friday 15 – we set off for our holidays at Roses, on the northern Costa Brava, Catalunya, Spain. The long journey had various elements:
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u-bahn and s-bahn to flughafen terminal 2 in munich, setting off from the flat at 12 noon;
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flight to barcelona and arrival at terminal 1;
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airport bus to train station near terminal 2;
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train with 3 stops to Barcelona Sant, which came up on the carriage screen as “BARNA SANTS”;
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TGV train from there to Figueres Vilafont, it was a bit difficult to find the platform entrance and go through the security baggage check, like an airport;
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bus from Vilafont to Figueres bus station;
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bus from Figueres to Roses.
The connections from Barcelona to the site were 80 euros for the 4 of us. We arrived on the campsite about 7pm, have meal at the restaurant overlooking the pool, the Truba restaurant. We’re staying at the Joncar Mar campsite, excellently located near to the centre of Roses.
Katie’s view on how Western/UK society is degrading not just women, with those women in power only trying to behave like men; but women’s values, ie. feminine values, such as feelings and emotions, ie. the voice of the heart, not just the head.
saturday 16 – Katie and I go to supermarket for provisions, the Caprabo supermarket is about 15 minutes walk away.
Spend the afternoon on the beach, swimming and sunbathing then long walk along seafront past the fishing port and on to the castle, it was difficult to find but worth it for the views.
Sunday 17 – go to supermarket, then late breakfast again.
Afterwards, Katie and I go exploring and collecting info for travel options, went to the tourist info and the bus station.
then come back and have lunch, the tuna emparnada/pie
walk around cituidella in roses, bit of a fraught moment with katie getting exaspated at trying to reconcile the different wishes of saby and eve, with either flipping out if wishes aren’t met straight away.
walking round the fortress, which consists of 3 parts of the visit, well 4 if you include the museum:
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an inside exhibition displaying the best from 30 years’ work of a local photographer and his images of dancers – some wonderful, sensual images;
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an inside museum, which I didn’t see, keine lust;
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an outside area consisting of greek and romain remains, plus an 11th century church, a bit like a better-kept bolton abbey, plenty of army hospitals and barracks plus the old village;
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then the best for me, the walls around the fortress offering wonderful views into the country and out to sea.
Few ideas come to mind during this walk:
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that we should expect our leaders/politicians to really take the long view, deciding and taking into account many more views than an ordinary person could consider or come up with, we need people with a “thousand year” mindset. I can’t, at the moment, see the human race lasting longer than 100 years, let alone 200 years or a thousand and yet these simple people, working with reasonable means and expectations managed to survive and build for a thousand years.
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that the EU permits self-determination for areas like Scotland and/or Catalunya, and why should we not encourage this? They can safely return to their original historical forms; if the national govt does not protect the interests of the region, then a reasonably sized region could decide to go independent:
“the only wars which happen the EU should now be only those in the ballot box and not on the battlefied; a battle for fair representation and for an inclusive, social democracy” p.gill *
Go to the beach in the evening via the Festa Major field and watch the fireworks in the bay.
monday 18 – Katie and I go for smash and grab at the supermarket, a flying visit of 20 minutes topping up on everything
Went for swim in the morning when the weather was a bit pleasanter and there is less wind; did a round of exercises on the apparatus near the beach.
Take bus to Figueres stopping for ice cream before going round the Dali museum,
Museum was very impressive, huge queue for the Mae West “construction” with an upside down bathroom hanging from the ceiling; big lips, nose, eyes and blonde hair which one inspected through a magnifying glass on a platform, but didn’t wait to see this.
Overall we were all impressed with the surreal ideas presented, particularly the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, which I only saw “correctly” when taking my glasses off to photograph
Take the bus back to Roses and we cook a chicken paella, fry the chicken, fry the paella rice a little, add an “instant” paella sauce and simmer for 20 minutes; plus a chicoree salad with red pepper in yoghurt sauce, tasted great.
“Judge a man by the quality of the questions he asks, not by the answers he gives” Voltaire.
tuesday 19 – go out to one of the quieter bays out east and find some good swimming.
