Tearful goodbyes as the Sunday morning crowd was meandering through all the streets to the ‘square’ church. Marcos and sons were Asun’s as we gave her the leftover food from the house. The clouds burning off rapidly and the valley was full of sun as we drove to Irurita. We took the old back road out of town to show Cheryl the Mirador del Baztan and a photo opp for the entire valley view. Then we pressed on until our coffee stop in the town of Olite where there is a fully restored castle from 1200 and a Parador. Lunch was nothing spectacular a ways south of Zaragoza. We made to the Monesterio at 5:00PM.
This place is amazing. We have walked miles just trying to figure out where everything is, and that is just in the hotel! We walked in the door with our luggage and there was a 25 foot wide hallway with 40 ft arched ceilings and it seemed about a mile long! It took us forever to find reception, which was down 2 floors! No signs for reception or any other advisory notices. Paul said he watched two room attendants with 6 foot dust mops make to passes each to cover the wide corridors together. Huge falls well short of an accurate description!
The monastery was originally built from 1194 to 1218. Only 23 years, and the place is huge. Check it out on-line it would take too long to give all the details here. The monks lived here for over 700 years before being driven out finally In 1835. We toured the old part of the monastery after we arrived and tomorrow we will walk the park which has lots of interesting waterfalls. Right now we are grabbing a bite to eat in the cafeteria. We are pretty pooped as we have been travelling all day. More later
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