In Pau a coach awaited us to take us to Santa Cruz de las Seros via Jaca (where we stopped to visit
the medieval castle). On our way over there, we passed through the Pyrenees where the weather was
pretty bad. In the afternoon we made a little trip to the Monatery of San Juan de la Peña.
It started to rain again just after we started walking on the fourth day. The plan was to walk from Santa Maria
de La Peña to Riglos and take the train back. We walked too fast (and took a shortcut) so we arrived in
Riglos way too early. Because that meant we had to wait for the train for almost 4 hours we decided to walk back.
In the afternoon we could enjoy some dry spells! A dog joined us at Riglos and followed us all the way to
Santa Maria de La Peña. Just before we arrived at our hostel, a car pulled over and asked us whether the
dog had joined us in Riglos. When he heard that that indeed was the case, he took the dog in his car and brought
him home. In the guest book of the hostel, we read we weren't the first group he had joined to walk all the way
from Riglos to Santa Maria de La Peña...
A coach took us up to Salinas de Jaca from where we walked back to Agüero. We thanked our guide for pushing
this route one day back in the schedule. It was a very nice route through rocky hills and through a W-shaped pass
that we wouldn't have wanted to miss and the day before the weather just would have been too bad to enjoy this
route. Today just windy, but again some sunshine too.
Sunshine! Finally... Again a beautiful route with views of the Mallos de Riglos, Mirador de los Buitres and even the
Pyrenees in the distance. We spent the night in a luxurious hotel in Loarre.
At Breakfast Arjen found out his birthday was no secret as he had thought. His chair was decorated and he even
got a present (a 'call it lunch' voucher since he was always the first person to request a rest to have lunch...).
No visit to the castle of Loarre as was planned (that was saved for the next stop in Loarre), but straight to
Alquézar, a lovely small town. In the afternoon we took a trip to the hills and did some souvenir hunting.
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Discovering Spain: An Uncommon Guide (Discovering Spain) by Penelope Casas |
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Collected Traveler Northern Spain: An Ispired Anthology & Travel Resource (The Collected Traveler) |
First some shopping for lunch equipment. Alquézar is the first town where we have this opportunity. In all
other towns we either arrived too late in the afternoon or there just wasn't any shop. When we started walking we
were joined by a stray dog who kept walking with us until we were almost back in Alquézar again. Then we
lost him. Some of us were searching for him while others returned to Alquézar. Luckily the both groups had
a mobile phone so the ones in Alquézar could notify the search posse that the dog had taken a shortcut and
had already arrived in Alquézar... During this trip, some of the group decided to walk an extra 30 minutes
so they could see some prehistoric wallpaintings. When we heared they could hardly be seen we were glad we had taken
a rest.
Long journey through the Peonara (beautiful blue and green water which we had to wade across) and the hills close
to Las Almunias...
The guide decided to walk the route in the opposite direction for which Arjen was especially thankful since it meant
a steep climb of over 700m (2300ft.), but an easy descent, which was certainly more pleasant for his sore knees.
On the way up we had a good view of the Pyrenees.
This day started with a beatiful canyon at with a lot of vultures in the sky. Later on we passed through some
deserted villages before arriving at the monastery of San Urbez.