Sos del Rey Católico

21 May 2023

We visited Sos del Rey Católico about twelve or fourteen years ago. This tiny village, on a ridge in a mountainous area in northern Spain, officially has 800 residents, but we didn’t see a twentieth of them in the two days we had here. Why would we visit such a tiny town a decade ago and want to return ever since?

Why we wanted to visit the first time is easy. The “del Rey Católico” of its name refers to Ferdinand, of the Spanish monarchs that we in the USA know as “Ferdinand and Isabella.” When I started to learn about Spain, Isabel (as she’s known in Spain - not Isabella) fascinated me. I read tons about her and we went to a town near Segovia named “Madrigal de las Altas Torres” and visited the castle in which she was born, converted to a convent in 1524(!) and which has remained a convent since then. When we learned that Ferdinand was born here in Sos, we wanted to visit the palace in which he was born.

On that trip we took a guided tour of the palace. We were the only people on the tour. When we entered the room in which Ferdinand was born, the guide told us that fact and I told her that we had also been in the room in which Isabel was born. I think she wondered what the heck these two American tourists were doing visiting these two way out of the way places!

That’s why we came to Sos those years ago. This year we were going from Lerma to a place near Pau, France, driving through the Pyrenee Mountains and saw that we could stay at Sos del Rey Católico again. So we did, for a couple nights. We stayed here in our third Parador of the trip and loved it. (Sometime I’ll post about the Paradores. We love them and stay in one any time we can, but I suspect they’re not for everybody.)

Our room at Sos: the room was just fine, and the view unbeatable. Unfortunately the weather was cold and windy - we had to bundle up to have a drink on our balcony!

*The view out our room. If it hadn't beens so windy, we would have spent hours on the balcony.*

Some pictures around town

*If you come to Sos from the south, this is your first view of the town.*

*If you arrive from the north, you see this view of Sos.*

*And from a hill to the east of Sos, a view of the whole town.*

The Parador Restaurant

Each Parador has a very nice restaurant (and a casual bar/sandwiches room). We’ve had excellent meals at every Parador, but at the Sos del Rey Católico Parador we had a couple of the best meals ever. I know: a word is worth a thousand pictures, or something like that. Here’s what we had for dinner the first night:

My half of a shoulder of lamb and a BIG potato. Laurie had the other half - see next photo.

Laurie's half of a shoulder of lamb. This is milk-fed lamb, so it's tender and tasty. There was a LOT of meat on these. Urp.

Dessert - a regional custard with vanilla ice-cream.

I want to point out that the wine list here went from $21 for a bottle of vino tinto de la tierra (local red wine) to $30 for a bottle of Ribero del Duero Crianza. I do not know why wine is so inexpensive in restaurants here, but I know that Ribero would draw close to $60 in a Seattle restaurant, because we had a bottle of it and it was lovely.

Just to prove our gluttonous natures, the next day we had lunch (at 3 o’clock) and ate the same meal as the night before, except as a desgustacion menú, so in addition to the three courses we had the night before, lunch included two more courses: a regional soup and a huge plate of regional charcuterie; as well as mineral water and a bottle of wine. Cost: $88 for both of us, tip included. We love lamb and have it almost every time we can; this was the best we’ve ever had.

We loved Sos del Rey Católico as much this trip as that first one. Honestly, with the exception of the Parador (which fits into the local architecture well) and a couple buildings on the outskirts, Sos has not changed much since Ferdinand was born here in 1452. Walking through Sos is like walking through a medieval Spanish town. It’s pretty easy to feel part of the history of Sos del Rey Católico.