The next morning I slept in a little bit (after the rooster a few blocks away had woken me up first around 6 or so...). A dense fog had descended on Tremp and it was still lingering by the time I wandered down to the dining room, where I was confronted by some crazy Dutch cycling team all decked out in their gear already. There were also a couple of old ladies smoking while sipping coffee and one older and obnoxious Australian cyclist who was loudly "pour favor-ing" and "grassyass-ing" everyone who moved...but in a kind of ironic way... as if he were in a funpark or something... prick.
Júlia came to pick me up and we headed to a nearby town that had built itself up around some important salt mines. Unfortunately, the interpretation area was closed... as was the monastery... so we sat down and had a tallat and took in the sun (which had decided to come out) and the scenery. Then we walked along the river a bit before deciding to take a look at the monastery anyway. As it turns out, the lady in charge had appeared and she let us in.
Now, I´m not sure whether we went to visit another town at that point or just returned to Tremp and hung out at the same bar as the night before... In any event, Jordi was going to prepare us another amazing meal so I was certainly down with chilling for a bit as we waited... and hey, all the better if it's in a bar. J's mum came by after a little bit with her son and it was nice chatting while the nice smells emanated from the kitchen...
The meal was once again spectacular. First course: rice with local mushrooms (very dainty ones and not overpowering, but with a mouth-filling flavour) and some bits of ham; second course: incredibly tender and perfectly cooked steak with a morel sauce... definitely the best beef I've ever had in Spain and way up there with that bison at La Gamelle a couple of years ago and the sirloins we grilled for Bill and Berna's going away dinner...
No time for a siesta either, because a friend was waiting at a local museum to show us around... so off J and I went, and we were treated to a small but very cool display of modernista calendars and business display paraphenelia (it sounds weird but trust me, interesting stuff). On the other side of the building there was a display of original civil war posters courtesy of the local townspeople. There is something very moving about seeing those pieces first hand. I had only ever looked at them in books and online... to see them in their full size, creased and folded, perhaps, but the colours still vibrant... was something else.
Our guide then took us to the middle of this small town (cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme...) where I got to see four very, very cool installation museums: recreated spaces full of historical materials. There was an apothecary, a barber shop, a general store and a bar. Check out the spaces and some of the items:
The old drugs and such were pretty cool and then the following was pointed out to us:
Yeah, those are cocaine pills... : )
Next up was the barber shop. The chairs were perfectly broken in and very comfy... sitting there took me back to the time I went for my second shave down in La Ceiba in Honduras... the first one had gone well and felt great (and only cost a dollar) but the second one... not so much... I say this because the lady shaving me started to argue with a friend about a guy just as she was drawing the straight razor up my throat and over my chin. Well, her anger got the better of her steady hand and next thing you know, I see the friend's eyes get really big as I feel liquid streaming down my neck... yeah, she had cut me pretty good. Luckily, it being a cheap barbershop in northern Honduras in the mid-'90s, she had some newspaper on hand to blot the blood... When she threw on that green rubbing alcohol afterwards, I thought I was going to faint... Now I have a nice scar on my chin to remind me of the fun of being shaved by someone else...
But enough about me... have a gander at the next two pics, which I think are great: first, some hemaglobin for those dainty ladies who tended to faint a lot and second, if that didn't spruce you up, how about some "Hellish Anis... The Worst in the World"? Now, I'm not a physician, but if I were, that's what I would prescribe: hemaglobin (self-administered) and anis.
After the general store we hit the recreated bar...
...and then it was back across the conca just as it started to get dusk to climb some winding roads and arrive at to a nice little town on a big hill.
We were there to check out both the view and a new museum in the home of a 4th generation doctor who had lived in exile in the Soviet Union. While waiting for the cool guy to open that place, we hung out in the town's church, where we came across this figure:
Anyone know who he is/what he represents? Note: if it's totally obvious to Catholics (that's you, Jen), please don't laugh at me. I may have been baptised, but that's the end of it.
Because I had feasted earlier that day, there was no need for dinner and I got J to just drop me off at the hotel around 10... an early night because we were going to go mushroom hunting in the morning...
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