We present a more relaxed type of week based in a single hotel, at Almagro (La Mancha), Zafra (S Extremadura), and at Berlanga (Soria, Castilla-León).

Relaxing Berlanga
Easy-paced week in the land of Al-Mansûr, El Cid Campeador and Antonio Machado... and Ribera del Duero wine, based in one of our favourite hotels — small international guided group

Soria, with its rolling hills, stony limestone plateaux intersected by steep gorges, and to the north, the high mountains of the Sierra de Urbión, was once the vitally strategic Caput Extremadura, enriched by the fabulous wealth of La Mesta, but is now one of the least populated and most rural provinces of Spain, best known as the source of the river Duero and for its wild mushrooms!

ONE WEEK Activities: discovery of Soria province (Castilla-León), with historical and nature visits including an introduction to the collection and identification of fungi with a local specialist; five days with short walks (1h30-3h a day). Group 10 maximum.

FULL BOARD in twin rooms (private bathrooms), in hotel at Berlanga de Duero, home of the Dominican monk, Fray Tomás de Berlanga, who discovered the Galapagos Islands, brought the banana from the Canary Islands to Central America, and brought back the tomato. He was also the first person to envisage the Panama canal, a project he suggested in vain to Carlos V.

DATES (Saturday-Saturday)
2011 15-22 October.

PRICE 735 euros per person; single room supplement 135 euros.

RENDEZVOUS & DISPERSAL Sigüenza station. Sigüenza is accessible by local train from Madrid via Guadalajara, or from Zaragoza. Ask us for train information. If flying to Madrid, you should book a plane arriving by 12.30, and for the last day one with check-in after 12.30.

Location of this programme:

DAY-TO-DAY
SATURDAY: Visit to Sigüenza with its magnificent cathedral. Short transfer via Imón (Spain's biggest inland saltpans) to Berlanga de Duero where we stay for 7 nights. Among Berlanga's attractions are a porticaded plaza mayor, a splendid castle and an outstanding gothic collegiate church. This year we have planned our holiday here for the mushroom season, and hope to sample some mycological gastronomy!

SUNDAY: The Mozarabic Ermita de San Baudelio, the delightful walled village of Rello, and the remarkable Caliphal defensive towers of the Bordecorex valley, scene of the death of Al-Mansûr. Introductory ramble round Berlanga and its gorge.

MONDAY: The Sierra de Urbión: Molinos de Duero and its riverside Roman road, and the Laguna Negra de Urbión, a grandiose site at an altitude of 1700 m. The fabulous Mediaeval village of Calatañazor, with a walk in the páramo, habitat of numerous vultures, and to a remarkable karstic resurgence, the Fuentona de Muriel.

TUESDAY: Morning at the fantastic troglodyte Celtiberian-Roman site of Tiermes; the Sierra de Pela and the Románico rural; Caliphal Gormaz, the world's biggest mediaeval fortress.

WEDNESDAY: Peñaranda (Renaissance palace on the plaza mayor with wonderful artesonado ceilings), the amazingly narrow Yecla gorge, Visigothic Quintanilla de las Viñas, quaint Covarrubias and the superb Romanesque cloister of Silos monastery.

THURSDAY: A museum dedicated to the unusual profession of resinero, and a mycological ramble (introductory level — Soria province is particularly reputed for its fungi). Numancia, scene of the Celtiberians' last resistance to the Romans, and Soria city, surrounded by the high windy plateaux of the meseta, so passionately described by Antonio Machado in "Campos de Castilla".

FRIDAY: The 'Al-Andega' gorge walk to Caracena, a tiny village with two Romanesque churches. San Esteban de Gormaz; Uxama archaeological site and its successor El Burgo de Osma: time to wander its arcaded streets or shop for local specialities.

SATURDAY: Morning dispersal at Sigüenza.

Relaxing Zafra / Relaxing Almagro / historical journeys / Discover Northern Spain
walking: Andalusia / walking: central Spain / Old Castile / Picos de Europa / Festival–Almagro
Festivals–Andalusia / nature rambles / Spanish and other courses / for groups, families or friends
Holiday index+calendar / Introduction in English / How to book / e-mail us