Perfect sunny morning – promises a great day and more sunburns.
Driving about 30 km to the next valley and to the pass of Agnel. Agnel is at 2740m height on Italian border. Popular between cyclists who can torture themselves while pedaling uphill and then others when driving down at an extreme speed (they do the same at other mountain passes as well). Looks like motorbikers love to drive here as well.
Some rehabilitation for today. To the valley for Guillestre the stronghold in Mont-Vauban.
Lovely old town in Guillestre (tiny, beautiful, a lot of sundials).
Then a short (an hours long) hike to the nearby hill named Pain du Sucre (sugar loaf – we will climb another one in a few days). Nice view from the top to the Guillestre, the stronghold and gorge Guilla. The stronghold is next to Guillestre on a rocky hill. The rocky walls of the Guilla gorge from the one side, rocks from the opposite side. One can access the strongho;d only by the narrow winding road. We are lucky they do not guard the stronghold anymore 🙂 .
We leave the car at the gate (only locals allowed) and enter the walls across the pending bridge. The stronghold is huge – we walk and walk by the walls to make it around. Another wall appears in our sight when we start to believe we have done it. The town with a number of streets inside (one featuring artisans shops). Several hotels for those who would admire to live inside stronghold and to drive the narrow steep road and gates across the pending bridge two times per day).
The walk inside the walls and the sun that throws a heat on us all the time is the reason to find something refreshing. So we drive to Lac de Serre-Ponçon. We put it on our schedule because of the St. Michaels church that is built on a tiny island. Some 30km drive to the lake mainly by highway (by a bridge over the lake as well). The lake is full of yachts, kiteboards and other accessories. We find the church but one can admire it only from the lake shore – to far to swim there. The water is warm but the swimmers are rear.
On a way back near Guillestre we drop in to a place with charming name – the hot springs. Several small basins with a warm water here indeed. The spring brings a water to the basins. The water is brownish and perhaps great for our health. It heals all kinds of diseases (at least that’s what we read here 🙂 ).
We return in Abries when it is dark already – a perfect rehabilitation.
The central part of Pyrenees is our destination for this journey – the National park of Aigestortes. We are staying in Vielha – the Spanish/Catalan town at the northern slopes of Pyrenees near the French river Garonne.
It is Friday, September 6th 2013 as we fly AirBaltic to Barcelona. Excellent views on Alps and Barcelona from above during the flight.
Its +26 Celsius in Barcelona. We take a white KIA Ceed at a car rent and take a highway to Lleida, then a local road to Vielha – 3 hours in total to get there. The mountains start soon after Lleida, we drive through more than 10 tunnels the last one being more than 5km long. At the other end of the last tunnel we arrive in Aran valley (Val d’Aran). This is an interesting region – the only one Spanish territory on the Northern slopes of Pyrenees. The NW of Catalonia is located here and one of the main French rivers – Garonne begins in this valley. Aran valley was not connected by roads to the rest of Spain until the Vielha tunnel was built.
We settle in two store apartment at a shore of Garonne featuring a spacy guest room and a mountain view. A little stroll in Vielha is the perfect activity to end the day with.