It is almost a week since I made my last post and interestingly I am in the mountains again, this time in Berga.  It is a beautiful Sunday and I have just had a good meal after doing a four hour hike.  The hike was up to a sanctuary overlooking the city and surrounding countryside.  It wasn´t too demanding but there were some spectacular views and I was glad that I was finally able to accomplish some hiking again. 

 My last entry was from Jaca I believe, also a mountain town, and in between there were a few disappointments to go with a couple of interesting times.  The train ride and police encounter were covered I think but I´ll check and cover them if missing.  I went to Huesca but had no idea why except that it was easy to get to. 

I was a bit uneasy when the train stopped outside the station and the engineer came back through the car, but he kept going to the other end of the two coach train and we backed into the station.  Figuring that I needed a map of the city at least I found one at the shop in the station for 3 Euros.  I thought that excessive but the clerk made the pitch that it wasn´t just the city but the whole province.  I had no map of the area at all (a planning mistake) so went for the deal.  Directions to the Tourist Office were well marked but the square in front of it looked like a war zone.  Everything was ripped up including the steps to the entrance.  However it was possible to gain entry through the museum next door.  The attendant was helpful providing a choice of hostals in the area and the use of a computer in the museum for free.  The hostal was nothing to write home about.  It is a very busy city and I kind of liked it after a while.  I even found a Chinese restaurant where I had a good full meal for very little at 8:00 in the evening.  I was their only customer.

I only had a vague recollection of how I wanted to travel in this part of the trip, but I knew that I wanted to go to Vic and didn´t want to go to Lerida and neither city was on any map that I had.  From my Huesca map it looked like I should be able to travel to Benetar and then north to Vic so I made that trip only to find that there was no hookup to Vic.   I had to go back half way to Huesca to Barbastro but had trouble with the automated ticket machine.  Finally a guy saw my problem and solved that situation.   I did not like what I saw in Barbastro and the Tourist Office person wasn´t all that helpful.  Even though it was late in the day I decided to keep moving.

 From somewhere in my head I thought that I remembered something good about Graus, it was north and somewhere I could get to, so I bought a ticket.  I got a room at the first hotel I saw (Hotel Lleida) and was pleasantly surprised.  It didn´t start off that good.  The receptionist was about 99 years old and left me standing while he was in the back doing some paper work I guess.  He finally brought me a key but not my passport, saying that I would get it in the restaurant attached.  I didn´t want to move on so let it ride and true to his word my passport appeared as soon as I went to the restaurant for a beer and snack.

 Graus is a very pretty town, the guy in the tourist office was helpful as well as the owner of a computer shop.  One thing that attracted my attention was a street named George Cheyne Ave.  (I attend Cheyne church in Stoney Creek).  I got in my first hike in quite a while to a church atop a high cliff overlooking the town and the valley.  I stayed a second night in the hotel but intended to catch a 10:00 am bus to Pont de Suert further north.  Unfortunately I messed up big time and let it go without me because I didn´t recognize the destination name it showed.  That meant that I had to go back to Barbastro but the ride was great.  When I came into Graus I slept most of the way but on the way out the first half was amazing.  There were a dozen tunnels, fabulous rock cuts and formations and mountain streams.  I was glad that I didn´t miss that again.

Back in Basastro there was no place to go to except Lerida.  The station there is a confusing dump but a Tourist Office was close by that closed 15 minutes before my arrival.  I instinctively headed to what looked like the older section and found Hostal Mundial.  The woman said that they were full and was generally unhelpful.  After the better part of an hour the only other option looked like a nearby two star hotel that the hostal woman had said was expensive.  After trying in vain to find the train station, I went back to the bus station to see where else I could get to.   It was pretty well shut down, but a ticket agent who was just leaving advised that the only possibility was a 9:00 pm bus to Tarrogona (I think).  This was about 8:00 so needing something to eat I caught a quick snack at an outdoor cafe.  This gave me time to reflect on the choice of taking a bus to somewhere arriving after 10:00 pm or going to the two star and pay through the nose.  It was really a no brainer when I thought about it.  The price wasn´t that bad at the hotel(probably cheaper than the hostal) but it certainly didn´t deserve two stars either.  On the plus side breakfast was included and it was great.

Choosing the train over the bus for the journey north, I managed to miss the morning train but there was another in the early afternoon going as far as Cervera (more or less on the way).  From there I expected to find a bus but if not there was a later train to Manresa.  I found Cervera to be a dumpy little town and buses to the north had left an hour earlier.  Manresa is a city of a fair size and has a very pleasant and busy long boulevard.  I was directed there in search of a hostal by a taxi driver at the station and would have enjoyed the hike except that it was a very hot day and the boulevard was all uphill.  It wasn’t the kind of area where you would expect a hostal and there were none in the kilometre plus that I walked.  After taking some refreshment, I made other enquiries that all sent me back to the station area.  Finally, a salesman in a computer store who spoke English gave me specific directions to the only accomodation downtown, a three star hotel!!  I trudged wearily into the large reception area and made my request.  The price was well over 60 euros so I asked where I could find something less pricey.  The answer was the same; there isn’t anything.  Just as I was hitching up my gear to move on, the desk clerk called me back saying that his female colleague had suggested they give me a special price of 50 euros for a small room.  If that had been the first price I probably would have turned it down but feeling that it was a genuine concession and knowing of no other options, I consented to living in luxury for one night.  The room might have been more accurately described as “tiny’ but otherwise it was first class.  [In a brochure that I came across later in the journey discussing hostels (as opposed to hostals) mention was made of a large and popular albergue in Manresa located just at the top of the boulevard which was probably what the taxi driver was directing me to that nobody else knew about.]