Spain Trip: Barcelona - 2 Days in the Big City

I actually am not going to have too much to say about our time here in Barcelona. We didn’t visit many “destination” sites during our day and a half here. No doubt we could have checked out many places but that was not our choice. Instead we spent the time just walking the areas within a few miles of the hotel. It is better to say over the hours we walked a handful of miles using the hotel as our base. For example, yesterday - the whole day - we probably walked between 7 and 8 miles. 

The city is a mix of broad avenues and narrow streets. It lacks the twisting narrow streets with exceedingly narrow sidewalks of a place like Seville or Granada let alone the twisty streets and sidewalks of Punto Delgado in the Azores. Of course, Barcelona is a city of several million and has gone through many re-designs and expansions over its long history. Even the “old city” though feeling older doesn’t feel quite as ancient as other old centers. Along with the broad and narrow streets toss in large palazzos and, of course, La Rambla (sometimes referred to on signs as La Ramblas). The latter is the long pedestrian way lined with innumerable shops and cafes and restaurants and no doubt all sorts of other shops . La Rambla is also clearly where the greatest concentration of people, likely mostly tourists, are. Boy is it crowded. The crowds thin out considerably if you get a few blocks away from La Rambla but they can still be thick. 

This is a bustling city and a cosmopolitan one. You will hear many languages spoken in many accents. No doubt most of what you hear is being spoken by people like us: tourists. But tourists need infrastructure and the city provides that in abundance with touristy places and plenty of more “local friendly” places you can find if you look just a little bit harder.

One thing Barcelona is known for, famous for, is the buildings by Antoni Gaudi.  Sagrada Familia, still unfinished, is his biggest work but he designed many buildings. We’d been to several before several years ago and this time just planned to visit one: La Pedrera. We recalled others places fondly like the Serpentine benches of Parc Güell. La Pedrera though stood out in memory especially for its roof.

The roof of ochre stone slabs has several structures on it. Like all rooftops you have chimneys, ventilation housings, and other things sitting on top. Gaudi saw no reason not to make these things intriguing to the eye as well as functional. They certainly are both. It really makes the rooftop a special place to just be on. We were also struck by the public spaces in La Pedrera more than the apartments themselves. When first completed in 1912 a family, the people who commissioned the building, lived in the first couple floors and rented out the rest of the space. They had a huge living area: 1,300 square meters (better than 13,000 square feet). Today the private dwellings are much smaller. The attic, again today, is back to being one great curving , catenary arch filled, space. Originally it was where things like laundry and other community-related machinery (elevator motors, for example) was housed. The attic also provided dead-air space to help insulate the building. It’s a neat place with the arches. The grand central space around which everything is built is also cool. But, I don’t think I would want to live in La Pedrera with all the people tripping through every day to see the public accessible spaces.

Our wandering took us through some parks including past a triumphal arch near the Picasso Museum. We glimpsed the sea but did not actually go right to it. We visited a huge street food market that completely overwhelmed us in its size and throngs of people milling about buying meats, veggies, fruits, drinks, prepared food, and no doubt more. On La Rambla  we saw some interesting busking going on from the fellow making huge soap bubbles to several slow-moving performance artists and a surprisingly small smattering of people playing music. Sadly, we also saw a fair number of homeless people sometimes just sleeping right there in plain sight during the day.

We scratched the surface and I am sure you could do a lot here. We did a lot back in 2009 but this was enough for us this time.

Some final thoughts: We stayed at Hotel Curious which is a couple blocks off of La Rambla and so its street isn’t too busy with people.  If you want a spartan room that is also just big enough then take a look at this hotel.  My room reminds me , in terms of size and functionality, of my cabin  on the Hurtigruten ship Vesterallen. Except that cabin had a porthole which let in some natural light and though the room has a window it is an interesting window that looks out on a shaft that houses the elevator, but had a lighted photo of a cut scene. 

Food: No end of places to eat in Barcelona. The places that serve little thick crust pizza-like things were quite nice to see and we got food quickly. At the other end, the cafe we had lunch at yesterday took a good half hour to get us our salad and quesadillas. The place we had dinner the first night should have been good but it turned out to be a bit of a bust because of what we ordered not being quite what we wanted. But our finding of Bacoa, the burger place, was a wonderful find. Very good burgers though I’d skip the fries.

From Judy

Crowds and crowds of people on the streets most everywhere on La Rambla and all the main avenues we walked on. Smaller side streets in neighborhoods outside the old center were quieter and a good place to get a cup of coffee and a snack. The one destination stop for us was a visit to one of Gaudi ‘s most spectacular buildings in terms of ingenuity and engineering   - La Pedrera- or as it’s more familiarly known Casa Mila.  Build in the early 1900s for a bourgeois family it is a multistory building where the family lived on the first 2 floors and they rented out apartments on the upper 4 floors. The roof terrace and the area that is called the attic (it was once divided into 13 apartments) are the most spectacular. The chessman like structures on the roof all serve an aesthetic purpose disguising air vents and stairways and other mechanicals that usually just make the skyline look ugly. Over 200 red brick catenary arches of varying widths make the  attic space an engineering marvel but are also amazingly beautiful. Also in the attic space are several models showing the engineering techniques for this building and the famously still to be completed Sagrada Familia. The audio was terrific. 

