Day 77...Spain sucks the proverbial - 11th of September

Woke up in bits and patches throughout the night. Got up kinda early feeling pretty ick, but mainly from oversleeping and a bellyful of cheese. Enjoyed seeing the morning sun hit the cliffs of the rock ampitheatre and the waterfall – all from our window.

I picked up some fruit and yoghurt at the local store, then we packed and left. We drove back the way we came – almost to Lourdes – as Gavarnie was the end of the line! We ate our fruit by a cold stream before taking another route that would lead us down into Spain. The Pyrenees drive involved huge mountains with the occasional cow and horse. At one point, we cut into the side of the mountain with a steep drop on my passenger side! It was a sunny/cloudy day and all very pretty with dramatic mountains and sweeping valleys. Nathan enjoyed the windy roads, he felt like WRC3 on playstation.

We crossed the border into the Spain side of Pyrenees and it got dramatically different. The mountains became very rocky with less trees and foliage, with big boulders everywhere. Then the trees disappeared and it was huge mountains with rocks and shrubs clinging to them. It was a remarkable change. It changed even further as the road flattened out and it took on a desert type feel – quite like Nevada! Yellow rocks and weird pine bushes abounded. When the land eventually got flat, it felt like we had been dropped on the moon! We kept exclaiming over such an extreme difference, none of which we’ve seen in Europe so far. It felt like Mexico. We kept asking each other ‘where are we?’We were driving through the centre of Spain, via the Aragorn region. Heading southwest to Madrid. I had read that the region had castles and ancient villages. The places we passed looked nothing of the sort. By the road there was the occasional ruins of a stone house which was cute, but the towns themselves felt really third world and depressing. Was Spain always this poor or had something happened to them? We decided not to explore Aragorn as planned and head as far to Madrid as we could get that day.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside diner around 3pm. We couldn’t understand a thing on the menu and were doing something wrong with the waitress until a customer helped us out. It turned out that Spains lunch is their biggest meal of the day. So we learnt that pretty quickly on the first day. We had to do a 3 course menu! Only 10 bucks so it wasn’t breaking the bank, but it wasn’t the quick sandwich we were after either. The servos only sell chips and drinks, unlike the big crusty baguettes of Germany, or the crème brulee of France. The lunch was ok, roast chicken, salad and flan. Aaah flan.

We drove all day and finished up on the outskirts of Madrid in a dive of a town called La G---something. As we pulled in, I felt like ‘once upon a time in mexico’. Skinny dogs ran past, men sat around looking seedy and the town looked dead and empty. It had a dirty dusty feel to everything. Sad crumbling buildings abounded. We tried a hotel and it was more expensive than the Ibis hotel sign we had passed – and it looked dodgier as well! It didn’t have parking either, and the Ibis did. I wasn’t looking forward to losing our car on the first day in Spain. So we passed trying the local accommodation tonight, and went for the loyal ‘dump chook’. Ah Ibis hotel! How you save me!

We ate dinner at the old ibis as well, neither of us wanting to walk into town. We were forced some Spanish shots that tasted like sherry at the end, so that was ok. Nate also had the cheapest beer all trip. San Miguel for 2.45 a pint. Choice.
Sick of driving, we went upstairs to bed.