Amélie-des-Bains-Palalda
Today we’re setting off again; France is the next stop—more precisely the Pyrenees, and even more precisely Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda. It has a nice long name.
In the morning the dogs were so cute while I was packing — each of them lay quietly in their bed, though they kept an eye on me. At breakfast there was something interesting that I simply had to photograph because I liked it so much: there was a real honeycomb on the buffet table. It was delightful. After the tasty breakfast I walked to the parking lot with the dogs carrying a minimal amount of luggage, then we got in the car, drove to the bus stop in front of the hotel and I ran back up to our room for the rest of our stuff. Everything went smoothly; even the bus driver waved to show he saw and understood my situation.
We had 580 kilometers ahead of us, but for us that’s no longer an obstacle. The dogs were again in their usual form; I can’t say a bad word about them. At four in the afternoon we arrived among the big mountains. I let the dogs out of the car, we walked around the hotel a bit, and went to reception. Vincent spoke only French, but I understood the gist. The dogs even got a little gift package each (ball, treat, poop bags). Our room was on the first floor, at the very end of a looooong corridor. The whole thing had a bit of “The Shining” vibe. I kept expecting Jack Nicholson to jump out of one of the doors with his devilish, crazed grin. Luckily that didn’t happen. I carried our things up to our room; Vincent gave me a great luggage cart, and then I went with the dogs to explore our surroundings. Behind the hotel there’s a great road with no cars, where you can let the dogs off leash for about a kilometer and a half. Three kilometers - just enough to wind down. After that they got dinner, I unpacked and got settled. We’re staying here for three nights; breakfast is included in the price.
Vincent told me there’s a little tag on the key with a code on it. Reception closes at half past nine in the evening, and if I go out with the dogs, I can only get back in with this code. All right, thank you. In the evening at ten I took the dogs down — and for the life of me I couldn’t get in with the code. I typed it in, reached for the door, it wouldn’t open. I tried maybe six or seven times; it wouldn’t open. In the end I was pounding on it, but of course there was nobody there. Then I thought it might be worth reading what was written on the door - just in case it was in a language I could understand. French, Spanish, English-like something, but from that I could figure out what they meant. “Dear Guest! With one hand, grasp the handle while with the other you enter the code, and immediately pull the door towards you!” You have to use both hands at the same time. Leashes tangled between my legs — let’s try once more. Tadaaa — this time we managed to get in. It’s worth asking/reading first and only then getting worked up. Another checkmark on the road of learning.
