The car number plates told the story – M for Madrid outnumbered SO for Soria.Summer in the pueblo is a chance every year to claw back a slice of your childhood. There’s no doubt it is a fantasy world for children – at least it was for our two-year-old, on her first trip abroad. Endless opportunities to potter were mixed with a ready supply of other children and constant attention from adults. Bedtime was extended until 11pm, though that was still earlier than the other kids’ bedtime.
(Our Spanish friends couldn’t believe she normally went to bed at 7.30pm. “Do you have to strap her down and gag her?”) But the moment she reached two-year-old heaven came at breakfast, when she was actually offered hot chocolate and cake, no tantrum required.We soon discovered the third law of pueblo life: nothing much happens. It’s like the longest long weekend: a leisurely breakfast, a stroll round the square, a daily trip to the nearby waterfall (and icy natural pool) for gossip and sunbathing. It’s about catching up with family, and friends whom you’ve known all your life yet see only once a year.If you have the energy, you can explore a fascinating region. Soria’s towns have struggled to recover the importance they had in medieval times, but as a happy consequence there are still some fine medieval centres intact.
El Burgo de Osma, Berlanga de Duero and Medinaceli all boast arcaded streets, dominating churches and grand mansions.Soria also offers two impressive natural attractions, set among the high wooded mountains to the north. La Laguna Negra (the “black lake”) is a mountain tarn, in a dramatic amphitheatre, associated with the province’s most famous (adoptive) son, the poet Antonio Machado. The river Lobo canyon, 10 miles long with sheer walls of rock, offers a splendid walk and a chance to see vultures, eagles and other wildlife. Though popular with locals, both make for rewarding trips.In the middle of an idyllic summer week in El Royo, it was easy to overlook the reality of village life in Soria.
Return in winter and you’d find a different world: 35C becomes 35F, and less. El Royo’s altitude of 3,000ft means that snow settles for months. Soria was, believe it or not, the location for the vast snowscapes of David Lean’s Dr Zhivago.We left, promising to come back to experience Soria in the snow and see the pueblo in its everyday clothes. But deep down I suspect my few weeks of annual holiday will be saved for warmth and comfort and, like so many others, I will remain a fair-weather fan of El Royo.Fact FileGetting there and aroundAs The Independent has already reported, travellers to Spain this summer can expect the madre of all fares wars. The reason is that the low-cost airlines easyJet (0870 6 000 000) and Go (0845 60 54321) have chosen the country as this summer’s battleground.As well as its existing services from Luton to Barcelona and Madrid, easyJet is adding flights from Liverpool to Malaga. Go has launched services from Stansted to Malaga and Bilbao; flights to Madrid start on 1 July, with summer-only services to Alicante (starting on 18 August), Palma (20 July) and Ibiza (14 July) to follow Fares are around pounds 100-pounds 150.