Tried this Catalan delicacy for evening meal (well we were a bit limited in the chalet not having an oven, to things which were heatable on a ring or in a microwave), “Trinxat de la Cerdanay”, from the looks and description (potato, Cerdanya cabbage and bacon fat), it sounds disgusting, but it was actually very tasty, Eve and I liked it, Catalan “bubble and squeak”, which kept us amused.
wednesday 20 – rainy day, spent mostly around the chalet, then going for a coffee at a cafe on the front (the one with the various beers, ice creams and mini-golf at the back), I decided to have a Grimbergen, which thanked me with an afternoon headache. The weather brightens up later and we go on the beach in our usual place behind the exercise apparatus.
thursday 21 – sorting out Katie’s lost card which she had dropped at the cafe yesterday and retrieved safely, as the owner had held in safe-keeping – Katie was most thankful and overcome. Then we took the later midday bus to Cadaques, found a good bay for swimming off the peninsular to the north of the bay, going towards Portlligat.
friday 22 – terrible day for rain, again mostly spent around the chalet, then even the children were ready to venture out and chance getting soaked, as the rain stopped from 6pm.
Katie and I had been out to discover a good place on the far side of the old town and it did not disappoint, we sampled 5 decent tapas, then main courses, saby a ham and mushroom pizza, eve spaghetti bolognese, Katie and I shared a four seasons, with drinks it all came to 50€, with excellent atmosphere and food quality, the oven smells from the front of the restaurant wafting down to where we were sitting. Restaurant was called “Tio Cristobal”.
saturday 23 – early bus to Figueres and then the 10.30am bus to Macanet de Cabrenys for the walk in the Pyrenees down to Darnius.
It was a tight schedule with only a passing glimpse through Macanet de Cabrenys to go past the football field on down through the passes, fairly well-marked, although I’m glad we got all the detailed maps from Tourist information where the bus dropped us off. Great spot for lunch, then further on past to meet up with the lake, but no time to investigate and by which time, the route climbing a little, the kids were cursing a little and we only just had enough time to find the bus stop at Darnius, before it arrived.
Had a lovely stove-cooked chicken for evening meal, from the place outside the supermarket.
cello concert, a duet by Anna Carne Carvajal and Edgar Casellas Vidal, this was preceded by a guided tour of the castle, very knowledgable guide who talked about the strategic position of the port and how the castle and citadel worked together to protect it, key fortifications during the time of Charles V. The guide also related an amusing story of how they might have baked biscuits, ie. twice-cooked bread (not biscuits), to give to sailors so that it lasted longer, apparently this method of baking being described by Cervantes in Don Quixote.
By the time i got home, the pedometer on my watch read 34km – must be a record in one day of sight-seeing!
sunday 24 – lazy but good day, late start, then eve, kats and i played mini-golf, some good shots, some annoying holes, i liked the one with a hole at the top of a simple mound, anything off-centre would go racing off, but i fortunately managed to hit it in one and so did Eve.
Go onto beach, read a bit, go to get tickets for boat tomorrow and when i get back, Eve was nearly finished with her sandcastle, putting the finishing touches to the castle’s windows and balcony, with the coke can chimney!
finish off the walls, she creates a swimming pool in the grounds and a volleyball pitch
We have another paella, this time with pangasius which was a little slimey, although it looked an innocuous fish, guess they feed more on the shallower algaes and the flesh is not so firm, who knows.
monday 25 – 9.30 boat to Cadaques and the best day so far!
coffee at out our restaurant, the alba, a 60s feel to it with steel tubed chairs inside as if in an american diner, nice observing the street scenes outside, an accident, mopeds being used to transport furniture and the cigar smoke form the next table, overlook someting about english tourists and later pick up to read the news in “vanguardia” to find that merkel is visiting the president of spain, even trekking a few kms on the Jakobweg. Walk round old town up to the church santa maria where get chatting to the guitarist outside, Francois Djaniguian who studied classical music at various Conservatoria/Music Academies in Germany/France/Spain and lives in Strasburg.
Talking about which guitars are best for the type of classical/spanish style he uses, he recommends the Esteve F5 flamenco guitar.
Go the 2km to Portlligat, past a simple church on the way, the anti-thesis of the resplendent Santa Maria church in Cadaques, this church was called Ermita de Sant Baldiri.
have some lunch before collecting our tickets and then waiting to go round the Dali house.
The house started meeting basic needs, then expanded outwards and upwards.
“The decoration of the house is surprising, extraordinary. Perhaps the most exact adjective would be: never-before-seen. I do not believe that there is anything like it, in this country or in any other. The decoration of houses is always the same, according to the social condition of those who live in them: the bourgeoisie ,the petite bourgeoisie, etc… It is common, constant place. They don’t exactly rack their brains over it.
