Walking Across Spain - The Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean

By Alan House

This is a description of walking the length of the Spanish Pyrenees from coast to coast between 2004 and 2011. The majority of the walk was on the GR11, a long-distance footpath in Spain, and also parts of the high French Pyrenees around Gavarnie and Cauterets on GR10. The description gives details of the landscape, villages and local history of the area, including the route through the Basque Country, Navarra, Aragon, Andorra and Catalonia. It also gives the authors account of the day to day experiences of walking through a varied terrain of delightful hanging valleys, high passes reaching nearly 3000 m altitude and alpine meadows. Nights were spent camping in the mountains, hostels and mountain refuges.
Although this is not a travel guide to a particular route, it supplements them by relating what is in the area and what other travelers have found in the past century. There are many color photographs and some details of GPS usage on the GR11. The script and photos were updated in the second edition in 2023.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781471002830

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Walking Across Spain -

The Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean

Alan House

Copyright

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2012 Lulu Press

ISBN 978-1-4710-0283-0

Acknowledgement

I owe a big thanks to my wife Helen for putting up with my absences on these extended walks and also for her encouragement and efforts in keeping track of me in difficult terrain when there were days when I was completely out of contact. Also, Rebecca for her company at different times, finding great camping spots and sharing her botanical skills of identifying some of the flowers on our route. I was also able to share some of this fantastic landscape when I returned to Torla near my seventeeth birthday and did some walks with Emily and my grandson Sam and Esmee (although I doubt, she will remember them from a pushchair!). I also thank Norman for his great company on one trip and the many fellow trekkers I met during my trips and also stays in the Spanish refuges. I am also grateful to the Spanish weather forcasters for the good weather with only one day of rain during the walks!

Introduction

There is still an element of discovery in crossing the Pyrenees as you pass from one valley to another, often by a high pass or col (collado) that is only a little below the surrounding ridges. It is possible to combine a transverse with surmounting individual peaks near the route, or altering the route to include such possibilities. James Mills in his book about an expedition into Alaska, in a moment of reflection expresses eloquently the joy of passing through mountains, and although the Pyrenees aren’t of the same magnitude or as difficult terrain, the comments in my view are pertinent: "I found the greatest joy in mountains when travelling through them, rather than struggling against one particular peak. All the skill and craft of mountaineering are needed and must be deployed to the full to meet new problems and factors encountered every day with every step. There is, too, the gradual unfolding of the country before one’s eyes and the eager anticipation and never-ending conjecture on what lies around the corner, or over the other side. The ascent or crossing of a pass, or col, is in every way as satisfying as a peaked climbed. Perhaps even more so, for whereas on the summit the main task is over, on a pass there is the intriguing problem of crossing into new country beyond. A way has to be found: the freedom of the mountains is in one’s possession. Even the view is rewarding as one from a summit, and nearly always more satisfying in its truer perspective, than looking down on a tangle of peaks, from a superior height."

The idea for this walk came in my later years on retirement when I was thinking about challenges for the future. I had not attempted any long walks, at least not continually over several days, and my job had gradually over the years meant that I spent more time behind a desk than doing any activities beyond playing tennis, gardening and afternoon strolls in the local Purbeck hills. In preparation I planned a day walk of about ten miles every week for about four months and included in these some coastal walks involving steeper inclines but as I found later, not on the scale of the Pyrenees. This at least let me wear in my new boots and practise carrying a heavy rucksack. Before my first trip to the Pyrenees, I did two three-day sections of the south-west coastal footpath in Dorset, carrying all my gear and camping when possible. This at least gave me a feel of the task before me and showed up a few problems. One of these was that a summer-weight sleeping bag is not suitable for a cold April night and so I supposed not suitable for the higher ground in the mountains, even in Spain!

