Valencia: Medieval and later

The Town Hall

Valencia has a wonderful history: founded by the Romans in 138 BC, captured by the Moors, recaptured by El Cid in 1096 (you drive into the city from the airport on the Avenida del Cid), recaptured by the Moors and only made definitively part of Spain in 1238 by Jaime I, the Conqueror.

We started our walk at the main square, Plaza Ayuntamiento, whose dominating feature is the 18th century Town Hall. We headed along Avenida Maria Cristina to reach La Lonja de la Seda (the Silk Exchange) in Plaza del Mercado, opposite the wonderful art nouveau Mercado Central (see separate post). It was built between 1482 and 1498.

It has four parts: the main Tower, the Consulado del Mar (Maritime Consulate) on the left, the Patio de los Naranjos (Orange tree courtyard), and the vast Contracts Room.  The Contracts room is a vast space with numerous twisted columns, some of which are half set into the walls. The twisting ribs go straight into the roof without the usual capitals to intervene.

We headed east then to the strangely named Plaza Redona (round square). It was designed in 1837 and has recently been refurbished.

We walked past the handsome 18th century tower of Santa Catalina, a landmark in Valencia. (The church itself is much older and tucked away in a small square.)

This led us to the Plaza de la Reina where we encountered the extraordinary Cathedral (or Seu). It was consecrated in 1238 by the first bishop of Valencia, Pere d'Albalat, on the site of the Moorish mosque, which in turn had been raised in place of the former Visigothic cathedral. It is very hard to photograph, but here is the facade at the far end of the Plaza. The Miguelete (or Micalet) belltower is on the left, with the Baroque main door in the centre and the Chapel of the Chalice (of which more in a moment) on the right.

Once inside, we were struck by the fine, simple, nave, although with jarring baroque chapels at the apse end ...

 ... and the extraordinary Chapel of the Chalice, which is claimed to house the chalice used at the Last Supper. The wall that houses it is overwelmingly gilded, but the ceiling with its wonderful ribs and bosses is a great sight. The chapel was originally the Chapter House.

Further round in the same direction on the outside is the original Romanesque door, a thing of great simplicity and beauty.

Behind the sprawling Cathedral is the Plaza de la Virgen with the splendid Basilica de la Virgen de Los Desemparados on one side. It was built between 1652 and 1667 by Diego Martínez Ponce de Urrana, it is the only church in the old part of the city that was built new from the foundations up, and not on an existing parish church or convent.

Inside is a baroque oval church with small chapels on the outside. From the far side of the square there is a nice view beyond the fountain to the rear of the Cathedral and its bell tower, .

We walked along Navellos and Muro de Santa Ana, passing the Borja House, now the seat of the city government. Then we turned left at the ring road which runs inside the Turia Gardens (Jardines del Turia) which now occupy the river bid of the Turia river (see separate post). Soon we reached the astonishing Torres de Serranos. This great gate was completed in 1391 and was the main gateway to the city when it still had walls. It is said to be the largest Gothic city gateway in Europe.

We followed the Blanquerias and Guillem to Castro to reach the IVAM (Institut Valencià d'Art Modern) musuem. It is housed in a rather plain box shaped building which is more interesting inside. We diverted to have a look around and especially enjoyed the exhibition in the basement of work by Valencian artist Ignacio Pinazo (1849-1916). The other great delight of the basement was this section of the city wall uncovered during construction work and splendidly incorporated into the museum.

Continuing along the west edge of the old town we came to the late gothic Torres de Quart. The gates were Napoleon's point of entry into the city and the marks of his cannon balls can still be seen.

Now through some small streets to return to the Plaza Ayuntamiento, whose other great building is the Post Office. It was designed by the architect Miguel Angel Navarro and built between 1915 and 1922. It is an example of the eclectic style.

Conditions: hot (32 degrees) and sunny.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: five stars.

Stow, Lower Swell and the Slaughters

The Market Square in Stow-on-the-Wold

Another town-and-country walk with my friend Merv, starting in Stow-on-the-Wold. We parked on the west side of the town and walked along Sheep St, pleasant and quite characterful, and then left to double back towards Stow's centre, the Market Place. The market cross has a medieval base, but the shaft and cross itself are late Victorian.

The most intriguing building is St Edward's House to the right of the Cross in the photo above, and in close up below. It has a lovely facade, but we struggled to guess its date. I learn from Pevsner that it is early 18th century.

