Back up to the present and a late start today, with us not getting to breakfast until 9:45. We’ve spent the day around Carcassonne, both in the Medieval and the “new” parts of the city. Again it’s been very hot, so after a couple of hours walking the streets, we settled down for a coke in the town square and to watch the locals enjoying lunch and packing up the local market.
France is very much the kissing nation, with everybody kissing each other on each cheek whenever they greet, sometimes the waiters even greeted their customers with the two cheek kiss, which is completely different to Spain. Also unlike Spain, the locals do not wear shorts at all and the only people who were wearing shorts were the tourists. It might seem very sophisticated to wear long pants all the time, but when the temperature is in the high 30’s, it must also be quite unbearable at times.
The wind has been getting up a wee bit today, which is a pleasant relief, although it did catch the locals out as a couple of umbrellas sent a table full of glasses smashing to the ground. Retrieving and putting right the umbrellas involved smashing another table full of glasses as the man rectifying the umbrella lost control of it in another gust of wind. Along with a further tray of glasses that got broken when a waiter dropped them, it wasn’t a good day to be a glass in Carcassonne.
Bad news on the hot police front. Anne has seen the French version and they just don’t rate the way the Spanish Police do. Like the Spanish Police, they carry an impressive array of hardware on their belts, but within those belts are nylon track pants and polo shirts, with no evidence of hats of any sort. It was a sad let down for her and although she tried her best to conceal her disappointment, the little down turned mouth and pouty lips gave away the grief that she was feeling inside – but I jest.
Tomorrow is laundry day – not usually a highlight, except that last time had some dramas and I forgot to mention that we had bought some detergent from the supermarket the day before we went to the Laundromat. Well we thought we had bought some detergent. It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel room and got out our phrase books that we discovered that what we had bought was a packet of decalcifying tablets. I swear to you, that to Anne and I it looked just like a packet of Persil, and I’m sure the things around it were laundry detergent. Anyway, Anne said to me today as we walked past a supermarket “shall I go in and buy some laundry detergent for tomorrow”. My look was enough to tell her that the packets that are dispensed at the Laundromat will be just fine.
On the money for nothing front, we had been getting free internet in the hotels since Barcelona, although here in Carcassonne, we have had to pay 10 Euros for 3 non-continuous hours. I noticed today as we walked past that McDonalds has Free and unlimited WiFi in Carcassonne, so I’ll keep my eye out to see if that is standard at all their restaurants. Parking has been the big ticket money for nothing item, with us paying 24 Euros per day in Tossa and then 17 Euros per day in Girona – it’s back to being free in Carcassonne, so it seems you either get one or the other for nothing.
We’ve just got back from Dinner (I wrote everything before this in the bar at the hotel) and had another fabulous meal in the restaurant right next door to the one from last night – it’s a quiet part of town. Anne had the Foie Gras, the duck confit and a Paris Brest , while I had Goat’s cheese salad with strips of cured duck, duck confit and a Crème Brule.
We’re really pleased with the hotel we are staying in, which is about 200m from the old city. It’s not a huge room, but has a very nice bathroom and the dining room, bar and gardens are great. It’s also very quiet, as it’s on a back street away from all the traffic around the old town.
That’s it for the moment. Tomorrow is our last day in France, before we head back into Spain. We are staying in Hondarribia, which is just over the border and right beside Biarritz. We’ll give another update from there.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Week 2 – Wednesday 9th July – Carcassonne
We awoke this morning to watch the running of the bulls in Pamplona on TV again today. It’s become something of a morning feature to see who gets it in the daily stampede. Advice to anyone planning on doing it would be to avoid the outside of the corners, as the bulls seem to take a wide line and sometimes fall over on the outside of the turn. It’s certainly where people seem to stumble and fall most often as well, so it can be a bit of an accident black spot. The most viewed mishap this morning was the man lying spread eagled face down in the middle of the street. Who would have picked that the bulls hoof would have landed right between his legs – amazing pinpoint accuracy. The paramedic with his clip board was interviewed soon afterwards to find out the days tally, but of course, being in Spanish we couldn’t understand a word of it. These guys must get on the cover of Paramedics Monthly, as they are the stars of the after match show and sometimes we even get to see them outside the hospital.