My walk across Spain was not one continues trip but several including some time spent on the French side of the border around Gavarnie. The first trip to Spain was in May 2004 when I walked through the Basque Country from Irun to Sallent de Gallego. After that I was a Voluntary Service Overseas volunteer in Namibia in Africa for over two years and did not return to the Pyrenees until 2007 when I repeated part of the walk to Sallent and then continued to the Ordesa Canyon having to stop because of a back injury. I returned renewed in 2008, but this time to explore the high Pyrenees on the French side of the range, concentrating on the region around Gavarnie and Cauterets. In 2009, I returned to Cauterets and walked into Spain to the Ordesa Canyon and then onto Bielsa returning to France through St Lary Soulan. In 2010, I returned with a friend, Norman, to complete a walk between Bielsa and La Guingueta in the Val d’Aneu and then down the Val d’Aran to cross into France to Luchon in time to meet the Tour de France cyclists. The final trip was in 2011 when I walked from La Guingueta to the coast. I enjoyed the company of my daughter, Bex, for one-week intervals at the beginning of 2004, 2009 and 2011. She was instrumental in showing me the enormous wealth of flowers in the mountains in what has been called the Garden of Europe.

At the time of writing, and certainly when I started walking in the Spanish Pyrenees, the mountains and valleys in the east and west were relatively quiet and not yet developed for the mass tourism. In the High Pyrenees which to me is from Sallent de Gallego to Setcases in Catalonia, the situation is different, particular in the vacation season in August. In the Basque Country and eastern Catalonia, there are sections where you can walk all day without encountering another person. The same applies to the remoter high country where it can become a welcome sight to catch a glimpse of another person. However, places and refuges near road-heads are often busy, particularly at weekends, and on the main long-distance paths there will be plenty of day-trippers. However, having said that, there is still an aspect of the wilderness described by the pioneer travellers in the 19th century such as Ramon, Packe and Russell who in many ways set the scene for the appreciation of the range. As described recently by Rosemary Bailey in her treatise about Henry Russell, "their romantic appreciation of the mountains was a key factor in steering climbing in the Pyrenees away from the butch emphasis of the British Alpine Club, to become less of a sport and more a philosophy". Certainly, Russell did not think of his walking and climbing as a sport and to quote the deplorable transformation of alpinism into mere athletics and gymnastics. Even reading the early 20th century rambles of Hillier Belloc, it is obvious that the Spanish side was largely the domain of local people such as hunters, woodsmen, pilgrims and shepherds as it had been for centuries.

I describe different visits to these mountains that come together to make a transverse of the range mainly on the Spanish side but with some rambles around Gavarnie on the French side of the range. The route taken starts in Irun in northern Spain on the Atlantic coast near Faro de Cabo Higuer, a lighthouse, and wends its way in a roughly ESE direction across the Basque Country or País Vasco, through Navarra, Aragon, Andorra and Catalonia finishing on the Mediterranean coast on the Costa Brava. Most of the walks follow the GR11 or Gran Recorrido 11 (Sendero Pirenáico), (or GR10 in France) with a few variations where I thought appropriate and added interest to my route. It is tempting to call the GR11 a long-distance footpath and indeed I refer to it as the sendero. That would be misleading in some degree as in many places the way is not obvious as on a footpath, indeed there are many places that test your navigation ability and many that involve scrambling over loose debris or rocks with no obvious path. The waymarkers, the red bar over a white bar, are often elusive but with time, you come to enjoy the challenge of spotting the bars on rocks, trees and the occasional signpost. This is not to decry the hard work and dedication of the enthusiasts who have given their time to mark the route, that in itself is a monumental task, and I for one have sighed of relief at having found a red/white beacon in the midst of the wild Basque or Catalan hills and mountains. The Regional Government of Navarre and the Navarre Mountain Federation have signed an agreement (2007) providing funds for rehabilitation of some GR trails, including the GR11, over the next three years so things should improve in the future for at least the first part of the route. The length of the route is about 840 km or 535 miles, and wide mixture of terrain, some in remote areas of the country. Its maximum altitude is 2824 m, Pic Superior de la Vaca in Catalonia followed closely by the Collado de Tebarray (2782 m) near Sallent in Aragon.

This book is not a traditional description of the route in terms of directions as this is covered well in guidebooks such as those by Paul Lucia and Douglas Streatfield-James. They describe the GR11 route in terms of sections with details of daily walks. Sadly, these books are becoming out-of-date as the GR11 route itself is modified. Instead, I try and describe the journey across a fascinating region of northern Spain giving a brief description of attractions, history and landscape in the immediate vicinity of the route and my account of the walk. I try and use local place name spellings when appropriate. I also give my experiences with the use of GPS navigation on this route as this came in useful from time to time. I used the set of maps covering the whole route at a scale of 1:40000 produced by Edita Prames (ISBN 84 8321 062 2). These maps do have grid lines marked but no numbers but they can be used with GPS with a little care as I’ll describe later in the Appendix. They conveniently divide the route into maps covering daily walks with the maps printed on both sides to minimise weight, always an important factor when you have to carry everything on your back! In some parts of the walk, I have also used the 1:50000 Mapa Excursionista Series which are also very useful if you wander off-route, make a variation in your route or just want to identify the more distant landscape.

