2024 September: France and Spain  – Elciego days 2 snd 3

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Scroll down for day 3. Here at Elciego we sleep till 9.00am, very late for us. It is cool and cloudy so decide to have a slow morning catching up with journals and research of campsites. By lunchtime the sky is clearing and there is blue sky.

We cross the road and walk up to the Eglise de St Andrés, inside it has a wonderful floor to ceiling Baroque altar back with gold leaf depicting vignettes from the bible. We sit and contemplate in the absolute silence and solitude, thinking of those who have been bereaved, our neighbour across the road at home, and a second neighbour nearby. We ask for safe travels and a blessing on our family and church family.

Up into the Plaza (town square) with trees and bandstand that we remember so well from September 2018 to find a small market and a Fiesta stage! We buy Oveja (sheep) cheese and local chorizo and ask about the stage, the lady tells us the fiesta was last week and it is in Logrono this coming weekend. When we were here in 2028 there was a bar in one of the buildings and the square was full of people chatting. In the evening families with children were there. The bar has gone, in its place is a bank and cash machine. What a sad loss for the town, our fondest memories of Elciego were sitting in the warm evening surrounded by the bustle of people.

We wander along the narrow streets and find Menu del Dia at Restaurant La Florida, €17 each for a 3-course meal and a bottle of local Rioja. We go in and eat. The meal is super: tuna salad and patatas bravas for starters, bacalao (cod) for our main and pots of egg custard with honey and walnuts for dessert with a bottle of 2023 Valdelana Joven Rioja to accompany our meal. The eating takes most of the afternoon, we get back to Hymer and join the locals in siesta! Later as the afternoon cools we walk back to the town to enjoy the ambiance of the evening.

Photos from –  Txingudi to Elciego

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The lookout platform has not been well-used for some time. The trees have grown and the view is restricted in places but we enjoy the limited view and go to look at the vines which have been harvested. There are bunches lying on the ground in places, the ones the automated machines have missed (very few). Both black and green grapes are delicious, especially the green grapes.

Back down the hill we cross the road by Bodega Valdelana (very few people inside) but a few people sat at the ‘barrel-tables’ outside a bar called 1583 on the corner (likely named for the year it was established). Walking up the hill by the massive cathedral we note the large cracks in the vertical wall that we saw in 2018 have been repaired and tie-bands bolted into the wall, likely on the inside. The Plaza Mayor (town square) is quiet, but Restaurant La Florida and bar are buzzing. We go in and are shown to a table by different staff, still only two: a man waiting on tables and a woman on the bar and outside terrace.

Same menu, same bottle of 2023 Valdelana Joven red. We order: risotto (a rice dish) for her and patatas bravas for him. We both have red tuna as a main, she has another pots of egg custard with honey and walnuts and he has delicious peach ice cream for dessert. It is busy today people coming in all afternoon; the eating habits in Spain are so very different from the UK (when everyone would be at work…). We sit and enjoy the ambiance and relaxed atmosphere, listening to the banter from the groups and the one waiter who copes very efficiently with us all managing to be friendly and approachable at the same time… so Spanish.

Late afternoon we walk down the hill for a siesta. Early evening we take a walk back into the town, up the hill to the Plaza Mayor and see that the door is now open to the smaller Iglesia of Our Lady (Ermita de Nuestra Senora Virgen de la Plaza). We go inside and are surprised how small it is. Still the ornate chancel and gold leaf alter, crosses and icons of a Roman Catholic church but only half a dozen rows of wooden pews and a balconied upper level. We sit down in the silence for some quiet contemplation, as we usually do and we are joined by a couple of older ladies and a man who disappears into the back and puts the lights on.

It is 6.30 on a Friday evening and we wonder if the early Mass is soon to start… it is. We sit and wait. First the Series of Hail Mary’s, about 15 of them, all recorded and the few in the church murmur their responses (all in Spanish of course). More people arrive, maybe a dozen and at about 7.00pm the evening Mass commences, the first man to arrive now dressed in Surplus taking the service. Mr C. follows in Spanish (more of less the Church of England format) but the speech and responses are very fast. Others come, sit and leave. About 7.30pm we also leave having enjoyed the experience of being there but perhaps not appreciating the solemnity of it all in the same way.

Night 3 in Elciego, only 8 of us here and torrential rain hammering on the roof of Hymer in the night.