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24 June 1874 — En route to Pau | |
Wednesday. 24th [June 1874]. We arrived at Casetas about 6 A.M. not having got much rest as the train was noisy & shaky, but I lighted my kettle & made tea. At Zaragoza we changed & went to Tardiente. There we met the Govr of Huesca who had come to meet us. We changed at Tardiente for Huesca where we arrived abt 12. We went to a Fonda & got breakfast before starting in the omnibus which took us to Jaca. It was a very pretty drive all thro’ the mountains—but some thing happened to the wheel of our vehicle & we had to stop & the wheel was taken off & laid in a pond to cool the iron– When we got to the town of Ayerbe we all got out & the wheel was properly repaired. There is a fine palace, now the Hotel de Ville, which formerly belonged to the Counts of Ayerbe—& a “campanile” or clock tower stands in the center of the town in the Italian fashion. The streets & centre square were horribly dirty & full of mud that must breed fevers & agues & the moment we stopped we were surrounded by a lot of dirty women & children who stood round & stared at us. Abt 5 o’cl we began to want food & lighting the kettle made tea under difficulties Hill & I having to hold & steady the kettle on a plate. It was very good when made but we found the milk was ½ churned. We did not get to Jaca till after 9 & I began to get very tired & my head to ache & I was sick—so that I went to bed at once on arriving. It was the feast of St John & the whole town was out & every house illuminated. The Fonda was clean & the beds comfortable but there was not much sleep to be got as there was so much noise in the streets singing & merry making & the church bells rang at intervals but they were rang so funnily that I could hardly help laughing aloud in bed. At 4 there was a procession chanting singing &c. & at 5 we got up, made tea & at ½ past started in the dilly for Canfranc. We went over a very bad road & met all the population going to Jaca either on foot or on mules. They were mostly fine good looking people & a great many carried long poles & silver crosses in bags which I suppose were to be used in some procession. After bumping abt in bad roads over torrents &c we arrived at Canfranc abt 8. We got some trouts to tea but they were fried in bad oil but we had a rabbit pie & some beef with us so we had a good meal & then mounted our beasts to cross the pass. I had a very good mule & Hill, Giovanni & Henry nice little poneys. We had kind of cushioned side saddle which were very comfortable. The sun was not fully out from behind the clouds so it was not very hot & we got over the pass at abt 11½ o’cl. The carriage we expected was not at the top of the pass so we had to ride down abt ½ hour till we met it. We had a good omnibus but wretched horses. On the road we met the owner of our vehicle & complained of our horses saying at that rate we should never get to Pau before dark. He declared it to be impossible to get to Pau at all. We told him that we must & went on our way very much put out. At we changed horses & got a cup of coffee the gen d’armes were very anxious to know all abt it but were very civil. From here we had good horses & driver & got in 2½ hours to Oloron abt 7 o’cl: There we dined at Hotel Condesse & demanded horses for Pau wh they reluctantly gave us. At 8 we started again with slow horses & did not get to Pau till just midnight. We went to the hotel de France & got rooms in the Succursal had some tea & went to bed. | |
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