Vilamos Vall d'Aran 19/06/2016

Today it was a motorbike day. I'm in a group called www.mototurisme.cat which organizes a monthly motorbike trip. This month the router started near Ponts and ended in a restaurant close to Vielha, Vall d'Aran.

We usually are around 40-50 motorbike but this time we were only around 20-25. The main reason was that Vielha is far away from Barcelona. People who came back home straight after the trip did around 700 km. I didn't have to go back to Barcelona because I stayed at El Pont de Suert to stay with my grandparent for a day.

The route was amazing, specially the Bonaigua pass (Port de la Bonaigua). It was quite cold, near 1ºC. We stopped at the top of the pass and did a group photo and headed to Vilamos, a small nice town where we visited a typical Aran house and we saw the outside of a church.

After the visit we went to the Restaurant where we ate. The group disbanded after eating and everybody went back home. I headed to El Pont the Suert, it's a short trip, circa 30 min.

Cardona Castle 18/06/2016

After going to and event in Solsona with my family we were going back to Barcelona by car. I was driving and felt a bit sleepy and wanted to take a coffee. My mother knew there was a cafe in a rebuild castle called Cardona and we decided to go there. The castle can be reached by car and you can park inside the walls of the fort. The castle has been reconstructed and is now a church, cafe, restaurant and hotel. As it can be seen it was about to rain so we rushed into the cafe and that's the reason I don't have better photos.

The castle was build in the IX century but was lately expanded as a fort and modified in order to be effective to the new fire weapons and artillery that appear during the different centuries.

After parking ( the parking lot is located in number 5) you can inter the older walls by going through a door/small bridge. Then there is a set of small climbs and small streets that let you go through the castle, it's open to everybody without any fee or ticket.

At the top, just near the cafe there is the Minyona tower, that was build in the XI century. Unluckily it was raining quite a lot , so we could take a look.

Barranc del gurb (Gurps canyon) 12/06/2016

Summer is starting, the weather is good and I have free time so it's the moment to do outdoor activties. Today I tried something new, canyoning. Some friends had said that canyoning was something one must try and they invited me to join them on their next canyoning session.

The canyon we did was the Gurp canyon which is close to Sort, Catalonia. We did it with the help of a guide, Lluís Beardo from http://barrankisme.com/ . He was a really good guide, giving confidence in the rappels and providing a lot of information from the rock formations and the wildlife.

I have to say that canyoning was a great experience. We started walking up a trail around 30 minutes and then we entered into the canyon. There we put our helmets, neoprene suit and started to enjoy. When swimming arms and legs (even feet because we where wearing special socks) were warn but hands where pretty cold but tolerable.

We kept doing rappels, small water jumps and simple climbing when we were told. I hadn't use a neoprene in lots of years and it surprised me how well it isolated legs and arms from the cold water.

4 hours later we finished the canyon. We changed to normal clothes again and walked a bit more than 30 minutes to get back to where we left the car.

Castell del Burriac 14/06/2016

This time a visited a small castle near Cabrera de Mar called Castell de Burriac (Burriac's castle). I went there because I was doing a barbecue in the nears and we decided to do a small trip before the meal. The better way to explain the route is to show a track which I'm now able to post thanks to strava support for blogs. The ride was short but enough to sweat as it was hot and the climb steep. For more info check the activity,




The castle was firstly build by romans in the II and I a.C. century but most of the remainings date back from other centuries as the place was rebuild and modified. The most beautiful parts where the tower which was build between the XII and XIII c. and the reamings of and old chapel also build during those years.

Toledo 22/03/2016

Today I visited Toledo, a medieval city near Madrid. We  got there by car with some friends and walked around the  city center. The most known building from Toledo is the Alcazar. It started as a roman palace , then resused as a fort by the Visigoths and it had constants changes during the centuries. Now it's a militar museum. Even though it represented a lot in the history I didn't find the building anything special.

On the other hand the Toledo cathedral,  Santa María de Toledo was much beatiful. We walked around it as there was a huge queue to get inside and was expensive. From the outside, as it can be seen, it's huge and imposing. It took a while to build it, from 1226 till 1493 where some gothic addings where done.

After visiting the cathedral we wanderad alongside the wall. It was enormous and covered all the perimeter of the city center. The walls date from different centuries depending when they where contructed or reconstructed but early ones date back from 5th century.