1.  The Start – the Basque Region

My walk started on the Atlantic coast in the Guipuzkoa, a province which is part of the Spanish País Vasco, the Basque region in the western Pyrenees. Traditionally the Basque region or Euskadi spans the border between France and Spain with four provinces in Spain and three in France.  In Spain the Guipuzcoa, Alava, Vizcaya provinces and the Navarra region to the east are traditionally Basque. Their names in Euskara (sometimes spelt Euskera), the language that in many ways defines the region of Euskara speakers or Euskaldunes are Gipuzkoa, Araba, Bizkaia and Nafaroa. The GR11 or sendero as I’ll refer to it, only passes through Guipuzcoa and Navarra. Guipuzcoa is one of the provinces in País Vasco whilst Navarra, like País Vasco, is an autonomous community of Spain. Although the Basque language was considered a dying language at the beginning of the 20th century and banned by Franco’s Government after the Civil War (1939) until his death in 1975, it is now a growing language in the region. For example, the number of adults who claim they can speak or understand Euskara rose from 33 % to 41 % during the ten-year period to 2001. At the moment about 80% of state schools in the Spanish Basque Country now teach almost entirely in Euskara with Castilian (Spanish) given as a separate language. Today Euskara is spoken by about 20 % of the 2.7 million in Euskadi.

Cabo Higuer Lighthouse on the Cabo Higuer near the mouth of the Bidasoa river, the start of my walk.

This part of the walk from the coast to the eastern border with Navarra is about 182 km (114 miles) and covers many green and wooded hills through the green lush of the Basque region with its distinct buildings and architecture. If you want information about this area of Spain, I recommend the book by Mark Kulansky, The Basque History of the World in which he gives an account of the history of these fascinating people through the ages. The place names are difficult for an outsider with their perfusion of x’s and z’s and their spelling seem to change partly I expect from the change which rejected Latin words and Latin letters, for example c was changed to k, v to b, ch to tx and s to z which leads to some places such as Bera de Bidosoa on route is also spelt as Vera, so you have to be flexible.

The route starts near the fishing port of Hondarriba (Fuenterrabia in Spanish) near the lighthouse, Faro de Cabo Higuer. To the west about 1 km along the coastal path The Way of Saint James is Monte Jaizkibel, the highest point on the Basque coast at 547 m, the last height of the Pyrenees, with spectacular cliffs to the sea. The lighthouse, with its distinctive two-stage stone tower and red lantern, was established in 1855 and the present tower built in 1881. The area makes for a fine start to the walk with plenty of facilities including camping at Camping El Faro near the lighthouse and the site I stayed in, Camping Jaizkibel about 3 km to the south. I travelled from England by airline to Bilboa and then by coach to Irun but there are many ways to reach this area from both France and Spain as rail connections to Irun are also available. The walk from the campsite to Irun is along main roads and dual carriageway but there is a pleasant beach at Hondarribia in the bay. Descending from Cabo Higuer in the evening, I could see the start of the Pyrenees peaks in the distance, south of Irun, covered in mist with the sandy beach and tranquil waters of the bay in the foreground. The route heads south along the Bidasoa river mouth to the border town of Irun. It is often a little difficult to find the sendero out of towns, even with the help of well-meaning guidebooks because of local changes. However, I didn’t have any difficulty leaving Irun just by following the map as I noticed the route left town after the A8/E70, crossing the Rio Ayo which goes on to join the Rio Bidasoa in Irun.

