Barcelona to L'Escala and Beyond

My apologies for no news in the last week but life's been very hectic for this little blogger and I have had little internet access.   I'll start where I left off, last Wednesday, 16th November and finish on Sunday night.  It is now 9.30pm on Tuesday and this little bunny is ready for bed.  We arrived in Valencia late yesterday afternoon and are heading off for Toledo first thing in the morning.  More updates in a day or two.   

Wednesday afternoon we walked down to Gracia tp print and frame a photo of Albert, Diana, Peter and I as a gift for Albert and Diana.  

Wednesday night Peter and I took Simon and Adella for dinner as a thank you for their generosity in having us stay at their beach house. A bottle of French champagne was thrown in and they agreed they would share it with Xavier, who had been kind enough to allow Peter to use his internet connection at Llavaneres. We met at 9.30 pm and had a wonderful evening – they are both such good company, even though Adella speaks very limited English (we speak even less Spanish!)  They have invited us to their beach house during summer when they believe Lavanerres is at its best. Maybe one day. After dinner (around midnight) the four of us strolled through Gracia back to our respective apartments (they live on the other side of Gracia).

Thursday, 17^th Nov

We had a big sleep in (these late Spanish dinners are catching up with us), had lunch at Café Don Teo, we then walked through the streets and lanes of Gracia (just can’t get enough of this place).    These are a few photos which I hope give some idea of how lovely it is. 

Street in Gracia with Catalan flag hanging from a balcony

Peter on a Parc Guell bench. Isn't it fabulous?

Typical square in Gracia. There's probably 20 of these scattered throughout  Gracia.

Cafe in same square as above where we'd have a caffe con leche  around 5-6pm  when people relax and socialise (that is, those not working in the shops when generally open from 5pm to 8.30 pm)  

Typical Gracia street. 

First stop was the post office to send off a package of excess clothes to Mayfield Avenue.  That took about an hour. We then decided to visit the Sagrada Familia but rather than catching the closest metro, we walked along Gran Gracia, a main shopping street which leads into Passeig de Gracia. 

We walked around the outside only as we agreed we would go inside next visit (in two years time?). It would then be four years since we had seen inside and hopefully see quite an difference. It is currently expected to be completed by 2025 but that date keeps changing.

We made our way back to Gracia – Peter to the apartment to meet Scott, who was cooking dinner for us, and me to have a caffe con leche at a local bakery before a final look at Parc Guell. As it was dark by this time, I decided against my original plan to visit Gaudi’s home, which is within the parc grounds.

Back to the apartment Scott cooked a Thai meal – a spicy pork dish and a particularly tasty salad of baby spinch leaves, tomato, chilli, and almonds.  Scott lived for three years in Thailand and it is his favourite couisine.  He brought a 2.2 litre coke bottle filled with red wine which he had purchasd from a bar for about 2 euro. You might think it would taste like rocket fuel but it was actually quite light and very easy to drink.  BTW, we didn’t get through the 2.2 litres, in case you were wondering (no – only 2 litres…Peter).

Friday, 18^th Nov

Friday morning, with heavy hearts, we had a final caffe con leche and pastry at Don Teos and  took some farewell photos: 

Farewell Cafe Don Teo

We decided to catch a taxi to the train station to save time. Unfortunately the taxi thought we meant Passeig de Gracia (or at least pretended this) until I figured out what he was up to and corrected him. On the bright side, we were looking forward to meeting up with Helen and Iain and commencing our Spanish road trip.  First we were heading north to L’Escala, then south to Toscala, onto Valencia, west to Toledo and finally north to Madrid, from where we would fly to Hong Kong for two nights before flying to Sydney on Saturday. 

After hugs and kisses, we headed off with Helen at the wheel, Iain in the co-pilot’s seat, and Peter and I in the back seat – in other words, one driver and three co-drivers!  What fun!  I had Nancy the Navigator with me and she soon took over from the Hertz navigator, which didn’t want to play ball.

Our first destination was Girona, about one hour north of Barcelona. Peter and I had stayed in Girona two years ago and I think we both had forgotten what a beautiful city it is. We remembered, as we tend to do, where we had enjoyed lunch on the river. We decided to try it again, being conscious that it isn’t always wise to try to revisit past experiences.  Again we were seated at a table with a view of the river and the old town. The ‘menu of the day’ was 9.50 euro, which included three courses, bread, water (or a glass of wine). What fantastic value!  Peter and I started with creamy carrot soup and Helen and Iain chose a healthy tuna salad. Helen and I then had a white fish dish, while Peter and Iain chose thinly sliced pork with potato.  Dessert – three of us had the Catalan specialty, crèma catalon (similar to a creamy baked custard). Peter – panacotta with red fruit – unbelievably good. 

Afterwards we walked through the old town up to the cathedral. The four of us agreed that we would love to return to spend a few days to give sufficient time to really explore.  Highly recommend a visit. Lots of fabulous little windy and steep streets that lead to fantastic little bars or shops. Very similar to Florence but with it’s own Spanish charm.


