Spain - Costa Brava

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Hi all,

Wednesday 23rd March
Leaving Vilanova i La Geltru and the Costa Dorada behind we hit the road and travelled first along the short coast of the Costa del Garraf then straight through the middle of Barcelona. We then joined the coast road along another small costa, the Costa del Maresme (no I'd never heard of them both either) which took us through the resorts of Calella and Malgrat de Mar before we arrived at Blanes.

Blanes is quite a big resort with 2 nice beaches and a nice town centre and looked like it would be busy in the summer months. We stayed here for 3 days, for the first 2 we explored the area on bike, cycling along the prom and around the town.

On our 3rd day we jumped on the local bus to visit two very different resorts. First to Tossa de Mar, the lovely bus ride takes you along a very picturesque stretch of coast, winding it's way around almost hairpin bends which look down to the villages and rocks below before you drop down into the town. Tossa de Mar is a very chic resort, with it's medieval fort at the end of it's main bay, fine restaurants along the front and designer clothes and jewellery boutiques dotted around the old town, it has a sophisticated chilled out feel.

Later that day we caught the bus to Lloret de Mar. Lloret on the other hand is very brash, very much in the Benidorm style, but it has smartened up a lot since 1975 when I first visited and has something for everyone. We spent a few hours here, walking along the prom and into town before the short trip back.

Saturday 26th March, we left Blanes along the same stretch of road that took us to Tossa, this time we carried on along the even more precarious route all the way to San Feliu de Guixols, this route is used by pro cyclist teams for their winter training as it's very hilly with tight bends, it is also a favourite among motor cyclists as a must ride route. Into Santa Christina D'Aro for our next stop, the camp site catered really for the Spanish so we decided that one night would be enough for us to cycle into Playa D'Aro, have a look at the beach and town, which we did and then leave the next morning. It's your typical seaside town with a busy main street.

Sunday, clocks have gone forward so it will now be light until 8:30pm, summers on it's way thank god, winters been terrible, it rained 5 times!!

Onwards to our next site but first we stopped off at another old holiday resort Palamos (summer '81 more happy days). We pulled up and parked next to the beach, there was a local sea rowing competition going on so we had lunch and watched as the 10 ladies teams held their event in pretty rough waters. Off again we headed inland and up through the Emporda region of Catalunya and into L'Estartit.

L'Estartit is a popular holiday resort in the summer but at this time of year it was still very quiet, we cycled into town and did a bit of shopping one day, the next day we stayed on site and whilst I washed all of the bedding and the full van exterior the kids busied themselves with table tennis, the indoor pool and reading (we've all read a lot on this trip). We spent 3 nights here in all on a very nice little camp site (Les Medes) which sits at the foot of Torroella de Montgri. Although there were lots of Germans around they were all friendly so lots of gutten morgans each day.

Wedenesday 30th March. Heading just a little further up the Costa Brava and into the most northerly of Spain's resort areas we arrived on the Golfo de Roses at San Pere Pescador and camping Aquarius.
This coastal area is the first you reach when crossing the France/Spain border heading south from Perpignan. The Golfo de Roses is an arching sandy bay that was first inhabited by the Greeks some 3000 years ago, then the Romans followed during the reign of Emperor Augustus and it continued to be an important trading post. From Roses in the north the bay runs south through Empuriabrava, onto Sant Pere de Pescador, through Empuries and onto L'Escala.

Our first 2 days were spent on the site and on the beach which was just 100 metres from the van, we even went in the water again although it's at it's coldest this time of year. This bay is also a popular kite surfing spot very much like Tarifa and the site had lots of locals at the wknd turning up to kite surf.

On the Saturday we set off on a big cycle. First we went to San Pere village, then headed north to Empuriabrava. En route we came across a national park called Dels Aiguamols de L'Emporda. The cycle track went right through the middle of the park and along it's route were many hides. Stopping at each of the hides we looked across the wetlands to see lapwings, a purple heron, many other birds and a group of deer grazing by the waters edge. Continuing through the park we passed cattle, sheep, horses and countless birds en route. Empuribrava is a place I'd never heard of until just before this trip, I was looking for places north of Barcelona to visit and read that this place is labelled the 'Venice of Spain'. The whole town is built on an old lagoon that used to be at the base of Castello d'Empuries. Like in Venice instead of roads access to most of the town is by canal with marinas dotted around, unlike Venice this place is very modern with nice villas and apartments around and each house has it's own mooring with some impressive speed boats attached. It was market day when we visited and all the stalls were selling tat and more tat so leaving that behind we cycled around the town, had some lunch and a game of mini golf and sat on the seafront taking in the views and the sunshine.
The route back was through the park again but this time we took a slightly different route to take in more wetlands. On what looked like a straight track ahead Harry was off cycling at speed up in front, suddenly he disappeared, he'd not noticed the danger sign and went right over a ridge head first into a deep boggy stream, first of all he was lucky and fortunately ok but he was soaked, covered in weed and his bike was submerged, so me and Dan pulled him out and after a good laugh at him we dried him off and back to site we went. A good 25km and 8 hours later we collapsed into the van to rest and Harry went for a much needed shower.

Sunday was a rest day sat sunbathing so on Monday we set of walking south along the beach towards L'Escala. En route we took a look at the Greek and Roman ruins at Empuries. The current village of Sant Marti D'Empuries is where the area was first inhabited back in the bronze age (9th century BC). The following 1200 years saw the Greeks and then the Romans populate this stretch of coast. On and into L'Escala we found a nice resort town where we sat and ate huge ice creams on the sea front before taking the long walk back.

Tuesday 5th April. Time to leave this site that we'd all liked and head inland. We planned on visiting the town of Figueres and in particular the museum of Salvador Dali. Like most of my planned museum visits this never happened either as there wasn't a parking area for motor-homes in the town so we gave up (I will get at least one in don't worry). The one nice thing about the slight detour tp Fugueres was that on this clear blue sky day the high snow covered peaks of the Pyrenees were clearly visible and made a scenic back drop to the drive south. Into the Pyrenees foothills and through the very strange Spanish frontier town of La Jonquera. It is the last stop to buy anything Spanish and even the road side girls were looking for some final business (did I mention that these ladies can be found plying their trade on the main roads all over Spain? They even take chairs to sit on when it's a rough day and looking at some of them there's a lot of rough days!!).

So we are leaving the Costa Brava and leaving Spain, lovely country, miserable people (mainly). After 6 months on the Iberian peninsula it's time to cross back into France and start the final third of our journey.

Adios y hasta luego Espana.

Until the next time, take care all.

Neil Dan & Harry
x

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Photos

Tossa de Mar
The streets around the castle