Summertime

 It's summer, it's still Pandemic and I'm not  on holiday because I teach English on Zoom, from my house. 

The weather has been hot, and because Jaca is a great base, we've been able to do lots of excursions. The other day we did a tough one: La Raca in Astún. We didn't get to the top, but we weren't far off.

This was just a rest: we walked all the way!

There's a ski jump; I'd  seen it from afar before but never so close! Jumpers must be quite mad! It gives me vertigo just looking at it!

It was foggy in Astún when we started and a lot of the way. But higher up the distinctive peak of the Midi d'Ossau rose above the fog.

La Raca isn't like Candanchú for flowers, but I did find this lovely one though. It's yellow mountain saxifrage: saxifraga aizoides L

A royal surprise!

One of my friends works in a cake shop in the Calle Mayor (High Street) in Jaca. Yesterday she posted a message to our Wassapp group: "The king and queen and their girls have just been in my shop!" They were looking for coffee, which they couldn't get there. Later someone from a bar at the other end of the street posted a couple of photos.

Not very good, but personal! The bar is called Las Tres Ranas, and they were taken by surprise! 

The monarchs chose a bad time to come; the weather has been horrible. It rained in Jaca all weekend, and as I left for Zaragoza this afternoon it was starting to snow; silly soft stuff but real snow. 

Apparently they spent the morning skiing in Astún. This is a link to the regional newspaper's photo-gallery. i hope they managed to ski as well as posing for photos!

http://www.heraldo.es/multimedia/imagenes/la-familia-real-disfruta-astun-una-jornada-esqui/

Snow

There has been a lot of snow this winter. Not just this winter but this spring too. Yesterday, Saturday 6th April and Friday 5th we woke up to a layer of snow over the garden. It disappeared quite quickly, but even so, snow in April!

Monte Oroel, 10am Saturday

The ski resorts are closing today, all except Astún which will last another week. They've still got lots of snow, but in the spring the consistency isn't so good by the afternoon, and I think people simply get tired of snowy mountains and want to go to the beach instead.