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Marg at the beach in
El Port de la Selva, Spain
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After a great trip around the French Riviera, we
are now driving into Spain in our motorhome, Vanni, heading for Barcelona via El Port de la Selva.
Crossing the border from
France into Spain was seamless, as there were only old faded signs proclaiming
it was the border.
In Spain, we wound our way around the beautiful
Costa Brava through quaint, small fishing villages to El Port. As this was our first real stop in Spain, we stayed
for lunch and had great seafood paella and a local wine in a seaside
restaurant.
We then moved on via a lovely but scary, winding
road through a national park to Cadaques, a lovely fishing town that curves around a pretty bay.
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| Leigh in Cadaques, Spain |
In Cadaques, we spent some time walking around, then climbed to the church at the top of the town. The view over the orange rooftops of the village and the sea, was beautiful.
It has been made famous by visits and drawings done
by Picasso and Dali, who were attracted to the excellent light in this part of
Spain.
Our next stop was Figueres, the birthplace of
Salvador Dali.
There are a lot of monuments to him there and we wanted to see what has been called, the largest surrealistic object in the world, the Salvador Dali Theatre-Museum.
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| Marg at the Salvador Dali Museum, Figueres, Spain |
The Dali museum looked amazing from the outside but
unfortunately, we arrived too late to visit the inside to see his artworks.
It had been a long day so we decided to stay
locally, and programmed our Samsung phone, with the help of the wonderful
McDonalds free wifi, to take us to a Figueres campsite we had read about.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be miles away, in a
seemingly isolated farm area called Sant Piere Pescador.
However, after going
through a few very tight turns in a village, we found it right on the beach
overlooking the Bay of Roses, on the Mediterranean – a lovely reward after a
tricky drive.
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| Besalu Bridge, Spain |
Before we headed off into the hills the next day, a
woman at the camp reception recommended we visit Besalu. We did and found it to
be a gorgeous old medieval town on a the Fluvià river.
As it was early on a Sunday, we managed to find
great parking for Vanni. Then we wandered over a wonderful 12th century
Romanesque Bridge and gateway, into the wee town.
What a find. This cobbled, arcaded, ancient, and
interesting old town is full of stone buildings that just ooze history. It
might be a small place (Pop. 2400), but its attractiveness outweighs its size.
Leaving there, we decided to drive further inland.
Shortly after, we found the biggish town of Olot.
Then, looping back toward the coast again, less than 30 minutes later we arrived in the village of Sant Pau, reached by two bridges, and built out of volcanic stone from the many dormant volcanoes in the area.
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| Marg in Sant Pau, Spain |
Then, looping back toward the coast again, less than 30 minutes later we arrived in the village of Sant Pau, reached by two bridges, and built out of volcanic stone from the many dormant volcanoes in the area.
Sant Pau is a beautifully preserved medieval village
perched on a hilltop. Apparently, the village grew out of a 12th century castle
that still dominates the town centre.
We then went through the modern town of Banyoles
with its pretty lake, to Girona.
We found great parking in Girona, just on the
fringe, with an easy walk into the city.
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| Leigh in Girona, Spain |
We focused on the old town which is one of the
more fascinating that we’ve been to, having narrow cobbled streets overlooked
by 5 and 6 storied ancient buildings, with wrought iron verandas.
We walked through the interesting Jewish quarter, supposedly
one of the best preserved in Europe.
It is very vibrant, with a huge array of cafes and
restaurants, each being quite individualistic. We had a coffee/coke in a jazz
cafe that had 2nd-hand furniture from the 30’s. The whole city was really
buzzy.
Then we navigated further south to find our next
stop, Camping Barcelona, about 30 kms north of Barcelona city.
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| Barcelona, Spain |
This camp provided a free bus service to both
Barcelona and the neighbouring old small town of Mataró, which we made good use
of.
The free bus dropped us in the Placa de Catalunya in
Barcelona, a wonderfully central spot from which to explore the amazing old
parts of the city with its narrow winding streets, and wonderful architecture.
The famous modernist architect, Antoni Gaudi, spent
most of his time in Barcelona, and we made a point of seeing some of his famous
Art Nouveau architecture.
It was so interesting; we just loved his works and several are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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Gaudi's Casa Milá (UNESCO), Barcelona, Spain
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We particularly loved Casa Milá (also known as La Pedrera), built between 1906 and 1912 it is now one of his most famous buildings.
We also loved the Palau de la Musica for its
difference and colours, and La Casa Batlló, for its blue lake-like look.
