Day 13 Bielsa to Lleida, October 19^th

We had a nice breakfast with Dave and Joyce before we parted company. So sorry to see them leave like this, they are our oldest friends and when they have a problem we feel it too.

Parador Bielsa

Lleida Original Cathedral

We packed up quickly and headed out for Lleida. We stopped on our way through Ainsa which is purported to be the prettiest medieval town in Spain. It is set high atPop a hill, of course, and has one of the largest number of original medieval buildings anywhere. I really is very pretty but the cobblestones just about did me in! It is surrounded by the mountains and you can see for miles from up top, the old part. The lower part of town is hohum and is new. We wandered about, took photos, had coffee and explored a little bit. The Plaza is bordered by arches, restaurants and little shops. It is quite remarkable,  definitely worth a visit. We read about in (David and I) in Dolores Redondo’s book and just had to stop in and have a look.

Ainsa Old Town Center

We carried on and stopped in Monzon to eat. We struck out in Barbastro, again, but really lucked out when we found Restaurante Jairo. A Michelin 4 fork establishment! Not cheap, but awesome! Paul finally had his rabbit and was very happy.

Carmen Garmin our GPS is really behaving herself this trip and took us straight into Lleida and the hotel. This is a nice town and the hotel is very central. The Calle Mayor is the largest pedestrian shopping area, in Spain at least, and is always busy and lively. I recharged my Orange Sim card and Paul found a rubber thingy for his clip on sunglasses.( he lost it up in the mountains and he didn’t want to scratch his glasses).

Lleida Old Cathedral Restored Cloister  Largest in Europe.

We had already been to the tourist office for maps and instructions so we had a good idea what we could see on our full day in Lleida. Off to the museum of Gigantes figures just opposite the ‘new’ cathedral. That had figurienes dating back 150 years. Very large to just man size and all arranged on two floors of the government building….well worth the visit. Photos taken and we were off for a coffee to see the ‘old’ cathedral up above the city. To visit required two elevator rides and a walkway above the streets below to the tourist officer where retirees had to only pay 8 euors versus the standard 12 euros. The cathedral had been used as a military barracks after the battle of Spain 1707 up until 1948 when restoration began to retrofit it to its former glory. We had little time to visit the castle next door and were satisfied with our visit by having a bitter kas at the Bar 1203 overlooking the city below. A young chica was handing out flyers to a resturante down below and not too far from our hotel. We set off in search as the lunch time approached. We failed to find #40 on the street and ventured into a Michelin approved resturante for lunch at #24 instead. Paul said he was NOT   Coffee and then back to the hotel for siesta.

Lleida Lunch - El Celler del Roser

interested in climbing the hill another 16 numbers to the original resturante. The place we found was super at 11.90 euros for menu with a GREAT selection. Lentils and cream of leek soup, Jane had Lomo for her second coarse and Paul had calamares for his. Desserts were homemade and delicious: Natalies for Jane and cheese yogurt for Paul.