Hiked a little... up the Pyrenees.
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2011
1
17
26
Trip End
Jul 06, 2011
Pas de la Casa, Andorra
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Right up the street from us is a ski lift because people ski down these mountains during the winter, but right now, of course, it's off because it’s all grassy. So we walked up the ski lift part because it was easy, then started on our crazy adventure. Mom saw a rock house up on a hill she wanted to go to. So we were aiming for this one rock hill. We weren’t sure how to get there though, so we just went trekking. We started out on just grass, random flowers, and a simple slope. This then turned into little streams from we weren’t sure where, rockier, and more mountainous plants (they hurt more to walk through). Then we got into TONS of rocks, and found a beautiful small waterfall and stream. Problem was, we needed to cross it, and it was almost straight up and all rocks on the other side. That didn’t stop Mom from immediately hopping across the rocks. Then Madison went, and I handed her the camera, then I went, and surprisingly didn’t fall, even though on the other side you literally had to climb up, with your hands holding onto the thick flower bushes to get yourself up. Once Madeline and Spencer got over, we started heading up a pretty steep hill with rocks and lots of the mountain-y plants. There were TONS of bugs and we all probably have scratches everywhere. Once we went far enough up, we found a rock road. This is where Madeline and Spencer decided to head back, on that road, because it did connect to where we came up the ski slope kind of.
Madison, Mom, and I kept on trekking towards the stone house. Mom got really ahead of Madison and I because we kept getting distracted by cool rocks (we found Pride Rock, seriously), and taking stupid pictures. We got up to the stone house, where Mom was waiting for us and just took a break. The stone house is just like an outpost to watch the ski slopes I think, but from here you could see all of the city, the mountains, etc. It was beautiful. Then Madison and I decided we wanted to climb this rocky part right by where we were sitting. This part was ALL rocks, not a mix like everything else. And big rocks. I got about halfway up before I chickened out. We got to a point where there were big gaping holes between rocks, and I went down saying "I’ve seen previews for 127 hours! I’m not doin’ it!" Madison, though, had a goal rock she wanted to get up too, and eventually she did. Then she came back down.
We decided we shouldn’t go down the way we came, and saw a road we thought we could get to on the other side of a kind of gorge thing. So we just started heading down from the stone house in the direction we thought we should go. Man. Did we pick the wrong direction. Hardcore. If we would have just walked a little more up on the road past the house, it would have connected to the road we were seeing. But no. We decided to scale the side of the gorge to get to that stupid road. It was EVIL. Parts of it, Madison and I were on our butts sliding down rocks. Mom probably did too, but she went ahead of us to see if you actually could get across it. We did get across it, then crossed a stream to get to the road. The “road” was actually a ski path that we ended up on. But it took us all the way to town. We came into town right by a ton of restaurants and realized we were STARVING. So, we found one right by our hotel and had their menu del dia type thing. Madison and I had a “duck salad” for our first plate, which was lettuce with duck chicarones on it. It was amazing. Mom had a salad with blue cheese on it (she said it was good, I’ll trust her word). Then for the second plate, Madison and I got some beef with a mushroom and onion sauce on it with fries. That was good too. Mom got duck, that was so well cooked it fell right off the bone. Then for dessert we had apple pie, and Madison had a chocolate mousse. All of it was fabulous, especially after our insane 2.5 hour hike.
When we got back to the apartment, Madison and Mom crashed for naps, I read my book, and Spencer and Madeline were already here napping after having gone shopping for some more stuff. Anna was just reading her book because her back still hurts. The napping adventure lasted for quite a while. Mom and I went on another walk, then came back, then we all decided to meet at 7 for dinner, and Mom and I went on another walk. They appear to eat dinner early here, not Spain time, so that’s why we went so early.
For dinner we found a place, and Madison got a margarita pizza (cheese and tomato), Spencer got a pepperoni type one (tomato, cheese, and salami), Mom got a “mountain” pizza (cheese, tomato, onion, bacon, and goat cheese), Madeline got a salmon pasta, Anna got a salad with duck breast and gizzards on it, and I got roasted duck breast. Everything was good and everyone liked what they had. We got free “shots” at the end. Really, they were some kind of apple liquor that you sip on. I liked them, and Mom even liked them.
Picture link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1765784871411.2067972.1442820629&l=8f0a831e84
Comments
I went hiking today. There was 3 ft of snow in places at the top but it was 90 degrees out so the surface of the snow was actually hot which is incredibly trippy.
also, I love that you mention all of the food. If I have one big regret, it's not spending enough money on food when I was traveling.