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.