Monasterio de Piedra, Aragon, Spain

5mrstraveller1 5:00 PM Mar 10, 2022

A Very Worthwhile Day Trip
A very worthwhile trip, in my case, from Zaragoza. Prior to visiting this city, I hadn’t heard of Monasterio de Piedra, but I’m glad to have discovered it. The surrounding parkland is the star here, not the monastery itself, which will take up a fraction of your visit. It’s interesting, but wouldn’t be worth the journey alone. The grounds though, are spectacular, packed with waterfalls, caves, lakes & lush green space. The route is well sign posted, you can’t go far wrong. Wear flat shoes as the route features multiple steep steps & slippery cave passages, some taking you on a thrilling path behind the waterfalls. I noted lots of older, less sprighty visitors though, so there must be a steadier route. There are myriad benches for taking a rest & a couple of loo blocks within the parkland. You have two on-site restaurants to choose from, the functional, mass market ‘Piedra Vieja’ & the more upscale ‘Reyes de Aragon.’ I dined at the latter, & whilst it was far from the best culinary experience I’ve ever had, it was good enough, & in my book, decent value at €25 for a 3 course lunch including bread, water & wine. I hadn’t realised it, but the repeated vino top ups I requested, were included, making it particularly good value in my case! The white wine was … so so, but the red, extremely palatable. Service was down to earth & friendly, neither polished nor stiff, & attentive at first, but a tad lacking later on when getting cleared up dominated focus. Dining at Reyes de Aragon was a good excuse to have a nosey around the hotel too as it’s situated within the property, whereas Piedra Vieja is a separate building. Picnics are forbidden within the park, but there is a pleasant area outside of its gates for this. My journey from Zaragoza was by bus, not the quickest route, but straightforward enough, departing Zaragoza Delicias at 9am by coach to Catalayud, changing then to a minivan for the remainder of the journey to the Monasterio. The bus does a return trip back to Zaragoza at 5pm, getting you back to Delicias at 8pm. It’s much speedier by car, but worth the effort either way in my view.

5Laxey Girl 5:00 PM Mar 31, 2022

brilliant
Fantastic A mix of natural and 'directed' waterfalls in a spectacular gorge. It's really cleverly done. Steep steps down, slow winding paths and steps up and around. You follow the arrows in a figure 8 that takes you past everything including behind a waterfall. On the far side of the '8' is a trout farm and THE most amazing lake (the mirror lake' that provides the most exeptional reflections of the gorge. I imagine it's hellishly busy in summer but it was just right when we went. IF YOU HAVE SMALL CHILDREN take your time and ditch the pram, find another way to transport them. there are lots of places to stop and play and snack on the way round. We bought the ticket on line and just zapped in. We did the trail in about 90 mins, (but there were no hold ups). It was beautiful. Back at the entrance are cafes and restaurants. We had the menu del dia in the restaurant. they are very efficient but the food was good and not expensive for our 3 courses and bread at €14.50. Son had trout from the farm. We didnt go in the monastery but walked round the outside.