The Pyrenees

Six months before our wedding, I thought I mention some honeymoon options to my soon-to-be wife.  I had this half-baked idea of spending our honeymoon hiking through the Pyrenees, zig-zagging through France and Spain.  We would camp out every second night and spend time with the locals.

You could see the look of horror on Robin's face as I talked about hiking from town to town, up and down the mountains, carrying our clothes in our backpacks.  So yeah, the initial suggestion didn't fly.

After doing some research, we eventually came to a compromise: we'd have a trip mixed with mountains and beaches, shopping and shlepping, hikes and hotels, small towns and cosmopolitan cities and lots of amazing local food.


We would start our trip in Barcelona and end up in San Sebastian (Donostia), then take a train to Paris for a few days.  I was left to plan the Spanish portion of the trip and Robin would take care of the French side. She had been reading a lot of Julia Childs-related books lately and really wanted to venture into Provence and up to Lyon. I had no choice but to say yes.

I planned my portion of the trip using  "The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees". It is supposed to be a great book to get around the Pyrenees, but any time I or Robin opened it up and tried to read it, our eyes would glaze over. Horrific book. Its like reading the Yellow Pages.  It lists many towns and hikes and attractions but doesn't leave an impression of what's a must and what can be missed. So, using that book, I attempted to chart our trip.

Our plan was this: spend a few days in Barcelona, then rent a car and drive to Provence. Spend time in Provence, drive up to Lyon, then drive back down to the Pyrenees. From there, we would drive around and make our way up to the coast and ditch the car in San Sebastian.  We couldn't find maps for what we needed, so I plotted our trip using Google Maps. Yeah, not the most brilliant of moves, but I didn't have much of a choice.

I used the Pyrenees book along with Google to find hotels at each stop. You don't have to do that, but nothing's worse (for us) to show up in a town as the sun's setting, exhausted from hiking or driving, and finding out the one or two hotels/gites are booked solid.

What I did right:

• even though it is a tough read and kind of vague at times, "The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees" is a must
• I always use Expedia to book cars. I get amazing rates and great car selection (even the car rental places gawk at my rates!)
• Bought some Euros before I left on my honeymoon
• use sites like Tripadvisor to find AND book hotels. Sometimes you get better deals through Tripadvisor than you do if you book direct
 

What I did wrong:

• I went to Europe without a map. Google Map inevitably screws things up. So a visual map is a must. I don't have advice where to get this map, but find one and take one if you plan on driving