Category Archives: Spain

France day 13 – L’Escala

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The morning was bright and sunny.  The forecast for the day was sunny, until the evening when some rain was predicted. Showered, then broke our fast, and headed off to the coast.  Our aim was to view a residence R’s cousin Agnes had bought in L’Escala. To make the trip more exciting, we headed of east towards the coast at Sant Jordi. A newish town with a multitude of new build Spanish flats for the tourists. Not our scene at all. Driving there was a bit up and downy as this part of the coast has high hills.  It also seemed every cyclist in Spain was out riding.  The first group was a women’s group spread out over several miles.

We headed south down the coast to El Port de la Selva at which point we headed inland and climbed up over the headland, almost reaching the height of an astronomical observatory.  On this climbing and twisty road, the Spanish cyclists appeared to be practising their hill climbs and descents.  I aimed not to fall over the precipitous edges of the roads or force cyclists over the edge. With the braking I hoped the discs would hold out, at MOT time it had been recommended that they be changed. But I want to consult our normal motor mechanic, not a VW dealership. We eventually dropped to the plain and followed the bay of Gulf of Roses around to L’Escala.

Agnes holiday home and project

Arriving we headed down some imposingly narrow lanes, past Agnes’s house and to a car park where I grabbed the last space. Parking was free, a better deal than the Dali museum. Lunch beckoned, and we tried the French eatery, Restaurant La Gruta to find it was booked solid today, either that or we looked scruffy and they didn’t want us there, it seemed empty so looked like the second option.  So, around the block we tried Restaurant La Taglistella.  Nice restaurant, lovely entrees and then pasta main course.  You chose the sauce, and the pasta you wanted.  We left, the restaurant seemed busy and yes, the French restaurant was full, so maybe we were not refused for being unwelcome diners.

We viewed Agnes’s holiday home and tried to work out what she bought.  It is an old traditional building in L’Escala. Her home was on a corner of two extremely narrow streets, (All the streets in L’Escala were narrow, built before motor cars).  There is a tremendous amount of work needed to the house, (at least from the external appearance).  Inside I have now seen that it has a spectacular arched brick ceiling

After lunch we checked out the main beach harbour area.  There seemed to be music playing, paella being cooked and tables laid out across the beach.  Sat and watched for a while, listening to the man testing the speakers saying ‘Si, Si, Si’ over and over mixed with clonks and bangs.  No entertainment emanated from these speakers, but the other Saturday beach meal further across the little bay was in full progress with Spanish singing.   I did get excited when a rock riff was played, but alas nothing came of it.

We decided to walk on down to the marina and admire a few yachts, decided it was too far and headed back to the car.  As we drove off the heavens opened, there was thunder and lightning, very very frightening.  The roads were flooded.  It was local because the North of the bay was still sunny.  When we came back to the road leading to the campsite turnoff, the girls were out in force for the Saturday afternoon clients.  It had not rained here at all.  Later after supper rain started but eventually dried up by midnight.  

France day 12 – Dali Museum

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Like many campsites, this one had visiting dogs with their owners. Therefore Rosemary was not surprised when a neighbour came out of his caravan and walked off with a lead. But when he came back, R saw not a dog attached to the lead but a cat, possibly a Norwegian Forest cat, ie yards of gorgeous tabby. She shot out of our van & spoke to the owner and so got to stroke said cat. There were also a couple of campsite cats. There were notices in the men’s toilet block asking you not to feed them. R said there were no such notices in the ladies. Odd.

As it was wet, raining on and off all day long, it was an ideal day for museums, Lovely sunset though. We had come to Spain to visit the Museu de la Tecnica de l’Emporda.  This museum was rumoured to have a wonderful collection of typewriters, sewing machines, clocks, telephones and other mechanical stuff from the late 19th to 20th century.  It did not open until 4pm, so we elected to visit the Dali Theatre-Museum first.  We parked in a multistorey car-park close by.  Looked a lovely car-park, we were expecting high price to park, especially as we could see no published prices.  Yes, it was expensive, more than 20 Euros.  The spaces though were large for Van the Van, and undercover, so not much chance of damage or thieving.

The Dali Museum was superb. We also learnt Dali designed jewellery which was quite exquisite. 

Today we broke for lunch and ate a meal in a local restaurant, sitting outside under the umbrellas.  I was decidedly cold.  Steak and chips for me, while Rosemary had some veggie type burger.

Still we some time on our hands and visited another museum of stuff, mainly paintings and artefacts from the area.  Mainly Catalan.  They did have one Dali painting and a few others from the ‘30s which were definitely by artists trying to jump on the Dali bandwagon.  Not a particularly interesting museum, filled in some time, and had some loos.

Now to the typewriter museum.  Two elderly staff, one woman and a man.  A cheap museum to visit.  There were no other visitors other than us two.  We were shown around by the woman, who said she could do a tour in French or Spanish, so we chose French and got a gist of what she was saying.  First was a whole floor of typewriters, from ones where you select the character and then press the key.  There were typewriters from all over the world, Chinese, Japanese, American, French, Spanish and English, typewriters hidden in tables, typewriters designed for the war correspondent.

Downstairs there were sewing machines, again hundreds of different models. 

The final floor was more mixed with lots of items covering life, bicycles, irons, radios, cameras, etc.

No chance to wander around on our own or take photos.

Now we were on our way back to the campsite, the weather was improving with some brightness over the mountains.  This showed up the snow which must have fallen during the day.  Our signpost off the N-II was not there, either too cold, or she was busy.   Back at the site, beer, food and bed.  The wind was gone, the rain had stopped. Rosemary somehow managed to collide with one of the campsite cats. The site is busy today, the weather for the weekend, and tomorrow bodes well. 

France day 11 – Spain

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The rain was coming so, we quickly packed up the awning before it got too wet.  Packed away the van and set off to Spain.  The route avoided tolls and took us along some beautiful scenery, around some tight hairpin bends and even a place where the road looped over itself.  Some of the villages we passed through had the narrowest streets I have come across, and two-way.  Luckily not much traffic passed through them. When I am home I must have my brakes replaced, they must be worn out now with all the twisty downhill mountain roads.

The last part of the trip was so enticingly close to  the A9 as we battled up and down hills to the border of Spain crossing at Le Perthus.  In Spain we stopped at the first supermarket which was taken over mainly by alcohol.  Ricard being sold in 4 litre bottles, and also in boxes of 6.  This was not for the Brits, but for the French who come over and stock up on cheap alcohol.  There was not much food.   We should have kept on a little while longer for the classier supermarkets.

Our destination was Capmany, only a few minutes into Spain.  We soon passed a few ‘Night Clubs’ presumably doing good business with French customers coming over the border.  We turned off the N-II to Capmany signposted by a nearly naked woman dancing & soliciting at the junction.

After a few wrong turns we arrived at the campsite, did not erect the awning due to 50K winds which were blowing over the site.  They had been blowing all day, and the van had been buffeted a little in the open plains. Shortly after arrival the rain arrived.  Supper and bed.