All language subtitles for The Pyrenees with Michael Portillo - 1x04 - An Emotional Journey

What a beautiful view
of the Mediterranean.

I'm going on a journey
of self discovery...

What a place!

...walking stretches
between the summits

of the Spanish and French Pyrenees.

My word...

Approaching
three score years and ten,

I have much to reflect on.

What is the secret of being happy
in life, do you think, now?

So I'm challenging myself on
an ambitious mountain adventure.

GROANS DEEPLY
THEY LAUGH

I'll start at the Atlantic Ocean,

crossing borders
between Spain and France,

and end at the Mediterranean Sea.

Meeting the people who live here...

Working on the land together,

everybody's equal,
and that's when you really bond.

It's like falling in love again.

I began to get
this sense of total peace.

I'll test myself physically...

WIN D HOWLS

HE GROANS

This is no joke.

...and have time
to contemplate the past...

Somewhere through these hills
my father walked,

to leave Spain
as a political refugee.

...open to whatever
this personal quest may teach me.

It has impressed upon me

how free is the human spirit
to choose its own way,

and that is inspiring.

UP We go.

The final stretch
of my Pyrenean challenge

will include a strong element
of personal pilgrimage.

I've crossed back into Spain,

to the north-eastern region
of Catalonia.

HE GROANS

My first goal,

the popular viewpoint
Mirador de la Tortuga.

And round we go...

Got it.

I feel the summit,

I sense it.

DEEP BREATHS

HEAVIER BREATHING

Definitely tiring.

I'm in better condition overall

than I was at the start of my walks,
but, er...

the hip is a bit painful today,

so it kind of balances out,

and now,
I'm going to be treated to...

Oh, yeah.

...a 360 degree view,

of mountain, and village,

and crag, and lake, and dam...

...and more mountains.

Yeah.

SIGHS

Worth all the panting.

I started at the Atlantic,

I've made it, almost,

to the Med.

As civil war raged in Spain,

over 80 years ago,

these cruel mountains would feature

in the back story to my life.

Spain is something special to me,

because I am half Spanish,

and this is not a corner
that I know very well,

but it is important

in my family history,

because somewhere
through these hills

my father walked, to leave Spain,

as a political refugee
in February of 1939.

All his feelings
must have been of despair,

of despair, and everything
that he believed in politically,

democracy, the Republic,
all of that had crumbled away,

and Spain was now under
a dictatorship that he loathed,

as he tramped,

in February,
through the Pyrenees,

to an entirely unknown destiny,

and I have never come back

to walk in his footsteps.

In my last three days,

I'll cover around 40 miles

starting in the Catalan Pyrenees,

meeting people who, like me,

have returned to the area

due to a family connection.

My route will take me
to the village of La Vajol,

where thousands of refugees,
like my father,

said their last goodbyes to Spain.

I'll meet a vineyard owner

who's embracing the rural life
of his forefathers,

and walk with a local guide

who was drawn back to her roots.

I'll finish my journey

where the mountains meet
the Mediterranean,

at the Cap de Creus,

the most easterly point
on the Spanish mainland.

In 1931,

Spain changed
from being a monarchy to a republic

with an elected president,
and government.

And in 1936,
the Spanish Civil War began,

with a military rebellion
against the government.

During the three years
of the Civil War,

the government lost territory
to the rebels,

and had to move its capital
repeatedly.

Eventually,

the President of the Republic
ended up in this house, Can Bar is,

in a tiny village in the Pyrenees,

and ruled from here

what was left of the Republic,

in its last days.

My father, Luis Portillo,

a law professor,

became Deputy Secretary of justice

in the Republican government.

Like many Spanish families,
his was torn apart

as five of his brothers
fought on the other side.

He was forced to leave his homeland,

but was lucky enough to create
a new life in Britain

after meeting Cora, my mother,

seen here with my brothers

and me, bare-chested.