We walked a large rectangle in and out of streets covering 8-9 miles, but with no ascents or descents. We saw just one protester in the government square, some police in evidence, but no big guns and maybe just the usual for the large crowds. 

Photo

1. The roof of La Pedrera is a great place. 

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 12: Cadaqués and Cap de Creus

Our final day has arrived. The sun gleamed off the whitewashed buildings of Cadaqués as we ate breakfast and planned what to do for the day. Inntravel had a couple of suggested walks and we knew we were not going to tackle the 18km trek. The 15km, out-and-back, hike to the lighthouse atop Cap de Creus seemed much more doable especially if we took a taxi to the lighthouse and walked back. We decided to spend the morning in Cadaqués and the afternoon would be given over to the walk with a possible lunch at the resturaunt at the lighthouse.

Cadaqués began to grow on us. Our apprehension, if that is what it was, of the afternoon before eased. It is a resort town but it has character for all that and certainly places worth checking out. If you spend any time here it is well worth your time to visit Salvador Dali’s home. He and his wife Gala lived there for several decades. It is a remarkable place for its size, intricate passageways, unusual outside cascades and interesting design.  You will certainly find things to admire even if you aren’t particularly interested in Dali’s artwork itself. We spent well over an hour exploring the house and surprisingly substantial grounds. It sits at the base of a small cove and you can see how the cove could inspire someone of an artistic bent.  

By the time  we were done it was time for late-morning coffee. This is a hit or miss thing for us. While we have generally enjoyed the pastries, coffees have been so-so. Sometimes exceedingly tiny, barely more than a shot or two, of coffee even if you get an Americano.  It’s just not satisfying sometimes.  We worked our way through the twisting sometimes steep paved and cobblestones (well like cobblestones) streets to a grocery to get supplies for lunch. We had come to suspect that although the lighthouse resturaunt might be excellent that it would also eat up more time than we wanted to give it and not have small lunch-like meals anyway. 

We were able to get a taxi to drive us to the lighthouse. An open-topped Jeep pulled up and we tossed our packs and trekking poles in the back and got in. If you think of something like the Pink Jeep Tours of Sedona, AZ you should have a notion of what our vehicle was like. We zoomed off and up the twisting two-lane  paved road that takes you past multi-million dollar homes nestled in coves before rising steadily through rock and scrub filled slopes to Cap de Creus lighthouse which sits on the easternmost tip of Spain and has provided navigational aid to sailors since the mid-19th century. It was a ride well worth the 10 euros per person. I think the walk was nice enough but it is an out-and-back 15km walk that could seem dull if you go both ways so splurge and do it one way. Since getting a taxi from Cadaqués is almost certainly always going to be easier I suggest doing what we did and ride to the lighthouse and walk back.

If my GPS is to be believed the lighthouse is on a headland that’s about 240 feet (73m) above sea level. It looks higher than that. Your walk starts on the road but within 750 meters you join a trail that takes you into the rocks and scrub and gradually winds down and sometimes very close to the road. Now and then you climb up and over a knoll of rocks and through a denser section of prickly scrub. This is a harsh landscape. We actually would mess up a bit and lose the path and be forced onto the road sooner than we should have been. That speeds up the walking but probably doesn’t change the views much. You actually don’t get many views of the coves below as you descend. The main feeling is that you are walking through a tough to live on land.

The road certainly has traffic but it isn’t moving that fast so you don’t feel too nervous even if walking on the road. We enjoyed the descent and within 2 hours we were passing by the cove of the Dali home. Not long after that we made one last climb and steep descent before returning to the hotel. Even with a break for our sandwiches and later oranges we completed the walk in about 3 hours and I think enjoyed it quite a bit even though we had more road walk than we had wanted (some by design to avoid a tougher stretch on rocky path down into and then back out of a valley the road curled around).

Dinner at La Sirena was decent but pricy. Far more pricy than Casa Nun the night before and I would recommend Casa Nun far more highly than Sirena.  We suffered sticker shock when we saw the price for the sangria (23 euros).  But even with that we have enjoyed our time in Cadaqués.

Distance of walk: 7.8km

Moving time: 2 hours 22 minutes

Stopped Time: 24 minutes

I am not sure I trust the ascent and descent numbers. While we had some ups mixed in with descent the reported number just seem wrong (ascent:122m; descent 185m). 

Sunny skies with a  high just about 80F.

Photos

1. The whitewashed stone wall and an egg as seen from a terrace in the house Salvador Dali and his wife Gala lived in for decades.

2. The Dali bedroom. Photo by Judy.

3. A view from the top of a tower, I think called Pots Tower, of the Dali house.

4. From the uppermost point of the Dali house looking down on “Christ in Rubbish”- a construction from the fertile imagination of Dali.

5. Mom and Ken on lips by the lap pool of the Dali home.photo by Jonathan

6. Mom and Dad at Cap de Creus lighthouse.

7. Dad and Ken in the same spot as the previous photo. Photo by Judy.

8. The lightouse at Cap de Creus. This is the easternmost tip of Spain.

9. Looking towards the invisible Cadaqués. The town is in a farther away cove than you can see here.

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 11: Going to the Sea

We had a late start today. Our taxi to the starting point of the walk arrived at 09:45 and in about 30 minutes dropped us off at a spot high in the hills not far from an old American, maybe now Spanish, military base. I suppose it must still be in use because a large radar station sits atop of mountain not that far away. The sky was overcast but the weather report promised it  would clear up as the day progressed.  At first we would have to hope for spectacular views of the coves and bays of the Mediterranean Sea below.

