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La Albera and Pena de Francia
I never seem to do much research or plan anything in advance when I go travelling and my short trip to
teach English in Spain was no exception. I rocked up
expecting everything to be taken care of - and it was! But luckily for me, in addition to spending a great week in the hills
near Salamanca teaching English, we were also whisked away one afternoon for an outing in a tiny village nearby called La Alberca.
Most people had already taken the time to walk into the small down but I was much more interested in spending my time having a siesta. I
figured sure, the village might be nice, but to get in the way of much needed sleep it'd have to be pretty damn good. Well when I finally
made it into the village as part of the excursion, I was kicking myself that I hadn't made more of an effort previously to have a look around.
The place is like something out of medieval times, complete with a cheesy restaurant with a medieval theme (but unfortunately without
the whole eating with your hands thing - I've always wanted to do that!), narrow cobblestoned streets, and gorgeous little half-timbered houses with
carved oak doors. It's pretty much picture postcard type stuff and because we were there in the winter, we seemed to have the entire place to ourselves.
We ended up at a wine cellar (I think) where we drank from one of those squeezy bags to see who could last the longest. Then we were served carvings of meat straight off
a pig's leg that was clamped into a carving device on the table in front of us. Probably a vegetarian's nightmare and I was a big grossed out by the hoof, but apparently
this region is famous for it's meats including Serrano ham. I was even brave and tried a free sample of pig's tongue at one of the local butchers. It actually wasn't too bad
except that I knew it was pig tongue. Kind of killed the moment.
After returning from the village a few of us set out by car to the monastery on a hill called Pena de Francia which overlooks the region. The drive
up the hill is pretty bendy and the wine and pig's tongue I'd just previously eaten weren't really agreeing with me. Fortunately the drive isn't too long and we were at the
top in no time. We seemed to be the only people at the monastery and wandered through the place without seeing even an employee, weaving through tunnels and passages
and somehow ending up back where we started.
Apparently in the summer La Alberca is overrun with tourists, going from a population of 1,500 to 7,000 when the hoardes hit it.
It's an easy day trip from Salamanca by city bus but I'm not too sure how you'll get up to the monastery... it's a bit of a hike!
By: Kirsty Henderson
February 2007
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