As you all probably know, each year my hubby and I go on a short trip (5 days-ish) to celebrate our anniversary, somewhere within driving distance. I had big ideas for this year, (#3!) but alas, as with everything else, covid mandated a closer-to-home rendezvous, as we were not able (and still not able) to leave the region we live in, which is Castilla y León. I have already been to all nine of the capitals in Castilla y León (it was one of my goals the first year I lived here), so we decided to do a repeat of the one I had only been to for a day, and which my hubby had only been to as a child: Soria.
The smallest and least populated capital, Soria is also the farthest away and least communicable, aka there are hardly any train and bus routes and there isn’t even a major highway connecting the city to the rest of Spain. We decided to stay in a small village about 15 minutes from Soria for some peace and quiet, which was achieved. Herreros has a population of only 75 people (!) and the quiet was only interrupted by the tolling of the village church bells on the hour and the random moo of a cow passing by. It was delightful. We also woke up the first morning with a covering of snow, which continued until the early afternoon and was exciting because it’s the first time I’ve seen a real snowfall since moving to Spain! (If you don’t count the blizzard that was Seattle when I visited in 2019.) An added bonus was the countryside on the drive to and from Soria—gorgeous!
Soria itself does not have much to see; we mainly walked around the downtown area admiring the numerous churches and the Palacio de los Condes de Gómara, an old palace-turned government building. Across the river is the San Juan de Duero monastery, which has a square of arcs and is the most popular tourist attraction. We also went up to the castle ruins for a lovely view of the city and surrounding area, including the San Santuario monastery embedded into the mountainside. We did this in just three days, which was actually a lot of time and gave us hours of relaxation and reading.
If you couldn’t tell from the desperate undertone of this post, I am anxiously awaiting a time in the hopefully near future when it is safe to travel again. I’m going to leave it at that, because otherwise I would go on and on and there’s no need to start showing my gloomy side here 😉