Pyrenees

Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are the mountains that divide Spain from France.
The gite that we were staying in was 800m up a mountain. All the houses have steeply sloped roofs so in the winter time the snow just slides off.





On our first day in the Pyrenees, after a morning lying in and recovering from the longest drive yet, we went to the Parc Animalier des Pyrenees. This held a lot of animals, all native to the Pyrenees. These included brown bears, wolves, lynx, otters, squirrels, deer, foxes, mountain goats, and a funny little animal called a marmotte. We got to hand feed the marmottes, and realised that they had very big teeth, like a beaver. We learnt that there are around 20 bears left in the wild in the pyrenees.




We also went to see the house that belonged to our great great grandmother in a little village called Soulom. We also visited our family grave here, where our great grandparents and great great uncle and grandmother are buried, and placed flowers there.




We went to the Cirque de Gavarnie, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Here we did a three hour walk, up to the cirque and back. The cirque is a mountain rock formation shaped like a huge horseshoe. There are lots of very tall waterfalls, and we saw a huge lot of ice. It must have been bigger than we thought, because although it looked quite close it would have been another hour to walk there. Instead of walking up to the cirque, you could rent a donkey or horse. Our great grandfather used to lead the horses and donkeys up to the cirque as a school holiday job.






One day we went to these caves called the Grottes de Betharam. They were sort of boring and not very exciting. We walked two kilometres through the inside of the mountain. You could see where an old river (diverted by man years ago) used to flow. There were massive stalactites and stalagmites. We then went on a gimmicky boat ride, that would have been faster if you had walked. When the boat started moving, all these old Portuguese ladies that were also touring the caves with us, started singing. Before long, the other Portuguese senior citizens of the group joined in. They sang very loudly, for the whole rest of the trip. I thought they were cute (Chantal). They gave Dad a headache. I got really annoyed and felt like doing something that probably would give me a one way ticket to the naughty corner! (Sabine). Actually, we don't have a naughty corner - but if we did, that is where I would have gone. No return trip!
The tour ended with a train ride out the bottom of the mountain.



Another thing we did was go to the Pic du Midi.
This is a mountain with an observatory on the top. The observatory has been there for 130 years, and scientists live here and work. The government was going to close it because it didn't have enough money, but they decided instead to open it to tourists, to make money. It is nearly 3000 metres high, and we took two cable cars to get to the top. Outside at the top was very chilly. The wind factor made it colder. We were above the weather, and all the cloud was beneath us. We could see the tops of other mountains. We walked through the museum at the top, and sat down to watch a 15minute movie. Even though it was in french Mum translated and I learnt a lot about the history of the Pic du Midi.











While we were staying in the Pyrenees it snowed overnight, and even though the snow didn't wuite come down to us, it went onto all the peaks, and a few hundred metres up our road. That afternoon, we drove up our road a little to look at the snow. The snow was powdery and we attacked the car with snowballs. This was lots of fun, and a highlight for us.









Lourdes was our closest town. It was freaky (Chantal). Sick people come here with the hope to have a miracle, as 150 years ago a miracle did happen in Lourdes. A young girl called Bernadette had visions of the virgin Mary over a number of months. It is quite strange because there are lots of people in wheelchairs, and people collecting holy water from grotto, and I felt strange and uncomfortable (Sabine).