We were walking along an old mountain road and so were able to set a brisk pace. This is pretty wide open countryside.  Rocky, scrub filled,  hard to imagine farming ever happening here though we passed an old ruin or two of farmhouses. The clouds moved off and the sun came out making the promised views much more obvious.

Our first lovely view of the cove that the hamlet of Monjoi sits in was a nice treat. Just 1.5 or so kilometers away we were promised, by our Inntravel guide, that a cafe sat on the beach waiting to welcome us. It would be the perfect time for a late-morning coffee and pastry if we could have them. The trail left the road and wound down switchbacks, sometimes a little stony, towards the hamlet. Occasional sounds of life drifted up but it didn’t look like much as we descended. The sound of surf steadily increased and the gorgeous blue green of the cover drew us on in. Too bad the beach doesn’t compare to the lovely color of the water. Not much of a beach except in name only. And, sad to say, the cafe not only was closed but gave all signs that it had been for quite a while. 

We climbed out to the coastal road, a surprisingly busy road where we probably saw a dozen cars go by over the next couple km, and began to walk around the headlands to our next good stopping point

That turned out to be at Casa Rapla.. We left the road walk for what turned out to be a bit tougher segment than we expected. Dropping down into a modestly rocky narrow valley only to climb out again before coming in a few hundred meters to the cliffs of a cove in which a fancy hotel sits. This hotel was also cited in our guide as a place to eat. The path wound down once again somewhat stony parts to the barely-a-beach and the hotel. It is clearly fancy. It is also clearly  a place to go for a meal but  If you want a modest lunch you best go elsewhere. If you want even just a start of ham and melon be prepared for sticker shock. Unless we misread things that starter was 25 euro. Must be some super melon and super ham. Even just getting a couple dishes of tiramisu flavored ice cream and one big beer was a challenge. I would swear our waiter forgot about us. It just should not take minutes and minutes to place the order and then get a bowl of ice cream. At least it was tasty and the setting was nice. But we knew we would be feeling hungry by the end of the walk as the picnics provided by the hotel in Pilau-Saverdera were mediocre to say the least-an interesting idea of a takeout box of pasta, a hard boiled egg, and a small tomato. 

Up and out of the hotel cove. Perhaps the steepest bit of ascent of the walk was on the first road and then stone path. Since the temperature had steadily risen to about 80F we felt it as we climbed to the top of the land once more. When we came to a coast road we were at about the 10km mark: 5 or so kilometers to go.

The rest of the walk was pretty much entirely on the coastal road. It’s a dirt-gravel road that is well built and pretty quiet. Now and then Cadaqués would pop into view. We could see the whitewashed buildings curling around the bay from quite a ways off.  Eventually we were walking through the resort town and feeling a bit underwhelmed. Maybe it was because it is a resort town that we felt that way. Maybe we were just tired. It would turn out that our feelings were misplaced but I am getting ahead of things.

It is a very nice bay that the town sits on. It’s a bit of a shame that you have to take some care of the ever-present motorcycles and scooters and some cars that zip on by on the narrow bayside road. We passed numerous restaurants , a casino, and more. We found La Notta, a oh so fine smoothie and snacks place, and that was wonderful. A few hundred meters further around, that is northernly, the bay and we found the Playa Sol Hotel. Hurray.  

This was a charming walk even if a lot of it was on country roads. I can imagine it being a lousy walk if the weather turns on you as there would be no real cover from wind and rain. However, our mostly sunshine-filled day though warm was lovely.

Distance:  15.7km

Ascent 322m

Descent: 704m

Moving Time:  5 hours 20 minutes

Stopped Time: 1 hour 32 minutes includes way too much time at the fancy hotel for ice creams; and maybe 15 minutes at La Notta for those lovely smoothies).

High Temperature: 81F under mostly sunny skies

Photos

1. It looks more threatening than it actually is. But it was a touch cool and breezy so Mom was wearing a bit more than she would otherwise do. In the distance you can see Crab Claw Cove.

2. Montjoi and the very sheltered cove. Too bad the cafe bar was closed. The hamlet looks like it barely exists. But it was a nice walk down to it nonetheless.

3. Can you tell that we are dealing with a rocky descent? A lot of the land hereabouts is stony and full of scrub. This is definitely not a lush region.

4. Like photo 3 but a bit farther along. We are soon going to climb up and walk a couple hundred meters on headland before dropping down into the cove of the fancy hotel. 