Barcelona was founded as a Roman city in the middle ages, and in the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter) there are many buildings that date from medieval and Roman times, so plenty to see.
It is also very clean and green with so many parks and street trees, and it is architecturally amazing, and so vibrant - we loved it!
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| Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain |
Construction on this church began in 1892 and it’s not expected to be completed until 2026, to commemorate the centenary of his death.
We loved its gravity defying architecture, inside and out.
Then we walked for hours and saw so many wonderful
sights.
The weather was much hotter, and we were pleased that we'd coped in the 35 degree heat.
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Plaza de Toros,
Barcelona, Spain
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Other favourite places we visited were the beautiful Plaza de Toros, the interesting Picasso Museum, the pedestrian-only La Ramblas, and the market.
Back at the campsite, we'd met 2 ex-Kiwi's turned Aussies, Lyndel and Paul from the Gold Coast, and spent an enjoyable night tasting wine from the Stiges area.
In a fun night, put on by the camp for
guests, we tasted 5 of the wines, and then had a meal at the café with more wine, then sangria, finished off with complementary ouzo. The next day we made a very quiet start!!!
In the afternoon, we caught the camp bus to nearby Mataró to explore.
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| Marg on her new electric bike, Barcelona, Spain |
This is a nice town but what really excited us was a bike shop which had 2nd hand electric bikes.
We had been pricing them throughout our travels, and these were the best price we had seen, so we purchased one each.
They are not too heavy, and motor along at a great speed (although, not speedy enough for Leigh who would prefer a motorbike!).
The next challenge was getting them on Vanni’s bike rack. Easier said than done
as we discovered, because we didn’t have enough ties etc. However, with the
help of a friendly Danish guy, we managed to tie them securely.
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| Marg in Mataró |
We stayed in Barcelona a lot longer than planned, and over that time, made several trips into Mataró and Barcelona centre.
What kept us there, was our GPS system. We'd experienced a major problem with the SD card in our GPS, and had to wait
for a new one from Germany.
After a week, we were excited to hear it had arrived at the Barcelona postal depot late Friday
night. But were then told there were no deliveries on the weekend.
It was eventually delivered on the Monday, so
after saying goodbye to Lyndel and Paul who were heading north, we
headed south.
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| Marg in pretty Stiges, Spain |
Our next stop was Stiges. We found Stiges to be quite touristy but lovely, with narrow cobbled streets, attractive houses, and many beautiful beaches. It was like finding a well-kept secret.
Stiges has a history stretching beyond the 4th century, and we enjoyed strolling around its historic centre.
There were some wonderful museums in Stiges. We particularly loved the Palau Maricel Museum, with its brightly painted and tiled rooms, showing the works of El Greco, Vicente Lopez, Viladomat, Goya and others.
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| The Roman Amphitheatre and beach at Tarragona, Spain |
Leaving Stiges, our next stop was Tarragona. There are some amazing Roman ruins that are showcased throughout the city, and, rather than being fenced off, they are part of everyday living in Tarragona.
We enjoyed visiting the them, especially the Roman Amphitheatre on the beachfront. We also liked Tarragona's impressive cathedral.
The town is very pretty, with lots of bougainvillea on wire fences,
forming walls of solid scarlet against a brilliantly blue sky.
As with this whole coast, it has a stunning a beach, with wide swathes
of golden sand beside the Mediterranean Sea.
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| Anniversary dinner, Tarragona, Spain |
Tarragona is known for its seafood, and as it was our anniversary, we
treated ourselves to a lovely seafood lunch at a nearby restaurant by the
beach. We had baby clams in white wine sauce and it was absolutely delicious.
While in Tarragona we visited a camping shop to buy a cover for the
electric bikes we had recently purchased in Barcelona.
They did not have what
we wanted, but the very lovely guy there advised us of another shop, but it was in Zaragoza.
He phoned ahead to ensure that they had one in stock – a very helpful man,
and all done without him speaking any English, or us speaking any Spanish.
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| Leigh in Montblanc, Spain |
After our lovely time around the coast, we decided to drive inland. Within a short 30 minutes, we came across beautiful Montblanc.
This is a
lovely medieval town that stands within a ring of fortified walls with 31
towers, dating back to 1366.
We found parking very easily and walked through one of the city
portals, which happened to be right where the Knight Saint George slayed a
dragon.
It is such an atmospheric place, with history oozing from the town's sturdy stone walls.
Time to move on though, and our next stop will be Zaragoza, in central Spain.
This blog describes
part of our 6 month motorhome trip around western Europe, which began in
Prague.