For this years vacation extravaganza, Sarah and I had originally planned to head down to Peru to do a few different trails in the Andes. After looking at ticket prices, however, we decided that Peru was too expensive. I pulled up the Kayak Explore site and decided we would fly to the cheapest place we could find, and plan the hike from there. Turns out, Barcelona was the cheapest ticket in July.
Barcelona? No problem, that's near the Pyrenees Alps. We pulled out our Life List and look at what was closest to Barcelona. The three trails that were the closest, and are closely related to each other, were the Grande Randonee (GR) 10 in France, the GR 11 in Spain, and the Pyrenees Haute Route (abbreviated HRP.) All three trails start at the Atlantic, traverse the Pyrenees and end at the Mediterranean Sea. As you might expect, the HRP is right between the two, taking a generally high route right along the French/Spanish border.
As you could probably tell from the title of this post, we chose the HRP for our trip. After much planning (well, not really) our trip began on the 18th of July, and it did not start well. We flew American Airlines from Denver to Miami and the on to Barcelona. The first flight went fine, but the second flight was awful. After we sat down, I noticed that the TV closest to us didn't work. No biggie, I can just look at the next one. Then I tried to plug in my headphones. The entire row of headphone jacks was dead. No problem, I can just read my book then since I can't watch the movie or listed to the music. All of the lights in our row were dead as well. WTF! When I spend $1000 on a ticket, there are a few things that I expect. TV, sound, and a reading light are right at the top of that list. Fail for American Airlines.
We eventually arrive in Barcelona, and since we carried on our backpacks, we headed straight to customs which we passed with no issue. We knew that we had a handful of buses that we needed to catch in order to get to Candanchu that night, which is where our hotel reservation was. First we had to take a bus to the other terminal where the train station was. As we arrive at the train station, we realize we probably don't have time to catch the train. Plan B: run back to the terminal and grab a taxi. Luckily for us, the traffic was horrible due to an accident and we barely made our bus, arriving with about 5 minutes to spare.
The first bus ride was about 3 hours and got us to the town of Huesca. That is where our planning ended. We went into the bus station, knowing that we had to get to the town of Jaca next. Luckily for us, a bus was leaving for Jaca within 20 minutes. Nice! We grab that bus and an hour later arrive in the town of Jaca.
Jaca was a larger town, so we knew that we needed to take advantage and buy supplies. We hunted down a few stores and bought fresh bread, chorizo, and a pocket knife. After that, we had a 3 hour wait until the next bus.
After burning time walking around town, checking out the historic building, we finally caught the bus for the 45 minute ride up to Candanchu. We arrive at our hotel, Hotel Edelweiss, at around 8pm, had a quick look around town, and headed to bed for one final night on a real mattress.
The whole day felt like an episode from The Amazing Race. Lots of running, poor Spanish, and basically fumbling about trying to get where we needed to go. In the end we made it, and slept like babies for the rest of the night.
Links:
Day 0
Day 1
Barcelona? No problem, that's near the Pyrenees Alps. We pulled out our Life List and look at what was closest to Barcelona. The three trails that were the closest, and are closely related to each other, were the Grande Randonee (GR) 10 in France, the GR 11 in Spain, and the Pyrenees Haute Route (abbreviated HRP.) All three trails start at the Atlantic, traverse the Pyrenees and end at the Mediterranean Sea. As you might expect, the HRP is right between the two, taking a generally high route right along the French/Spanish border.
As you could probably tell from the title of this post, we chose the HRP for our trip. After much planning (well, not really) our trip began on the 18th of July, and it did not start well. We flew American Airlines from Denver to Miami and the on to Barcelona. The first flight went fine, but the second flight was awful. After we sat down, I noticed that the TV closest to us didn't work. No biggie, I can just look at the next one. Then I tried to plug in my headphones. The entire row of headphone jacks was dead. No problem, I can just read my book then since I can't watch the movie or listed to the music. All of the lights in our row were dead as well. WTF! When I spend $1000 on a ticket, there are a few things that I expect. TV, sound, and a reading light are right at the top of that list. Fail for American Airlines.
We eventually arrive in Barcelona, and since we carried on our backpacks, we headed straight to customs which we passed with no issue. We knew that we had a handful of buses that we needed to catch in order to get to Candanchu that night, which is where our hotel reservation was. First we had to take a bus to the other terminal where the train station was. As we arrive at the train station, we realize we probably don't have time to catch the train. Plan B: run back to the terminal and grab a taxi. Luckily for us, the traffic was horrible due to an accident and we barely made our bus, arriving with about 5 minutes to spare.
The first bus ride was about 3 hours and got us to the town of Huesca. That is where our planning ended. We went into the bus station, knowing that we had to get to the town of Jaca next. Luckily for us, a bus was leaving for Jaca within 20 minutes. Nice! We grab that bus and an hour later arrive in the town of Jaca.
Jaca was a larger town, so we knew that we needed to take advantage and buy supplies. We hunted down a few stores and bought fresh bread, chorizo, and a pocket knife. After that, we had a 3 hour wait until the next bus.
After burning time walking around town, checking out the historic building, we finally caught the bus for the 45 minute ride up to Candanchu. We arrive at our hotel, Hotel Edelweiss, at around 8pm, had a quick look around town, and headed to bed for one final night on a real mattress.
The whole day felt like an episode from The Amazing Race. Lots of running, poor Spanish, and basically fumbling about trying to get where we needed to go. In the end we made it, and slept like babies for the rest of the night.
Links:
Day 0
Day 1
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