homage to catalandia

stephen

stephen

Active Member
Staff member
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A brief report of our brief visit to Catalonia.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]First stop Castello d'Empuries. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A medieval village where we made base camp in a nice bed and breakfast built on the ruins of the former home of the Counts of Castello.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We stopped off in many historic little villages all around this area north of Girona, including Peralada,[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Besalu, [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]the last resort in Spain – Cadaqués,[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] and of course Figueres to see the Dali Museum.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our next hop took us over the French border to Perpignan. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It was just like Spain – Tapas, paellas, lots of seafood and Moroccans– but everyone (apart from me) spoke French.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Then we travelled through miles and miles of wine growing country, Corbieres, Minervois to Limoux which is the place that developed the original Brut 'Champagne' known as Blanquette. We stayed in a Chateau [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]that once belonged to one of Napoleon's cronies and toured the area, full of Cathar castles, [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]and the Cité of Carcassonne [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]and Canal du Midi.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The final trip was the long drive back to Barcelona (i stopped off in Lloret de Mar the first place I ever visited in Spain 30 years ago on the way) to drop off the car and moved into our apartment accommodation.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We did all the tourist things, Sagrada Familia, [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Parc Guell, [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]etc etc and spent 6 hours in the MNAC art gallery. We ate and drank lots. Found a nice little bistro – Crema Canela – by the Placa Real and really had fun in El Gran Cafe, Avinyó 9, great food and a maitre D with a sense of humour.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]And that was that.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]High points – French roads, wines and toilet paper.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Low points – French drivers, toilets and petrol prices.[/FONT]
 
Looks like a fascinating trip, Stephen.

Any chance you could make the photos a little bit bigger?
 
they're here

http://members6.clubphoto.com/stephen420924/5384378/guest.phtml

click and they enlarge

i've got to say that Cadaqués was a fabulous place. quaint like a Cornish fishing village but with a laid back spanish atmosphere. dali lived there and many of his arty mates - federico garcia lorca and man ray for example - visited him there.

he hung out at l'hostal jazz bar and used to take the likes of mick jagger along for jam sessions. i'd really like to go back there to sample the summer time atmosphere and the best local boozer, the casino, i've been in in ages!
 
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