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My last weekend in Catalunya was spent up in a region of the Pyrenees called La Cerdanywa with my Dad's cousin (another Montse!) & her family. On Friday, Montse's brother Toni drove me up there with his girlfriend Mari-Carme - the trip was a good 1.5-2 hours and the scenery on the way was beautiful - particularly the pre-pyrenees area with tall mountains and cliffs sloping down into a major river/dam. They live in a delightful tiny village called 'Pi', which Nokia Maps doesn't even classify as a town, with the nearest town - Bellver - the only point of reference I had for my GPS until I got there :)
Once there, we went for a little swim in the common area pool - though with only about 2 out of 10 townhouses actually occupied, we virtually had the pool to ourselves. In true Catalan style, we ate a late lunch and gourged ourselves with seafood & paella before heading out to the town of Puigcerda for some beautiful vistas of the capital of the Cerdanya and the valley the region covers. Photos from this day are in the album 07/08/2009 Cerdanya.
On the second day, we headed up to one of the rims of the massive valley, called the Cadí. After a fair bit of dirt roading in a non-4x4, we started our journey near a park cabin which was obviously quite popular with local multi-day trip walkers. We ascended to about 2300m above sea level with some beautiful views throughout the valley. Photos are in 08/08/2009 Cadí & there is also a video showing the complete 360-degree panaroma.
When we came home, we met up with Montse's sons, Jordi & Adrià, as well as Jordi's girlfriend, Elena. Before long, Toni & Mari-Carme had to head back to Barcelona. The rest of us headed out for a stroll around Pi (it didn't take long!). In fact, after running into a friend of theirs at the Buggy tours shop (pronounced "boogie"), us 'youngen's ducked into the only cafe in the whole town for a drink & to attend to our various vices whilst Montse & Pere continued their evening walk. Of course, when I say vices, I mean smoking for the other three and connection to the internet for me :) The only place in Pi with WiFi is this single cafe :) So, as I got in contact with the rest of the world, I also got to know these guys a bit better.
On Sunday, the youngsters slept in while Montse, Pere & I got up "early" (read: 8:30am - remember, this is Spain!) and headed up to Andorra. I was particularly drawn to Andorra for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because its official language is Catalan. In fact, the only reason the United Nations has Catalan on their list of translation languages is due to Andorra - not due to the millions who speak it in Spain. The second reason is because I'd heard of the beautiful valley that is Andorra - the country you can traverse by car in about 1.5 hours :)
The scenery did not disappoint (photo album: 09/08/2009 Andorra) and the valley up there is even more impressive than the Cerdanya owing to its morepronounced slopes and incredible V-shapedness. Some of the apartments have literally had to be developed into the rock-walls of the mountains on either side of the valley. I took some beautiful pics of the valley from some high points along the highway, but you really have to be there to feel the immenseness of the mountains either side of you. I'd like to know what the original first settlers of this area were thinking, with such huge towering mountains either side of the village!
We had lunch up at Soldeu and nabbed a geocache before attempting to exit the valley up at the France end, however we came across some unbelieveably think fog as we were heading up the mountain and within about 10mins, we'd gone from a balmy 24 degrees in the sun at the bottom, to 9 degrees at the top. Rather than continue behind the slow train of cars piling up, we decided to turn around and come back down the way we'd gone and also managed to pay a visit to another town at the base of the Andorran valley on the Spain side called La Seu d'Urgell. We were all exhausted after a full day out and spent the evening resting. :)
On the Sundya evening & Monday morning, I said my goodbyes (photos: 10/08/2009 Misc) and Pere drove me down to Gava, near the BCN airport, where I would stay my last night. The original plan was to stay at Toni's place, but a recent blood-pressure-related injury for Mari-Carme meant we stayed at her place at Viladecans. The towns are practically joined at the hip anyway.
In the evening, Toni took me shopping. I think he enjoys the bargain hunting aspect of shopping more than I do lol! I managed to grab a couple of bargains and some cologne and then I went back to the house to pack. Finally I was able to get my suitcases in order and the next morning, Toni dropped me off at the airport. All in all, it was a relaxing end to my time in Barcelona!
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