The Spanish Civil War
hung over my father's life

like an enormous, dark shadow.

He was constantly talking about
everything that had gone wrong...

...but he would not dwell
on personal experience,

and so I have only the vaguest idea

of how he left Spain.

Barcelona,
the capital of Republican Catalonia,

fell to General Franco's
Nationalist forces in January 1939,

and many sympathisers and soldiers
looking for an escape route

headed to this mountain village
of La Vajol,

to cross the border into France.

It has quite a big place in
the history of the Spanish Republic,

because so many people, in the
dying days of that government,

passed through here
on their way to exile in France,

and beyond.

And here is a plaque in memory

of all the Republicans of the war,

1936 to 1939.

In the bottom right,
the flag of Catalonia,

and in the bottom left,

in red, yellow and purple,

the flag of
the defunct Spanish Republic.

Hello, Margaret. Hello, Michael.

It's good to see you. How are you?
How are you? Good to see you.

Margaret works
at a nearby Civil War museum,

and, as for me, that war
is part of her family history,

with relatives forced to flee Spain,

some of them through here.

Just above the village,
the route that the refugees took

is known today as
Un Camino del Exilio,

A Path into Exile.

Margaret and I are tracing it
along this forest trail

as it climbs towards
the French border.

Can you imagine
hundreds of people walking up here?

A miserable stream of humanity.
Yes.

I... I mean, it was in the middle
of the winter and it was freezing.

Everything was behind them. Yes.

So, their possessions,
their families,

their country, their jobs. Yeah.
Everything.

And all their political illusions.

Absolutely.
Because they'd just lost,

and everything
that mattered to them... Yes.

...had been destroyed,

and how they put one foot in front
of the other,

I'm not quite sure.

Between here and the sea,

half a million people
walked through here.

I think people can imagine that now,

because we've seen
so many Ukrainian refugees recently.

Yes, terrible, terrible.

And how many members of your family
do you think walked this path?

My grand-uncle Carlos,
and his son...

...and a couple of nephews.
Uh-huh.

Which would be cousins of mine.

They for sure walked through here,
because they were in the military,

so they walked through here
with the army.

Unfortunately, I have no details

of how my father left Spain. Uh-huh.

I know it was through the Pyrenees,
I know that it was from Barcelona.

Yes. I think it's extremely likely
that it was along this path

or a path exactly like it. Yes, yes.
For sure.

The French opened the border to
Republican soldiers and civilians,

but were totally unprepared
for the numbers that arrived.

For many of the Spaniards,
once they got to France,

their troubles...
..were just beginning.

...were just beginning.

There were different organisations
moving and working,

especially from Perpignan,

and if you were lucky,

you could get help from them.

But there were thousands
and thousands of refugees

that they weren't able
to help everybody.

I mean, they were known as
reception camps, but they... Well.

They turned into something very much
like concentration camps.

Er, well, that's what they were
described as, yes.

And thousands died.

More than...

I mean, we don't know exactly how
many cited.

It was terrible, terrible.

My father was relatively lucky,

because eventually he was sponsored
as an intellectual,

and invited to Britain.
Mm-hm.

My grandfather
and his eldest brother,

they were offered contracts
in South American universities.

That was very lucky for them.

It was a bit easier
on the intellectuals

than on the others.
Yes, yes.

When Spain, in the 1970s,

made the collective decision

to move on
and leave the past behind,

this was known as the...

General amnesty, yeah.

The general amnesty
and the pact of forgetting. Yeah.

But of course it's not actually
worked out that way in the end,

there's been a big revival
of the movement to remember

what happened
in the Spanish Civil War.

How do you stand on the subject
of forgetting and remembering?

Oh... Well, I think that,
I mean, if...

If you have to move forward,

you have to know
what happened before.

So I think that you have to remember

and you have to know what happened,

even if you don't...
I mean, even if it's really ugly.