The other night when we were in Tossa, we were given one of the local specialties a Crème Catalan. It’s a vanilla equivalent of a baileys and was very yummy. Well worth a try for something a bit different if you get a chance.
Today we left Girona and headed to France for 3 days. On the way we stopped off at the town of Figeures, which is the birth place of Salvador Dali and the home now of the Dali Theatre-Museum. Figeures seemed like a medium sized modern town, but after we’d parked the car and had gone for a walk into the town centre, the older part of town opened up to have the usual character of so many European towns, with a large central Rambla and lots of little single lane cobbled streets.
The museum itself was conceived in 1961 when the mayor asked Dali for a painting as a donation for the local museum. Dali replied that he would give them an entire museum, which was then begun in 1970 and opened in 1974. It was developed and changed until the artists death in 1989.
It’s an amazing building both in terms of the exterior decoration and the size and variety of the collection inside. We spent a couple of hours at the museum and like Picasso, from our perspective anyway, Dali is known for one particular type of art, but when you visit the museum you get to see the full breadth of the work that he undertook over a very long career. I’ve included some photos in the blog to give you some idea of some of the art we saw there.
Upon leaving Figeures, we typed the address of the hotel in Carcassonne into Jane (TomTom GPS) and headed off on the motorway to France. I apologise to all of you suffering through the New Zealand winter, but 37 degrees really is too hot to be driving with the roof down, but that’s what we did for the 150 odd ks from Figeures to Carcassonne. Jane estimated that we would get to the hotel at 3:14 and we got there within two minutes of that time, which is easily accounted for by the stops at motorway pay stations. Jane delivered us to the door without any fuss, so we were very pleased and although we still like to keep an eye on where she is leading us, it does make navigating a painless experience. Anne still acts as a second set of eyes on the road (and on the speed limit signs), which is great (grate). With a speed limit of 130 on the motorway, it’s only a minor grate and don’t let me understate the value that Anne adds to driving, with the way she does keep her eyes on things and points out any obstacles or things that I might have missed. When you are driving on the wrong side of the road, the extra help really is Great!
We haven’t been to Carcassonne since we visited with Mum and Dad when we were living in the UK back in the early 90’s. Last time we were here was in May and it was a charming medieval town with few tourists. This time it is tourist central and there is a month long music festival, with a different act on each night. There are some big names – Diana Ross, Deep Purple, ZZ Top and tonight, Pete Hodgson of Super Tramp was playing. We went for a wander round the restaurants and after initially selecting one, but deciding we didn’t like it once we had sat down, we settled for a nice little restaurant with only about 10 tables outside in a quiet part of town well away from the main square. I had the Gazpacho and Anne had a Goat’s cheese salad for entrees and then Anne had the scallops and I had the duck for main, finishing off with a Crème Brule for Anne and the poached pear in chocolate and whipped cream for me – yum.
The other night when we were in Tossa, we were given one of the local specialties a Crème Catalan. It’s a vanilla equivalent of a baileys and was very yummy. Well worth a try for something a bit different if you get a chance.
Today we left Girona and headed to France for 3 days. On the way we stopped off at the town of Figeures, which is the birth place of Salvador Dali and the home now of the Dali Theatre-Museum. Figeures seemed like a medium sized modern town, but after we’d parked the car and had gone for a walk into the town centre, the older part of town opened up to have the usual character of so many European towns, with a large central Rambla and lots of little single lane cobbled streets.
The museum itself was conceived in 1961 when the mayor asked Dali for a painting as a donation for the local museum. Dali replied that he would give them an entire museum, which was then begun in 1970 and opened in 1974. It was developed and changed until the artists death in 1989.
It’s an amazing building both in terms of the exterior decoration and the size and variety of the collection inside. We spent a couple of hours at the museum and like Picasso, from our perspective anyway, Dali is known for one particular type of art, but when you visit the museum you get to see the full breadth of the work that he undertook over a very long career. I’ve included some photos in the blog to give you some idea of some of the art we saw there.
