It was a lovely day as our SC&C group left Javea on Tuesday 10th September to make our way to Tarancon, where we were staying at the 4* Hotel Ansares. Our lunch break enroute was in Bunyol, famous for the annual tomatina fight, where we had time to visit the castle before having some refreshments.
The Hotel Ansares provided an excellent dinner for us on the first evening, round tables with the dining room to ourselves, and we had a cava toast to Patty & Malcolm who were celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary that day. It was a lovely hotel, very conveniently located, with a beautiful interior courtyard.
After breakfast next morning, our tour began with a guided walk around the monumental city of Huete, followed by a visit to the Monastery of Ucles where we also had a tasting of red and white wines with local products. A leisurely lunch followed with rather large helpings and plenty more wine. To conclude the day, we returned to Tarancon for a guided walking tour of the historic area.
Our first visit on Thursday morning was to the Roman villa of Noheda, dating from the 4th century AD, which is home to the largest mosaic in the world. Our guide told us about the different characters featuring in the mosaic and the various scenes which it contained, including the Trojan War.
We then moved on to visit the Roman Mines of Lapis Specularis, where Romans extracted the material to manufacture windows, jewellery, and other transparent objects.
Lunch then followed after which our final visit was to the Segobriga Archaeological Park.
In the evening there was time to explore the fiesta being held in honour of the local Saint of Tarancon.
We departed from our hotel on Friday morning, stopping enroute at the Museo de Sisternas, near the village of Casas de Cuadra, which turned out to be a real highlight. The owner, Juan, and his colleague, Chima, split the group into two and we learned all about the history of the winery, from his great-grandfather, his grandfather and his father, showing us the different stages of wine production, the utensils used and how people lived in those times. There were various buildings, crammed full of memorabilia of all kinds.
Our visit concluded with a tapas lunch and bottles of white/rose/red wine, finished off with cava!
Thank you to everyone for making it such a fun and enjoyable trip. Group leader: Angela Chantry.
spanish.culture.cuisine@u3ajavea.com
