Ken's 2nd ancestral tour through Spain -
Day Two Formiguères to Huesca

La Llagonne

Monday 10th May 2004 Breakfast at 08:15 after the landlady had been into Town (such as it is) to get some fresh bread, which was very nice with jam & yoghurt. This is a ski village & evidence of runs could be seen on the hill sides, some still apparently complete. Grey day. The Col de Quillane is 1713m after a dammed-up lake but this is a bleak scene. La Llagonne is the first village. We ran down to Mont Louis, which is where Cerdagne proper starts with snow covered mountains forming its South wall. The valley is as impressive as I had expected.

We avoided Puigcerda but stopped to have a good look at Bellver, which has much of its wall still extant & work seemed to be going on to tidy it up.

Bellver	In Bellver	Top of Bellver
The gorge out of Cerdanya	Then, the valley closes in & there is another impressive gorge going down for some distance before it opens out rather towards La Seu d'Urgell. The guidebook makes big claims for this town but we could not find the old part at all driving into it.	Sort in Pallars

A little way South, the road, which still keeps the number N260, turns off to the right at Adrall for a tortuous climb over the Colle del Canto. This was the border with Pallars, which is where Dadildis, the daughter of Lope of Bigorre & the mother of Sanche Garcis, the 'Optimo Imperator' was 'of'. The road ran down in more zig-zags to Sort, the capital of Upper Pallars. We stopped for coffee. The town had an unexpected layout, the main street being acros the valley with a sort of shallow gorge on its South side. Rather attractive. Pallars seemed not to be anyone's first choice for agricultural production, being very rocky.

Gerri - Santa Maria 1149

Gerri

Lower Pallars

Before long, we stopped in a very pretty place called Gerri de la Sal, which had a huge church across the valley. The road ran south to La Pobla de Segur, an industrial place at the head of a dammed lake. Before Tremp, the road was being much improved but we had to drive on uncovered base soil in parts. We had hoped to have lunch in Tremp but it was not very nice & there was nowhere to park, so we carried on for a mile & turned right onto the C1311. This is another pass road & wound pleasantly up through land which was grand but not at all productive, to the pass. Up to here & all the way so far, apart from the road works, the road had been of excellent quality &, given the slight traffic, seemingly better than could be justified by economics. However, the road from what appeared to be the boundary between Pallars & Ribagorza, was rather rough. There were surveyors around in bright jackets, though, so maybe it is due for a birthday soon. The road meets the valley by the Noguera Ribagorcana river at Puente de Montanana. Here, at 1420 & after two restaurants claimed to be closed, we managed to get lunch, salad & rabbit, at the Hostel Isidro for Euros 26.75 = 29 with tip. The girls had a book with the names of foods in six languages, so ordering was not too difficult. We had over one-third of the day's driving to do still but the roads were no longer hard work. There was some rain but nothing to ruin the day, as there was now also sunshine. Benabarre was worth a photo.

Benabarre

Cinca Gorge & Valley

It was very pretty along by the Embalse de Barasons, then dramatic down to the Cinca River, with many tunnels (far more than marked on the map - there had been several tunnels in Pallars as well). The Cinca was very spread out across its valley.

Then, we were able to avoid Barbastro, which looked grotty.

Huesca St Peter's

Huesca Cathedral

Huesca Cathedral

Then, we had a pleasant, fast & undemanding drive to Huesca, where we soon found the Hostel San Marco, with a very welcoming girl on the desk, although like everyone so far, she had no English. Generally, the Spanish are rather dour. We went for a walk into the Old Town. There was a lot of new flat developments (shades of Islington!) & a gloomy cathedral. There was nowhere resembling a café, as the term is understood in the rest of Europe & we found that restaurants do not open until 9. Just as well that we had a good lunch.