GR11 - Day 37 - to Nuria

I'm now starting to cough, so I do think I have a cold. I felt really sluggish in the morning and was thankful that we opted for a variant route to Nuria. The elevation gained in the morning wasn't lost. We didn't go down to Queralbes to have to climb up again. We stayed at relatively the same altitude all day. The only head-scratching mioment, as always, was crossing a high meadow. It's so easy to lose the marks and the GPS couldn't help because the variant was not the route Peter loaded. We had to comb the meadow back and forth like a dog looking for a stick, until we finally got back on the trail. The Nuria valley is really rugged and beautiful. Nuria was initially a monastary. It is now a ski centre in winter and a summer activities centre in the summer. It's quite commercial for being so remote. Most people come on the little cog-wheel train, so much so that the person manning the lift to the hostal didn't know what to do with a person without a train ticket, because the train ticket is also valid for the lift. They have a huge 200-bed youth hostel so that's where we're sleeping. So far, the room we're in, which is good for 4 people, only has Peter and I. I'm starting to dread walking in the heat. We're starting to have a taste of it. It saps you of your energy. I hope I feel better tomorrow.