After boarding the ferry about 930pm, and it finally departing about 1130pm, we woke just to the west of Corsica and Sardinia and have crept our way towards Barcelona since.
The weather has been kind, the seas mostly smooth, no seasickness for either of us. A lazy day that we both needed with a couple of naps and some sea air.
The boat docked about an hour after schedule and we had about 90mins to drive to the hotel we’d booked outside of Barcelona. (We plan to return to Barcelona to actually visit it in early December.)
We made it and had a very late dinner – how very European of us – then went to bed.
Today started late as we didn’t turn off the light until after midnight.
Today was a day without intention, we planned to drive by a couple of castles, turns out we drove past many and we found a DHL to send a parcel of things home.
We noticed that for much of the day the sides of the roads and edges of fields had bright red poppies growing in abundance. They’re really pretty, and stunning in clumps as a red carpet in a field.
As we were driving just chatting about the churches and the buildings we were seeing, we remembered that there was a notable artwork in this area that got quite famous a bit over a decade ago. A quick google informed us we were only about 40km from it. So we set off in that direction.
Arriving at the small town of Borja, located on the side of a hill, we parked at the Santuario de Misericordia.
We purchased tickets and entered the empty church to behold the artistic marvel that is Ecce Homo.
If you don’t know the history, the original was painted by Elias Garcia Martinez in 1930 and looked like this:
By 2012 it was looking like this:
So a local woman Cecilia Giménez thought she’d restore it.
You’ve seen the result.
It is now behind perspex for protection -this photographs terribly so I used an online photo above. But this is the real thing.
However the entirely forgettable original in a mostly un-notable church is now a tourist attraction, with a small museum, souvenirs etc earning the church more than they’d ever get otherwise!
Read the story of the restoration here.
The town also appears to have received a brand new road because of it!
We drove down the other side of the hill and saw some amazing landscape.
After a night in a great little hotel located in a trading estate in Tudela, we headed north towards Bardenas Reales. A semi-desert area with amazing landscape that is apparently called badlands.
We were heading to see one structure in particular that is known as Castildetierra.
At the base of Castildetierra there really cool rocks / partially eroded areas.
But the area was surrounded by many larger plateaued hills and triangular mounds where the different coloured layers of sediment were really obvious.
Leaving here just as it was getting busy with busloads of people, we drove towards the coast, enjoying the lazy drive on quiet back roads where we could enjoy the changing landscape. It seemed to change every 30km. From the semi-desert, to farmlands, vineyards, agricultural land, rolling hills, alpine forests to granite mountains.
Under instruction by Liam, we located a winery and stopped to sample some wines. The owner gave us a tour of the winery in Spanish. We don’t speak Spanish.
We did however NOT buy the 15L box of wine for €20/$30! We may have bought a few bottles…we’re allowed to take 120L of wine into Ireland if we wish.
Arriving at El Puerto we scoped out where we need to be tomorrow morning to catch our ferry then made our way to our hotel nearby.
We’ve boarded our Ferry to Ireland.
It’s Brittany Ferries this time. SOOO much nicer than the Grimaldi one. This one is clean, doesn’t smell of cigarette butts and provides on-demand tv/movies in your room!
Currently having an á bientôt Schengen Zone beer to wash down a Travacalm. Travabands and ear patches in situ already.
It feels strange hearing so much English being spoken after 3 months in non-English speaking countries!
And the boat is moving.
Féach leat Éire go luath.
An Unplanned Year 
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