Alquezar

Today we had to drive to Huesca, so in the early afternoon, after dropping David off at the bus station to catch a bus to Barcelona, we went east to Alquezar. It poured with rain! Even so, the village of Alquezar is extraordinary. The area is the Somontano de Barbastro. There are lots of vineyards around, mostly just showing dry sticks at the moment. You have to drive 18 km off the main road, past various little villages, then up a steepish ramp. There is a car park with lots of ancient olive trees in it. You walk down well-made cobbled streets and suddenly you have the collegiate-fortress before you.

It's got this amazing chasm just opposite; in fact there are cliffs all over the place. We climbed up the ramp to the fortress and were given a quick explanation  of what we saw by a priest who kept saying: "the guide will be here in a minute." He told us what the capitels of the columns in the cloister represented. Romanesque, by the same "Master of Aguero" who carved the capitels in San Juan de la Peña and some in Jaca cathedral.                                           

I'm not sure if my favourite is Noah's Ark, with the birds lying on their backs on thr roof of the ark.

Or the sacrifice of Isaac with what looks like a donkey on a spit.

Home to Jaca and it hasn't rained at all here.