Of course, in my own case
it's more complicated again,

because some of my uncles
were on the other side.

Yes, that's very difficult.
So the family was divided.

Yes. That's terrible.
And you, you know, their...

their children are my cousins,
and my contemporaries. Yes. Mm-hm.

Perhaps what was needed
in the '70s

was not a pact of forgetting,
but a pact of forgiving.

But that's rather idealistic. Yes.
Yes.

That's pretty difficult
to forgive, huh?

This fence marks the frontier

between Spain and France,

and thousands of Spanish exiles,
like my father,

crossed this line.

Some would be dead within days,

dying of wounds, or exposure,

and others, like my father,

would go on to have five children,

and a new life in another country.

I don't know how my father would
have felt

when he was leaving Spain,

about the fact that he,
a Spanish Republican on the left,

would have a son who would be

a Conservative
British Cabinet Minister.

But I hope he might think
that my coming here is a...

is a tribute to him,
and to his suffering.

Today, the wind is down,

the air is quite chilly,

but very, very still.

Tiniest movement in the trees.

But there's no mistaking

that this is now...

intense spring sunlight.

Over 80 years ago, my father,

who might well have been killed
had he remained in Spain,

walked in defeat and despair

through these mountains,

which oddly now evoke
memories of my childhood.

A little picture postcard of...

the Catalonian Pyrenees.

A little village
nestling so quietly

beneath those enormous
black and white peaks.

When I was nine years old,

my parents sent me on my own
to Spain for the second time,

and the uncle
with whom I was staying took me

to a village which was where
his parents-in-law lived,

and this reminds me of it.

It was no bigger than this,
and for a month,

my world was confined to
a small group of buildings like that

and at that age, it doesn't matter,

and you don't think about it.

Back in London, as I grew older,

I was in the suburbs,

and I yearned
for the beating heart of the city,

and I moved into
the very centre of the metropolis,

and that has been my life
ever since.

While I craved excitement,

some find solace in a more peaceful

and slower pace of life.

I'm heading downhill

to explore the gentle terrain

of the Emporda Plain.

This area has a tradition
of wine-making

dating back to the 6th century BC.

From the 1960s,

many vineyard owners in the area

were lured away to the coast,

as tourism boomed.

But in recent years,

a new generation of winemakers
has moved in

to revive old traditions.

Just outside
the tiny village of Rabos,

I'm meeting jordi Esteve Xifra,

who nine years ago left city life
to produce wine.

Jordi, what was it that brought you
into making wine?

I was born in Girona 40 years ago,

but my great-grandparents
was born here,

so I make, like,
a return to the roots of the family.

Did they live off the land,
your grandparents?

Yeah! 50, 100 years ago, everybody
has a vineyard, has olive trees.

Through here,
all that mountains was vineyards.

So you absolutely feel

a genetic connection
which has brought you back

to your grandparents' roots?
Of course,

of course, and I arrive here

in the same mountain
that saw my family born here

100 years ago, so, yeah.

My grandparents,
my father...

were from a small village in
Castilla,

but a very historic one.

It's called
Madrigal de las Altas Torres.

I've never... I've never wanted to
go back to my father's village life,

but nonetheless,
I've been drawn back to Spain

again and again
like a powerful magnet. Nice, nice.

So have you been involved
in restoration?

Was this a vineyard
when you found it?

Yeah, I found it 2016,

in small vineyards.

It's difficult to work
with big tractors,

so it's by hand, you know,

fertilisation, working the soil,

replant the plants that...

they are cited. So it's step by step,

it's a slow rhythm.

You cannot go faster,

and in the world
that everything is so fast,

I love that,
because it's like, relax,

wait and see,
and work every clay hard.

You've come from the city, Girona.

This is happening more generally,
at least here,

a return from the city to the
village, to the country. Why?

Er it, it is a...
it is a change,

it is a thing that I think
it's, like, ten years ago,

it is starting.