The walk into the hills was pleasant even with temperatures approaching 30 oC. There was plenty of opportunities to collect water on the way to the Collado de Erlaitz at 449 m between the peaks of Erlaitz (497 m) and Pagogana (482 m) and rests in the Beech woods with the ponies roaming around, often heard by the tingling bells before they’re seen. The first peaks of the route of Erlaitz and Pagogana, were part of a line of fortification between the bridge crossing the Rio Bidasoa at Endarlaza and Erlaitz. The most important fortification was on the peak of Pagagona just east of the route. This was built between 1878 and 1879 after the Carlist War (1872-76), and although it survived beyond 1916, was partly destroyed in the Civil War in 1936. Standing remains estimated as 20 % of the original structure, are to be seen near the summit with good views in clear weather to the south-west encompassing the outline of Pena Aia (Aiako Harria, 837 m). The tower in Erlaitz was demolished in 1891. This area is part of about 6000 ha of the Aiako Harria Nature Reserve with Oak groves with Beech, Chestnut and pine trees amongst others.

Trees in this area are not so dissimilar from the uplands in England with Riparian woodland of predominantly Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and Alder (Alnus glutinosa), mixed woodland on higher ground with Common Oak (Quercus robur), Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa), False Acacia (Robinia pseudacacia), non-native Monterey Pine (Pinus radiate). At higher altitudes above 500 m the Oaks are less common with some Pyrenean Oak (Quercus pyrenaica) and Beech (Facus Sylvatica). Associated with all levels are Holly (Llex aquifolium), Hazel (Corylus avellana), Grey Willow (Salix cinerea), White Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and Wild Pear (Pyrus pyraster).

There are some interesting walks in the area to the Puente de Endarlaza via Pagogana and Erlaitz and the area around Pena Aia and the Castillo de Ingles (Castle of the English), however, the sendero continues in a southerly direction to pass from the Guipuzcoa province in País Vasco to the Navarra region. The route follows a zigzag path downhill but was difficult to find at first. It passes a spring with views of the reservoir, Embalse de San Anton, wooded hills and the chapel of San Anton below. At the bar/restaurant, Ola-Berri, overlooking the reservoir, I joined up for lunch with a fellow walker, Hannes, I’d met at the campsite in Hondarribia and we discussed the onward route. As this was a relatively long day, 30 km in the book, I’d considered breaking the journey to the next town, Bera de Bidasoa. However, my good progress meant that I would make Bera that night, so we agreed to meet up there. The people at the restaurant thought it would take me 2 hours to reach Bera, the guidebook 2 ¼ and I actually took 3 hours with several breaks to enjoy the views. The way through the woods was a little unnerving at times because of gunfire which I could hear in the surrounding hills. Was it wise to sing loud on such occasions? The route started again on a uphill climb to the Collado de Telleria (417 m) flanking the first peak close to the GR11 above 600 m. This is Kopakarri at 601 m. After this, the way meandered through hills and woodland to Bera/Vera de Bidasoa, shortened to Bera, following pistas that are marked adequately if you are careful. On reaching Bera in the early evening, I was keen on refreshment and food before finding that the Hostal Euskalduna (restaurant and bar) was full and the nearby Casa Rural was not taking visitors. However, we did get accommodation at Churrut Hotel near the centre of town. The town itself has great examples of old wood-beamed and traditionally built stone houses, especially around the main square. Bera is set in a valley formed by the rivers Bidasoa and Zia and close to the French border crossings at Ibardin (Collado de Ibardin), the first of the Pyrenean passes, and Lizuniaga where the road passes north-east to Sara. Two main routes run from the coast of Guipuzcoa into the hills of Navarra. To the south, the Rio Urumea comes in from San Sebastian and, as we have seen, the Rio Bidasoa serving as the frontier before heading more southerly to Bera and then on to Elizondo where we will meet it again. Here in its upper catchment, it is known as the Baztan having joined this at Mugairi. It is more usual in the Pyrenees for valleys not to take the name of their river, but the Bidasao is one of the exceptions.

Bera has a long history traceable to the 15th century and later with French occupation and its involvement in the Carlist Wars. A fire in Bera during 1638 now means that the older houses in the centre date from after this period. It also played a part in the Battle of the Pyrenees towards the end of the Peninsular War although it was taken by the French in 1794. By July 1813 only San Sebastian, Pamplona and Bera were in French hands as the Duke of Wellington’s allied army swept from the west from their success at the Battle of Vitoria and French troops regrouped over the Bidasoa and the border. There was bitter fighting in the town especially near the bridge of San Miguel as this was an important strategic crossing for the route to the French border especially when the river was in spate and crossing elsewhere was impossible.

