I could not get out of the hotel in Ax-Le-Therme fast enough! It reeked of smoke and was pretty run down all over. We paid 12 Euro for an assortment of jelly and butter to go with what was obviously (to me) last night’s bread. The one bright spot for me was a nice big cup of coffee. To top it off, Mother Nature decided to dump 3 more inches of snow on us overnight. I wanted to get out of here and on to my warm vacation.

We drove north out of the mountains then east right back into them. The roads were dusted in snow and sleet just to the point of making me nervous. Going south there was a steady stream of cars trying to get to town. Seems they heard of the snow and were thrilled! Our side of the road was deserted. We were the only crazy people leaving this fantastic opportunity for skiing. Once we started heading east the roads wound along side the cliffs at dangerous levels and curves. Many areas had no guard rails at all and some spots only produced poles that seemed near impossible to stop and car or semi from going over and down the valley. My breakfast threatened to make a second appearance at any moment. At every turn I felt it churn in my stomach. It is a good thing I was not the one driving because I know we would still be up there today.

Eventually the roads flattened out and turned more into rolling hills along side us. What I had not expected was to drive through a wine region. There were fields after fields of grape vines. We stopped for sandwiches and sat watching the snow fly horizontally across the air. I am losing hope of a warm vacation and I am losing it fast!

We reached the Spanish border after climbing to the top of a mountain. Why they thought it was a great idea to put the border way up there I will never figure out. We drove to the top only to pass through the gates and came right back down into Spain. One thing I have to admit to is the view was amazing! The roads were just as curvy and dangerously close to the edge but at least there was no snow. We had a view of the ocean and the small towns from the cliffs. It was quite a sight!

We drove into Figueres but did not find anything worth getting out of the car for. We stopped at a store only to pick up a map of Spain. Ken found Oreos and Ruffle potato chips too. So maybe it was worth getting out of the car for. We had originally planned to find a hotel here but changed our minds pretty quickly. Since we were homeless for the night and no real plans on what to do, we called our hotel for the following night and asked if they had openings a day early. They did and with that taken care of we decided to head back to the coastal town of Cadaques.

 

This meant heading BACK into those mountains that we had just come out of. I think Ken was starting to feel like he was in one of those car commercials where they show how great the car handles by winding it through mountains at high speed.

In town, it was bitterly cold and windy enough to send us flying horizontally. I believe the temperature was 3 degrees Celsius but it may as well have been 3 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill. We only walked around for a short time before heading back to the car. There did not seem to be much of interest in the town. I think everyone had left and gone skiing in the mountains.

I wanted to call it a night and sit in the hotel room and drown in my sorrow of not having a warm vacation. I asked Ken how he felt about driving all night to the southern coast of Spain where there might be a chance left for warm sunshine. But we had been in the car all day and were getting sore in the rear end department. Let’s only hope Mother Nature is nicer to us tomorrow.

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