It is with connection with...
a slow life,

you know, slow food,
a return to the past,

and I think the people want
more connection with the nature,

with the sun, the wind, the rain.

We need to spend more time outside.

Well, shall we see what you do
with the grapes?

Of course, let's go.

Jordi, what a beautiful room!

OK, thank you.
Yeah, it's a new space.

It's like being outside
and inside at the same time,

with wonderful views.

After breathing new life
into this 20-acre vineyard,

jordi now creates
a range of nine organic wines

specific to this region.

OK, that is white wine,

so minimal intervention,

do not add nothing into the wine.

So then you have a rustic character

that gives an idea
how the wines was in the past.

So the...

the wine is very dark
for a white wine,

and maybe a little cloudy as well,

so this is not the sort of wine
that I'm used to seeing

in a wine shop
or in a restaurant.

That all colours
that you see is the...

the authentic colours of the wine,

you know,
it's a little bit oxidated,

a little bit cloudy,
because we do not filter the wine.

ASPIRATING SLURPING

Gosh.

No, that is a lovely wine
and it does...

It does taste very, very natural,

very straightforward.

That's fantastic.

It's one thing to be a romantic,
and to leave the city

and go back to the countryside...

but you have to live.

And are you able
to live from your wines?

Yeah, I'm a very romantic person.

When I'm working in the vineyard,

I'm thinking, the person who will
open the bottle, you know?

But I have to organise the business.

So now, I'm improving in that part,

and...

and yes, now...| have the balance.

Good!

So what have you discovered so far

about the secret of life?

What is the secret of being happy
in life, do you think, now?

For me, in my own case,

is to live the clay,

is to live in the present,

reconnect with the fields,

with the plants,
makes...

It calms me down.

Well, you are very, very lucky

to do things that you love.

Yeah. Cheers.

Cheers.

Jordi has returned
to his ancestors' rural way of life.

He's at one with nature,

and I'm pleased
that it's bringing him joy.

My route is taking me ever eastward,

across the Emporda Plain
towards the coast.

Being now so close to
the Mediterranean Sea,

the landscape is once more
familiar to me.

Behind me, cork trees,
and here,

vineyards on the gentle slopes.

And the only thing
that I'm not used to

is the icy breeze
descending from the snowy peaks

just beyond that ridge.

They say that
spending time surrounded by nature

can be good for the soul.

Yet even in somewhere

as remote and wild as the Pyrenees,

it cannot be taken for granted.

When the future of the native
Hermann's tortoise was under threat,

40 years ago...

SPEAKING SPANISH

...Joan Budo set up this sanctuary

to save these littlest
of Pyreneans.

Porque esta en peligro?
Why is the tortoise in danger?

SPEAKING SPANISH

Si, si, 130 hay.
130 tortoises!

What a beautiful creature!

Una hembra.
Una hembra, it's a female.

Adulta? Adulta, una hembra adult a.

Es eltamano Maximo que pueden tener
las Tortugas adult as de esa especie.

The maximum size they reach. Si.

Esto es tipico?
This is typical?

The sanctuary is supported by the
Catalonian Environmental Department,

and the Albera Natural Park,

and began a breeding program me
28 years ago.

Joan is taking me to see

some of their newest arrivals.

Here we have to be very careful.

Could be tortoises...

Ah! Ah.

Ah, que bueno!

Hello!

Hello, hello.

Lovely, tiny tortoises,

and quite active.

The sun is on them,

and they're warming up in my hands
as well,

so they're poking
their little heads out,

and moving their little feet.

Aren't you beautiful?

How old are these two, Joan?
Que edad tiene estos...

18 months, my goodness.

Que poco crecen, que lento crecen!
Si. How slow they are growing.

Hoo-hoo-hoo...!

Y este especie, donde se encuentra?

Where do you find this species?

There's a population
over the other side in France,

there's a small population
in northern Italy,

but they're all small populations,

and so this lovely animal
is in danger of extinction.

