Hit the Road Jackito

Buenas todo el mundo-

We saw some serious pavement two weeks ago, putting 1500+ km on our roommates' car in 6 days. Semana Santa (Easter Week) provided the perfect opportunity for Cor and I to get out of Alcala with Karin, our roommate, and a friend named Paz (which means "peace" in Spanish, and we affectionately called her "PazDog"). We decided on heading north to explore some of the Pyrenees, for a day of skiing, as well as, to the northeast coast to relax at a beach town in Catalonia. It ended up being an amazing trip, full of laughs, car sickness, beautiful, snowy mountains, Mediterranean villages, sunshine, and Karin's crazy driving!

We took off Monday morning and made our way 6 hours to the town of Torla, our first stop on the trip, and our base for a couple of nights. Ahh, the mountain air and majestic rocky cliffs that towered over us were a refreshing change to the traffic and city life of Madrid. Torla is small and super quiet and in the northern part of the region of Aragon, right out of Lord of the Rings. We found the keys to our place at the local butcher, a shop tucked away off the main cobblestone drag in this granite built town. The Pyrenean style of architecture made use of the abundant rock and blended well with the atmosphere of the mountainous landscape. It made us miss Colorado for sure. Torla fills up during the summer months as it sits at the base of a national park that is only accessible by bus. Fortunately for us, the bus season started the week following our visit so we were able to explore the park and some surrounding areas with Karin's car. Believe it or not, we even off-roaded a little bit and were glad that everything was still in tact with the car's under carriage. (To some this might bring back memories of off-roading my old subaru and losing a muffler on a trip to Capitol Peak.) Karin was more than generous with use of her car and we were rewarded with some amazing scenery.

I've been dealing with some depression this year due to the heavy snow falls in Colorado and impossibility of me enjoying it. But I had one day of recovery at a ski station called Formigal. The snow was actually pretty good for us even though Colorado has been selfish with the snow this year. It was a little unnerving driving up to the resort and seeing dry hills, but taking the lift up our perspective realized that there was much more to the mountain. We had a blast snowboarding half the day and skiing the other half. Cor was adamant about getting a pic of me with the snowboard, she was so proud.

So, after skiing for the day and exploring the mountains around Torla, we took off on what became a hellish drive through mountains 8 hours to our next destination, Cadaques. I say hellish only because we struggled with bouts of car sickness, Cor mainly, because of the continuous switchbacks we were on driving through the mountains. They just kept coming. We stopped along the way in a really cool historical town called Ainsa that had remains of a castle from the 10th century. We're always amazed at the history here. Back to Cadaques, classic Mediterranean, white-colored buildings welcomed us Wednesday night along with some serious winds. The town is tucked away at the base of some more switchbacks and lines a cove along the Brave Coast (Costa Brava). The water was clear blue and the totally white painted buildings were just magical. We strolled along the beach and because we were only an hour or so from the border of France, we heard and saw a wide range of people. The artist, Salvador Dali, had a house in Cadaques and left a presence on the town with copies of his strange work all over.

From Cadaques we explored other parts of northeast Catalonia and fell in love with the villages Pals and Peratellada. Not just for the names of course, I mean who wouldn't a love a village named Pals, they just had so much character. From beautifully gardened, green, lush courtyards, to romantic, vine-covered stone walls, castle cafes, and unique hand-made crafts they quickly became our Spanish favorites so far in this country. We left Catalonia Saturday morning and made our way back to Alcala with a detour through the medieval town of Girona.

All in all, this packed week was one to remember and full of those surprises you dream of when venturing in far off lands. It was so fun to stumble upon places with Karin and Paz, to have Paz, who is a native to Spain, to give us background information on certain towns and and translate when we didn't understand, and of course to sample different hams from each village. Catalonia is a must see! Tons of pics to enjoy at your leisure, links below.

Que tengan un gran fin de semana! (Hope you have a great weekend!)

tim and COR

LOOK AT PICTURES (here)