The Iberian Wandering - Days 21&22: Spanish Pyrenees

Sunday, May 11

The weather was not great, very cloudy with some crappy lighting.  We stayed close to the town of Ainsa where we're staying 

To top it all off, low hanging clouds hid the taller peaks and mountains so we ended up aborting the drive to see the peaks.

A nearby church, clouds meant no 

Views of the valley below.

The old section of the walled town of Ainsa.  Very picturesque and compact.

A view of the church through firing port on city wall:

We ate lunch at the Pizza

Place in the Plaza Mayor

View of Picon de Libro

Main church tower

We spent the afternoon futzing with and failing to get the small washer/drier unit in the hotel to dry clothes fully.

Washing functions were fine but drying, not so much.  The last load was still slightly damp so we just hung things up for drying overnight.

Monday, May 12

A much clearer day today for pics.  We left after some in-room instant coffee to hit the road into the mountains.  This resulted in very light traffic and good lighting at first.

Our morning view of Old Ainsa

As we motored on the A-138 towards the Pineta Valley and the vicinity of Monte Perdido (highest peak in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park), we stopped for pics:

Near a small hydroelectric dam:

Samsung S24+

Sony A6000

Las Tres Sorores

Turned out we couldn't see Monte Perdido from the Parador's location.

Parking area / main trailhead 

Parking Monitors

Pico Pineta

      Punta Felqueral is obscured by clouds

We found that the road ends at a Parador (national hotel), which was being worked on.  No way to drive further in so we turned around and headed to Tella-Sin.

It turned out not to be the hillside town we'd spotted on the way to Pineta. (Martha thinks it was Laspuña)...still, a neat hilltop village:

The town's claim to fame are ancient Dolmens and tours involving the Cave of the Bear (Cueva del Oso).  We passed on both.

We then drove back to the N-260 road and had lunch in Broto as we headed towards the western edge of the park.

Some stuff we came across along the way:

Snow melt current on

Rio Ara

We reached Torla and the skies had turned overcast.  Still, we got "the view" with no walking and no issues:

Torla is defined as the Gateway town into the national park.  We were able to drive all the way to the main trailhead area.  In high season, you have to use a shuttle bus to get to said trail head.  

Driving back on the HU-631, spanning the Vio Valley.  Just as full of twists as the N-260 but less traffic.  More cows than cars!

Near Añisclo Canyon

A good day of hunting for Peak Pics!

We leave on Tuesday for the French city of Lourdes.  The plan is to check out the French side of the Pyrenees.