Upon leaving Figeures, we typed the address of the hotel in Carcassonne into Jane (TomTom GPS) and headed off on the motorway to France. I apologise to all of you suffering through the New Zealand winter, but 37 degrees really is too hot to be driving with the roof down, but that’s what we did for the 150 odd ks from Figeures to Carcassonne. Jane estimated that we would get to the hotel at 3:14 and we got there within two minutes of that time, which is easily accounted for by the stops at motorway pay stations. Jane delivered us to the door without any fuss, so we were very pleased and although we still like to keep an eye on where she is leading us, it does make navigating a painless experience. Anne still acts as a second set of eyes on the road (and on the speed limit signs), which is great (grate). With a speed limit of 130 on the motorway, it’s only a minor grate and don’t let me understate the value that Anne adds to driving, with the way she does keep her eyes on things and points out any obstacles or things that I might have missed. When you are driving on the wrong side of the road, the extra help really is Great!
We haven’t been to Carcassonne since we visited with Mum and Dad when we were living in the UK back in the early 90’s. Last time we were here was in May and it was a charming medieval town with few tourists. This time it is tourist central and there is a month long music festival, with a different act on each night. There are some big names – Diana Ross, Deep Purple, ZZ Top and tonight, Pete Hodgson of Super Tramp was playing. We went for a wander round the restaurants and after initially selecting one, but deciding we didn’t like it once we had sat down, we settled for a nice little restaurant with only about 10 tables outside in a quiet part of town well away from the main square. I had the Gazpacho and Anne had a Goat’s cheese salad for entrees and then Anne had the scallops and I had the duck for main, finishing off with a Crème Brule for Anne and the poached pear in chocolate and whipped cream for me – yum.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Week 2 – Tuesday 8th July– Sightseeting in the Girona Countryside
We’re staying in a modern hotel in the new part of Girona, which is about 50m from the bridge to the old part of town, so very handy. It’s nicely decorated, but the sound proofing is slightly worse than your average nylon tent and you need to put on thermals if the aircon is set below 24 degrees. I kid you not, it was set to 24 last night and we had to put on a blanket. Other than that, it has an amazing shower (the head is about the size of a medium sized frying pan – I kid you not) and there weren’t too many noises in the night.
Today we’ve gone out and bought a GPS – a TomTom One, with maps of all Western Europe pre-loaded. Anne’s a great navigator, but with just a map, it means she never gets a break, so this will make things a bit easier. We’ve used it for todays sightseeing and it worked well, although you wouldn’t bet the house on it always being right. Nonetheless, with a little bit of attention we got to where we wanted to go. The womans who is “the voice” is called Jane and she’s English. Apparently you can download voices such as John Cleese. I think I’ll see if I can get a Felicity (English Upper Class) or Helga (German, bossy and domineering – in 150 metres you VILL turn right).
Heading out of Girona, our first stop was a small town called Besalu. A quaint little market town (there was a market in front on the church), with an 13th century arched bridge across the river. It was nice to be in a really small town, with no crowds. We are slowly working our way down to the small country towns that we like to do most of our sightseeing in. It’s been a gradual come down from Barcelona (big and bustling) to Tossa (Small and bustling) to Girona (medium sized and pretty quiet) to finally Besalu.
From Besalu we went to Castellfollit de La Roc – an even smaller town built on top of a large basalt rock. The town church is situated right at the end of the rock at the top of a high cliff. The town is currently undergoing extensive rejuvenation, starting at the church and working backwards. So far, they have done about half the town and are now completely rebuilding the main street, which currently looks more like a moonscape – completely dug up.
From Castellfollit, we drove through Olot to Santa de Pau, before returning to Girona to watch some of the time trial for the Tour De France and are now having our sangria. If the mediteranean protects against heart disease, they must surely be dropping dead from lung cancer. We’re sitting beside two young woman (20’s) who have been chain smoking for the last hour. That’s the great thing about being outside all the time. You get a small whiff of the smoke before it is blown on.
Anyway, tomorrow we hit the road to France, where we are staying in Carcassonne for 3 days. Talk soon.
Today we’ve gone out and bought a GPS – a TomTom One, with maps of all Western Europe pre-loaded. Anne’s a great navigator, but with just a map, it means she never gets a break, so this will make things a bit easier. We’ve used it for todays sightseeing and it worked well, although you wouldn’t bet the house on it always being right. Nonetheless, with a little bit of attention we got to where we wanted to go. The womans who is “the voice” is called Jane and she’s English. Apparently you can download voices such as John Cleese. I think I’ll see if I can get a Felicity (English Upper Class) or Helga (German, bossy and domineering – in 150 metres you VILL turn right).
