On Sunday, after the sun rose on our balcony (sunrise is after 8am), we left the city of Huesca to drive north to the Spanish Pyrenees. Where we’re headed is still in the province of Huesca, which goes all the way to the French border and is part of the Autonomous Community of Aragon.
We stopped about two hours into our drive north in the town of Ainsa for lunch. This was our most disappointing meal to date. We were hungry and choose the first place we saw, which was too touristy. Ainsa is another on the list of prettiest towns in Spain, and we’re still not sure how they make the list since we’ve seen a lot of very pretty towns. The town was packed with weekend travelers, but still everyone was Spanish or French; we spoke with a British couple, who were the only English speakers we met. It was a lovely town to walk around.
We learned the town had some Jewish history; here, we are standing within 100 meters of an ancient mikvah (which we were not able to see).
We took a walk through cowfields to a lookout point (mirador) with a beautiful view of the valley. We’re headed up to those mountains in the background!
Finally, we went to a bird museum that had several rescued Pyrenees birds of prey in captivity, which they breed and then release the chicks into the wild. They were especially focused on the bearded vulture they call quebrantahuesos, for its ability to break the bones of its prey.
It should be noted that the staff there a) totally dissed our beloved city of Huesca as ugly and dull, and we continue to not understand the disrepect, and b) were familiar with Central New York and its turkey vultures, of which we have many in Clinton.
On to Oto in the Pyrenees!
Emily and Russell's Travel Blog 