Limpias to Argomaniz

When Duke planned our itinerary he found a hike that we could do on this leg of the trip. The hike to a viewpoint overlooking the Nervión waterfall was about a two hour drive from Limpias. Although the forecast for the day was rain, and given that as we were leaving the skies looked threatening, we weren’t sure if we would want to hike. We decided to drive to where the hike started and then assess the situation. And of course we planned to stop at any sites we happened to see along the way.

After about an hour on the road we passed what looked like it would be an interesting church. We stopped to check it out and to stretch our legs. It turned out to be really special. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Oak was constructed in 1498 with money contributed by pilgrims and by the monarchs.

Inside the church the altar pieces were intricately carved and gilded and the painted decoration were bright.

Outside is an oak tree that is more than 500 years old.

A bit farther down the road we turned off at a sign pointing to a scenic view and waterfall. We found an idyllic valley.

When we got to the start of the hike to the Viewpoint for Nervión Waterfall the weather had cleared a bit so we decided to do the two and a half mile loop trail.

Along the way we passed the ruins of an old monastery church.

As we walked up to the viewpoint this was the view.

But the wind was playing with the fog and eventually we could see this.

We saw a tiny trickle of water coming out of the wall below the top. The canyon and the view were pretty amazing even if the falls was basically dry.

On the way back we saw walls and a pit where ancient people used to drive wolves into the pit trap kill them.

The road we took after the hike going towards Argomaniz took us down the wall of the canyon we saw on the hike.

The Parador of Argomaniz is another former palace.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called La Bodeguilla Lanciego in the nearby town of Vitoria-Gasteiz. The part of town we were in had a lot of big apartment blocks and it looked like parking would be a problem but we managed to find an underground parking garage near the Corté Inglés department store and only had to walk a couple of blocks.

We started with peppers, asparagus and leeks.

Then we shared a fish.

Finally we shared a steak. It came to the table very rare but they also brought us a hot griddle to use if we wanted the meat cooked further.