Heading out of Girona, our first stop was a small town called Besalu. A quaint little market town (there was a market in front on the church), with an 13th century arched bridge across the river. It was nice to be in a really small town, with no crowds. We are slowly working our way down to the small country towns that we like to do most of our sightseeing in. It’s been a gradual come down from Barcelona (big and bustling) to Tossa (Small and bustling) to Girona (medium sized and pretty quiet) to finally Besalu.
From Besalu we went to Castellfollit de La Roc – an even smaller town built on top of a large basalt rock. The town church is situated right at the end of the rock at the top of a high cliff. The town is currently undergoing extensive rejuvenation, starting at the church and working backwards. So far, they have done about half the town and are now completely rebuilding the main street, which currently looks more like a moonscape – completely dug up.
From Castellfollit, we drove through Olot to Santa de Pau, before returning to Girona to watch some of the time trial for the Tour De France and are now having our sangria. If the mediteranean protects against heart disease, they must surely be dropping dead from lung cancer. We’re sitting beside two young woman (20’s) who have been chain smoking for the last hour. That’s the great thing about being outside all the time. You get a small whiff of the smoke before it is blown on.
Anyway, tomorrow we hit the road to France, where we are staying in Carcassonne for 3 days. Talk soon.
Lyrics to My Shrona – The Knack
Oo my little pretty one, pretty one
When you gonna give me some time, Sharona?
Oo you make my motor run, my motor run
Gun it coming off of the line, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up with a touch of the younger kind
My-ee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Come a little closer, over here
Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona
Keep a little mystery, kissin' me
Runnin' down the length of my thigh, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up from a touch of the younger kind
My-ee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ma ma ma my Sharona
When ya gonna get to me, get to me
Is it just a matter of time, Sharona
Is it a destiny, a destiny
Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up from a touch of the younger kind
My-ee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
Myee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ooooh my Sharona
When you gonna give me some time, Sharona?
Oo you make my motor run, my motor run
Gun it coming off of the line, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up with a touch of the younger kind
My-ee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Come a little closer, over here
Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona
Keep a little mystery, kissin' me
Runnin' down the length of my thigh, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up from a touch of the younger kind
My-ee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ma ma ma my Sharona
When ya gonna get to me, get to me
Is it just a matter of time, Sharona
Is it a destiny, a destiny
Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up from a touch of the younger kind
My-ee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
Myee ey-ee by-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ooooh my Sharona
Week 2 – Monday 7th July – Girona
We awoke this morning to discover that the running of the bulls at Pamplona was being shown on TV. The running occurs every morning at 8am, and it would appear that it is shown on TV each morning. We caught it yesterday at about 10:50a.m. and thought that it was in the preparatory stages, because there were lots of people standing around throwing sangria all over each other, but because we don’t speak Spanish, we couldn’t tell if people were getting ready to do the run, or were drinking to celebrate that they’d completed it. Anyway, this morning we found out that it is run at 8am in the morning, so we turned on the TV to watch it, which we’ve now done. Lots of people, several bulls, people falling over, bulls falling over, some injuries – one bull hurt his hoof, some people injured worse than that, 800m run through narrow streets into the bull ring, bulls ushered out of the ring by matadors, people stand around and get drunk. The highlight of the aftermatch (or aftermath) is interviewing the ambulance officers about the injuries – don’t tell OSH about this event – it really is Bull Rush.
We had breakfast at the hotel, which was a laugh as Anne got caught in the door on the way out to the terrace and spilt the coffee and the juice all over the floor. I was sitting outside blogging, wondering why my breakfast was taking so long to be delivered.
After breakfast, we checked out, got in the car and headed to Girona, where we are staying for the next two days. It’s only a short drive so we were there just after 12. All through planning the holiday and on the way to Girona, Anne would break into the words of My Sharona by the Knack, whenever was mentioned. In order for you to experience life in my world, I have attached the lyrics to the song, so you can create the mood for yourself. Just substitute the word Girona, wherever Sharona appears.
