May 26:
The car rental through Avis was way more complicated than it needed to be. Our 0-deductible insurance did not cover damage to the Windows, but we could add that for 8 euros/day. No thanks. Everything had a fee & it ultimately took us more than 30 minutes at the desk just to get paperwork filled out & guarantee on our credit card for "...any damage to the Windows".
We made a relatively quick stop at the monastery at Montserrat to see the Black Madonna, which dates back to the 12th century. The monastery is set in the mountains about 45 minutes outside Barcelona and is the most important religious retreat in Catalonia. The setting is quite striking, but even in our "shoulder-season" visit, we found the crowds, well, too crowded.
Poppies! Fields of red poppies, growing wild along the road and within fields of wheat, creating rivers of red. We had to stop and walk into the rivers. Kodak moments & memories.
El Pont de Suert: about 3 hours driving time from Montserrat we're in the foothills of the Pyrenees, arriving at our stop for the evening, El Pedris. It is a quaint little guest house with a charming hostess, who speaks very little English, yet easily conveys an apparent delight in the 3 of us staying in her rooms. Our manual transmission Nissan Juke ends up being parked a little too close for comfort (let's say,2") from the car in front of us, on a down-hill grade, and although we got into the space, we feel we may have to get creative in order to get out. Our hostess quickly evaluates the situation, shrugs her shoulders, and says something like it will work itself out in the morning. And sure enough, it does. In the morning when we go out to check, the car that was perilously close to our front bumper the night before has disappeared. Magic! More magic as our hostess presents us with gluten free bread & cornbread which she has baked especially for us that morning. She offers a hearty breakfast & then welcomes us to take any left overs for our lunch. El Pont de Suert was a little odd at night. As we looked for somewhere to have dinner, we noticed only men on the street, no women. The next morning, however, was the open air market and there the gender mix was back in comforting, full form.
Boi: we drive further into the Pyrenees, narrow 2-lane roads, glacier covered mountains in the distance. But we have blue skies and fluffy clouds and the beautiful and charming village of Boi from which we arrange a 3-hour hike into Aiguestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. First we take a taxi about 20minutes into the park to a trail head. No private autos allowed - good plan as road is very narrow, with steep drop offs, the kind of road only a Pyrenees taxi driver dare negotiate. Once at the trailhead we had 3 hours to follow the river on a well-groomed trail to Long Lake, that is, we started about 1PM & had to be back at 4PM to catch the taxi going back. If we were late we would have to wait until 6PM & we were driving on that night to stay on the other side of the park. It would be no fun and defeat our purpose of enjoying the stunning scenery if we were negotiating these mountain roads at night. The hike was relatively easy although gentle hills at 5000' altitude were still a little challenging for one of us. A bunny can only hop so far.
The car rental through Avis was way more complicated than it needed to be. Our 0-deductible insurance did not cover damage to the Windows, but we could add that for 8 euros/day. No thanks. Everything had a fee & it ultimately took us more than 30 minutes at the desk just to get paperwork filled out & guarantee on our credit card for "...any damage to the Windows".
We made a relatively quick stop at the monastery at Montserrat to see the Black Madonna, which dates back to the 12th century. The monastery is set in the mountains about 45 minutes outside Barcelona and is the most important religious retreat in Catalonia. The setting is quite striking, but even in our "shoulder-season" visit, we found the crowds, well, too crowded.
Poppies! Fields of red poppies, growing wild along the road and within fields of wheat, creating rivers of red. We had to stop and walk into the rivers. Kodak moments & memories.
El Pont de Suert: about 3 hours driving time from Montserrat we're in the foothills of the Pyrenees, arriving at our stop for the evening, El Pedris. It is a quaint little guest house with a charming hostess, who speaks very little English, yet easily conveys an apparent delight in the 3 of us staying in her rooms. Our manual transmission Nissan Juke ends up being parked a little too close for comfort (let's say,2") from the car in front of us, on a down-hill grade, and although we got into the space, we feel we may have to get creative in order to get out. Our hostess quickly evaluates the situation, shrugs her shoulders, and says something like it will work itself out in the morning. And sure enough, it does. In the morning when we go out to check, the car that was perilously close to our front bumper the night before has disappeared. Magic! More magic as our hostess presents us with gluten free bread & cornbread which she has baked especially for us that morning. She offers a hearty breakfast & then welcomes us to take any left overs for our lunch. El Pont de Suert was a little odd at night. As we looked for somewhere to have dinner, we noticed only men on the street, no women. The next morning, however, was the open air market and there the gender mix was back in comforting, full form.
Boi: we drive further into the Pyrenees, narrow 2-lane roads, glacier covered mountains in the distance. But we have blue skies and fluffy clouds and the beautiful and charming village of Boi from which we arrange a 3-hour hike into Aiguestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. First we take a taxi about 20minutes into the park to a trail head. No private autos allowed - good plan as road is very narrow, with steep drop offs, the kind of road only a Pyrenees taxi driver dare negotiate. Once at the trailhead we had 3 hours to follow the river on a well-groomed trail to Long Lake, that is, we started about 1PM & had to be back at 4PM to catch the taxi going back. If we were late we would have to wait until 6PM & we were driving on that night to stay on the other side of the park. It would be no fun and defeat our purpose of enjoying the stunning scenery if we were negotiating these mountain roads at night. The hike was relatively easy although gentle hills at 5000' altitude were still a little challenging for one of us. A bunny can only hop so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment