365 Days of Solitude: Nire Aerolabangailua Aingirez Beteta Dago!

It's Friday (well at least it was when I started to make this post), which means it is blogging day. I'm once again traveling solo, after spending three great weeks with Jim and LeAnn. We had a great time and covered a lot of ground in the last week they were here so prepare yourself for a looooooooong post.

The Pyrenees and Boltaña:

After leaving Girona, our next major destination was the Basque region. Rather than drive the entire way all in one day we opted to break it up into three days and enjoy a few days of driving in the mountains. Our stopping point for two days was a small town in the Pyrenees called Boltaña. I took it as a bad sign that no one on our way had heard of this place (we seriously asked three different people and all just gave us an odd look), but it was a beautiful area. The flora is very reminiscent of the Gila National Forest, which immediately made it feel welcoming.

View from one of the summits during the drive

Path up to the Boltaña sanctuary and castle

Outside the Boltaña sanctuary

Back side of the sanctuary

Shot from the Boltaña sanctuary

Shot of the Pyrenees

City of Boltaña

Lunch at Casa Coronel....good stuff!

Lost mountain town

Pre-Pyrenees

Mt. Perdido, luckily I was not perdido when I took this

The town of Ainsa at sunset

Ainsa town square

San Sebastian and the Basques:

Being in the Basque region of Spain was quite the lingual adventure - and a great opportunity to pick up useful phrases like the one in the title (which roughly translates into "my hovercraft is full of eels") - and once I was safely parked, it was also an enjoyable one! It was quite an experience, driving in a big town in Europe for me - especially when I was expecting a small place (San Sebastian has apparently grown since Hemingway wrote about it way back when)! All three of us were safe, as was the car, and all present pedestrians - you can't ask for much better driving results. LeAnn and Jim, might not be able to attest as to their enjoyment of the ride - but hey, we laughed almost as much as we screamed :D
Although I was surprised with the size of San Sebastian, it is actually a very charming place, steeped in culture and history (as well as good food and drink). The only thing that was not so enjoyable was the Funicular which is a trolley that runs about 1K up Monte Urgull - in two words "tourist trap". They don't charge you when you get on (this should have been our first clue) but as soon as you get off at the top, quite the hefty price for a 5min ride. Plus, it only took us to a run down amusement park that wasn't even functioning. Nonetheless, I was happy - there were some great views from the top, and it offered a great way to see San Sebastian as a whole. We also road tripped down to Bilbao for a day to check out the Guggenheim Museum. The building is incredible, but I was a little disappointed by the museum itself for two reasons: 1) you couldn't take any pictures of the exhibits (this is the only museum I've been to that has had such a rule - seems a little overprotective to me) and 2) the entire second floor of the museum was closed to viewing. In hindsight this might not have been the worst thing, because I left without feeling overloaded by seeing art for 3+hrs but still, there might have been some interesting things there.

The Kursaal Convention Center and inlet

Unaware pedestrian

They had some cool lamp posts here

Fisherman on the north side of the bay

The water was a beautiful color - it always surprises me to see clear ocean water

Graffiti in town, the "Jimmy!" reminded me of my nickname for Jim when I was younger - "Jimmy-Joe-Jimmy!"

San Sebastian from the Castillo de Santa Cruz

Arch at the Castillo

The Basilica in San Sebastian

The San Sebastian Cathedral

How the locals spend Thursday morning......

.......seems like a sweet job!

There was a lot of incredible rock formations on and around the beach

This shows that not all graffiti is bad, and can actually improve the area that it's in!

Here's another one, that was integrated into a now defunct wall

At the Piene de los Vientos

One of the Piene

More incredible rocks

LeAnn and me happy....pre-Funicular ride

LeAnn and me, unimpressed during the Funicular ride

I guess the ride was worth it, just to get this shot!

Hmmm, haven't I seen this somewhere before? $5 to the person who leaves the first correct reference in the comments section!

The bay at sunset

Boardwalk at sunset

Day trip to Bilbao! This is outside the Guggenheim Museum.

Interesting art directly across the water from the Guggenheim

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Whao....

Oooooooh......

......aaaaaaaah!

Sign outside of an oceanography office

Mural in the old town

More street art

Sunset during the our last night in San Sebastian

Aye! This water is cold!

Yikes! Now that is a tan line

Awwwww!

Haha this one cracks me up, got to love those candid shots

More sunset

Channeling my inner Anton Corbijn

Right, I almost forgot about this! Who knows idea this was but I'm here to tell you it's awful - no on/off switch, no temp control, just a crazy hot toaster that does an equally good job on bread and fingers. NO ME GUSTA!

France and Return to Spain

At this point, Jim and LeAnn had less than a week left until they needed to be back in Barcelona in time for their flight back to the States. We decided to head to France for a day, and stop in at the Sanctuary of Lourdes (which funnily enough is located in a town named Lourdes). Some parts were quite beautiful, but overall this town was a let down. The sanctuary is supposedly a sight of many a miraculous healing, but the surrounding town is absolutely stricken with an overabundance of gift shops and trinket-peddlers. All three of us agreed that it was not a place that we would be coming back to anytime soon.

Lourdes.....yikes!

Quite the balancing act that this room is doing

The sanctuary (and one very large rosary)

The sanctuary up close

Actually a pretty cool door leading to the inside

Meranges

After a whirlwind of a day in France, we headed back to Spain for the last two days of Jim and Leann's visit. We stopped at the border town of Puigcerda and asked where a nice small town was in the area, which is how we were referred to Meranges. I can't imagine that more than fifty people live here, but it is a beautiful place. Very quite and tucked away in the mountains from the surrounding cities. It was the perfect and most peaceful way to end three weeks of a great trip together. None of us was looking forward to being back in the hustle and bustle of Barcelona after seeing such an amazing place.

The door to our hotel in Meranges

Rose hips were aplenty on the drive up the mountain

A crocus growing in the mountains

The valley as seen from Meranges

No center line or shoulder? No problem!

That's a loooooong way down

View from the refugio on top of the mountain

I couldn't believe that these were real

Traveling Solo

On Thursday I said goodbye to Jim and LeAnn and headed out into Spain on my own once again. It was a hard transition - I'd really gotten used to having familiar faces around. I was also nervous because I had decided to rent a car and drive back to the Pyrenees for a while. The only catch is that the car is a standard, and while I did learn to drive one this summer, my time behind the wheel had been limited to driving around Crested Butte. Fast forward three months are here I am on my own at the Barcelona airport having to drive out of town - but the fact that I'm sitting here able to write this is a testament to the fact that it actually turned out okay (the clutch might disagree). The day was very rainy and somewhat dreary, but I still was able to drive through some amazing countryside!