higher part of the village (it’s not very big, it didn’t take long!). Up steep roads we rounded a corner for a ‘wow’ moment as we spotted the church atop the highest point.
Our final visit from the site was a walk to the Monasterio del Piedro. The walk itself was lovely. From the campsite we took a right before getting into the village, to walk alongside the river. Here there were some old ruins for provision of spring water (there are many spas in this general area), lovely views back up to the church and a really enjoyable walk. It’s about 2.5 miles (but feels further as, although a pretty easy walk, there are a couple of slightly more challenging spots).
Just before finding the monasterio itself we came across a random swimming pool (not quite ready to be used – see the pictures – but we could imagine how welcome it would be in the height of summer. We were there in the middle of March but would have welcomed a cooling dip).
We chose not to visit the park itself – a decision that I still regret, and must make sure we make a return trip to put this right – full as it is of beautiful gardens, waterfalls, fountains and grottos. However, there were a few things to see without paying an entrance fee – see photos below. We also sat a while outside the cafe and visited the gift shop. In there we met our neighbours from the campsite, a Belgian couple who were discovering the wife’s Spanish heritage and on their way to meet her extended family for the 1st time – all this from commenting that her name was very Spanish!
What a lovely end to our latest Spanish adventure this was 🙂 Next stop France via the Somport tunnel, meaning my next post will, finally, bring to an end our travels over the winter of 2018/2019…. just before we set off on our next set of adventures! Entirely new this time as we’re heading to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and more 🙂
We stayed: – Camping Lago Resort
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