South into Spain - Happy Birthday

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Thursday 21st October 2010 - Trafalgar Day

Agde ( France ) to Sant Pere Pescador ( Spain ) a drive south through the wine growing country of the south of France. Villages with names familiar on supermarket shelves at home - Corbieres and Fitou . In addition to the normal wine, olive oil etc. on sale direct to the public other services were widely on offer which appeared oddly out of place amongst the vine lined route. Passing through one village we were invited by a large sign to visit the Cave de Clappe ( I kid you not ) but decided to decline not knowing what we might find or catch !
Arrival in Spain was through the busy French border town of Le Perthus which appeared to be doing a lot of trade in French goods. Thirty clicks south at Figueres we turned east towards the Golf de Roses and to our camp site by the beach. Roses is the home to the best restaurant in the world El Bulli - booked up a year in advance so dinner tonight was in the busy site restaurant and very good it was too - washed down with a decent Rioja. Not a bad way to end your 45th birthday
( oops typo ? ).




Friday 22nd October 2010

Last day of the half term and a maths test for the eager students ( sic ).
In the afternoon we visited the remarkable remains of the Greek / Roman city at Empuries just a few miles down the coast. The Greeks settled here around the sixth century BC. The name of Empúries comes from the Greek "Emporion" ( market square ) and thus indicates clearly the purpose of the city. At the time, it was located favourably at the mouth of the Fluvia river and near the junction of various trade routes. The natural harbour also offered protection to merchant ships. In the third century BC the city passed into the hands of the Romans and it was renamed Emporiae. This marked the beginning of the Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula. Later, Empúries lost its importance, in the third century AD, the city was totally abandoned.
Only about 25% of the site has been excavated so far however what has been uncovered is quite remarkable including a superb marble statue and numeroud mosaics.
Friday night is movie night at this campsite with tonight’s movie being ‘Shrek2’.
On arrival in the bar however we realised that as all the children assembled were German there could be a problem for B&J, however once the technology was mastered everybody was happy sound in german, subtitles in english, adults sat having drinks at the bar.

Saturday 23rd October 2010

Today we headed for Figures birthplace of Salvador Dali and home to his wacky museum of art.

The Dalí Theatre-Museum is the largest surrealistic object in the world.
Inaugurated in 1974 it was built upon the remains of the former Figueres theatre. It contains the broadest range of works spanning the artistic career of Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), from his earliest artistic experiences and his surrealist creations down to the works of the last years of his life. Some works were created expressly for the Theatre-Museum - Mae West Room, the Wind Palace Room, the Monument to Francesc Pujols and the Rainy Cadillac - all quite zany and off the wall from my point of view but hey if they say its art….. The boys loved it and we had a very enjoyable visit so I guess that’s the point.

After a late lunch we hit the beach and campsite playground - time to chill.

Sunday 24th October 2010

Morning domestics, diaries, blogs and skype catching up on things and people.
Afternoon - beach time - badminton with small pine cones as the shuttle was useless in the breeze !

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Comments

[Anne & Paul]

Belated Happy Birthday!
Hi Sorry we missed your birthday - hope you are enjoying your culinary, sorry, educational tour. Have you put on any weight yet? There seems to be so many tempting foods wherever you go - I think I would be the size of a small house by the time I returned to UK. I went to visit the Dali museum with Paul's sister Chris and found it fascintating but a bit disturbing. Perhaps that is the response he wanted. Keep sending the blogs - they are very entertaining and great fun. We are with you in spirit if not physically!. I know it is the boys birthday soon - are you planning a particular venue for their day? If I can't get a card to you then I will send them an e-mail message. You sound to be finding just thr right balance between work and play for them. Glad to hear you managed to find fuel - we were worried in case you got stranded somewhere. Life here goes on as usual. Lindsay is now 29 weeks pregnant and has just found out that she has become diabetic. Seemingly it happens to about 9-10% of pregnant women and with a few alterations to her diet she and the baby should be fine. Simon is working hard and gradually making progress in his business. Paul and I went away to LIncolnshire to visit family earlier this week. and surprisingly found some lovely places to visit. So it isn;t all flat cabbage fields after all! I'm still off work - the doctor has now confirmed it is work-related stress. I feel such a wuss but work has taken over my life so much in the last couple of years that I need somehow to restore the balance. Haven't seen Auntie Marjorie for a couple of weeks. I will organise picking her up sometime this week to update her on your exploits. Maybe we could Skype while she is here - she wouldn;t be able to believe that! How do I add you to my contacts list? Anyway enough garble. Carry on enjoying yourselves (must be a film in there somewhere!) Lots of love to you all Anne x

[David Curtis]

Figueres
Great pics from the Dali Museum. Went there many years ago and loved the place. He's probably best known for his surrealism but there are some superb 'Conventional' works there too. Belated Happy Birthday too, the trip is clearly doing you some good - you don't look a day over 45!! All the best to Max and the boys. Dave