Intro to Gaudi

Had a couple of days off writing the blog as I've been doing it in the evenings and sometimes quite late.

Monday 7th April – we decided to just go for a drive. We had picked up in a brochure of the area that there was a Gaudi designed garden not too far from here, so that was the plan for the day. 

We took a drive through the tunnel (main road to Barcelona) to get there and then along a river valley. We found the town OK but it was a bit of a trick to find the gardens. We finally decided to park the car and walk in along the tourist train track about 700m to the gardens, when a local man out for his morning constitutional told us in 1000 Spanish words that there were no trains at the moment and we could drive in along the train tracks and there was car parking at the end and you walked down to the garden. OK, back in the car and drive along the tracks we did. The only thing he didn’t tell us was that the gardens were closed but as we were wondering what to do a tour bus pulled up and the guide had the keys to the garden and was happy to take our money and let us in with the group. Beautiful garden, unfortunately not at the best time of year, it would be great at the end of Spring with lots of colour, but to see the Gaudi design was fabulous.

Jardins Artigas - designed by Gaudi

From there we had lunch in the town – just a baguette with ham and cheese. Rob was in heaven because in the bar they had a poster of Marc Coma (of Dakar motorbike fame) and he and his Dad only lived about 20K away. Rob managed to have a conversation with the fellow in the bar with not much common language between them.

Town of La Probla de Lillet

We took the round circuit route home which took us up over the Catalan ski fields. The road was very steep and twisty but a good road – we figured it must be OK when we saw 2 semis head up the road. The road went up to 1900m and over the crest were the ski slopes. There is still enough snow there for skiing and there were some ski lifts still operating. We stopped in a car park there and had a cup of tea and piece of cake, and overhead were the gliders that had come from the airfield where we went ballooning.

La Molina - Catalan ski fields

Just a quaint little castle

Dinner that night was in the ‘city’ of Puigcerda which is only about 15 minutes from the hotel. The hotel does meals but they are pretty basic and we like to get out and try different things.  You wouldn't believe it that in the restaurant that night there was another couple from Australia – Brisbane. We were there with the aussie couple from our hotel, so that was 6 aussies there, in a little, off the tourist trail, city.