Break to Spain

One of the reasons we bought here in Céret was the ease of getting to Spain. We also had a home exchange just inland from Sitges up our sleeve. On Thursday we jumped in the car (still without our new plates or carte grise/rego papers), took off up the Tech valley over the Pyrenees, and descended into Spain.

Our first stop was necessitated by coffee, so we pulled over at Mollo, just over the border. Coffee was good, and only €1 flat. Spain is definitely cheaper than France. Mollo wasn't anything special, so we stopped at Camprodon. It turned out to be a really nice town, full of huge and ornate houses around the outskirts, and a nice busy main street.

Camprodon main street

Ripoll was the next stop on the way south. Being lunchtime (i.e. nearing 2pm, this being Spain) we had a pleasant, cheap but rather ordinary meal in the middle of Ripoll before having a bit of a look around. From Ripoll it was an easy run to approach Sitges from the west. As we were well earlier than our intended arrival time, we had a look at Villafranca del Penedes first, and then headed down to the coast at Sitges itself for a look. Sitges has long been Spain's gay capital. It's bright, has half a dozen good beaches, plenty of bars and eateries, and as you'd expect is full of gay couples of all shapes, sizes and ages. Having got our bearings, we headed up into the hills to our exchange house.

Sitges Beachfront

Alberto and Vanessa stayed with us at New Year, and we had a self-contained studio in their new house in the hills. It's a square, black and white "designer" home, full of designer objects from their travels. They've done over 30 home exchanges around the world! The only downside was a pair of yapping chihuahuas, which were nice enough, just noisy. They (Alberto and Vanessa, not the dogs) made us very welcome.

The following day we spent exploring a number of villages in the area (Canyelles, Sant Pere de Ribes) ending up at Gaudi's Garraf slightly further up the coast. We had a wonderful time, wandering around and admiring the various castles, bridges, churches and other old structures. We had a delicious Catalan meal at one of the restaurants in S P de R. All the locals were there so we figured it was a good bet. We weren't disappointed. The three course menu of the day, including a glass of wine (which turned out to be a 500ml bottle!) and bread cost the grand sum of €9.50 each. There is no doubt about it, the price of food and drink in Spain is definitely cheaper than in France, and France is definitely cheaper than NZ. 

Mansion outside Sant Pere de Ribes

Garraf Beach

Garraf was notable for a lovely winery Gaudi designed for his major sponsors the Guell family, unfortunately now a restaurant and closed, and therefore inaccessible.

We were fairly weary when we got home and I was determined to get a few laps in of the 12m pool that beckoned out on the deck. Vanessa assured me that it was far too cold but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. Well, to be blunt, it was bloody freezing. I only managed to get in as far as my waist and then gave up. I imagine the temperature must have been something like 15 degrees. It was so disappointing not to be able to swim and drape ourselves on the loungers on the terrace but it wasn't to be.

However I hit Alberto's weights room the next morning. He is a serious fitness fanatic. I had a fun hour playing around with his toys, but I must admit that most of the weights were far too heavy and I daren't even try and change the setups he had on some of his machines. It was fun though. John relaxed by playing around with the different channels on the 50" TV in our apartment. 

So, after a relaxed start to the next day we headed to the beach at Sitges. We'd planned to have a lazy day in the sun and sea. Unfortunately the sun decided to play hide-and-seek behind clouds most of the day so we had to give that away. Instead, we 'made do' with having the odd coffee and beer and watching the world go by and a long lunch, followed by a walk around the old part of town. Because the shops are closed in Spain from around noon to 5pm, there was very little opportunity to shop, much to John's relief. It was a very enjoyable cruisy day - not something we do very often when we are off on a tiki-tour. We made ourselves a salad meal back at Alberto's and then joined for him a nice long chat. Vanessa had already departed for a school reunion dinner in Barcelona.

Lovely window detail at Sitges

We left early the next day, well, 9am-ish. That's pretty good for us. A straight trip through to Gerona, where everyone has been telling us we must visit. We weren't sure what to expect but instead of a coffee stop, we ended up staying there for four hours. It has a seriously old town centre, complete with town walls which you can walk around to get great views. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We finally got away from Gerona at about 4pm and drove straight to La Jonquera at the Spanish/French border. We knew all the supermarkets would be open here (though not anywhere else in Spain on a Sunday) and stocked up on necessities - all at very cheap prices. On a few more kilometres and we stocked up on fruit and veges. Oops, did I forget to mention the odd bottle or three of wine that also snuck into the boot. (Quite a few more than three actually!)

Home and multiple loads between the carpark and our apartment carrying all our purchases and flopped on the sofa. We had only been away for 4 days but it felt like a huge break, and a thoroughly enjoyable one at that. We liked Spain but are pleased we ended up buying in France. We prefer the sound of the French language to the more broken Spanish, politeness of the southern French (multiple greetings as you come and go in and out of shops for example), rather tidier state of their towns, cleanliness (dog poo excepted) and more healthy economy (e.g. half of the ticket machines in a Spanish parking building will be broken). It was interesting seeing the differences between the two countries/cultures and we are keen to travel through more of Spain, but we definitely feel very comfortable returning to Céret.