5. Mom and Dad with a first really good view of Cadaqués some 3km distant.

6. Smoothies; what a treat and intriguing way to package them.

7. Standing just outside La Notta and looking at a portion of the town of Cadaqués. 

8. Just after sunset in Cadaqués. The view is from just outside the hotel Playa Sol. 

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 9: Garriguella to Pilau-Saverdera

Let’s start with dinner in Garriguella on October 18, 2017. We had an adequate, fortunately inexpensive, meal at one place and figured to go there again. A big plus for us was they were open early. The other place kept “Spanish hours.” We walked over arriving around 19:00 and found it closed. The other place wasn’t open. A little bar/cafe was open but we couldn’t decipher the menu and what we could figure out wasn’t appealing. We were stuck. But we had noticed 2 grocery-type stores on the block. Time to find food we could heat up at the house-hotel we were staying at.  A butcher shop provided us with a pasta and meat dish along with a meatball dish; another shop yielded tomatoes and drinks. I am quite sure the total cost was tiny and once we returned and warmed everything up we actually felt we had a tastier meal than the meal at the resturaunt on our first night in Garriguella.  Now this wouldn’t have worked if we hadn’t had access to a kitchen with microwave and a hostess who was fine with our using the stuff. But the kitchen facilities did exist and she was fine so all is well that ends well.

We set out at 08:44 under heavily overcast skies. Throughout the night it had stormed including thunder and lightning. You could tell rain was still in the air, though as we departed the house it was only spitting just a little bit. The Inntravel notes say the walk is 17km and we agree with this number (I actually failed to turn on the GPS track right away so likely lost 50-100m but that’s not really much). The first few km of the walk would take us out of Garriguella first along the surprisingly busy paved town road to dirt roads that wound through farms slowly gaining elevation as they passed by olive orchards and vineyards (maybe).  It was becoming clear that if this were a cloudless day the views would be quite good indeed.

We continued on through the hills passing beehives and old Spanish civil war (Nationalist) bunkers that even under these cloudy conditions had superb views of the surrounding countryside. We could see a long way too.

After crossing a very busy road, likely the most dangerous bit of the hike,  we entered a natural park area and continued to climb along a dirt road. Up we went and the sounds of a rock quarry faded away. It was easy going and the weather though gray was still co-operating. I suspect the temperature had crept up a bit into the low-mid 60F range. It was nice hiking weather and we were making good time. 

At 11:30 things changed. The rain came. At first it was gentle but though it slackened from time to time it also intensified a fair bit too. We were first walking along a narrow trail between two paved roads and we had a little tree cover. We lucked out sometimes when in more open country as the rain eased a bit. That was especially true on a 400m or so stretch of road walk. But it didn’t last.  As we climbed a steep and rutted dirt and stone track that would climb for nearly a km to the top of a hill where lonely homes sit, one under renovation and the other occupied, in the rain pelted down. This was not a place you would want to get stuck.  It eased off some at the top but the wind picked up so we felt the chill as we paused to have snacks and keep the internal fires burning. 

We were still having a good day even if the steep climb had made us nervous whether we were truly on the right path. As we walked across the top of the hills towards our next goal, a ruin of some sort, the rain tapered off completely. At the ruin - call it about11km I think - we settled down for a fast lunch. The sun even made a very brief appearance. Just enough to show a shadow or two but it didn’t last. By the time we hoisted our packed again (15-20 minute lunch ) that moment had pretty much passed.

As we approached Mad Vente (Farm of the winds) we found we had entered another type of terrain: a tiny pine grove. Lovely.Our only complaint is that we got confused by the directions. But once we sorted things out it was an easy walk down a dirt road with what would normally be exceptional views of the Bay of Roses and the towns that dot the Mediterranean shoreline. Today you could see the sea but not all that well. 

Perhaps just before 14:30 we reached Elmira de Sant Onofre (Shrine of Saint Onofre). According to the notes it’s about 2km from there to the end of the walk. It is a tough 2km. Specifically a solid 1.5km down what the notes warn is steep and rocky and requires use of your trekking poles. In other words: very slow going for me. I am pretty sure it took over an hour to make the bulk of the descent . I am sure Mom and Dad had lots and lots of time to wait. Though it had been a wet day the path, such as it is, was remarkably dry. It drains well and the rocks were surprisingly unslippery (unlike say wet cobblestones in a village street). I am still glad it wasn’t raining as I plodded down the slopes slowly descending something like 300m in the 1.5-2km distance. While ascending would have been physically tiring I think I would have preferred it as much as Mom would have loathed it.

Once we were at the bottom it was fairly straightforward, with some fits and starts and asking for help, to find the hotel Niu de Sol. My room doesn’t seem to have any solid stone walls but Mom and Dad do. It is clearly another ancient building that has been nicely re-purposed.

We won’t have any real time here in Pilau-Saverdera to explore. It appears to be sizeable and yet retains that air of old-ness. We know people are about as we can hear them from our second floor hotel rooms. Some dogs bark now and then too. We have had a very satisfying dinner at the recommended resturaunt and we’d have had coffee and desert had they come back to our table in a more timely fashion. Perhaps it is just as well that I , at least, did not as i feel pretty full. I’m not quite sure what Patanegra is but it was a tasty cut of meat, well seasoned with vegetables and potatoes. Mom and Dad enjoyed their dinners too. 

It has been a very good day with a walk that though tougher than some was certainly well worth it even though it did rain for 75 minutes or so.

Distance 17.35km (a bit short as I didn’t start the track right away; likely 17.5km)

Ascent: 550m

Descent: 505m

Moving time: 6 hours 18 minutes

Stopped time (parent’s would be longer): 1 hour 8 minutes

High temperature upper 60s. Overcast with 75 minutes of moderate to hard rain.