Girona is a smallish university town with a river running through it. The old part of the town is on one side of the river and the new part is on the other. The old part is a combination of quaint old streets, chique designer shops and some historic buildings such as the church. There is a religious music festival on at the moment and they have built a stage facing the cathedral steps, and then set up rows of chairs on the steps, so it creates an awesome outdoor theatre. After a lengthy walk around the old town, we had a Menu Del Dia lunch at a restaurant. Menu Del Dia (Menu of the Day) is a Franco hangover, whereby he insisted that everybody should be able to get an affordable meal each day, so the restaurants have to put on a cheap lunch menu where you get a choice for each of 3 courses – entrée, main and dessert, bread, water and a half bottle caraf of wine. The Menu Del Dia’s range from as little as 8 Euros up to about 15 Euros.
During our siesta, we took in some of stage 3 of the Tour De France, then went out for dinner. As we weren’t particularly hungry, we confined dinner to a litre and a half of sangria spread over a couple of outdoor restaurants on La Rambla and at one of the nearby Placa’s. So as to not look like complete soaks, we limit ourselves to a jug of sangria per restaurant, so if you aren’t completely satisfied with one, you up sticks and move to another restaurant suitably out of sight of the first one. Fortunately, you hit a limit as to how many times you can do this before it’s obvious you are a complete soak, so we toddle off home before we get to that limit.
I’ve been writing this on Tuesday evening over a sangria at another courtyard restaurant in one of the small Placa’s and a guy has come along and started playing a metal drum, called a hang dram – it’s like a covered in wok, but it makes the most amazing sound. We’ve been getting lots of musicians in Girona – in just over a day and a half, we’ve had two saxaphonists, a piano accordion player and now this percussionist. I’d better put my hand in my pocket for some coins for him.
The Sangria comes in either half or litre jugs, with lots of fruit and ice and a wooden spoon. The wooden spoon, as well as for stirring is also jammed against the spout of the jug when you pour it, to keep all the non liquid contents in the jug – just so you know.
We had breakfast at the hotel, which was a laugh as Anne got caught in the door on the way out to the terrace and spilt the coffee and the juice all over the floor. I was sitting outside blogging, wondering why my breakfast was taking so long to be delivered.
After breakfast, we checked out, got in the car and headed to Girona, where we are staying for the next two days. It’s only a short drive so we were there just after 12. All through planning the holiday and on the way to Girona, Anne would break into the words of My Sharona by the Knack, whenever was mentioned. In order for you to experience life in my world, I have attached the lyrics to the song, so you can create the mood for yourself. Just substitute the word Girona, wherever Sharona appears.
Girona is a smallish university town with a river running through it. The old part of the town is on one side of the river and the new part is on the other. The old part is a combination of quaint old streets, chique designer shops and some historic buildings such as the church. There is a religious music festival on at the moment and they have built a stage facing the cathedral steps, and then set up rows of chairs on the steps, so it creates an awesome outdoor theatre. After a lengthy walk around the old town, we had a Menu Del Dia lunch at a restaurant. Menu Del Dia (Menu of the Day) is a Franco hangover, whereby he insisted that everybody should be able to get an affordable meal each day, so the restaurants have to put on a cheap lunch menu where you get a choice for each of 3 courses – entrée, main and dessert, bread, water and a half bottle caraf of wine. The Menu Del Dia’s range from as little as 8 Euros up to about 15 Euros.
During our siesta, we took in some of stage 3 of the Tour De France, then went out for dinner. As we weren’t particularly hungry, we confined dinner to a litre and a half of sangria spread over a couple of outdoor restaurants on La Rambla and at one of the nearby Placa’s. So as to not look like complete soaks, we limit ourselves to a jug of sangria per restaurant, so if you aren’t completely satisfied with one, you up sticks and move to another restaurant suitably out of sight of the first one. Fortunately, you hit a limit as to how many times you can do this before it’s obvious you are a complete soak, so we toddle off home before we get to that limit.
I’ve been writing this on Tuesday evening over a sangria at another courtyard restaurant in one of the small Placa’s and a guy has come along and started playing a metal drum, called a hang dram – it’s like a covered in wok, but it makes the most amazing sound. We’ve been getting lots of musicians in Girona – in just over a day and a half, we’ve had two saxaphonists, a piano accordion player and now this percussionist. I’d better put my hand in my pocket for some coins for him.
