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

Relaxing Berlanga
Easy-paced holiday 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!

DATES (Sunday-Saturday)
2012 21-27 October.

7 DAYS (6 NIGHTS) 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; four days with short walks (2-3h 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.

PRICE 675 euros per person; single room supplement 115 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 departing after 14.30.

Location of this programme:

DAY-TO-DAY
SUNDAY: Visit to Sigüenza with its magnificent cathedral. Short transfer via Imón (Spain's biggest inland saltpans) to Berlanga de Duero where we stay for 6 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!

MONDAY: Introductory ramble round Berlanga and its gorge. Caliphal Gormaz, the world's biggest mediaeval fortress. Uxama archaeological site and its successor El Burgo de Osma: time to wander its arcaded streets or shop for local specialities.

TUESDAY: 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. The fantastic troglodyte Celtiberian-Roman site of Tiermes. Caracena, a tiny village with two Romanesque churches and an imposing castle.

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 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 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.

SATURDAY: Morning dispersal at Sigüenza.

Relaxing Zafra / Relaxing Almagro / Discover Northern Spain / Candás and the Costa Verde
walking: Andalusia / walking: central Spain / Old Castile / Picos de Europa / historical journeys
Festivals–Andalusia / Festival–Almagro / nature rambles / for groups, families or friends
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