24th June

Woke to a lovely sunrise that developed into a clear sky, we can see the glaciers and snow again on the far horizon.  We are very conscious that all our colleagues in the NT are just finishing week 11 at school and about to start their holidays.  Walked on the salt trail towards Aguinaliu for about an hour in the morning and then retraced our steps home for breakfast.  Later we drove to this village, called the eagle nest because apparently it has an amazing village centre surrounded by ‘hanging houses’, but we didn’t find anything we hadn’t already seen in the other villages.  We drove on to Lake Baranosa Resort for lunch on the shores via La Puebla de Castro. The menu was simple – hamburgers, but that was fine on this sunny afternoon watching the other tourists sunbaking and canoeing.  At one point I did overhear myself call out “Look , 2 great tits” but I was referring to the feathered kind in the trees nearby, not the sunbathers. In either case, Eric responded as expected.

We reached Graus too early to buy groceries, the shops don’t re-open until after 5pm, so Sandy and Eric got ‘online’ at Lleida Hotel, while I walked up to the Basilica of the Virgin of La Pena, an imposing Gothic-Renaissance style temple built on a big rock called Pena del Morral. From here you overlook the township and rivers.  On my way back to meet them I found Plaza Mayor with its beautiful 19^th century painted facades so I encouraged the other 2 to move here, they were pretty frustrated with the wi-fi (locally referred to as wiffy) here anyway.  We sat outdoors at the Casa del Baron Restaurant, for drinks until the shops re-opened.  With another boot-load of food and wine we returned to our Casa for dinner and later another game or two of cards.  While we have loved it here we are all looking forward to having better access to wi-fi in Madrid.