This was a relatively long trip: we landed in Barcelona and immediately took the train(s) from Barcelona to Lourdes in France. Spent a day in Lourdes, site of the famous catholic church of Notre Dame. The day after, the rest of our group (Dev, Terri, Linsley and Bryan) arrived, and we drove to the village of Cauterets, the starting point of our six-day hike, which took us from France into the village of Torla in Spain. From Torla we drove to Zaragoza, and from there the train to Barcelona, where we spent almost five days mostly doing the typical tourist thing.
The Food
For the hiking, we stayed mostly in villages, but these are places used to getting tourists: hikers in summer and skiers in winters. So food was generally decent,
typical French restaurants. One day we stayed in a refuge up in the mountains (Refuge de Basselance) which is pretty basic: we slept in shared bunks, eleven in a room,
and the food was simple hearty soup - mode more tasty by the fatigue. Over in Barcelona, we tried a couple of high rated restaurants
(Hisop - which was very excellent, and Caelis - which was probably ok). We also ate twice in a simple Tapas bar, Tapas Guell, which is excellent.
As with many European tours, we had excellent ice cream in many places, and excellent coffee.
Hiking:
The hiking was a guided tour with an American company, Ryder Walker. We were six, and had two guides (Dave Nesis and Astid Renet). Both were super fit (ultra-marathon fit),
and very chilled. The hiking itself was a bit easier, in principle, compared to some of our past trips. Howvever, I suffered cramps on the first two days, partly
because it really was hot, and I was sweating way more than I was hydrating. The details (also can be seen from the Ryder-Walker site) are:
Day 1. Loop hike from Cauterets to the lakes of Pourtet and back to Cauterets. Stay in Hotel Pardoue.
Day 2. Hike form Cauterets to the refuge in Baysselence (stay in the refuge).
Day 3. Hike from Baysselence to the village of Gavernie (stay in Hotel Vignemale).
Day 4. Loop hike on the cirque de Gavernie.
Day 5. Drive up the hill to parc Nationale des Pyrenees Occidnetales and hike across the France-Spain border and on to the village of Torla in Spain.
Day 6. Hike in the Torla in the Valle de Ordesa.
About the photos
Gear: Most photos are from my Sony A7 IV with the Sony 20-70 F4 lens. Some were just taken with either my or Kitty's phone.
