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Published: December 4th 2016
The plan was to go south to Tarragona. We had visited the city before and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, so Wendy the Navigator took on the task of finding a suitable campsite and she did this to the best of her ability. On leaving Blanes she entered the co-ordinates into the satnav and I was expecting a journey of nearly three hours. We were all astounded when the estimated journey time was a mere 20 minutes and on investigation it was discovered that Wendy had found a campsite on Tarragona Avenue in the next town 15km away. It was agreed that this was not ideal and a dramatic change of plan was required.
Changing the plan dramatically brought forth very improved results. We ended up driving inland to the foothills of The Pyrenees and a small village called Sant Llorenc de Montgai which has more letters in its name than people living there!!! It was Halloween (hmmm that shows off my up to date blog) and the receptionist at the campsite warned us that we may encounter a few children knocking on our door for trick or treat. A more accurate description was a horde of marauding sugar crazed youths hammering
of the van bonnet demanding a blood sacrifice!!! We gave them a few sweets each instead.
What made this place so special was a hike we discovered around the lake across the road from the site. We had explored part of the path on our first day but soon found ourselves on a three hour stomp surrounded by beautiful mountains and a whole host of migrating birds stopping over for a rest and bite to eat. It was very hot and your correspondent’s mind turned to thoughts of beer. Happily he could see a bar on the other side of the lake, but unhappily there was still another 45 minute walk to a bridge and then another 45 minutes back to the bar – luckily it was still open when we got there.
Our next port of call was not a port at all but a town called Nuevalos still in mountain territory. Our main objective was to visit the Monasterio de Piedro based on a recommendation of a pair of fellow travellers. I call them that as I have no recollection of their names or even where we met them but am sure they were thoroughly decent
people. Their recommendation was a very good one as we spent several hours walking around the grounds amongst several waterfalls and spectacular scenery as well as exploring the Monestario itself. The museum of wine production in the area particularly caught my attention.
A hankering to revisit Madrid drew us south and we pitched up in a town called Aranjuez as we could get a train from there into the city and Cusco is allowed on trains. Also known as the Royal Site of Aranjuez as it is one of the royal estates of the Spanish Crown. Indeed, the king and queen of Spain turned up on one of the days we ventured in to Madrid – they obviously had heard we were in town and had come to say hello!!!! Sadly we were sat in Plaza Mayor having lunch at the time. Aranjuez is a wonderful place to wander around – so we did!! It was here that Wendy learnt the lesson of waiting to see what tapas is provided before ordering a meal – not that it stopped her eating both mind you.
Cordoba is a city in Spain that we have never visited and so in
the next blog we will do just that.
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Taffy
non-member comment
Rocky Mountain way
A short one is better than nothing. Keep going! X