Tuna
Tuesday 27 May 2014
Today was a transfer day. We were leaving the beautiful snow-capped mountains of the Pyrenees at Jaca, for the beautiful mountains of the Pyrenees at Olot. The scenery driving out of Jaca was spectacular. You climb quickly and get a decent view back over all the Pyrenees, the big hills in the back covered in snow. Unfortunately as The Albatross was driving and the roads were windy, he didn’t get to appreciate as much as I did. How stunning it was. There was a really long 4.5km tunnel that was cool.
When it got flat, I had a drive on the straight 120km/hr autovia. The scenery by this stage had turned to boring and flat.
So after a few hours of driving we got to Olot, a mid size town in the middle of volcanos. Very pretty, but the volcanos aren’t quite up to the speckiness of those in Chile. Also, they aren’t pointy, but flat, and they are no longer active, which is a bonus in some respects.
We checked into our apartment, which is lovely and spacious, has nice views of the mountains and ‘el gatos’ (cats) prowling around the front lawn. We needed some provisions for dinner and snacking, so we walked down to the big supermarket about 10 minutes away. Finding all that we needed, we then stood and waited awhile until the weather eased. It had started to rain, then it rained a bit harder, then it started to hail, then it started to hail harder and bigger! Give it 10 minutes and it eased a bit and we could make it back without getting too soaked. Should have taken our coats, or even driven!
There is a local volcano in the middle of town, so we thought we should walk up it. It was on 4pm and we needed to do some form of exercise today apart from bottom-sitting. The volcano isn’t that high, but a steep little walk. There is an old church at the top, surrounded by a fortified wall, and there were lovely views back over town. By this time we were a little over being slightly damp, so we meandered back through the city centre to Scratchy (the name The Albatross has given the car).
Time for a nice bottle of local vino, local cheese and paté.
