Hannah (who many of our guests will have met guiding here over the past two summers) and her partner Ken have been over for New Years doing some snow shoeing and trying their hand at ski touring. Snow conditions aren’t great at the moment and we’ve not had a huge quantity of snow but they still have had some great days out.

Snowshoeing towards the Col des Arazures

The area around Portalet is always a good bet when the snow’s not so good and there are a whole load of peaks that you can do from there – it’s like a winter playground!

It was Ken’s first taste of ski touring and he’s caught the bug already! You can read more about Hannah and Ken’s adventures on their excellent Apple Mountaineering blog.

In Spain nativity scenes (or Beléns) are really popular and many families have a natitivity rather than a Christmas tree in their homes. We visited an incredible belen in a house in the nearby village of Sardas. The scale was incredible – 20 feet long with several hundred figures and even a running stream!

The full Belén or nativity

Lot’s of the bible stories were represented with Herod’s palace and the 3 kings all shown as well as everyday scenes such as breadmakers. It takes the around two weeks to set the Belén up each year. It’s also common to put Beléns on significant peaks – our mountain club put a lit Belén on the peak of Santa Orosia each year.

The arrival of the three kings

The house also had a fantastic collection of antique clocks which made a wonderful sound as you were viewing the nativity although I’m not sure how I’d like them in my house year round!

We now offer the option of staying in self catering apartments on our self guided walking holidays.

The spacious Rincon del Andrea self catering apartments are based in Biescas. One, two and three bedroom apartments are available and each has a lounge/diner, bathroom and great views. The apartments are ideally located to reach the great hiking in both the Valle de Tena and the Ordesa Valley

All are well equipped with washing machine, TV, DVD player, microwave, hob, fridge, toaster and free Wi-Fi internet connection.

Read more about our self catering holidays

Lounge and diner area

Bedroom in Rincon del Andrea

Flights from London Stansted to Zaragoza for summer 2012 are now on sale on Ryan Air.Tickets are nice and cheap for next summer at the moment and usually go up in price over time so book your flight and holiday early to get a bargain.

Our transfers from Zaragoza are timed to meet the Sunday evening flight from Stansted. If Stansted isn’t convenient for you we also collect from Zaragoza train station which has excellent links to both Barcelona and Madrid which have links to lots of international airports.

If you need any advice about getting to the Pyrenees just drop us an email at info@hikepyrenees.co.uk and we’d be glad to help.

Watching the Tour de France last summer

The Tour de France schedule has been released for 2012 and once again it’s passing close by us. Our Peaks & Passes walking holiday on the 15-22 July will be a Tour de France special and on the rest day we’ll go and see the race which is a fantastic event. This year the stage is just 4 days from the end of the race and the penultimate mountain stage so we’ll really be at the business end of the race and everything will be up for grabs.

Last summer we had a great day watching the Tour at a fantastic spot just outside Laruns. We made a day out of it taking a picnic, sampling some beautiful French cheese and relaxed waiting for the riders to come past.

The caravan passing by before the riders

Before the riders come past it’s the craziness of the caravan when we all become kids again and collect the Tour de France key rings, souvenir sweets and other tat that get’s thrown out by the passing vehicles!

The peleton approaching

Watching the peleton go past is quite incredible. So many riders packed so closely together you can’t believe they don’t crash at every corner. It’s a fantastic event, a great day out and a must for any cycling fan – why not come along and see the Tour with us next summer!

You can view the full Tour de France 2012 schedule here.