Holiday in L'Escala, Spain - 24th September - 8th October

Day 12 - Beautiful Pals

Last night, over dinner, we made the decision to leave L'Escala early and spend another night in France to break up the long journey. I didn't fancy an eight-hour drive to Amboise, so we looked at hotels around Cahors and found Le Troubadour, near the mediaeval town of Rocamadour, about four hours drive away. Driving, and staying in an Airbnb, gives you the freedom to do what you want, and the weather was looking a bit dubious for Thursday anyway!

Making the decision gave us a shorter time to get packed, but we wanted to go to Pals again today, to have a proper look around and enjoy lunch there. We left at about 10am and drove for about half an hour across the rural countryside. Pals stands out from the surrounding area as it's built on a hill with views over the plains to the sea.

We parked easily and made our way to the main square where we enjoyed coffees (Keith had a beer) from the friendly waiter.

The village is stunning, with gorgeous buildings at every turn and I can only imagine what it must be like to live here. Crowded and busy in the summer, I should imagine, but gorgeous to have all the beauty on your doorstep! We wandered about looking in the various shops and taking lots of photographs.

We picked out some gifts to take home - a lovely scarf and necklace for my Mum, a tee shirt for my Dad, gifts for Sophie's friends and some beautiful pottery. We made it right up to the tower at the top of the hill with outstanding views over to the sea. We could see big rocks in the sea, and I only wish we'd had time to explore more.

The church

Beautiful houses and artfully placed plants

After a lot of exploring, and up and down the steps, we met up with Keith who'd gone off to have another beer, and we joined him for half an hour, sitting in the sun and people-watching. It was sheer bliss! All this will be a distant memory soon, and the hot sun and blue skies a thing of the past!

Sophie and I had been looking at menus and we found a delightful place called El Nucli tucked away down a side street. The menu looked good so we decided to have lunch there. We were the first customers and sat in a lovely little courtyard with a garden attached, that had a pond with terrapins! They were sunning themselves but eyed us curiously! We were also visited by some sparrows who appreciated any spare crumbs!

It was a lovely, very peaceful restaurant and after perusing the menu (a placemat), we made our choices. We chose three tapas dishes to start - Padron peppers, chicken goujons and chicken wings. All three were delicious and the peppers were the best we've ever had, they were lovely and salty and hot!

Our waitress was brilliant and very friendly. For our main courses, we chose chicken kebabs (me), half a chicken (Keith) and cod for Sophie. The food was delicious and plentiful, but Sophie and I managed to find room for dessert. Mine was very conventional, a creme brulee, but Sophie's was a tad weird... she had noticed Italian cake with olive oil and oregano on the specials board so chose that as she had always wanted to try a cake made with olive oil. When it arrived she was a bit bemused:

We still don't know if it was a proper dessert or a side dish/accompaniment! It was like a poppadom covered with tomatoes and olive oil! She still ate it and enjoyed it!

My more conventional dessert!

This lunch was absolutely lovely and so relaxing and the cheapest meal of the whole holiday. We could have sat there all day! Another couple arrived just as we were about to leave and said hello. Everyone had been so friendly.

We waddled back to the car, drove to L'Escala and waited to see Didier, the owner. We had told him we were leaving on Thursday morning rather than Friday, and he just wanted to make sure everything had been OK and give us instructions about leaving the keys.

He came along at about 5.30pm and as soon as he'd gone, Sophie and I drove into the town to buy some wine to take home, as well as gifts for Mike and Abbie. The shop that had sold the local produce didn't have any of the Cap de Creus white wine, which was disappointing so we went to the well-stocked Bodega near the front to see what they had. Although they stocked local wine from Emporda, they didn't have the one we wanted so we bought gifts for Abbie and Mike and trundled back to the car.

Goodbye to L'Escala

Rather than go home with only a couple of bottles, we called into the Spar and bought five local wines. I have no idea what they're like but they were coming home with us!

The rest of the evening was spent packing and playing Scrabble while drinking Cava. It feels like tomorrow we're off on another adventure!

Holiday in L'Escala, Spain - 24th September - 8th October

Day 11 - A beautiful restaurant

I know it sounds premature, but the end of our stay in L'Escala was looming and we wanted to do some shopping for gifts and things to take home, as well as look around the church in the town. We drove to the far side of L'Escala, parked and walked a short distance to the church, which is very similar to the one in Pollensa square.

