Day 12, Quintana de Valdevileso – Pesqueria del Ebro 27.96 km
After meandering across the Valdivielso, it's time to move on.
Today we part company with the Ebro to go up and over the alto, but then re-meeting the rio higher up. So it's a day of a going up about 500 m and then at the end back down four-fifths of that. Why the route doesn't just follow the river is a question that is nagging at me but what we see going the other way is worth it.
Soon after leaving QdV, we come to San Nicolás de El Almiñé, which is definitely worth exploring.
This unusual window is from there:
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And inside, there is this fine retablo:
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This is an area with old pilgrimage roots. From the website about Las Merindadades:
The old calzada is our route onwards, and it's spectacularly well preserved.
Were you coming from the North (of you’d detoured to Poza de la Sal as
@Sheffield James did, you could descend into QdV on this road. The rest of us walk up it early in the day, much easier than going down on that surface!
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The old road climbs steeply and then levels off at Santa Isabel o de la Hoz,
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Here, the camino turns right crossing the Alto de la Mazorra towards Pesqueria del Ebro.
From the mirador on the CL-629, the view down to the Valdevielso looking back the way we came from yesterday is not too shabby at all:
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The Dolmen de la Cotorrita is a little to the North of the camino before the village of Porquera del Butrón, well worth the short detour. This dolmen is roughly 5,500 years old and was excavated and restored in 1969. It has an east-west orientation, and at least 15 people were buried there.
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La “cotorrita” es uno de los “cinco grandes” dólmenes de la comarca de Las Loras. En realidad, hay muchos más, pero estos son los que han s...
tierrasdeburgos.blogspot.com
This wesite mentions the church at Porquera de Butron as having been 'restored;' it is certainly not of the caliber of others we have seen down in the valleys. Up here on the mesa, life is harsher than in the valley, and the village church in Cubillo de Butron has obviously fallen on hard times.
From here the camino zig-zags back down to the Ebro.
Right at the old bridge over the river in Pesquera de Ebro is the Ermita de San Antonio; here we cross the bridge and enter the village.
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The first document that talks about Pesquera de Ebro is dated to 941. As the town's name implies, it emerged as a fishing place and developed on the edge of the strategic bridge over the Ebro.
The town, with emblazoned houses and old palaces, is considered a Historic Site. It's is one of the towns with the highest density of noble shields in all of Spain. Most are from the 17th and 18th centuries, a time when a large part of their inhabitants were nobility. But now it is a humble place with only a handful of residents.
There are at least two CRs to stay, one right by the river.
'Our' sounds very good to me, Laurie! may it be so!
And wow, thank you. Waterfalls, look at them all!
I'll have a look in the morning in more detail. It's too late to dive into that rabbit hole...