Civilisation!

Yesterday is backblipped.

This morning we got up wearily, had breakfast, sorted out the chaos in the tent, packed the car, and headed for La Seu d'Urgell. We'd spent quite a while yesterday evening figuring out a route; it's not far, but there are a lot of mountains in the way. The route is not obvious, at least not to Sean, our GPS. A paper map is essential, and even then there are many cries of "You idiot Sean, not that way!" as he attempted to lead us onto ever more dodgy roads. Even the main road is windy and hard work to drive, over one mountain pass after another -- albeit with spectacular views.

Google Maps said it would take three hours. We set off at 10:30, and by 1:30 we had reached Sort, a good hour short of our destination. So we stopped for lunch, randomly wandering into this bar because we liked the building. We were only mildly peckish, so we ordered a couple of platillos (small plates), and they were superb. I had a salad with cheese, fresh fruit, and nuts; the vinaigrette had curry powder in it, which shouldn't have worked but it did, and S had a tartare of salmon and melon. I'd go back there again.

We set off again refreshed, and after an hour pulled into the car park of the campsite we'd identified via Google. Rather than presenting ourselves at reception, we had a wander round incognito first. Our hearts sank as once more we surveyed the packed ranks of tents, caravans, camper vans, and parked cars, squeezed onto pitches with little privacy and minimal shade. Barking dogs, yelling children ... camping ain't what it used to be. We looked at each other and with common accord we got back into the car and drove into La Seu. We parked the car. We walked to the tourist office and asked the nice lady there to find us a comfortable, not too expensive hotel. She did, and arriving there we sank onto the bed with relief. Either camping has changed, or we have.