More twisties and a chance meeting in Sabinanigo
Zagan the motorhome loves an aire (they aren’t as common in Spain as they are in France), so today he’s enjoying resting up, plugged into the electricity and next to the service point at Sabinanigo (N42.50573, W0.35649).
Last night it was so dark in the woods around the monastery that when Jay opened Zagan’s door to take Charlie for a walk he couldn’t see the ground. The place was also so quiet that as I lay in bed I could have been mistaken for thinking I had my earplugs in, if Charlie’s gentle snoring wasn’t there. That said neither of us slept very well. It wasn’t that it was too dark and silent, we don’t know what it was, but sleep was fitful.
This morning to clear the cobwebs we went for a walk out to the mirador (viewpoint) over the Pyrenees – the sun was shining on the wide range of mountains that we could see and valley between us and them. We need to get over those at some point, so after a walk to another mirador looking out the other way, we set off to get in some more twistie road practice.
We took the longer route back down to the valley, but the views weren’t as good – still better than looking at the M1 on a Tuesday morning though!
Soon we made it through the town of Jaca and onto the nice, big, wide, free motorway – which unlike the M1 on a Tuesday morning was pretty empty.
Satnav took us around the back of Sabinanigo past the industrial area to a large housing estate, minus the houses. The roads and roundabouts were all there but the homes didn’t look like they would be built any time soon. Following the co-ordintes for the aire brought us to a locked gate, pressing my face up against the metal I could see out of the corner of my eye an open gate on the side, which was in fact the front, of the Pirenium – a stopping off point for the Pyrenees.
An indecipherable sign had the number for the local police station on it, and after reading comments on the internet we discovered that we needed to call them to pay for the parking. Jay rang and in his best Spanish told the guy on the phone that we were parked at the autocaravana parking, ‘Parking?’ he replied several times, then that was it – no one has been to collect the money yet and that was several hours ago.
Not sure I want to buy my clothes here!
A wander around the town shows us that it’s set up simply for people passing through on their way into or out of the mountains, or skiing in one of the nearby resorts. It was lunchtime (1.30 – 5pm around here) so everything was shut, but the main buildings were hotels, lots of them. As we’d managed five free nights on the trot, I (keeper of the purse strings) suggested another Menu Del Dia. We found a local bar and I asked at the counter for two Menu Del Dia, the barman looked confused ‘Menu Del Dia?’, ‘Si’, then it was my turn to look confused as he ushered us towards the door to the toilets. Through the door was another door which took us into the restaurant. It was only Menu and Tapas in the bar!
We were ushered into our seats by a very busy waitress. The place was quite busy but instead of tourists it was single old men sitting on their own, workers in their site gear (some still splattered with paint) and businessmen eating while chatting on the phone. By the time we had worked out what most of the stuff was on the menu the waitress had printed us out a copy in English. We ordered three courses each and with a bottle of wine and bread it came to €23. We were suitably stuffed and nicely chilled out by the wine by the time we’d finished.
As other diners left Jay sat agog at the half full wine bottles and glasses on their tables – this wouldn’t happen in Blighty. One bloke even left a full bottle untouched, I can only think he had driving to do. We didn’t but I did make Jay go local and leave a tiny bit in the bottom of the bottle.
When we got back to the car park the envelope with the money to pay for the parking was still on the windscreen (seriously there are so few people about it felt perfectly safe to leave it) and parked next to Zagan was Frankie (check out www.wheresfrankie.co.uk). Mark and Lucy came over and introduced themselves with a beer (always a good start). We then sat chatting for the rest of the afternoon drinking and chatting – apologies if none of this makes sense.
Tonight we’re heading over to Frankie for a couple more drinks, but as I am still so full from lunch it doesn’t feel like it’s having any impact!
Ju x
Loads more Griffin Vultures today, circling the car park!
Just a quick note that I have found a bug with your page (don’t know if you have much control over the code)
If you open the map full screen and go to streetview, then close map, the page then locks and will not scroll
no need to post this comment, just for info.
PS loving the daily updates :)
Ian
Right-o, thanks for letting us know Ian. We can amend code, but only if we know what we’re doing with it, which TBH we don’t so tend to leave it alone, foibles and all, appreciate you taking the time to let us know, keep on trucking mate, Jay
Really enjoying your travels and very Jealous and itching to get my wagon on the road. It must be great at this time of year without the tourists. Safe travels and thanks again.
Hi Mick. It’s fabulous mate. We have viewpoints, food places, churches, roads etc pretty much to ourselves. The sun’s about to about turn and leave us for snow and ice for a while, but we happen to be on wheels so the Med, here we come. Woo hoo! Cheers, Jay
Small world. We met Matt and Lucy 9 days into their trip in the Loire. They gave us so much advice about setting up the motorhome for for fulltiming … which we followed. If they are still next door, do raise a glass to them from us …. I did post on their blog a while back but heard nothing back.
One of the utter joys of early retirement – having a bottle of wine with lunch on a Tuesday afternoon, when everyone else you know is in the office! Excellent.
Hi guys, Our 3 mobile doesn’t work in Germany, so seeking out free wifi when we get the chance. But our 1st priority is to save your blogs to our reading list then we can read at leisure. Looks like you are really enjoyimg your time in Zegan and living each day to the max, which is just great to see. Jo x
Cheers Jo. We’ll be in German again next year on our way up to Denmark as we head for the North Cape (insh’allah!), so will need to sort some Internet. We got local SIMs last time, not cheap though. We’ve a mere month left on this trip, and the forecasters say the cracking Indian summer’s about to revert to what it should be – snow and ice, so our eyeballs are turning to the Med. Just after I’ve had this brew and my porridge they will be anyway! Keep on truckin’, Jay
Agree with Mick about it being a good time to travel. We went on first trip to Naplion and stayed overnight in Drepano in camping on the beach. Site
was closing but owner opened the gate to let us in and said if he wasn’t their another time just let ourselves in! A happy first trip.
What??????…..i would’ve snaffled the 1/2 empties off the table and by hook or by crook taken the full one!…..JU…YOU NEED A BIGGER BAG FOR SOME STEALTH WINE GRABBING
How wonderful: nice three course meal for 23 euros! Amazing! And those sights! Wonderful pics! You do get spoilt, though… “The views weren’t as good though …” ;-))
Safe trip to the Med!