Here are some shots of Girona's old town area. Iain took some brilliant shots but unfortunately I'm having trouble getting the blog to acknowledge them. My photos will have to do for now:

Houses on the river in Girona

Helen, Iain & Peter walking to Girona Cathedral

Girona's old town - fantastico!

We drove onto L’Escala where we were meeting up with friends of Iain's and Helen's, Jordi and Xon, who Peter and I visited in 2009. Jordi is a Professor at the Universitat Autonoma (30 mins out of Barca) and Xon is a research scientist at an institute similar to CSIRO in Barcelona.  Iain has known Jordi since the 70's. 

We had booked apartments at The L’Escala Resort which was located on the outskirts of town and not well signed posted!  We had difficulty finding the reception and things didn’t really improve when my credit card didn’t work, we found the unit had no toiletries, washing up detergent, or dishwasher or hair dryer. However, the apartments were very modern and spacious at an extremely reasonable price.

We met up with Jordi and Xon in their studio (two 18^th century fishing houses converted into one and still very tiny) and after a pleasant walk along the water, we had dinner at a restaurant which served both traditional Catalan and some interesting pasta dishes. 

Saturday, 19^th

Before heading off with Jordi and Xon our guides, we went for a walk along the L'Escala esplanade.  The forecast was for rain but as you can see from the following photos, we were very lucky indeed. 

View from L'Escala Espanade

Peter is going to tell you about this very special day:  


Hello, this is your guest blogger Pedro. OK. Our first destination was St Pere de 
Rodes, a monastery. The drive to the monastery was v v nice and involved a steep climb through some rugged and beautiful hill/mountain country. Arriving at the monastery we spent about 2 hours exploring this stunning site and the profoundly moving setting, history, and restored structures. There is also a modern restaurant that must compete with Domme in the French Dordogne for “most spectacular view ever”. We did not eat. The monastery originated in 11^th century and some of the remains are so beautiful. A truly amazing and spiritual place.

View from St Pere 

Mary on top of the world!

St Pere  Monastery

 OK. From the monastery we wound our way down to the sea and then to a lighthouse at the Cap de Creus. Xon’s aunty was the last light house keeper here and this location kills Byron Bay we have to say. Rugged and stunning and views for miles up and down the sea. Plus. It has a restaurant.

Cap de Creus

Fish of the day was caught that morning and was similar to red emperor or ocean trout and was quite frankly the best fish I can remember eating. Views to die for (see below), good wine and fantastic Catalan company.

Not to bask in their glory, Jordi and Xon then took us down to a beautiful sea side village (Cadaques) that has some similarities to places such as Rapallo in Italy but maybe even more exciting and stunning. Tight little harbours and steep sides down to water and amazing bars and homes right on the ocean, literally. There is a little museum where Picasso lived (for a year) but we did not linger. It was a beautiful place for coffee and to finish off a spectacular day of discovering reasons why Spain has so much to offer if you look hard enough. Brilliant day.

Beautif Cadaques street

A Cadaques street with incoming tide

Helen, Iain, Peter & Jordi

Sunday, 20^th

After meeting Jordi and Xon for a coffee, Helen and I walked around the esplanade to the Sunday markets while Peter and Iain explored a shop with models and other paraphernalia which seem to interest men. The market was very disappointing as it was primarily clothing rather than the food, arts and crafts which we had anticipated. 


We hit the road late morning. Our first stop was a village called Falset, where we found a lovely restaurant, Hostal Sport (www.hotel-hostalsport.com). For starters, we shared grilled asparagus with Romano sauce, similar to what Peter and I had eaten in Gracia. Yummo!  It was quite cool and I had my heart set on a veggie and bean dish.  Not only did I get my beans and veggie but three large slices of blood sausage! I managed half a slice and decided it wasn’t really my thing.  Helen and Iain had the same dish as me while Peter had the Spanish version of coq-au-vin. 

Lunch of beans, tomato (yummo) and blood sausage (?)

Iain patiently waiting for his lunch which the waiter failed  to include in our order

We all agreed that it was a very nice lunch indeed.

Back on the road we headed for Tortosa where Helen had booked a parador, which google describes as a high class Spanish hotel in castles, palaces etc.  It was quite spectacular. 

As we had a substantial lunch and none of us was overly hungry, we had a ‘left-over’ snack of cheese, tomato, olives, nuts, wine and sherry. Very simple and very pleasant. Iain and Peter had bought a little chopping board and knife in L’Escala for such occasions. The knife was the kind that had a hard plastic cover for the blade and Peter, Helen and Iain almost had heart attacks each time I removed the knife from it’s cover as they were sure I was going to cut myself.

The castle overlooked the city and the views were wonderful in day light but even more spectacular at night. A huge storm was building and the black and grey clouds seemed to scud past at balcony height at times, completely hiding the mountain tops.