It was blissfully quiet inside, and we lit a couple of candles, as we always do. After walking around the church we strolled down to the seafront and had a drink in one of the bars overlooking the bay. The weather was gorgeous, with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. We've been so lucky with the weather, and the temperature has been perfect for walking about and exploring.

Keith celebrated the good weather by having a beer, but Sophie and I stuck to coffee and it was so good, I had two! It was bliss to sit and gaze out over the bay and relax. This is what holidays are about!

Leaving Keith with his beer, we walked the short distance to a nearby shop selling local produce and bought our lovely catsitters some gifts of wine. We also treated ourselves to a bottle of local liqueur from the Emporda region, the area we're staying. I have been a bit disappointed with the wine choice in the supermarkets, and they have very few offerings from this region. Whenever I'm on holiday I like to drink local wine and some of it is very good.

Sophie and I wanted to scout out restaurants for this evening, and she'd made a list of possibilities before we came out. One of them, Dell' Arte, was closed so we looked at another, La Gruta, which was offering a set menu for 38 euros. It was only a short walk from the bar we had been sitting in, so we booked a table for 8pm. We were sometimes surprised by the opening times of several restaurants and bars and there seemed to be no logic to it! Also, the opening times were listed in Catalan and all the days of the week sounded the same!

We took a photo to show Keith the choices!

We collected Keith from the bar and drove to Mercadona to buy some supplies. We needed food for lunch, and whilst in there I had another look at the wine section, but they had no bottles from the local area at all! It was great to browse the aisles as I love the smell of foreign supermarkets and looking at all the different foods on offer!

On the way back to the villa we managed to get an English newspaper from a little shop, so we could catch up with the goings-on at home! I think our new Prime Minister is in for a rough ride!

We had lunch and a couple of beers and spent the afternoon sunbathing, overlooked by two men plastering the house opposite. I suppose now the season is over, repairs to houses are being done. One of the houses next to us had already been painted and this one was being prepared. Although this villa is lovely, it is a little noisy for my liking. We have quite a bit of traffic noise, some vocal dogs in the vicinity and now the plasterers were hard at work! However, the proximity to the local bars and restaurants was a bonus and meant we didn't have to drive if we didn't want to.

In the evening we drove into town and walked to the seafront. I wanted to go back to Ultramar as it had been so good to look out over the bay and see the changing colours of the sky. However, they were closed so we went back to the bar we'd visited this morning, Llop de Mar. I had a glass of Sangria with Sophie, while Keith had a beer. The prices are so reasonable here and a delicious glass of Sangria is 4.50 euros, while beer is 2.20!

Although the days are warm, the evenings are now a little chilly, and I think Keith was glad he was wearing a sweater! We enjoyed our drinks and then walked to La Gruta, which was a very pretty restaurant situated on one of the narrow streets of the town.

The beautifully lit-up church

We were seated inside and it was truly beautiful, with honey-coloured stone walls, lots of pale wood and lamps on each table casting a soft glow, as well as lovely napkins and cutlery. We had a look at the menu and made our choices: I started with a fricasseé of vegetables, while Keith and Sophie chose the sautéed smoked mushrooms, with Iberian ham. For our main courses I opted for the pork taco, Keith had the lamb and Sophie the stuffed chicken leg.

The food was exceptional and Sophie and Keith's starters were pure theatre! The food arrived under a dome, and the waiter whisked it off swirling the smoke about! I definitely had food envy! 

Sophie's main course complete with dried banana!

Our wine choice, the delicious Cap de Creus white

La Gruta was a lovely restaurant, and although the choices were a bit more expensive, the food and ambience were definitely worth it. We could see two chefs working away in the kitchen and the head chef kept smiling at Sophie. I think he knew she appreciated the food!

We all finished with an apple tatin served with whisky ice cream, which, again, was delicious.

The bill came to 138 euros, but it was worth every cent!

Holiday in L'Escala, Spain - 24th September - 8th October

Day 10 - Two hairy roads!

Today we drove over to Tossa de Mar, a favourite holiday destination of old, and close enough to where we're staying to visit again. It had been 13 years since our last visit (on a day trip from the south of France in 2009), and I was keen to see the resort again.