Joan says in Catalonia the tortoise
is now very well protected by law,

and increasingly,
people are understanding

that the proper place
for the tortoise is in nature,

and not as a pet in people's houses.

3,500 tortoises born here

have been released into the wild,

and researchers are learning more

about how they behave
in their natural habitat.

Joan says this tortoise was found
by a member of the public

on a roadway.

They will register it
and microchip it.

They've already micro chipped
1,000 tortoises,

which means that when they find them
again, they have a very good idea

about their ecology,

and a little bit
about their life history

and their movements.

So this is the tiny microchip

which was taken up
inside the syringe.

It's going to go into the shoulder

just to the left of the head.

He's pushing...

So he now has his microchip.

The tortoise hasn't reacted at all,

and now we need to know
the number of the microchip. Si.

And off she goes into the wild.

Protecting these native creatures

takes both patience
and commitment...

Hasta mega.
Hasta mega.

...and Joan has created a legacy
that will endure.

The sun is stronger, I think.

The Mediterranean is at hand.

Everything tells me we're getting
towards the destination.

I'm on the final leg
of my great Pyrenean adventure,

walking stretches
of this wonderful mountain range.

Huh.

A tree has blown down
clean across the track.

What a beautiful tree.

No, I can't climb through it,
can't climb through it.

GROANS

See whether I can go around...

Yeah... Oh!

There's a pathway through here
I think.

Oh, look at that!

I think this might be a cork oak,

and this is the bark that is used
to make cork.

Very clean break.

Sheesh!

Going to be quite a job moving that.

But there's no stopping

the intrepid pilgrim!

Away from the usual comforts
of my life,

this challenge has been
a liberation,

and the people that I have met,
an inspiration.

My route has brought me
all the way

from Spain's
northern Atlantic coast.

Ah...

SIGHS

Onward.

And now from this Serra De Rodes
ridge of the Pyrenees,

at last I glimpse the Mediterranean.

This spectacular peninsula,

the Cap de Creus,

is the most easterly point
on the Spanish mainland.

Covering more than 50 square miles,

it's protected as a natural park.

A brief stroll through
the ruins of this mediaeval village,

abandoned since
the time of the Black Death,

brings me to my first view of sea

since the Atlantic,
and what a contrast.

An enclosed sea, and so blue,

under this Mediterranean sky,

and what a landscape of headlands!

Joining me on
this penultimate stage of my walk

is local guide Merce Don at.

Hello, Merce.
Hello, Michael.

What a pleasure to see you,
and what a panorama!

A very prominent monastery here.
What is that?

This is
the San Pere de Rodes Monastery,

a Romanesque monastery from
the 9th century

that was built by three monks

to keep relics
from St Peter of Rome.

Relics of St Peter?

I mean, they have must been
extremely valuable. Yes!

Rome was attacked,

and the Pope
decided to split the relics

around the Mediterranean Sea.

With important relics,

this was presumably
a place of pilgrimage,

and they would bring money as part
of buying their penance,

their forgiveness. Exactly.

Ancl when this monastery in 1930
become a UNESCO site,

they found many coins
in golden and silver,

from all over
the Mediterranean countries.

And are you from here?
Is this where you come from?

Yes, I'm born in Cadaques,

and my grandfather born
in the Valley of Santa Creus

just behind these villages
that you can see on the coast.

My grandparents,
they were farmers around,

they were producing wine, oil,

but I start to study abroad,

and then I wanted
really to come back

when I had my first child, Pau,

and to show or to live
the same experience I had

when I was a child
in this beautiful place.

Describe that lifestyle.
I play between sea and mountains,

and I was climbing a tree
or I was fishing,

and eating directly the fish
from the sea,

er, swim,
and that was amazing,

to have this little community,

so alive,

so, so wild.

Shall we take a little walk
and get an even higher view?