Photos

1. Leaving Garriguella.

2. We’ve been walking for an hour and though we can’t see much it has been enjoyable walking so far.

3. Coming up on lunch time. We’ve left the renovated house and occupied house that both sit lonely on top of a hill well behind. The rain has ceased and we are ready for lunch.

4. At Mas Vente Mom and Dad are figuring out where we go next. The directions were a tad confusing.

5. It is hard to see much but the Bay of Roses is down there. The Meddeterranean Sea.

6. Looking back towards the Shrine of Saint Onofre. That is a nasty path winding up the slope to the shrine. Very slow going for me to make my way down from there.

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 9: Garriguella to Pilau-Saverdera

Let’s start with dinner in Garriguella on October 18, 2017. We had an adequate, fortunately inexpensive, meal at one place and figured to go there again. A big plus for us was they were open early. The other place kept “Spanish hours.” We walked over arriving around 19:00 and found it closed. The other place wasn’t open. A little bar/cafe was open but we couldn’t decipher the menu and what we could figure out wasn’t appealing. We were stuck. But we had noticed 2 grocery-type stores on the block. Time to find food we could heat up at the house-hotel we were staying at.  A butcher shop provided us with a pasta and meat dish along with a meatball dish; another shop yielded tomatoes and drinks. I am quite sure the total cost was tiny and once we returned and warmed everything up we actually felt we had a tastier meal than the meal at the resturaunt on our first night in Garriguella.  Now this wouldn’t have worked if we hadn’t had access to a kitchen with microwave and a hostess who was fine with our using the stuff. But the kitchen facilities did exist and she was fine so all is well that ends well.

We set out at 08:44 under heavily overcast skies. Throughout the night it had stormed including thunder and lightning. You could tell rain was still in the air, though as we departed the house it was only spitting just a little bit. The Inntravel notes say the walk is 17km and we agree with this number (I actually failed to turn on the GPS track right away so likely lost 50-100m but that’s not really much). The first few km of the walk would take us out of Garriguella first along the surprisingly busy paved town road to dirt roads that wound through farms slowly gaining elevation as they passed by olive orchards and vineyards (maybe).  It was becoming clear that if this were a cloudless day the views would be quite good indeed.

We continued on through the hills passing beehives and old Spanish civil war (Nationalist) bunkers that even under these cloudy conditions had superb views of the surrounding countryside. We could see a long way too.

After crossing a very busy road, likely the most dangerous bit of the hike,  we entered a natural park area and continued to climb along a dirt road. Up we went and the sounds of a rock quarry faded away. It was easy going and the weather though gray was still co-operating. I suspect the temperature had crept up a bit into the low-mid 60F range. It was nice hiking weather and we were making good time. 

At 11:30 things changed. The rain came. At first it was gentle but though it slackened from time to time it also intensified a fair bit too. We were first walking along a narrow trail between two paved roads and we had a little tree cover. We lucked out sometimes when in more open country as the rain eased a bit. That was especially true on a 400m or so stretch of road walk. But it didn’t last.  As we climbed a steep and rutted dirt and stone track that would climb for nearly a km to the top of a hill where lonely homes sit, one under renovation and the other occupied, in the rain pelted down. This was not a place you would want to get stuck.  It eased off some at the top but the wind picked up so we felt the chill as we paused to have snacks and keep the internal fires burning. 

We were still having a good day even if the steep climb had made us nervous whether we were truly on the right path. As we walked across the top of the hills towards our next goal, a ruin of some sort, the rain tapered off completely. At the ruin - call it about11km I think - we settled down for a fast lunch. The sun even made a very brief appearance. Just enough to show a shadow or two but it didn’t last. By the time we hoisted our packed again (15-20 minute lunch ) that moment had pretty much passed.

As we approached Mad Vente (Farm of the winds) we found we had entered another type of terrain: a tiny pine grove. Lovely.Our only complaint is that we got confused by the directions. But once we sorted things out it was an easy walk down a dirt road with what would normally be exceptional views of the Bay of Roses and the towns that dot the Mediterranean shoreline. Today you could see the sea but not all that well. 

Perhaps just before 14:30 we reached Elmira de Sant Onofre (Shrine of Saint Onofre). According to the notes it’s about 2km from there to the end of the walk. It is a tough 2km. Specifically a solid 1.5km down what the notes warn is steep and rocky and requires use of your trekking poles. In other words: very slow going for me. I am pretty sure it took over an hour to make the bulk of the descent . I am sure Mom and Dad had lots and lots of time to wait. Though it had been a wet day the path, such as it is, was remarkably dry. It drains well and the rocks were surprisingly unslippery (unlike say wet cobblestones in a village street). I am still glad it wasn’t raining as I plodded down the slopes slowly descending something like 300m in the 1.5-2km distance. While ascending would have been physically tiring I think I would have preferred it as much as Mom would have loathed it.

Once we were at the bottom it was fairly straightforward, with some fits and starts and asking for help, to find the hotel Niu de Sol. My room doesn’t seem to have any solid stone walls but Mom and Dad do. It is clearly another ancient building that has been nicely re-purposed.