The Sangria comes in either half or litre jugs, with lots of fruit and ice and a wooden spoon. The wooden spoon, as well as for stirring is also jammed against the spout of the jug when you pour it, to keep all the non liquid contents in the jug – just so you know.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Day 8 – Sunday 6th July –Tossa De Mar
I’m sitting outside in the restaurant in Tossa De Mar having breakfast. No oddities in the restaurant this morning – no matching / counter matching families, no tubby chicks wanting two meals. (just to elaborate on the tubbies, they were a bunch of middle aged women on a hen’s weekend - I didn’t’ get what number trot up the aisle it was. They were all universally unhappy with their husbands and having to send instructive texts to them about how to cope in their absence).
The weather is much cooler today (Tuesday), with some high cloud. I’m expecting it will burn off, as the weather map that I saw on TV before we came down to breakfast showed the entirety of Spain covered in sun. There also appears to be much fewer people around today, as a lot of people were just here for the weekend and have now headed back to Girona or Barcelona, or wherever.
Much to our amazement we discovered that Breakfast is included in the price of our hotel. We were surprised, because this no longer appears to be the norm and it’s usually an optional extra – might be for people booking over the internet, I don’t know. We’re also surprised because this is the cheapest hotel we are staying in on the whole trip. Another good thing, is the hotel has free wifi internet, so that brings the average down a bit. An offset is the 24 Euros per day price for public parking in Tossa – a 15 minute walk away – ouch.
After a leisurely breakfast, we went for a long walk around the narrow windy streets (that’s windy as in twisty, not windy as in Wellington. Although Wellington is a popular brand of beach umbrella here, so maybe it gets windy also – but I digress). The day is a real scorcher – mid 30’s again, so it was good to get some shelter from the sun from the high buildings that line both sides of the street. We walked up the castle to get a good view of the Tossa beach and all the thousands of beach umbrellas on it.
For lunch we had ham and Melon, marinated salmon, and a Brandatta of cod. After lunch, we went for a drive along the cliff top road that runs along the Costa Brava from Lloret de Mar (a very large tourist resort) to Palamos, via Tossa De Mar, Sant Feliu de Guixois and Platja d’Aro. It was a fun drive with lots of twists and turns and several very nice view points, which we stopped at. After Palamos, the road turned inland to Palafrugell and then back out to the coast to the small town of Llafranc. Llafranc was the other town that we had planned to stay at, before we settled for Tossa. Llafranc is a very pretty town, smaller than Tossa De Mar and a bit more expensive too.
After a walk around Llafranc, we got back on the road to Tossa at about 7:30 on a Sunday night. Hmmmm. Not our best work. Tossa and all the small towns on the Costa Brava are the Spanish equivalent of the Kapiti Coast and the roads and motorways on a Sunday night are the Spanish equivalent of the Plimmerton round about. It had been our intention to travel back on the motorway, but we soon hit a major tailback there, so we cut in land onto the back roads, but didn’t fare much better there after. We finally got back to Tossa at about 9:30. Because the Spanish eat so late, that was no problem, so we settled down for a meal of Paella with noodles and Sangria. There was no late night entertainment on tonight and no outdoor soccer, so after taking some night shots of the castle, we retired to bed
The weather is much cooler today (Tuesday), with some high cloud. I’m expecting it will burn off, as the weather map that I saw on TV before we came down to breakfast showed the entirety of Spain covered in sun. There also appears to be much fewer people around today, as a lot of people were just here for the weekend and have now headed back to Girona or Barcelona, or wherever.
Much to our amazement we discovered that Breakfast is included in the price of our hotel. We were surprised, because this no longer appears to be the norm and it’s usually an optional extra – might be for people booking over the internet, I don’t know. We’re also surprised because this is the cheapest hotel we are staying in on the whole trip. Another good thing, is the hotel has free wifi internet, so that brings the average down a bit. An offset is the 24 Euros per day price for public parking in Tossa – a 15 minute walk away – ouch.
After a leisurely breakfast, we went for a long walk around the narrow windy streets (that’s windy as in twisty, not windy as in Wellington. Although Wellington is a popular brand of beach umbrella here, so maybe it gets windy also – but I digress). The day is a real scorcher – mid 30’s again, so it was good to get some shelter from the sun from the high buildings that line both sides of the street. We walked up the castle to get a good view of the Tossa beach and all the thousands of beach umbrellas on it.
