This was a very nice birthday surprise for me! As this summer we couldn’t travel for the day of my birthday, the weekend after it I got surprised with a nice trip that included el Tren dels Llacs, something I didn’t know about.

The whole experience was about 261€ per person (ignoring the fact that most of it was a present for me). For starters, we took the Avant train from Barcelona to Lleida-Pirineus, which was 25€ each way. We spent the afternoon there, took a walk and had a very nice dinner. The next day we took el Tren dels Llacs which costs 34€ both ways (you can always exchange one of the ways as a regular train back to Lleida). This scenic train takes about 2 hours, crosses 41 tunnels and allows the travellers to see the most beautiful lakes in Catalunya through the window.

We arrived at Pobla de Segur and we decided to have a fast lunch and rest in the hotel’s swimmingpool. After that, we rented a coouple of bikes to ride around the Pantà de Tremp and it was quite nice, as those bikes had a little engine and the ways up were way easier. The rent was 35€ per bike and it took us around 4 hours to ride around it. It was exhausting and the river waters were very cold for us to bathe there, but totally worth it.

The next day, we woke up to take the train back to Lleida, took a nice walk and visited a few iconic places, like la Seu, which was definitely impressive. The tickets are cheaper if you have the Jove card or are a student, around 6€. I’m getting old and it isn’t fun and games to go up to narrow spiral staircases anymore, but you can definitely understand how important that church tower was in times of war.