Day 2: PASSANANT, SORT, RIALP, LLAVORSÍ, ESPOT, VALÈNCIA
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Ringgggggggg… .Today the alarm sounds with holiday sound. That's why we jump up, shower, have breakfast and at 8 in the morning we are already getting in the car to get on our way to the first stop of our trip to the Aigüestortes National Park: Sort.
The stop is basically to buy lottery, think we are illusory, but yes, we hope that this year we will touch.
We put the GPS and tells us that it will take 2 hours and a half to arrive.
Already on the way we see that we are gaining time to the GPS and the arrival time begins to fall.
Halfway we stop to exchange the driver's roles and continue until we see the Noguera Palleresa River, we are getting closer ...
And by without we enter Sort And what is our surprise when we reach the height of the famous administration La Bruixa d'Or and see that there is already a line! But please!!! If we are in August ... and it's 10.30 in the morning!
We will all have thought that we are here ... that is clear ...
Queuing at La Bruixa D'Or in Sort
In the end we are not so long in the queue and we see that it is happening fast.
When we arrive inside we hear a couple of sentences that dislodge us ... "Give me 55 tenths ..." at the moment "I want 23 tenths ..."
And that we are going to buy 5 and we already think many!
When leaving, just in case and although we are not at all superstitious, we pass the tenths through the witch's nose ... I did not know that that was the tradition, but Roger says yes ... so we will not doubt him with something so serious .
La Bruixa D'Or in Sort
Well nothing, we are calm with our "millions of euros" in the bag and leave Sort to set off towards Rialp, which will be our next stop.
It took us 10 minutes to arrive and we parked on the same access road.
Then we go in search of Carrer del Mig, with its characteristic porches.
Here we begin to find the typical stone houses, with slate roofs and flowers on the balconies, which are so common in this area.
Rialp
We arrive at the square of the church of Nostra Senyora de Valls de Flors and there we stop for a while to rest and have some fresh.
After this break we continue climbing until we find ourselves almost face to face with the climb to what is left of the castle.
From here we have magnificent views of the rooftops and the church ... who was going to tell us that we would find these views !!
Rialp
We look at the time and see that we are doing very well in time, so we are going to look for the car and get on our way again ...
Now our next destination is Espot, about half an hour from Rialp, but on the way we passed through Llavorsí and decided to stop for a drink and above all to see the most famous start of the raftings in the Noguera Palleresa.
Before going for a drink, we go around the town and go to the main town square, where we find a cozy terrace that we see as the best place to stop to rest.
Taking something Llavorsí
Without wasting much time, we go straight to the river to wait to see the rafting outings and we are lucky because we see many boats prepare, so we do not have to wait more than 15 minutes to see a little how they start ...
Rafting in Llavorsí
We have the morning completed, so we go in search of the car, to get direction to Espot and at Aigüestortes National Park, where we have idea of eating and above all inform us to go tomorrow to Llac Sant Maurici.
It took just over 20 minutes to arrive and we parked right in front of the tourist office.
There they inform us of the itineraries that we can follow tomorrow and we decide that we will go up in 4 × 4 to Amitges and from there we will go down to Maurici.
In total they tell us that it can be about 2 hours and telling us that we stop a lot ... we already assume that it will be about 3.
The price will be 18 euros per person ... yes, it is carillo, but what are we going to do ... hahaha
And to think that in the US we enter more than 10 spectacular national parks for $ 80 both ...
And with these thoughts we will take a walk around EspotWell, more than a lap we are going to find somewhere to eat.
Here we see that there is little competition between restaurants. Almost all have a fixed price of 16 euros for the menu and then a fairly basic menu.
So we enter one that catches our attention from outside, La Llúpia ... and we have hit the spot!
We eat mushrooms cannelloni first, chicken and meat skewers in a second sauce, more ice cream and dessert semifrio ... mmm ... great!
Dessert in a restaurant in Espot
After a well-loaded coffee we go for a walk around Espot.
The first thing that catches our attention is that here we see a lot of tourists, but it is amazing how careful everything is.
Landscapes of Espot
Before leaving for the hotel we make a small stop in the church and see from afar its medieval tower, of old surveillance.
Espot Church
We see that it is almost 4 in the afternoon and we decide that it is best to go to the hotel, the Hotel Lo Paller, that we have booked in Valencia d'Aneu and then in the middle of the afternoon we will go back to visit the remaining villages.
And so we do, in less than 20 minutes we arrive at our hotel, we park and after installing ... almost without realizing it ... we fall like children 🙂
And a sound awakens us that for a few moments we cannot believe: rain, thunder ...
We look out onto the terrace and an exaggerated storm is falling.
And so we spent the rest of the afternoon, sitting on the terrace of the room, seeing how time does not give us a break to go out for a while ... wants this afternoon to be total relaxation!
And at 8 in the afternoon we decided that even if it rains, we will go out but we endure a little walking around the town and we go to the restaurant of the Hotel Lo Paller to eat 2 dinner plates each: we are in the mountains!
With a full stomach, we set the alarm at 7.30 a.m., we look at the weather and see that they return to rain for tomorrow, but after 2 p.m. Will we be lucky?
With this question and no answer, we fell asleep ...
Day 3VALÈNCIA D'ANEU - ESPOT - P.N. AIGÜESTORTES I LLAC SANT MAURICI - ESTERRI D'ANEU - VALÈNCIA D'ANEU