We left the villa at 10am and stopped at the town of Pals on the way. It's a gorgeous mediaeval town with steep narrow streets and is popular with tourists, but we arrived early before the hordes! We parked the car and walked towards the centre, coming across a beautiful ceramic shop/café. After wandering around and drooling over the pottery (pretty and very reasonably priced), we had a coffee in the sunny courtyard.

Sophie bought a couple of pieces of pottery, and we continued upwards towards the Placa Major. Keith elected to sit in the sunshine and wait for us, and we found several lovely shops. In one of them, a place selling handbags and clothes, Sophie bought a hat!

Pals is so pretty, and we decided to come back later in the week to explore a bit more when we weren't so pushed for time.

I should think that at the height of summer it's crowded, but there was a lovely atmosphere today with not too many people.

We collected Keith, who had been chatted up by a Spanish woman while he waited for us. Maybe she thought he was lonely, and she jabbered away to him about mosquitoes and rain!

We drove on, reaching the busy C31 and then turning off towards Sant Feliu de Guixols. I had visited the town back in 1980 when I went to a bullfight with my parents, which hadn't been a pleasant experience. I remember the drive over in a coach and being terrified of the sheer drops into the sea below, so I really didn't want to get to Tossa de Mar by this route, but we ended up on it, nonetheless...

Luckily, on our side of the road, we were up against the rock face so nowhere for me to go, but the other side of the road looked very scary indeed, with only a low barrier to stop vehicles plunging into the sea below. At some points, the barrier was just wooden posts and Sophie began to feel very uncomfortable even though my average speed was only about 25 miles an hour and I took it extremely careful! Occasionally I saw glimpses of this beautiful coastline and saw how it got its name as the "wild" coast.

For the last part of the journey, I had a German camper van in front of me so that eased the drive a bit as he was looking out for vehicles on our side of the road! We saw lots of cyclists winding their way upwards and several motorbikes. Rather them than me!

It took us longer than we anticipated to do the winding, steep drive, so we arrived in Tossa at lunchtime. We eventually managed to find an underground car park near the beach, and I parked the car with some difficulty as each space seemed to have four pillars at the corners! How I didn't scrape the bodywork I'll never know!

We emerged into bright sunlight and, as we were all hungry, ate at the first restaurant we came to, La Platja. It was right underneath an apartment I'd stayed in with my parents when I was 18. The view across the beach and over to the castle was stunning.

Sophie and I decided to choose from the 21,95 euro set menu which consisted of three courses. We chose the asparagus to start followed by chicken for me, and salmon for Sophie. Keith had a tuna salad to start followed by a large portion of chicken with chips.

Unfortunately, my asparagus never arrived, and I was given a mixed salad instead! Sophie wasn't happy with her asparagus as it was tough and fibrous. Sadly, she wasn't impressed with her salmon either, so not the best of meals for her, which was a shame. My chicken was fine, but then there's not a lot that can wrong when it's simply roasted in the oven!

Tossa was very busy with people on the beach and eating in the many restaurants lining the front. After our meal, we walked into the town, and it seemed much busier than when we were here last. None of us fancied the long slog up to the Vila Vella, or old town, as a tummy full of food and hot sun aren't the best conditions for a steep uphill climb!

Sophie bought a lovely dress in one of the many shops and we wandered about, noticing a shop that I had been to many times in 1980, still going strong. 

Some lovely old buildings in the narrow streets

Tossa appeared to be more touristy than I had remembered. Years ago, it was the much quieter cousin of Lloret de Mar but obviously, people have now discovered the lovely town and its magnificent castle on the headland.

We decided to head back to L'Escala and we set Trish to get us home. She took me towards Girona and then onto a very rural road that wound through the mountains (again!) after the small village of Cassa de la Selva. Fortunately, I didn't see any other vehicles on this narrow, winding road that, at one point, was 1100 feet above sea level. This time I felt a bit more anxious in case I met a huge tractor on one of the hairpin bends! The countryside was stunning though and thickly forested with just the odd building now and again.

Back on the level, I heaved a huge sigh of relief, and we headed back to the villa on flatter roads! When we got back, Keith and I took a beer and sat up on the roof terrace for an hour, chatting about the journey and watching the comings and goings below. We saw several boats being towed out of the marina, probably because the season was finished.

The evening was very relaxed with a couple of games of Scrabble, a bottle of red wine and egg sandwiches for supper. We then watched the end of the film, Meet The Parents, which was funny if a little cringey!