summer, sangria & Spanish siesta

Early Sunday morning, before the buses, trams, and trains were awake, we walked to the airport and headed to Barcelona. We spent three days sipping sangria, strolling the Rambla, dining with friends, jogging along the seaside, napping in the sand, splitting the time with trips to Sitges' beaches, burgers, juice bars, blue sky, and sea breeze. 

(All that relaxing plus thwarting the attempts of two thieves- I'm pretty proud of smacking them each away so they didn't make off with all our stuff- one exiting the train 9am on Sunday morning, which would have been a great way to start the trip...the other inside a restaurant.)

hiking: refuge du folly (1560m)

Today we headed to the Alps for an afternoon hike. Starting in the town of Samoëns, we spent a little time in the center and explored the botanic gardens (a hike in itself).  

After a little stroll, we made our way from Samoëns to the trail to reach Refuge du Folly at 1560m, up the Haut Giffre Valley, sopping by blue glacier streams along the way.

Up we go.

As much as we wanted to continue the hike, we still had a descent and a drive home to get to packing and preparations to leave for Barcelona in the morning, so we just took a little rest to enjoy the view and the sunshine before making the trip back down.

Cows in the road...and homeward bound after strawberries and white nectarines from the farmers market in town as everything was wrapping up for the evening.