Anayet

Living in the Aragón valley, the journey to the French border in the neighbouring Tena valley is about an hour; you have to go down to Sabiñánigo and then back up towards the mountains. It always amazes me how different one valley is from the others. They each have quite different flowers.
Yesterday we did a long walk to the Anayet mountain lake in the area of the ski resort of Formigal. The online guides I looked at said it was 10.5 km to go there and back, but you have to add another 3km because the Anayet car park is 1.5 km off the main road and the gate is locked in the summer so you have to park in a little area just off the road, let yourself in by the pedestrian gate and walk along a long and winding road to the foot of the ski slopes.
The way to Anayet is well-marked with red and white signs; I was going to say path, but that would be an exaggeration-in some places it's quite a scramble up and down rocky gullies and over marshy places.

This is one of the way markers, here on the way down. There are others where the lines are crossed to tell you not to go that way. 

Anyway, two hours up-at least-because I had to stop a lot and get my breath and strength in my legs. There were quite a lot of people going up and down-the young ones bounding up and down the track, some with big rucksacks-maybe intending to do some free camping.

On the way up we came across a herd of horses. 

This is the beautiful stallion who was with his mares and their foals. I seem to remember that they are Breton breed-broad and sturdy.It was warm and sunny on the way up, but as soon as we got over the last ridge and saw the ibón-tarn or mountain lake, it was cool and the mountains were invisible in the clouds. They did clear a bit, however, and we could see Anayet.

wild chives

lots of orchids.

We ate our sandwiches and had a rest befor scrambling back down. The flowers were amazing! Once back at the car we went for coffee at the border with France, by which time the clouds had come right down and it started raining. Goodness knows what it would have been like at the top then! Lots of the paths would have become running streams.

Candanchu

The ski resort of Candanchu is an easy drive from Jaca. Saturday afternoon threatened storms so we went for a short walk in the morning. The weather was lovely.
We had heard that they were saving snow like they do in the Alps. Apparently there had been up to four metres of snow. What we didn't expect was to find the mound of snow at the bottom of the slopes. It is covered with bales of straw for insulation, but I wonder if there will be any left by the time the first snows fall.

                                              David is standing at the base so you can see how big it is.

There were some patches of hard-packed snow on the cross-country slopes, and we saw some people skiing down the 45 degrre slope beside the "Slipper" rock face-you have to be very sure of yourself to do that, especially on spring snow!

Gentians

Hepatica

Second recreation of the Tercios

This weekend Jaca is celebrating its second edition of the "recreation of the Tercios". (perhaps reenactment is better in English?) The area around the castle is buzzing with people in 16th century costumes, even wandering round the supermarket with swords on! It's very well done, and the Ciudadela is the perfect centre for it.
This afternoon, Before the rain started we went down to see the action, paid our five-euro tickets and joined in the fun.
Here are a few photos;  I took- you can find much better ones by following the link at the bottom of this entry.

http://ganasdevivir.es/blog/2018/05/08/jaca-programa-ii-recreacion-tercios-espanoles-ciudadela-de-jaca/http://ganasdevivir.es/blog/2018/05/08/jaca-programa-ii-recreacion-tercios-espanoles-ciudadela-de-jaca/

                                                                      Drawing a child's tooth, with authentic screams!

Encampment on the battlements

The costumes really are splendid

This man explained in gory detail what parts of the body were the best to stab to disable your enemy.

The ladies of the court out walking

These were from Laredo in Cantabria; really strange headgear!

Men with muskets. They were lighting wicks-I believe they were called slow matches. What a smell of burning!

The men were paired up to light their slowmatches; they only look as if they are kissing!

                                         Out into the central area to fire.

Then the Inquisition arrived-well, that's what we thought it was, but the Court came too-Phillip II and some ladies. He wasn't a popular king in Aragon. The only statue of him in the Autonomous region is a fairly modern one, here in the castle.

                                           Every recreation we see has a Friar Tuck!

The court went to mass in the chapel

A solitary pikeman

one very loud  cannon

Phillip II and his queen

One of the splendid guards at the exit.

It's mid-May, but by 7.30 we were freezing! I wouldn't be surprised if there were more snow on the mountains by tomorrow. The temperature is set to go down again.

https://recreacionterciosdejaca.es/