We won’t have any real time here in Pilau-Saverdera to explore. It appears to be sizeable and yet retains that air of old-ness. We know people are about as we can hear them from our second floor hotel rooms. Some dogs bark now and then too. We have had a very satisfying dinner at the recommended resturaunt and we’d have had coffee and desert had they come back to our table in a more timely fashion. Perhaps it is just as well that I , at least, did not as i feel pretty full. I’m not quite sure what Patanegra is but it was a tasty cut of meat, well seasoned with vegetables and potatoes. Mom and Dad enjoyed their dinners too. 

It has been a very good day with a walk that though tougher than some was certainly well worth it even though it did rain for 75 minutes or so.

Distance 17.35km (a bit short as I didn’t start the track right away; likely 17.5km)

Ascent: 550m

Descent: 505m

Moving time: 6 hours 18 minutes

Stopped time (parent’s would be longer): 1 hour 8 minutes

High temperature upper 60s. Overcast with 75 minutes of moderate to hard rain.

Photos

1. Leaving Garriguella.

2. We’ve been walking for an hour and though we can’t see much it has been enjoyable walking so far.

3. Coming up on lunch time. We’ve left the renovated house and occupied house that both sit lonely on top of a hill well behind. The rain has ceased and we are ready for lunch.

4. At Mas Vente Mom and Dad are figuring out where we go next. The directions were a tad confusing.

5. It is hard to see much but the Bay of Roses is down there. The Meddeterranean Sea.

6. Looking back towards the Shrine of Saint Onofre. That is a nasty path winding up the slope to the shrine. Very slow going for me to make my way down from there.

Spanish Pyrenees:Figueres

A special guest post from my parent Judy and Jonathan Knight. 

Today, October 18, we decided not to hike but instead visit the Dali Museum in Figueres, about 10 miles  southwest of  where we are currently  staying, the village of Garriguella.  But how to get there? Bus schedules were not good and so a taxi seemed in order.  Our hotel owner offered a third choice: she was going into  Figueres and would drive us there.

We arrived in Figueres  about 10am and following street signs quickly found the Dali Museum.  The museum was designed by Dali, and there is no mistaking that the building is a Dali work as well as devoted to his work,as the attached photos plainly reveal. The highlight of the museum visit was a special exhibition of jewelry designed by Dali. We did not know about his interest in and creation of jewelry. In a word, the pieces are stunning, so much so that we purchased a catalog of the jewelry exhibition providing more details about each piece.

After the museum visit  (we were there for about 2 hours),  lunch was next, easily found given the profusion of restaurants in the center of Figueres.  Before our visit to the city, we had not known of it or the Dali museum.  A visit to both is recommended, with train time from Barcelona to Figueres about 1 1/2 hours.

To return to Garriguella we got a taxi at the train station. The ride was no more than 20 minutes. 

The attached photos were taken by Kenneth. While he got less out of the visit to the museum than we did, his photographic skills exceeded ours.

Judy and Jonathan

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 8: Vilartoli to Garriguella

High spotty clouds dot the sky and we are hoping for somewhat cooler temperatures than we have seen. From the overview of the walk we think it should be an easy one as well as one with some interesting  things to see. Our driver dropped us off at 09:44 at an intersection near the hamlet of Vilartoli. He would continue on to Garriguella to drop off our luggage. 

We hoisted our packs as a friendly dog came to check us out and soon we were walking up a farm road passing grape vines as we looked for the small blue rock piles that would mark the path to the dolmen in the area. Finding them we followed the dirt paths between vineyards up a small hill to a set of dolmen. One, in particular, was in perfect condition.  These millenia-old stone structures are the entry ways into what I think could be fairly elaborate tombs for more than just one person or family. we also passed by an intriguing , much more modern, round stone shelter with a tiny door that I find hard to imagine a use for. I suppose fieldhands use it for something but it really was a tiny seeming door that you’d almost have to wiggle through to get into what looks like a large (and very dark) shelter. 

By this time into the walk, call it a kilometer, we had picked up our unwanted companions for the day. Flies were out in force and, if possible, more irksome than the day before. Clearly we were unable to outpace them even as we continued to walk farm roads and some minor paved roads through more vineyards, sheep pastures, olive groves, and so on towards the village of Espolla. The cafe/bar we passed in that quiet small village was a bit tempting but it was stuffy inside and still pretty early in the day so we just kept on going. We were making fine progress as the hiking was on dirt or concrete minor roads. No vehicle traffic. In short order we were approaching the village of Rabós and this , once again very quiet, village had more to offer.

Rabós sits on a hillside. Like other places we have walked through it feels old. Many solid stone buildings, a modest village square (actually had a few people in it)  and a Romanesque church. The church bell tolled the time as we took a break on a park bench.  We found an open tiny grocery store and got some cookies. The selection was small. I don’t think I saw any fresh fruits or produce their.  Mom and Dad noticed some lovely buildings and you wonder what they’re used for today.

When we left the village for the farm track through a vineyard  we looked back and up to see Rabós and its fortified church standing proudly on the hill above. I can easily imagine this as a prosperous place , as those things went, several centuries ago. Today I wonder.

The farm lanes would eventually turn into a trail that we would follow for a couple km. While the trail is waymarked it doesn’t get much tender loving care. It is overgrown but at least the plants aren’t full of sharp pointy bits. We walked through valleys and across two dry streams with our ever-present swarms of non-biting flies. By now the clouds had cleared away and the temperature was pushing the 80F mark.  A shady area just off the trail provided our lunch spot. A quick lunch so we didn’t have to deal with the annoying flies.

