Hotel Bringue Ordino

Today was my last full day in Andorra. There wasn't a huge amount to do. It wasn't snowing, but the wind was so fierce that it seemed like a sand storm made out of snow. I had a great time watching a group of cows grazing in snow up to their stomachs. Other than that I had a walk around town and spent about an hour at a ...

... top of the first mountain, he took a little nap while the bus waited for whoever might want to get on before the departure time. As we praddled along towards Canillo I mused about our heroic bus driver, and what he might be like. I supposed his salsa music puts him in the zone in the same was as listening to “Highway to the Danger Zone” made the guys from Top Gun fly well. Maybe when he got done with his route there were women in bikinis with ...

Le plan original était d'aller à Cahors visiter un vignoble, mais puisque l'on n'a pas de voiture (considérant que les vignes sont dans des champs et non au centre ville) on n'a pas pu y aller. J'ai trouvé sur internet qu'il y avait plusieurs grotte dans le sud donc on en a choisi une pas trop trop loin et on a acheté nos billet de train.

Tarascon sur Ariege est à environ 1h15 de toulouse donc ca se fait quand meme bien. C'est un ...

... What it does mean, we're not quite sure of yet. Still dealing with the shock and going over a few different options. All while kicking myself for not realizing this sooner. Only one thing is for certain - I'm not going to let this spoil our trip, and we're going to have to get cycling! (o.k., two things).

We’ve been staying in an area of the Pyrenees called Ariege which is often described as the ‘Pit’ of France. Las Laous is the name of the farm we’ve been living and locals say it means ‘Landslide’ because of it’s steep steep grade on the property. It has quite the reputation of wives running away and leaving their husbands because it’s just too harsh a living here. Hopefully this trend has ceased ...

... refrigeration for the meat. With wind-chill, that was absolutely frigid for 45 minutes! And with the winding mountain roads, the weight of the meat kept shifting into me with the occasional trotter popping out from under the covering.

Watching Austin process the carcase into usable joints of meat was truly a work of art. His knife flew, knowing exactly where to cut and slicing with one quick motion. Any small ...

... person above is literally in your hands.

All in all it was a fabulous day! Did 4 climbs in total ranging through the 5a, 5b, and 5c levels of difficulty. I wanted to try a 5, but the day went by too quickly. There was one climb that Brain was sweating out for quite awhile, but in the end his determination conquered it. Rock climbing is the perfect blend of challenge and rest in beautiful mountain settings. I may be hooked…

... between France, Spain and Andorra with 3000m peaks rising up all around. Up past charming little villages where all the little homes are made of stone stacked upon one another with only the slate rooves peeking through.

We drove the truck as far up the road as possible, and then even a little farther than we should have. Feels like complete mountain wilderness, but there are ...

... names accompanied by dates. Locals exploring the area long ago and the first few archaeologists to grace the entrance marked their territory with the addition of a slightly more distinguished ‘so-in-so was here’. Dates of 1655 and 1848, with the earliest being 1602. Of course no one is allowed to do this anymore since the cave has been open to the public, but I think that my name and date would be very interesting in 300 years time!

... al voltant de Nadal, a la meva pàgina web. Ahir força cansat... me'n vaig anar a dormir a les 6 de la tarda i m'he llevat avui a les 11 del matí (amb una pausa de 2 a 3 de la matinada per menjar-me un plat de macarrons... és el que té el jet-lag). Tot i que la majoria les podreu veure, en vistes de les queixes, aquesta setmana espero penjar-ne una bona sel·lecció a la meva pàgina web. I ara ...