The Albatross
Monday 26 May 2014
As we’re reaching the end of our travels, we thought we’d slow down and have some chill time, so were doing more apartments and staying in more rural places. Today was chilled indeed. After a very leisurely breakfast and a trip to the supermarket down the road for provisions (yummy quail legs for dinner tonight), we drove up the steep hill behind our hotel and visited Fuerte Rapitán, a late 19th Century fort. You can’t go inside, but the exterior is very impressive, with a big moat that is really heavily fortified.
Next was a quick wander into town to have a look at the Cathedral and more importantly an amazing collection of fresco’s saved from small neighbouring town churches, some dating back to 1080 AD. I’m not huge on religious art, but it was interesting watching the evolution of the frescos through seven centuries. It’s really very impressive.
Next was our main excursion of the day, a late picnic in the Pyrenees, so a 15 minute drive to a nearby town, and then another 15 minutes up to within 20 km of the French border. It was stunning scenery and we found the little park we’d identified by google maps the day before. I’d forgotten the bottle opener, but fortunately there were some poms in a camper van nearby who initially thought I was a bandit, but eventually realised I wasn’t brandishing the bottle of rose in anger. Good cheeses, cold roast lamb, duck rillettes, peppers and great bread were heartily consumed whilst the odd avalanche echoed around the valley. The weather was cool, but not too bad. This made us very happy. It was a cracking day indeed.