Proceeding in an anti-clockwise direction we come to the 15th century stocks in a quiet corner.

In the centre of the large square is the Town Hall, St Edward's Hall which dates from 1878.

We had a brief look at the 13th century St Edward's Church as we ate a couple of delicious cakes from the wonderful Patisserie Anglaise, which would be a reason in itself to visit Stow. But as it was so bakingly hot, we modified our original plan of walking there and drove to nearby Lower Swell (once called Nether Swell) to start the country part of the walk.

It is a pretty, typical Cotswold village, with houses mainly of Cotswold stone. I was delighted to discover from Pevsner that the war memorial was by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

We headed south, walking uphill along the road and forking left onto the Heart of England Way. There was soon a lovely view rolling hills to the left.

As we walked along, a large mansion emerged from the trees on the left.

We reached Hyde Mill and entered an area of flower meadows, inevitably not as rich as recently seen in the Alps, but still lovely and swarming with Meadow Brown butterflies.

After this we were joined by the Monarch's Way and followed this across fields to reach the edge of the wonderful village of Lower Slaughter, where we paused for a cold beer in the village pub. The stone houses along the Slaughter brook are very attractive.

At the 19th century flour mills, with its picturesque water mill we bore right, now aiming for Upper Slaughter.

In the hedgerow behind the mill we were delighted to spot a Garden Tiger Moth. I confess I struggle a bit with moths, they just don't inspire me in the way that butterflies do, but this one is a splendid creature.

We followed the path beside the stream to Upper Slaughter, passing to the Lords of The Manor Hotel (once simply the Manor House, built by the Slaughter family in the sixteenth century).

The village itself contains a jumble of Cotswold stone houses. One of the strengths of the Cotswolds is that it is often hard to tell the age of a building because they are all in a similar style. The low tower of St Peter's church can be seen in the background.

We walked along a lane for a while and turned right into a field to rejoin the path we had come out on and walk back to Lower Swell.

Conditions: very hot.

Distance: about 6 miles.

Map: Explorer OL45 (The Cotswolds).

Rating: four stars.

Plateau de la Croix to Porcherey

View from Plateau de la Croix

We are the French Alps visiting our friends John and Anne, and John has come up trumps with this simple but wonderful walk. We park at Plateau de la Croix and head uphill towards Mont Joly. It is immediately clear that the wild flowers are in full bloom, but will there be butterflies?

Of course there will! Within minutes I spot a flash of orange which turns out to be a Purple-edged Copper (Lycaenae hippothoe).

A bit further up the hill is a small flower meadow with what seems to be a carefully chosen palette of white, lilac, pink and yellow.

I soon spot a beautiful fritillary which the very useful Butterflies of France website enables me to identify as Weaver's Fritillary.

As ever with Fritillaries, identification depends on the underside and the website has a wonderful gallery of all of those found in in France.

We head on uphill and soon have a fine view towards the valley which leads to the Swiss border and Geneva.

Further on there is a nice alpine view with a small farm and the rocky ridge which is directly opposite Jon's chalet.

Carrying on uphill towards Mont Joly, there is a more conventional alpine view on the left.

Now, somewhat surprisingly I spot a Wood White.

And further along the track there is an Almond-eyed Ringlet (Erebia alberganus)

Finally, there is a sighting of one of my favourite butterflies: the striking Black-veined White. Once (well, before about 1925) it could be seen in England.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: two or three miles.

Rating: five stars. Lovely views, good company and some new butterfly sightings. What could be better?

Bude to Duckpool (South West Coast Path 84)

View of Bude on a nice sunny day

The weather forecast for today's short stage of the Coast Path was pretty dire and we set out from Bude under heavy grey skies, hence the picture above from when we were last here. We started from the famous sea lock and walked across the sand towards the Bude Sea Pool.

It was created in the 1930s as a semi-natural pool, measuring 91m long by 45m wide, fitted under the curve of the cliffs. There were a few brave souls in there this morning, although three out of four of them were wearing wet suits.

We climbed the steps at the back and enjoyed the view back towards the Storm Tower on the opposite cliff.

We soon climbed up to Maer Down and the start of the long run of cliff, broken only by a series of narrow river valleys which extends all the way to Hartland Quay. The tide was out revealing small patches of sand interspersed with large areas of rock. The first headland in the photo is Menachurch Point.

The next section undulates along the grassy cliff top with the same sand and rock combination on the beach. It is beginning to look as though we might be spared the forecast rain.

As we continued along here we saw activity just in front of the two pointed rocks. Two people in red were moving flags on the beach. What were they up to?

As we got closer we realised that they were lifeguards who were demarcating a narrow safe area on the beach at Sandy Mouth. This photo shows the twisting route of the small stream as it makes its way to the sea.

There was a decent climb up from Sandy Mouth and then we were high enough to get our first proper view of the GCHQ operation on the plateau above Steeple Point.

Soon there was another sharp descent and ascent.

And this led to the final slippery descent down to the car park at Duckpool.

Conditions: Grey, with a constant threat of rain. I left my camera behind and used my iPhone for today's pictures.

Distance: 3.7 miles.

Map: Explorer 126 (Clovelly & Hartland)

Grading: Severe. 
 

Rating: four stars.

Morwenstow to Hartland Quay (South West Coast Path 86)

Henna Cliff

We set out from Morwenstow completing the detour route we encountered yesterday. This meant that we didn't get to see the celebrated Hawker's Hut. (Robert Stephen Hawker, 1803-1875, was the local clergyman, and also an antiquarian and poet. The hut in which he spent many hours writing poems and smoking opium, is mainly of timber construction and is partially built into the hillside with a turf roof. It was originally built from driftwood and timber retrieved from shipwrecks.

When we reached the coast, our first challenge appeared: Henna Cliff, which first required a descent to sea level to Morwenna's Well – a stream in fact, no sign of a well as such. This was followed by a climb to about 140m.

On the way up there was a nice view back to Higher Sharpnose Point, one of the highlights of yesterday's short section.

At the top there was another fine view backwards.

And the coast as far as Hartland Quay and the Hartland lighthouse stretched out ahead.

After a brief section along the cliff top we descended to the curiously named Westcott Wattle 

and climbed the grassy Yeolmouth Cliff. This provided us with a sight of the interesting, but unimaginatively named Gull Rock.

We descended again to Litter Mouth – we now realised that wherever you see the word "mouth" on the map in this part of the world, it denotes the mouth of a river, or more likely a small stream, and you face a descent and immediate ascent. The steps up were quite hard work. At the top we had a fine view of the adjacent Marsland Mouth and Welcombe Mouth.

 Marsland Mouth was especially complicated with the stream following a winding course through deeply indented ground. We were surprised to see a substantial house at the back of the cove.

The climb up was very steep, but did reveal our first butterfly of the day, a Painted Lady. Near the top was Ronald Duncan's hut, a sort of modern version of Parson Hawker. Duncan was , according to an information sheet on the wall a "poet, playwright, journalist, farmer and lover".

There was no respite at the top, simply an immediate descent to Welcome Mouth. This marked the boundary between Cornwall and Devon. 

As we began the ascent out of Welcombe Mouth we took great heart from a sign post telling us that it was now only 4 miles to Hartland Quay. We knew really that it couldn't be right and it actually turned out to be 5.5 miles. This is not the first time a sign post has been wildly inaccurate - how does it come about?

My reading of the map suggested that we would now follow the cliff top for a a good while and this turned out to be right. We started to see more butterflies: Large Skipper, Meadow Brown (the first of the year), Common Blue, another Painted Lady. 

After Emburey Beacon, the terrain began to change and the view ahead showed fields.

At Nabor Point there was a dramatic view of the coast ahead.

But soon we were routed away from the coast and along a road for a short while before again heading back to it along field edge paths. We continued along the cliff top until at Longpeak the path continued inland away from the coast along an inviting valley.

 Here we saw Large and Small Whites and some Green Hairstreaks. This valley met another valley where we turned left towards the lovely Spekes Mill Mouth.

This inevitably triggered another climb after which we passed inalnd of St Catherine's Point with its dramatic triangular rock thrusting up into the sky.

Shortly afterwards Hartland Quay hove into view.

This, finally, was the dramatic view of the coast ahead seen from the Wreckers pub at Hartland Quay. 

Conditions: cloudy at first, later bright and sunny.

Distance: 8.0 miles.

Map: Explorer 126 (Clovelly & Hartland).

Grading: Severe. 

Rating: five stars.