Sunday, July 21, 2013

Heidi Hikes the Pyrenees


Before I came to Spain, I used the google earth program to explore Barcelona and the surrounding areas in attempt to familiarize myself with the layout of the country.  It's embarrassing how little I know about the geography of Spain.  Sometimes I think my mental world map is based on the board game Risk, which lacks any details.  I had a vague understanding of the location of even cities that I've heard of, like Barcelona and Madrid, and I have heard of the Pyrenees mountains, but didn't really appreciate them or their location.  But, after spending some time spying on Spain by satellite, I was excited about the Pyrenees and hopeful that we could travel into the mountains to do some hiking.  I brought my hiking shoes, just in case.  


Since Saturday was a free day, and we love to take breaks from the city when we can, we took a train out of town.  I know it's terrible to take photos through banged up train window glass, but I wanted to capture some of the Spanish countryside landscapes that we were traveling through.  As we left the pavement of the city behind, the relatively flat lands outside the city were mostly agricultural, and and the hay and grain fields that we passed with in various stages of harvest, with either rows of cut stalks or bales sprinkled on umber colored fields.  When I look at maps of Barcelona I can tell that the city expanded into flat ag lands, because the city streets are straight as arrows and the city design is a very uptight and a blessedly user friendly grid pattern.  Only in places where there is hilly topography do the streets begin to wind and curve.  


As we left the flat lands behind, we entered a landscape of deciduous forests on mountains, with cobble streams in valleys, and in flat valley bottoms and adjacent to the rails were sprinkled what look to be large gardens, or maybe small vegetable farms.  Like the one in the photo above, these farms were subdivided into numerous plots, with little greenhouse crop covers.  They were very farmville-like in their organization.  


At Ribes de Freser, which had the cutest little train station perched on the edge of the town, which was perched on the edge of a mountain, we got on the Rack Railway, which is a train that climbs high into the mountains and ends at our chosen destination, Vall de Nuria.  



We passed through some lovely mountain towns on the way.  


The train up the mountain was fantastic!  It was one of the those trains that always seems a few inches from tumbling off the mountain, which makes it thrilling.  We passed over narrow trestles, and sometimes took such tight curves that I could see the other end of the train passing in front of the window.  


The vegetation changed from the deciduous forests of the mountain towns, to scrubby pines and shrubs, with mostly exposed rock.  Brandon was the only of of our small group who spied what he thought was a mountain goat.  We found out later that it was a Isard, which looks like what would happen if a goat and a gazelle had a love child.  


Oh!  The brisk mountain air!  After so much time at sea level in sunny Barcelona we felt like mountain animals returning to our natural habitats.  Unlike some of our travelling companions who have less body mass and, or compared to Brandon, less body hair, we felt like the cold air and thin sunlight was heaven.  Who needs beaches when there are mountains!  Mountains that have little pockets of snow, even.  I was ready to change my name to Heidi and really wished I could yodel.  


Vall de Nuria used to be a monastery, but it was ransacked by banditos, and has since been renovated and is now a hotel and ski lodge.  The church is still there, as is the hermitage, and other original buildings and springs.  Since it's not ski season, they have ponies for trail rides, camping areas, and the hikers use the ski lift to get to a hostel on the mountain and to get to some trail heads.  They have a small museum and keep some of the native donkeys and the traditional mountain dogs.  I've seen Great Pyrenees dogs before, but it was cool to see one in the mountains they were bred in.  



Look how high we climbed!  In the photo above you can see the church and monastery where we started, way below our trail.  


Trail maps are hard enough to understand when they are in a language I can read.  Eventually we just gave up trying to figure out what trail we were on and just enjoyed the views.  Hiking with church bells sounding down the valley was a new experience for me. 


Sometimes we would pass small caves with stone doors.  I really hope someone didn't have to live in these.  



The vegetation on the mountains has to be tough because there are frequent avalanches.  


We drank water from the springs, which we were told was okay to do.  It was cold and tasty.  



We hiked all morning then went down to the resort for lunch before taking the ski lift up the other side of the valley.  A herd of cows keeps the grass trimmed on the slopes.  



Once we got off the ski lift, it began to rain, and then it began to hail!  We took refuge in the youth hostel and watched the hail pile up around the downspouts and pelt the cows while we drank coffee and enjoyed the view.  Eventually we had to ask someone to send a jeep from the resort up to get us before we missed the last train home. 


On the train ride down the mountain poor Brandon had motion sickness, and spent the next nearly three hours wishing for unconsciousness.  But even that didn't spoil it for us, although I don't think we will be going anywhere by train for a while.  

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