Jaca and Arriving at Canfranc Estación

We have reached the hub of our trip, a bit past halfway through. To end our Pyrenees travels, we booked a couple of nights at a fancy hotel in Canfranc Estación, near the French border. It was just a couple of hours from our beloved Broto. We got an early start out, stopping at a larger town in the foothills, Jaca, before heading right back up into the mountains.

In Jaca, we had breakfast at a patisserie and wandered around the old town, walking out to an old bridge over the Aragon River.

Emily found a slug of unusual size.

As always when driving in the Pyrenees, we had to watch for cows.

Canfranc Estacion is an odd little town, just north of Canfranc. It was built in the 1920s around an ambitious public works project, a train station that was supposed to serve travelers between the two countries.

The trains ran through about 1970, but never as much as imagined. Wikipedia says it was known as the Casablanca of the Pyrenees in WWII, which makes some sense. The station was closed and, we hear, fell decrepit. Over the past decade, it was refurbished and turned into a fancy hotel.

It was quite luxurious, especially after we took their offer to upgrade to the nicest suite in the hotel, a three-room suite that allowed Russell to work comfortably while Emily went for cofee, and which had an uncomfortably bright and overheated toilet seat. At dinner, we had no real choice for wine.