Letting There Be Light In Ainsa

Still en route to the Boi Valley was the hill-top and wall-girted town of Ainsa (thanks again, Jane), with its nice and reasonably-priced aire. We explored and spent the night; for a buck fifty.

Increasingly vertical terrain

Tower and haze

 

Part of Ainsa's defensive wall; and terrain

Main square

Ambience; not unknown to tour buses

Tower of the little parish Romanesque church

Inside the church, 12th century, my guess

A good case in point about why they invented Gothic

But wait! There's a Divine Illumination Machine (DIM)! We've
seen these all over Italy, where you get a minute for a euro;
here, you get 5 minutes of light AND five minutes of Gregorian
Chant! Top that, Italy! (But not in English too)

The little cloister, part pointy, part Romanesque

Crypt; cryptic

Not so many of the funny face sculptors got here

Barrel vaulting; friction and gravity...and  maybe
a little mortar

I can't believe I did not take a picture when the lights were on;
sometimes you just get carried away...

Next morning, at the aire

Surroundings...well into the Pyrenees now 

Moving along, we are struck by how much the
terrain resembles the American Southwest

Water feature

Rockfall barrier

Reservoirs all over in and near the mountains