Day 17

I’m reading Don Quijote in the Pirenarium in Sabiñánigo, Sabi as the bus driver called it affectionately. There was no problem carrying C. into the fortunately not so micro “microbus” yesterday and for most of the long drive through the beautiful countryside it was just me and the bus driver. There was no charge since the short train ride was replaced by a long bus ride, the tracks cut through the mountains but the road doesn’t. Maybe it was an inconvenience to others but I didn’t mind. Sabiñanigo was the last stop, there was another bus leaving to Jaca, where I had planned to travel by train and continue walking, but a heavy storm was forecast so I found a cheap bed in a former military complex, once barracks from the Batallon de Gravelinas, now housing a hostel and several cultural associations. It is an intruiging setting, in the big courtyard two ancient olive trees have been placed in huge planters and when I looked out of my window last night, I realised what the Pirenarium is: a large maquette - 200 metres wide, you can walk through it - of the Aragonese Pyrenees, with 113 scale models of monuments and buildings, placed in a simulation of the landscape. It has been closed since 10 years but the woman running the hostel told me they are restoring it. When I went to the communal bathroom this morning and entered the bathroom I had a perfect view of a mini version of the mountains I just walked through, bizarre.

I’ll stay here another night, to rest, to write and to plan how to proceed. This is not an easy area to walk through, nor is the territory ahead. It is a pity the Pirenarium is closed, otherwise I could have constructed a scale model of myself and simulate my next moves.