Category: Catalanya

Cadaques

Post by Charlie: Cadaques was my favorite place on this trip. It is picturesque to the max.

Everything is perfect. It is on this peninsula along the Costa Brava above Barcelona about half the way to France. It is only accessible by bus over a narrow two-lane, windy mountain road so it is pretty isolated. As the guide books say, it has managed to retain its charm. The town is all white and situated on a beautiful bay with boats moored in it. There was a perfect, small sailboat moored there the whole time. We thought maybe the Cadaques chamber of commerce owned it and just kept it there for show. It did add charm to the bay.

No real local fishing is done here any more, of course, although the locals come out with rod and reel and fish the bay from the shore.

You can walk along both sides of the bay and it is rocky and amazingly beautiful on both sides. One side has a little island that you could go out to on a little bridge and it was so charming and pretty you could hardly believe it.

And one end of the little island was a sea monster of some sort:

The bridge did have a barrier and a sign from the local police saying something along the lines of “forbidden” in Catalan but everyone, including us, just ignored that and crossed over and walked around the island anyway.

The city itself has the requisite winding little lanes and is also picturesque to a fault. The local building material is this flat stone that makes up all the walls and (do I repeat myself?) is picturesque.

Out hotel was on one side of the old town, on the water. Our room had “no view” as they said when we reserved it, but it had a little balcony with a table that looked out over some nearby gardens. We had breakfast on it every day, and sangria in the evenings and it was great.

 

Paella and Sangria

Paella and sangria seem to be the main food and drink associated with Spain. In Barcelona, the Ramblas is probably the most touristy place in all of Spain. A big wide boulevard with cafes, stalls, human statues, etc. You walk down and every place offers paella on these signs that are all the same. You see people sitting at the cafes with large goblets of sangria.

I guess I am a bit of a tourist snob because I continue to be amazed that people would sit at a cafe along the Ramblas and order sangria and paella. You know they are going to be overpriced and of dubious quality.

We did, ourselves, order sangria at a tapas cafe in Toledo and it was pretty good actually. In another tapas bar ordered English cider. I don’t know where that places me.

In Cadaques we got some cheap sangria at a supermarket, which, by the way, are not that big in Spanish cities. A bit outside the cities they have supermarkets like we are used to. Anyway, we bought some oranges and plums and cut them up into little pieces and made sangria in our room a couple of nights and it was very nice.

We finally had some paella in the market in Madrid. We are less interested in rice dishes these days so that was an issue. We were sitting at the market and this young English couple was sitting across from us having paella and we got to talking. They said it was good so we had it the next night. It was pretty good, not great.

This English couple were very nice, we chatted a while. There were from outside London and in Madrid for four days. I think they said the round trip air fare was about 40 pounds (about $65 I think). They came for some nice weather. It was clear but pretty cold yesterday in Madrid so they were a bit disappointed.

Differences in ideas of personal responsibility

Post by Wynette the day after we got back: This blog has some stunning photos of Spain: Photos from Spain by Mike Randolph

This photo from his blog, posted on March 17, 2012, has the following caption:

Definitely not in Kansas anymore: A pathway along the Noguera Ribagorzana river, which separates Aragon and Catalunya in northern Spain, has no guardrails and no wire banister to hang on to. A single small sign at the trailhead tells hikers to watch their step, highlighting the difference between between Spain and places like the United States when it comes to ideas of personal responsibility.

Reminded me of the scary stairs down to the water that we saw, our photos posted April 12 and 17  with comment that I’m pretty sure in the States they’d be railed off and marked “Danger”.

I just realized, I don’t remember seeing a single sign with the word Peligrosa (Dangerous), but did see a number of things that would have been marked as such in the States.

Cadaques catch up

Post by Wynette: I know we are confusing people by jumping back and forth from place to place, out of order from how we visited them.  But, I have a few more pictures I wanted to post from Cadaques even though we are now in Madrid.

I loved these strangely pruned trees (they were all over the place):

We found a restaurant at the Hotel Rocamar named Sa Conca that we ate at twice because the food was so good.  It was a long walk to the restaurant as the hotel was on the far end of town.  This picture was taken on the walk back from the restaurant our last day in Cadaques:

And here is one dish we ate there, both visits.  Fresh peas with ham:

I eat, I sleep, I suffer

Post by Wynette: For the past year, I’ve been studying Spanish and found a great podcast/website that provides listening practice:  notesinspanish.com

It is done by a delightful young couple who live here in Madrid.  Ben is originally from England and Marina is from Madrid. In one of their conversations for listening practice they mention how people in Spain like to complain. (Charlie and I have been trying to write a song about that, maybe fitting in the word “plain” somewhere, but haven’t come up with much yet.)

When we were in Cadaques we found a little bar that served great coffee so we went there several times.  On one visit the woman behind the counter greeted us with a warm hola, took our order for dos cafe con leche, served us our coffee, then carried on her conversation with the only other person in the bar.  She was talking loudly in the small room so I was getting in some good listening practice.  I heard her say “Como, duermo, y … nada mas”.  I think she was saying, “I eat, I sleep, and nothing else.”  Then I heard her say “Yo sufro”, which means, “I suffer”.  Too bad I didn’t get many of the details.  I was thinking she might have been talking with her boss.  I hope she was just complaining and didn’t really live such a terrible life.

 

Stairways to the water

Post by Wynette: We are spending 4 days in a little village on the Mediterranean, Cadaques. Several places along the shore here we’ve found steps that go down to the water. Most look scary. I’m pretty sure in the States they’d be railed off and marked “Danger”. Or at least would be a good plot device in a Jane Austen novel. But, today we found one that didn’t look too bad. Charlie decided to check them out.  Here he is on his way down:

And at the bottom:

And with the camera zoom on:

Walking along the bay

Post by Charlie: Cadaques was made famous by Dali and other artists hanging out here. We are going to see his house across the peninsula tomorrow. Here they frame the picture of Cadaques for you, in true Dali fashion:

and I got friendly with the locals:

This house is on a little island, pretty cool, but I see some logistical issues:

On the way back we take a picture of a woman taking a picture of the frame. Maybe not surreal but recursive at least:

Almost back

to our hotel:

On the bus

Cadaques is in a peninsula and you have to take this winding, narrow road over the mountains to get there. I was glad I was not driving the bus. This is looking back at Roses, on the road to Cadaques:

This is the narrow road.

and this is coming down from the mountains into Cadaques:

Cadaques is very pretty

The weather is partly cloudy but often quite windy. We might be spending time in our hotel public rooms watching the bay.

It clears up on and off: