alansykes
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Except the Francés
Shortly after crossing into Spain, by the Col des Moines, at about 2150m, making my first ever footsteps in Huesca province, the path follows a tiny stream, not deep enough to cover your trainers. This is a source of the Aragón river, which the Camino Aragonés follows more or less its entire course. Within an hour you're at Astún ski station and already it's wide enough to make a couple of little waterfalls, being joined by other little streams all the way, so that by the time you're down to Somport it's already a significant brook, and, a couple of hours later at Canfranc station it needs to be channelled through the village, with its first hydroelectric station just downstream.
I stopped for lunch near the station. It's an amazing structure, but I was between guided tours, so didn't get to see inside. I did have a very good lunch. It probably felt better for being my first hot food after a couple of days in the wild, my first napkin, my first wine - a tasty fruity white Ribera de Gállego-Cinco Villas - my first chance to recharge my mobile etc.
I had been expecting to stay at Canfranc or Canfranc station, but was making such good progress down-stream that I carried on to Villanua. Other than a short patch where some enemy of the human race had repaired the camino with a horrible ankle-turning aggregate, it was a lovely afternoon, largely alone with just the river for company, and the valley getting wider as I got further down-stream.
I stayed in the private Albergue Tritón in Villanua. Perfectly OK. I had a room to myself, one bunk bed, for 16€. And my first shower since Borce three days earlier, bliss. Going on to Villanua would mean an extra hour or two in Jaca, and time to get to the cathedral museum before it closed for Sunday afternoon.
The view is back over France from the Col des Moines border crossing.
I stopped for lunch near the station. It's an amazing structure, but I was between guided tours, so didn't get to see inside. I did have a very good lunch. It probably felt better for being my first hot food after a couple of days in the wild, my first napkin, my first wine - a tasty fruity white Ribera de Gállego-Cinco Villas - my first chance to recharge my mobile etc.
I had been expecting to stay at Canfranc or Canfranc station, but was making such good progress down-stream that I carried on to Villanua. Other than a short patch where some enemy of the human race had repaired the camino with a horrible ankle-turning aggregate, it was a lovely afternoon, largely alone with just the river for company, and the valley getting wider as I got further down-stream.
I stayed in the private Albergue Tritón in Villanua. Perfectly OK. I had a room to myself, one bunk bed, for 16€. And my first shower since Borce three days earlier, bliss. Going on to Villanua would mean an extra hour or two in Jaca, and time to get to the cathedral museum before it closed for Sunday afternoon.
The view is back over France from the Col des Moines border crossing.