For lunch we had ham and Melon, marinated salmon, and a Brandatta of cod. After lunch, we went for a drive along the cliff top road that runs along the Costa Brava from Lloret de Mar (a very large tourist resort) to Palamos, via Tossa De Mar, Sant Feliu de Guixois and Platja d’Aro. It was a fun drive with lots of twists and turns and several very nice view points, which we stopped at. After Palamos, the road turned inland to Palafrugell and then back out to the coast to the small town of Llafranc. Llafranc was the other town that we had planned to stay at, before we settled for Tossa. Llafranc is a very pretty town, smaller than Tossa De Mar and a bit more expensive too.
After a walk around Llafranc, we got back on the road to Tossa at about 7:30 on a Sunday night. Hmmmm. Not our best work. Tossa and all the small towns on the Costa Brava are the Spanish equivalent of the Kapiti Coast and the roads and motorways on a Sunday night are the Spanish equivalent of the Plimmerton round about. It had been our intention to travel back on the motorway, but we soon hit a major tailback there, so we cut in land onto the back roads, but didn’t fare much better there after. We finally got back to Tossa at about 9:30. Because the Spanish eat so late, that was no problem, so we settled down for a meal of Paella with noodles and Sangria. There was no late night entertainment on tonight and no outdoor soccer, so after taking some night shots of the castle, we retired to bed
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Day 7 – Saturday 5th July – Montserrat, Tossa De Mar
Some random observations:
· Spanish firemean are called “bombers”.
· Anne ‘s infatuation with policemen is obviously shared with the Spanish woman. While we were driving around today, we saw a poster for “girls night out”, where the entertainment were policemen strippers
· My big beer (see the picture on the blog) is called a Barril Copa Grande O Tanque
· It’s 10:15pm on Sunday night and we’ve just been seated for dinner and the Sangria has just arrived. I’m typing at the dinner table – how rude
· The couple sitting two tables are way from us are wearing matching black tops with white strips. Their kid is wearing a white top with black stripes – it’s quite a picture, in a tragic, my god what were they thinking, kindofaway.
· A group of tubby English chicks sat down at the table next to us last night at 11:30pm. The waiter explained that they weren’t serving dinner any more, to which they replied that they had already eaten once tonight, but were still hungry, so thought they’d have a second meal
Today (Saturday – that’s what I’m writing about) started early, as we had to be out at the airport by 9am to collect the car. Up early at 7am, breakfast at 7:30, taxi at 8:20 to the airport. We had arranged to meet the car man under the statue of Botero – it’s a rather rotund horse. I think Botero is an artist, who paints large people and so maybe for Barcelona Airport he made a symbol for transport being a large horse – who knows.
Collecting the car was simplicity itself, much less forma than on previous occasions. The car this year seems lower spec’d than in previous years – no parking sensors, lights don’t come on automatically, but other than that the standard 307 with a foldaway metal roof. Packed the bags in the car, got in the correct door, headed out on the motorway to Montserrat, missed one turn on the motorway, did a big loop round the motorways, but got to the cable car only minutes after it opened at about 10:15, after filling the car with diesel – 1.34Euros per litre for those who are interested. We caught the cable car to the top, which was scary for both of us as 1.) we don’t like heights and 2.) in one bit it gets very close to the cliff face.
Montserrat is a mountain near Barcelona, in Catalonia, in Spain. It is the site of a Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary and which is identified by some with the location of the Holy Grail in Arthurian myth.
"Montserrat" literally means "jagged (serrated) mountain" in Catalan. It describes the peculiar aspect of the rock formation, which is visible from a great distance. The mountain is composed of strikingly pink conglomerate, a form of sedimentary rock, popular with climbers.
I had expected Montserrat to be a very old monastery, but infact it is a whole town set high up in the mountains and the whole place appears very new. There are hotels, apartments, shops, a museum, restaurants, and all the roads are asphalted, not the usual cobbled streets that we expect in old towns. Nonetheless, it was an interesting place to visit and the monastery itself was very interesting.