“Dali’s house is completely unexpected. A precise, exact description should be made of it. It contains nothing more than memories, obsessions. The fixed ideas of its owner. There is nothing traditional, nor inherited, nor repeated, nor copied here. All is indecipherable personal mythology. There are many things whose meaning is only known to the owners.
“There are art works (by the painter), Russian things (of Mrs Gala), stuffed animals, staircases of geological walls going up and down, books (strange such people), the commonplace and the refined, etc.”
Josep Pla, Obres de Museu, 1981
“It was there (Portlligat)) that I learned to impoverish myself, to limit and file down my thought that it might become (as) effective as an axe, where blood had the taste of blood, and honey the taste of honey.
A life that was hard, without metaphor or wine, a life with light of eternity. The lubrications of Paris, the lights of the city, and the jewels of the Rue de la Paix, could not resist this other light, total, centuries-old, poor, serence and fearless as the concise brow of Minerva.”
Salvador Dali, The secret life of Salvador Dali.
Took kayak out from a kayak rental place on the beach for an hour with 20 mins snorkelling, worked out ok, although didnt see many fish, eve spotted an anchor on the sea floor.
We went back to Cadaques and took the boat back to Roses, past a cape which looks like a witches’ head as the sun starts to disappear and the shadows accentuate.
Went for walk in the evening to see the regular group playing at the Cafe Sius Plau – hammond organ, bass, drums and lead telecaster guitar, a real Doors/Hendrix sound, easy to see how the hammond got overtaken though, a bit musical hallish sounding, no doubt good for the times though, singer very laid back so no “instrument” was in the foreground, nicely balanced delta blues, the band was called “Baked Blues”.
tuesday 26 – went to water park, Aqua Brava, get very sun burned on head and front, waiting for the rides was a pain, but we did most of them, my favourite being the rock climb and falling into the water. Poor value overall and not enough for more than one day, still the children loved it.
Went out in evening with Katie to walk up to the cafe in the main part of the promenade where a pop-oriented band called “Crossing Roads” were playing stuff from Passenger, Adele and Jessie J etc.
During the night, feel sick and cold.
wednesday 27 – lazy day on beach, build sand castle record player, didn’t even go for swim.
Katie and I investigated where to eat for tapas later and discovered the church in the centre of the old town, a cross-cross of streets going parallel and perpendicular to the seafront
we went back to the chalet for sabs and eve, then went to the alhambra place first for 6 mini tapas then a friendship pizza from down the same narrow street, which made up for it; a ham and mushroom, a tuna and onion, a vegetable and a fiorentina quarter, great, bustling place called Marechiaro.
We got a crepe on the way back, then went to the place katie and girls had been the day before, iris, which despite the name and decor was the place to be – friendly waiter, tapas and shot at the end thrown in.
thursday 28 – at Cafe Alba over breakfast, I explained about the two dreams I’d had the night before – the one where Katie was tuning up a guitar before going on to a concert/festival event and a chap offered to lend her his tuner, she declined his “I can give you an E” with a pushoff type of response and “I can give you a cow.”
Woke up and fell back asleep for a really vivid dream about a wedding we were at, hardly knowing the hosts but the most resplendent wedding i’d ever been at, including football-sized pitch for the musicians where everyone was invited to come and play alongside the professional ones, copying their technique, i got stuck playing a harp which was strung around the hind legs of a horse, a the centre of the field was a transparent guitar you could only just make out, then when you walked past you saw the colour and texture of the thing behind which it was standing, whether wood or stone.
We took the early bus out to Cadaque, meaning a 7am start, packing sarnis, swim stuff and leaving at 8.30 for 9am bus.
After the breakfast at the Alba Cafe, we walked over the hill to PortLligat and on further along the coast just beyond Platja de S’Alqueria Petita.
It was a great day for snorkelling.
Eve and I made a good recce of the first bay, seeing many fish varieties – she had the snorkel in the whole width of the bay, whilst I came up for decent gulps of air now and again and to rinse goggles, but the visibility was good and at one point the sun was right behind us as we looked into the deep where the sun’s rays turned slowly anti-clockwise as we swam as if a disco ball had been placed on the bottom of the sea, some 30m away into the dark depths.
Then after moving to the second sun-bathing spot, had lunch and went out for what turned out to be an hour’s swim – even had some tingling cold in the wrists at the end.
This snorkel trip went across the second bay we were now sunbathing at and up through a narrow channel and then into the open sea with no beaches just shear rocks ledging into the water.
Came across a shoal of 50 large, dark fish which kept together in a pack, swirled around then descended to the bottom in a black mass with ocasional glints of silver
Kept swimming further to get round to the next bay, although it was more like open sea, tried not to get panicky although not being able to see the bottom in the distances or the bottom being 50m in the more visible depths was a concern.
At one point, having crossed a huge, deep ravine going down more than 50 metres, or was the bottom not visible? I was rewarded as the ledge raised out of the water to a shallower part with a collection of 1000 fish around me, just an amazing sight.
Sabs bravely went in a couple of times and we were both impressed that she overcame her obvious anxiety, which was news to us, she likened it to swimming in a giant aquarium!
Fish types seen close-up:
- small pencil types – either with a white horizontal stripe across or a blue one, these also had vertical yellow stripes, rainbow wrasse, latin name: Coris julis
- smallish ones with fluted tails and flashes of purple, they were either very small or a twice the size out in the deeper water, latin name: Chromis chromis
- large green ones wth horizontal stripes, a species of sea bream, latin name: Sarpa salpa
- sleek friendly silver ones with a central spot and big black eyes, they were ok with you coming close, saddled seabream, latin name: Oblada melanura
- various silvery ones with black verticals front and rear, saw various bigger types of these often in 4s and 5s, white seabream, latin name: Diplodus sargus
- the odd menacing larger fish seen far off, european seabass, latin name: Dicentrarchus labrax
- plus the group of blackish ones numbering around 30, probably also european seabass.
We made our way slowly and chaotically back to the bus station at Cadaques, since Katie and I got separated; I met up with the children at the Dali house at Portlligat then got separated from them whilst hanging on waiting for Katie.
There was an older dutch couple also getting on the bus, who’d been out hiking, at first I thought they were english.
It was a lovely sojourn from Cadaque to Roses for the last time, well, until the next time hopefully.
Had a bit of a barney with the bus driver wanting to get out at the supermarket, as I’d only paid as far as Cuitadella, but he let me off or i squeezed past and out, it was all a bit confusing whether he wanted the surcharge or rid of me.
Picked up last minute supermarket provisions and a wood-burning oven cooked, hopefully free-range chicken, it certainly tasted once again as good and tender as the first one we’d had, a treat for sabs and eve!
went along sea front for last time up to si us plau cafe with a jazz band on, “Jazz Tons”, and the hotel half way up had the same band which were there on tuesday night, “Crossing Roads”.
Plenty of the musicians we’ve seen are playing from “sheet” music on tablets.
We get some crepes and retire for the night, packing having been all sorted before we left to go and do a last “circuit” at about 10pm.
friday 29 – it had thundered and rained hard from about 6am, probably a good thing since it woke us before the alarm.
I got up and went at about 7am and went to the exercise place adjacent to the beach where we were staying, the municipal beach patrol were out in force with the tractor raking the beach and generally cleaning up
Saw a wonderful sillhouetted mountainside backed by a red sky in advance of sunrise, there were some eery looking smokey cloud formations over the mountains, including one which gave the illusion that it had originated within the centre and travelled up to the top volcano-like, clearly some nice cloud organisation going on behind on the plains going out to Cadaques and the sea.
Edgy breakfast with having to clear away everything, most things we had pared down well for very little waste in the end, a bag of empty plastic containers and the kitchen roll holder.
Went to reception for checkout and the taxi driver Jorge Nino (direct number +34 637 103 245), was already waiting for us 15 mins early, so we picked a good choice with him: pleasant and prompt, speaks french, no english but the whole “booking” at the rank on wednesday night at Plaza de Catalunya had gone pretty smoothly and we got there with an hour to spare at the 4 years old high-speed rail station at the controversial Figueres Vilafant, it’s patrolled by armed police, has airport style x-ray checking of bags and the police even come to the platform, this time we take a spanish high speed train, wide comfortable seats to Barcelona.
The station is a gem, albeit cut-off a little, great connections to Paris and Lyons each under 6 hours as well as Madrid, 3 hours from Barcelona usually without stop.
wines:
Rene Barbier, Karliner, a really dry white
also tried a white rioja, very fruity/zesty and aromatic
Pere Pescador Rose which contained merlot amongst other of the 4 grapes, bubbly, not bad but katie’s favourite rose was Mateus from portugal
also a temperanillo as a token red, but was too strong and warm for the summer climate we had
links and references:
http://www.campingsonline.com/
kayaking/windsurfing courses, even a swim event:
cruises from cadaque:
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