When we climbed out of the valley, not much of a climb, we got some wind and that pushed the flies back. Hurray. We also got more expansive views. You might argue they weren’t great views, no majestic mountain ranges or views of the sea, but expansive nonetheless. After a quick break for a snack in Delfia our walk would take us on more farm roads passed very large fields with the village of Garriguella  visible in the distance.

We worked our way around those fields to a paved road that for the last several hundred meters would lead us into the center  of Garriguella.  It is bigger than the other villages but my first impressions are that there isn’t all that much here. Somehow it feels less interesting that  Santa Pau let alone Besalu. I hope this is a false impression. Maybe tomorrow we will se it in a better more complete light. 

(The walk to the resturaunt for dinner didn’t really improve my view of the village but then dinner itself, though inexpensive, was only mediocre).

Distance: 15.3km

Ascent: 169m

Descent: 235m

Moving TIme:4 hours 33 minutes

Stopped Time: 40 minutes

(Ascent number are about 100m lower than the guide notes. The walk was 700m shorter than the guide said).

Photos

1. An intact dolmen. Photo by Judy

2. The main feature of Rabos is the fortified church you see on the right. 

3. Large fields surround Garriguella. Our last couple km took us atop bd and through them. 

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 7: Above Cantallops

This walk had a bit of everything and that isn’t necessarily good. After a lovely hot breakfast, what  a pleasant change from the merely continental style breakfasts we have been having, we got ourselves ready for the circuit-hike of the day. We expected it to be another very warm day with a high temperature touching 80-82F (it did). However, at the start of our walk around 09:20 the sky was mostly cloudy and the temperature was cool. We strolled on down into Cantallops (Can-ta-lopes) and through the modest sized village. We believe they have some industry in the form of vineyards but at this time of a Monday morning at least it was awfully quiet. We found our way to a dirt single track that had a snail (scallop, isn’t the scallop shell used on Camino de Santiago paths?) shell along with more common yellow waymarks. We began to climb through the hills up the valley. I’m glad it wasn’t too hot yet because though the climbing wasn’t strenuous it certainly got my sweat glands working. Over the next couple km we gained a couple hundred meters and when we remembered to look back were treated to some fine views of the valley below. 

We tried to find , admittedly not too much effort was expended, some of the dolmens in the area. They represent burial grave sites from the 5th century. 

We continued working our way up. A castle was visible in the distance. But only now and then as we worked our way through cork oak forest trails. The tantalizing sound of a stream could be heard but we never really did see it.

In time we came to a mountain road which we would follow northerly and it got us to within a km of the castle. We chose to continue on. We saw numerous cows wandering the roadside or sometimes just laying alongside the road -tails and ears constantly flicking to try and keep the flies at bay. One constant of the walk today were the flies bouncing off us. Irritating. Annoying. At least they weren’t biting flies. Why were the cows up here? I certainly saw no land they could reasonably graze.

Our road walk would take us past the ruins of the Santa Maria church. That church was a pilgrimage destination up through the mid-19th century. People came to pray for a certain type of wind whose name I’m not sure of. But for reasons unknown that practice faded and when combined with the de-population that has struck this region the church fell into dis-use and several decades back whoever decides these things just decided to let it go to ruin. Many stone buildings we have passed have been restored, many in ruins. 

We passed more cows. We continued descending towards a stream. We actually crossed a bridge over a stream with running water. Too bad we could not dangle our feet in the water. By this time though clouds were breaking up and the temperature was certainly rising.  We were a bit more than halfway and had some modest ascending on a trail truly full of spiny plants to contend with. Over the next kilometer we climbed and then for a while we descended and then popped back out of the col de Medas where we had tried to find the dolmen earlier in the day. 

By now the clouds were gone and the air temperature was clearly heading to that 80 plus mark if it wasn’t already there. We could have descended the sane path we climbed this morning but we took the somewhat longer but far easier road descent. The first 1.4kms were on mountain dirt road. Easy going. Then we turned onto what I suppose could be a 4x4 track. For the next 1.75km we continued on down. It took a half hour but felt longer. We were getting tired and the long stretches of just up or just down can be wearing. Besides the views weren’t all that interesting. We were all coming to the point where we were wishing for the end to arrive. The few hundred meters along paved roads into the oh so busy (not) heart of Cantallops to have ice cream and drinks was a chore. The final few hundred meters from there to the hotel was a chore. Sometimes walks whose end you know is in sight just drag more than they should. It is a phenomenon related to the watched teapot never boiling.

An all right walk though not a great one. Now as I sit in my room typing this I’m wishing dinner wasn’t the better part of 3.5 hours away. I just wish the flies would find some other place to be. We were told that a couple of weeks ago when the temperatures had dropped to what would be normal at this time of year, the flies and mosquitoes were gone. They returned with these unusually warm days. 

Distance: 15.8km

AScent and Descent: 420m

Total Time: 6:18

Time for breaks: 1:03 (we had a couple breaks where we pondered directions more than we might otherwise have had to do. Today the directions , or at least our ability to read them, wasn’t as good as usual). 

Photos

`. Harvesting of cork trees is done here. The lower portion is the inner layer exposed after harvesting. I think the tree re-grows it’s bark in 7-10 years. 