After the return cable car ride, which wasn’t nearly as scary as the way up, we got on the road to Tossa De Mar, which took about an hour and a half. Tossa is a lovely little beachside town, with an ancient castle on a hill at one end of the beach. Our hotel is right on the beach, just under the castle. It has a delightful little outdoor restaurant, which makes wonderful paella (and the Sangria isn’t too bad either). Parking in Tossa is a night mare and we had to park on the outskirts of town and carry our bags to the hotel – in 35 degrees heat – without a map, so yes, it was the longest route possible. We had a light lunch about 4pm, had a walk after lunch, took a break and then were back out for dinner at 10:30pm. Dinner was a very nice paella, then a walk up to the top of the hill to see the castle, then back down to the beach to watch a game of beach soccer at 1am on Sunday morning.
We collapsed into bed at the end of first day touring, exhausted at about 1:30am
· Spanish firemean are called “bombers”.
· Anne ‘s infatuation with policemen is obviously shared with the Spanish woman. While we were driving around today, we saw a poster for “girls night out”, where the entertainment were policemen strippers
· My big beer (see the picture on the blog) is called a Barril Copa Grande O Tanque
· It’s 10:15pm on Sunday night and we’ve just been seated for dinner and the Sangria has just arrived. I’m typing at the dinner table – how rude
· The couple sitting two tables are way from us are wearing matching black tops with white strips. Their kid is wearing a white top with black stripes – it’s quite a picture, in a tragic, my god what were they thinking, kindofaway.
· A group of tubby English chicks sat down at the table next to us last night at 11:30pm. The waiter explained that they weren’t serving dinner any more, to which they replied that they had already eaten once tonight, but were still hungry, so thought they’d have a second meal
Today (Saturday – that’s what I’m writing about) started early, as we had to be out at the airport by 9am to collect the car. Up early at 7am, breakfast at 7:30, taxi at 8:20 to the airport. We had arranged to meet the car man under the statue of Botero – it’s a rather rotund horse. I think Botero is an artist, who paints large people and so maybe for Barcelona Airport he made a symbol for transport being a large horse – who knows.
Collecting the car was simplicity itself, much less forma than on previous occasions. The car this year seems lower spec’d than in previous years – no parking sensors, lights don’t come on automatically, but other than that the standard 307 with a foldaway metal roof. Packed the bags in the car, got in the correct door, headed out on the motorway to Montserrat, missed one turn on the motorway, did a big loop round the motorways, but got to the cable car only minutes after it opened at about 10:15, after filling the car with diesel – 1.34Euros per litre for those who are interested. We caught the cable car to the top, which was scary for both of us as 1.) we don’t like heights and 2.) in one bit it gets very close to the cliff face.
Montserrat is a mountain near Barcelona, in Catalonia, in Spain. It is the site of a Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary and which is identified by some with the location of the Holy Grail in Arthurian myth.
"Montserrat" literally means "jagged (serrated) mountain" in Catalan. It describes the peculiar aspect of the rock formation, which is visible from a great distance. The mountain is composed of strikingly pink conglomerate, a form of sedimentary rock, popular with climbers.
I had expected Montserrat to be a very old monastery, but infact it is a whole town set high up in the mountains and the whole place appears very new. There are hotels, apartments, shops, a museum, restaurants, and all the roads are asphalted, not the usual cobbled streets that we expect in old towns. Nonetheless, it was an interesting place to visit and the monastery itself was very interesting.
After the return cable car ride, which wasn’t nearly as scary as the way up, we got on the road to Tossa De Mar, which took about an hour and a half. Tossa is a lovely little beachside town, with an ancient castle on a hill at one end of the beach. Our hotel is right on the beach, just under the castle. It has a delightful little outdoor restaurant, which makes wonderful paella (and the Sangria isn’t too bad either). Parking in Tossa is a night mare and we had to park on the outskirts of town and carry our bags to the hotel – in 35 degrees heat – without a map, so yes, it was the longest route possible. We had a light lunch about 4pm, had a walk after lunch, took a break and then were back out for dinner at 10:30pm. Dinner was a very nice paella, then a walk up to the top of the hill to see the castle, then back down to the beach to watch a game of beach soccer at 1am on Sunday morning.
We collapsed into bed at the end of first day touring, exhausted at about 1:30am
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
