Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Day 12 - Spanish public holidays grrr!

Day 11 was another day of doing very little ready for a 4:15 am start on day 12 to catch a bus to Lleida.

We'd arranged a taxi to the bus stop which was 8km from Espot on the main road, after being abandoned at the side of the road, there wasn't anything that resembled a bus stop nearby, we waited, and waited some more. An hour later we decided that for some reason or other, the bus wasn't coming. So still waiting for the sun to come up, we started walking towards Llavorsi, just trying to reach civilisation so we could sort out plans.

The first place we reach is Escaló, find a regular bus stop and discover there is a bus that runs to Sort Monday to Friday and it's arriving in 15 minutes. Think we're in luck, but it's another no show, put it down to an error in my translation of the Catalan bus timetable. With the heavens about to open it's time for a quick decision, we get a taxi to Sort in the hope we can continue our journey to Lleida from there.

Our first stop at the tourist information provides the explanation for the lack of buses, it's the 15th August - La Asunción de la Virgen and a spanish public holiday = no buses. Nice of the lady at the campsite who told us the bus times and booked the taxi and the taxi driver to inform us of this fact!

Resigned to the fact we're not going to get anywhere that day and the weather being atrocious we find a cheap hostal. Have a little wander round Sort but the rest of the day is spent catching up on some sleep and watching (not understanding mind you) Spanish TV.