Yeah. I would love to show you.
Good. Yeah.

Here there is a plant that for me
it's special.

Thyme, right?
Oh, thyme.

Ancl it blooms at the end of March,
beginning April...

Let me smell it.

Lovely. Yeah.
Beautiful plant.

What could it be used for?

Erm, it can be very useful
if you have headache,

stomach ache...
For the skin, it's very good.

In winter when we feel
a little bit down, or bad mood,

with a soup of ferigola,
of thyme,

and it makes you strong and happy.

Er, take care
because it's quite steep here.

If you want to take my arm?

Let me try. Yes.

I think I'm... OK.
OK, OK. Oh, just...

Here we go. Yes, exactly, very good.

Thank you very much.

Up we go. Yeah,
you're going to be fine, Michael.

Going to be fine here, yeah.

It's like little steps, you know?

Normally, when you climb like this,

it's much easier than going down!

Triumph!

Ah!

And what a view!

Not only out at the sea

but also the inland,
and the view of the Pyrenees.

It's a fantastic perspective
from here, isn't it?

All the way over to
the monastery here on our right.

And you can see
the village so well here,

you can see the gate through which
the pilgrims, I suppose, entered.

Can you imagine the emotion,
the sense of exhilaration

having travel led
hundreds of kilometres, maybe?

Exactly,
and walking through the Pyrenees

with some friends,
or through Spain, or by boat.

They reach the village,

and they're within sight of
their destination and their goal.

Ooh, my goodness, I'm almost
blowing off this mountain here.

Er... Ahh!

LAUGHTER

Such a wind, goodness!

Yeah!

When you were away,

what was it that you missed
about this place?

How you call... It's a very...
What is it in Spanish?

Erm, it's la... La alegria.
The... The joy.

The joy.
The happiness. The happiness.

I first came with my mother,
when I was two.

I don't remember very much,
except that I hated the food.

I think in those days the Spanish
used to eat a lot of chickpeas,

and as a child
I found them very indigestible.

So the only thing I would eat
on my first visit was custard,

natillas.

But my parents
then sent me back when I was eight.

Some of the things about Spain
were delightfully old-fashioned.

For instance, we would go picnicking
in a horse and cart.

But everything has changed so much.

I mean, not just the living standard

and you've become incredibly
socially liberal.

Yeah, perhaps also because of this
connection with the Mediterranean,

because, no?
The tourism we have, too.

I was smiling because I remember,
again, when I was a child,

down here on the Costa Brava,
in the early '60s,

British female tourists were
arrested here for wearing bikinis,

and there was an old joke
that a Guardia Civil,

a policeman stopped a woman
in a bikini and said,

we only allow
one piece bathing suites here,

and she said,
which part shall I take off?

LAUGHTER

It's always struck me as odd

that I was able to come to Spain

when my father was not
able to do so.

Imagine that.

So, in a way I was,
with my brothers,

we were his representatives in Spain

and I think that...

that idea has always stuck with me,

and I have seen
how the inner life of Spain

has been released
with the end of dictatorship,

and how much the place has changed

as Spain has
maybe rediscovered its inner joy,

and certainly
rediscovered its freedom.

As the evening beckons,

I'm looking for
some rest and restoration.

DOG BARKS

And I've been told of somewhere
that sounds perfect.

A Casa Rural is somewhere where you
get bed, breakfast and dinner,

subsidised by the local region
in order to promote tourism,

and normally you have a lovely time,

because you get to meet the family,

but my goodness, rarely do you get
anything quite as beautiful

and historic as this.

Thanks, I'm Michael.
Casa Castillo.

Casa Castillo, he says
it's a house and a castle.

Un castillo del siglo trece.

Oh.

Ahi esta la apertura por la defensa.

13th century castle, and there's
a slit there to fire arrows. Si.

Anda!

Mm.

Gracias.