Today it has a mixed economy with local agriculture, and together with nearby Lesaka to the south, is part of the largest industrial centres in the region. More recently, Bera was a nationalist and Basque separatist stronghold with local support for the now banned Batasuna Party (outlawed in 2003) part of the Basque National Liberation Movement.

About 6 km north-east of the town, straddling the French border, is Monte Larroun or La Rhune at 900 m is relatively easy to climb and gives a good panorama across the Pyrenees and French Basque coast. Henry Russell, a great adventurer of the Pyrenees, described La Rhune and Canigou (on the eastern end of the chain) as sentinels at each end of the mountains. I’m sure the view of the coastal region from the summit has been used numerous times by warring factions over the centuries to see the positions and movement of their enemies. This is mentioned in the accounts of the Peninsular War by Parkinson when he describes the allied (British, Spanish, Portuguese) offensive led by the Duke of Wellington during early October 1813 prior to the Battle of Nivelle, —Wellington organised his men, ordered improvements to be made to roads, studied the terrain ahead from his excellent vantage-point on the Great Rhune, while his men waited in the pouring rain having displaced the French army from the same heights. Now days the ascent of the Great Rhune is much easier with a funicular railway dating back to 1924 that runs from Collado de St Ignace which is about half-way between Sare and Ascain on the D4 in France. This rises 331 m in 4.2 km with a gradient of 25 % at times.

After a slow start to the day and good breakfast, it was time to get some jamón de serrano, cured ham, and bread roll for lunch and supplies for an evening meal should I decide to break the journey to Elizondo. The route was clear, first following the border road out of town along the Rio Zia, before heading in a southerly direction to climb around the Santa Barbara hill. This grassy hummock with new ferns emerging is at about 395 m elevation, and gives a splendid view over Bera and the valley (see photo). The summit, marked by a bunker, is not on the GR11 but gives views of Penas de Aia, Larroun (900 m), Ibantelli (698 m), Mendaur (1131 m) and the distinctive sharp peak of Atxuria (756 m), I’m told, but it was too early when I was there as the hilltops were shrouded in mist.

View back to the village of Bera de Bidasoa as the morning temperature rises.

Already the sun was up and I was in shorts again. In no time I met with Hannes who had taken a wrong turn, so we decided to get lost together, well at least that’s how it turned out. There are many pistas in these hills and when we reached the Collado de Icoia, the route looked obvious and agreed with the map until 30 minutes later we noticed the border road from Bera in the valley and our direction was too northerly. We were going around the northern shoulder of the peak of Ibantelli that separates Puerto de Lizarrieta and Lizuniaga. We retraced our steps, and after chatting with a local, found the correct route which basically meant us going back on ourselves to start with. However, we had no excuse as there was a faded red/white mark on a rock but difficult to spot from the pista coming from the westerly direction, anyway, that’s my story. The area was forested as we climbed the pista to the French border, Puerto de Lizarrieta, on the shoulder of Pic d’ Ibantelli at 698 m in France to the north of the border crossing.

Pic d’ Ibantelli separates two border crossings, Lizuniaga on the road from Bera to the north and Lizarrieta on the road passing through Etxalar in Spain, both roads converging near Sara in France. There is an easy route to the summit through forest following the border posts to start with. The rocky summit offers grand views of the area. Also of interest in the area is the traditional hunting of pigeons, palombes in the region centred on Etxalar (Echalar) and the Collado of Lizzarrieta. This is an unpleasant reminder of the past and of course helps to understand some of the decline in migratory birds coming to the UK and other parts of northern Europe. This bird trapping was mentioned by Henry Myhill in the sixties when he refers to so certain are their routes that from time in immemorial it has been the custom to trap them, by hundreds at a time, in nets spread across the narrow valleys. Millions of pigeons migrate from northern and central Europe during October and November and fly through the western passes of the Pyrenees to over-winter in the warmer climes of the Iberian Peninsula. There are high towers in the area, e.g., la Palombieres of Lizarrieta marked on the map to the east of the GR11, that have been used by the hunters to net the birds as they fly through the mountain corridors. The nets are strung between the trees and the hunters use the towers as lookouts and to launch decoys that imitate birds of prey and cause the pigeons to dive and get tangled in the nets where they are killed, the annual slaughter termed enfer des palombes or pigeon hell.

