Himalaia Soldeu Hotel

... in Europe, especially in a tourist-only ski resort. I even have WiFi in my room, and the lady calls it ‘wee-fee’, first time I’ve heard that, even in a Latin-speaking country.

The weather is beautiful, Indian summer in a mountain town, so you can hardly beat that. My hiking boots and down vest feel almost in sync for the first time in ages. My ‘travel clothes’ are really similar to others ...

we've had some problems getting to this stage, and so haven't been able to keep the blog up to date. So far everything is now working out fine, and we have arrived on site to be able to set up in the light, and the campsite has electricity, so we are ok to get written up today. Hopefully ...

WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID: The Col de Port (1249m) is a beautiful climb and has a great descent to Tarascon.

Unfortunately the rest of the days route is on fairly major roads filed with cars heading for
Andorra to do some tax free shopping. Soaking your feet in thermal waters in Ax is highly
recommended, before taking on the seemingly endless Col de Puymorens (1915m).

We are now ...

Annoying new Aussie girls in the room last night ... they showed up around 1 AM, and made a huge racket unpacking and getting ready for bed. The night receptionist even came up, asking them to be quiet because they were disturbing the other sleeping guests in the room, to which they replied "They're not sleeping, they're talking to us!" Uh ... most were either sleeping, or trying to sleep, until you came in ... The funny thing is they were nice enough, but ...

The monastery-turned-hotel Núria, north of the town of Ribes de Freser in Catalunya, Spain is an excellent destination for walking. There are several peaks around the hotel, enabling you to do comfortable and rewarding day-treks. Some peaks: Noufonts, Noucreus, Eyne, Puigmal... (can't remember all names right now). Altitude from 2000 to 3000 meters.

... Now.... 37 years ago Shane, Jerry and I thought we were in this village. We all have memories of being in Andorra da Ville but.... it weren't anything like what we see outside. Totally confused we spoke with a local today and discovered that all those years ago we were really only in a ski village near the border. We never did come this far in. Tomorrow we take that highway out of the country to France. Hopefully our fuzzy memories will be become clearer.

... Festa Brava hotel. I seriously considered going snowboarding, but it was just too late in the season and the snow, though plentiful, was just too wet for my tastes. So I wandered about town, dodging the hourly rainfall and taking in the sights. Not too much to be seen here, but nice to look around a place I had no idea even existed!

I woke up at about half past five and pulled myself from my bed- half five really is far too early after a night on the town. After getting massively lost in the corridors of the Centric Hostel (painting all the doors the same colour was a cruel trick) I eventually stumbled down to the desk and checked out. About ten minutes later I got to the bus station and managed to procure a bottle of water from the one vending machine in the whole place that actually worked (if you get ...

... and start the ascent. At first it's decent climbing but by the end it's a hands and feet job, more like scrambling stuck to the side of the hill. However it was well worth it when we got there as it was getting close to sunset and the views were ace, not a cloud in the sky. Ironically we find a much easier way to descend but I guess the ascent was half the fun. After another chilled evening we awake early and say our goodbyes as Luis goes to work and the ...

... us below. The forest blended tastily from green to black to gray to green as it ventured into mountains. I was so happy to see trees! I just wanted to run into the forest and go searching for foxes and rabbits. The next chair-lift took us over a desert-like field of snow interrupted by Sahara-sandy boulders. When we got to the chair-lift´s end, the weather attacked us. Wind and sideways-falling snow pulled itself at us unrelentingly. We got knocked off-balance if we ...