2.  Cows, cows cows.  We saw several wandering the mountain roads today. 

3. The overcast has lifted and we are heading back to the village. We had a chance to look back from where we had been and you can see the castle we didn’t visit in the distance. 

Spanish Pyrenees: Rest Day (day 7)

I am sitting in my posh room in Hotel Canxiquet (Can-chi-let)  feeling quite sated after another very good supper. The village of Cantallops (Canta-hopes) though tiny shines just a few minutes downhill from here and way off in the distance what we think is a combination outlet strip mall and mega truck stop glints. The sky is pretty dark but we don’t see much in the way, if any, of stars though the Moon when up is still quite bright. It’s been a restful day.

We spent the morning exploring a bit more in Besalú. We had planned on visiting Figueres but the bus schedule , from what we could tell, did not work for us. So insteaad we spent time in Besalú and then came earlier to this large, though seemingly pretty near empty, hotel on a hill above Cantallops. Our impression that Besalú is a bustling town that does a serious tourist trade was re-enforced though we remain unsure why this is the case. I suppose it doesn’t matter but you wonder sometimes how things develop. It was a nice way to spend a sunny clear morning. Seeing actual grocery stores and some very nice little shops that sell all sorts of goods from Knick-knacks to fine leather products was enjoyable.

When we were dropped off by our taxi in early afternoon at the hotel it was time for lunch. What a meal. If we had lost any weight up to today I bet we made good inroads on gaining it back. Lunch was very good from the salmon rolls to pork; the small starters to salad; they made very good food. Like our first hotel, back in Mollo, the food (lunch and dinner at least) are clearly going to stand out here. I expect that breakfast will be basic “continental.” 

Cantallops seems tiny. We found the local cafe/bar which had a few people, including another couple doing an Inntravel trip, enjoying afternoon drinks. Other than that place I don’t think we really saw anyone. In fact, the liveliest people we saw were I guess the prostitutes (we assume though hard to see what else they were) hanging out on the minor highway a handful of km short of the truck stop. One even gave us a wiggle as we went by. I wonder what the laws on solicitation are here in Spain.

Tomorrow we return to the walking. We will do a circuit-hike of about 16km. We have options to do a couple excursions but I doubt we will. One is to a castle that we might be able to see but can’t explore as it is closed tomorrow. Also if it is as warm as it was today that will likely affect how we feel. The heatwave is continuing and as far as I know tomorrow will be much like today which means sunny, clear and quite warm for this time of year.

Spanish Pyrenees Walk 6: El Sallent to Besalú

The morning dawned overcast and cool. Our first day with weather anything other than clear and warm. We understand that this part of Spain is experiencing something of a heat wave. Average temperatures should be considerably cooler than we have been feeling. Today I doubt it really got much above 70F until the sun eventually did break through the overcast and the clouds moved away. But at the outset of our walk things were much cooler at least compared to what we had seen. 

Our taxi dropped us off just outside the village of El Sallent where we joined the GR2, walked past a house with what seemed to be an exuberant and maybe dangerous dog before joining a paved road that we would follow for several kilometers to the hamlet of El Torn. The road wound through farmland but was pretty uninteresting. El Torn is quite tiny though large enough to have a church and civic center. But beyond the couple of tiny dogs we saw no people in obvious evidence. We continued on more gravel roads which were rather uninteresting.

In time we joined a mountain path that took us up and over hills that were full of scrub forest and briars and brambles. We met a fellow, with his two dogs, doing some  pruning. He has lots of work to do. The trail continued to be rather uninteresting. The forest was scrub bushes and small trees with little distinctive character like the dark woods we climbed through on walk 5.

It wasn’t a hard walk just unexciting. The rocky dry streambed we had lunch at was a nice place. But after that we returned to a winding gravel road that would eventually take us past the church of St. Fruitos which is a couple kilometers outside of Besalú. More road walking and then narrow woods trail and then road into town. Besalú is certainly the high point of the walk. By now the sun was out and it had warmed well into the 70s and we found hundreds of cars and camper vans parked outside of town. It’s clearly a town with a thriving tourist industry.  Most visitors probably from Barcelona about 140 km away. 

This is another distinctive hotel just outside the town walls and on the east side of the Fluvia River and is a little worn but nice enough. We joined the throngs of people strolling through the town to explore a bit. The L-shaped bridge with portcullis is certainly a standout feature. We couldn’t really see the old Mikva which is one of 2 or 3 still in this part of Spain (though not used I think). Jews that once thrived in the town were forced out in the 15th century in just a couple of decades.  We also saw a bit of an artisan market. Besalú has a population of some 2,000 people but it is clear that tourists come to visit though we aren’t quite sure why as the town isn’t near the sea or mountains. 

A not terribly exciting walk but a very nice town.

Distance:  14.4km

Ascent: 240m

Descent: 429m

Total time: 6:10

Break Time (not moving): 58 minutes (bit surprised by that amount).

Photos

1. Mom and Dad in El Sallent.

2. After dinner at the restauraunt the hotel recommended where we had a pretty good meal in a very elegant setting we walked back across the L-shaped bridge which is wonderfully lit at night.

3. Looking east from the Jewish quarter towards the river Fluvia and the 13th-century bridge. 

4. The bridge over the Fluvia not long after sunrise the following morning.