Nina Epton in 1957 attended one of these organised by The Pigeon-shooting Society of Echalar and described the events and the complicated logistics of the day: "In front of us nets were spread out upon poles like spiders’ nets. Two lead weights attached to a cable kept the top of the nets taut. When a flight approaches, the man in charge loosens the cable and the nets fall to the ground with their prey. The purpose of the half-concealed assistants round us was to lure the birds into the nets. There were also invisible watchers hidden in the outposts ready to play weird tunes upon strident cornets that would inform us whether there was more than one. These calls vary from point to point in the Pyrenees. The description is detailed and she goes on to describe the beaters, the doria, and the chatarrak", those that used white flags to persuade the pigeons on a certain route for the traps. Sometimes they have to bring the flight lower and to entice the birds into the col. For this they use the device known as a karotia – a heart-shaped piece of wood on a short handle that imitates the pigeon’s worst enemy (apart from man), the sparrow hawk, which attacks its prey from below and clings on to it until fatigue forces the pigeon to the ground. When a karotia is thrown into the air the pigeons’ immediate reaction is to plunge towards the earth and lie low until they can make their escape.

At the Puerto we found refreshments in a small shop frequented by hunters with an integral café so I enjoyed a hot sausage and pina (pineapple juice) before walking alongside the border in France and crossing the Collado de Nabariatz back into Spain. This was a pleasant walk along the ridge with less rock underfoot. I saw Stonechats amongst the bushes and also spotted a Slow Worm near the pista. Hannes had arranged to meet a relative in a nearby village, so we parted company. I decided to camp near Cerro de Orizki in an open grove near a water pipe. This was my first wild camp and what a beautiful setting with the tent set on grass amongst the Oak trees with views all around. In the night I heard the Owls hunting and the distant chimes of the bells on the ponies. At breakfast, they collected to drink from the water pipe at the edge of the grove.

The route then goes on to cross two minor roads before climbing from the Collado Esquisaroy to the Collado Bagacheta at about 800 m, the highest point on the route so far. There is a short section of footpath over grassy hummocks joining two pistas on the way to Collado Bagacheta and this is where I saw my first Vultures circling high on the thermals, but too far away to identify. Shortly after this, as the path starts to drop, I had lunch in a clearing with lots of Asphodel flowers (probably, Asphodelus fistulosus) amongst the emerging ferns. These are quite tall with lily like leaves and white flowers, six petals on each flower with a brown line down the petal that had nearly finished flowering at the end of May.

Shortly after this, where the path divides, I went the wrong way. I ended following a path going south-south-east but on the opposite bank of the stream from the sendero. The only routes forward seem to involve climbing over fallen trees with the footpath disappearing. In such instances, I have found the best action is to retrace my steps until I find a marker or can recognise a feature on the map. This is most often difficult in woodlands when the general direction of the path is not easy to see and landmarks are less obvious. In this case, on retracing my steps, I discovered a marker going off to the right, not an obvious turn on the map. After this the track and path down to Elizondo was fine with obvious shortcuts in places to reach a minor road into the west of the town by mid-afternoon. My plan had been to stay at the Casería Saliar but the locals didn’t seem to know it or perhaps understand me. In the end, I decided that the hostel Trinquete Antxitonea was fine and had vacant rooms. This is the same hotel in which Roger Higham stayed in about 1970 on his journey along the Baztan and had the fortune to see a local paleta (indoor pelota) championship in the associated trinquet court. Afterwards I found that the Casería Saliar was full anyway.

Elizondo, which in Basque means The Church in the Valley, is the capital or chief place in the Batzan valley at about 200 m elevation. It is perhaps the most strongly Basque of the Navarran valleys. Again, the valley gets its name from the Rio Batzan, the same river as the Rio Bidasoa we met in Bera the day before. It was here that I stayed a couple of days to meet my daughter, Bex, who was joining me from England to walk a week on the GR11. She also flew into Bilboa, but got buses to Pampolona with connections to Elizondo. She became quite an expert in the local bus services which proved very reliable for her.

The town itself offers plenty of accommodation, supermarkets, shops and restaurants (but only serving evening meals after nine as is usual of course in