In the Casa's cosy kitchen,

Narcis has prepared me
a superb Pyrenean supper.

...que no lo hacemos, lo compramos,

y el aceite de Oliva,

y despues, el vino.

So it's all pretty much home grown.

Er, tomatoes,
they have their own pigs,

so these are the products
from the pig,

they don't make their own bread,

but of course they do make
their own olive oil.

This journey has certainly been
putting my arthritic hip to the test

and yet...

I find myself in no pain whatsoever.

I wonder why.

Mm.

My Spring adventure through
the Spanish and French Pyrenees

has brought me over 300 miles

to reach Catalonia's Cap de Creus,

mainland Spain's
most easterly point.

It's spectacular from on high,

and I'm told
that its protected, rocky coastline

is still more impressive
when it surrounds you.

As I left Hondarribia,

I noticed that the mountains rose
directly from the Atlantic,

and those same Pyrenees
have continued,

and now they drop
into the Mediterranean.

The Pyrenees carry the walker
from ocean to sea,

from coast to coast.

Just around this headland,
in the town of Cadaques,

these craggy coves and inlets

fired the imagination
of its most famous resident.

I first came across Salvador Dali,

the surrealist painter,

through his collaboration
with Alfred Hitchcock

in the movie Spellbound.

There's a dream scene
designed by Dali,

with curtains
that are covered in human eyes.

Very bizarre.

And he was such
an extraordinary figure,

and then I found out that he was
from Spain,

and he's very much associated
with this peninsula,

and so, with my non-artistic eye,

I've been trying to think what
would attract the artist to here.

Well, of course,
the green of the vegetation

is constantly interrupted
by riotous geology.

The rocks here are unruly,

and everywhere, they protrude
through the greenery,

to produce images
in the imagination, at least,

of figures, of creatures,

in greys, but also in yellows
and orange,

and many of them
overlain with lichen.

After 12 exhilarating days,

I finally reach my destination.

The end is in sight.

Down to the sea.

That is the finishing line.

What a beautiful view of
the Mediterranean!

And from this little promontory,

I can look back,

and bid farewell

to my companions
over these last four walks,

the Pyrenees.

Embarking on a hike at my age,

and with an arthritic hip,

might seem
like a foolhardy thing to do.

It's a bit sore,

but I've made it
with plenty of puff to spare.

I can't help thinking

that my Basque makila

has been a great help,

and I don't think
I'll ever leave home without it.

Completing this challenge,

I feel both triumphant and wistful.

Every day has been spectacular.

Sometimes, because of the weather...

LAUGHS AND GROANS

But on other days,
due to the views across landscapes.

Hi, Michael! Hello!

I've met some wonderful people...

It looks like you have done it
all your life.

They're lovely!

...who've greeted me so warmly.

I'll miss the daily adventure
of making new friends.

Muchisimas gracias.

A votre sante, madame.
A votre sante.

Their lives are
a world away from mine...

Cheers.
Cheers.

...but I've learned
that happiness comes in many forms,

and sometimes
from the simplest things.

I fell in love with stars
when I was a child.

Discovering the splendour
of these mountains

has been a wonder,

and I depart enriched by them.

Reaching the end,
I feel proud,

but on every step along the way,

I've felt the joy of being alive.

My brothers and I owe our existence
to the Spanish Civil War.

And I'm thinking
that a story like ours

will be told in coming decades

by the sons and daughters
of Ukrainian refugees,

presently arriving on
the shores of Britain in despair,

as my father was,

but who may meet
and marry British partners.

The misery of war
in Europe continues,

but fate still works
its quirky magic,

and while I've been headed
on this part of my journey

south out of the Pyrenees,

I've been thinking about being

the product of two nationalities,

with one foot in Spain
and one foot in Britain.

I think
my duality has been a blessing.

It's given me...

two cultures, two families,

two sets of friends,
two perspectives,

and I think my saunter through life

has been doubly enjoyable.

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