Southern Slopes: Exploring Spain's Pyrenean Parks and Peaks
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Due to a lapse on my part, Spain nearly got left out of this collection, and it hosts a share of the Pyrenees as well as a good few other mountain ranges that it has to itself. Some of these are on islands like Tenerife, and a list of walking destinations that are better known for other things now includes Gran Canaria too. Returning to the Spanish mainland, there are other walking areas like Asturias and Galicia to consider, so Spain is hardly short of them. Of course, you always can start uncovering more about these and other destinations on the official national tourism portal, and the Tour of Spain is another option whose mention I have encountered.
So far, neither of the latter pair have needed to be used in anger for planning a Spanish incursion, since I have yet to visit the mainland. The same cannot be said of my brother, for he passed through the Pyrenees way on an adventurous school trip during the summer of 1979 that visited both it and France. There are stories of bullfights (Pamplona is not so far removed from those northern mountainous fringes) and broken spectacles that hazily remain in my memory, though I was barely in primary school in those more analogue times. Something that does have a greater hold on my recollection are photos of desiccated locations that look rather lunar to a lad reared in a mild and wet maritime climate. It all takes me back to an era with regularly broadcasted television advertisements for Harp lager with an Irish expatriate in a hot country longing for Irish rain, and we keep complaining about the stuff and wishing for it to go to Spain instead. Ironic.
Along with marking out a national boundary, the Pyrenees also display differing weather patterns depending on which side of them you are. In the main, the French slopes are north-facing, though there is one Spanish enclave that is an exception and faces in the same direction. Otherwise, the Spanish Pyrenees are south facing, so they should catch more of the sun.
Like Italy, it also seems that Spain's northern regions have yearnings for greater autonomy, with Basque separatists having resorted to acts of terrorism while Catalonians have stuck to peaceful democratic means. Of these, Catalonia hosts sections of the Pyrenees, with Lleida possibly acting as a base for visiting some of these. There are other Pyrenean parts in Aragon and Navarre, and the latter may have its Basque political tensions, but this is nowhere near as much as it is in the Spanish Basque Country, itself with star visitor attractions like San Sebastián and Pamplona.
Unsurprisingly, for such mountainous regions, there are national parks to be explored too and these should get you away from any such political tensions. Catalonia has Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant Maurici National Park with its multitude of lakes to be found among its high mountains. There is also a hut to hut walk called Carros de Foc that goes around part of the park too. The other national park for the Pyrenees is Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park in Aragon. At a lofty 3348 metres above sea level, it is little surprise that Monte Perdido finds its way into the name of the park and there are less strenuous hiking options than that heady summit too.
To get to Spain, there always is the flag-carrying airline, Iberia, along with a whole host of others that include Air Europa. For Aragon, Zaragoza is the main airport, so it has its uses for inbound air travellers to the area's Pyrenean heights. Renfe is the country's rail operator and there are high-speed railway lines too, so this has to be a port of call for anyone considering a Spanish excursion with a good deal of travel involved. Travel by coach is another possibility with operators including Avanza as well as the Spanish National Express subsidiary ALSA.
