Thursday, May 31 - to the Pyrenees

We left the Arresi at nine and headed south to the A8 freeway that runs along the north coast of Spain. It’s a major truck route and was constricted in places due to repair work and so was tedious and scary at times. Turned south at Donostia-San Sebastián to Pamplona and as soon as we left the coast, the road became more tranquil and the villages smaller and lovelier with brilliant green hills and distant mountains. We managed to circle around Pamplona but missed our exit on to a small highway as the government is in the very early stages of making it into a freeway and has changed the number on the exit sign to a freeway number even though the road essentially doesn’t exist! Grumble, grumble! We eventually found a little country road that got us back in the right direction and entered Aragón and left the Basque Country and bilingual signs behind.

We drove due east and the countryside became drier with golden wheat fields and tiny hill top medieval towns sprouting up in the middle of them. We could see the snowy Pyrenees starting to appear to the north and turned towards them near Jaca. Upon entering the foothills, the towns started to be constructed of rough gray stone with crude, but very appealing, slate roofs, along with a few modern ski chalet towns.

Our next hotel’s address is Km 253 between the towns of Aínsa and Ascaso and is marked by a small sign to San Martín de Solana. We drove up a very rough road for 5 km and could suddenly see, across a lovely valley, a large old stone house surrounded by ancient stone terraces, full of tan cows grazing with their bells gently clanging. We arrived at the front door and were greeted by Mario Reis, one of the owners, and chef, who grew up in Brazil. He showed us around the house which he and David Richardson, a Brit, bought ---years ago and fixed up into this beautiful B & B. Our large room has stonewalls, tile floors and orange accent wall and views over the front yard where a family of geese graze along with two Portuguese Water Dogs and several British Shorthaired cats. Another window overlooks the valley and we’re lulled to sleep each night by the peaceful sound of cowbells. The only thing they lack is wi-fi!

A set-menu dinner, which we had with a Dutch couple, was served at nine consisted of delicious tossed green salad with local cheese and orange slices, followed by steak and pommes Anna, served by incredibly suave André and charming host, David. Truly a great hotel!