The way to the Sunny Spain through the Pyrenees

This is not our first trip to Catalonia – five years ago, we visited Cadaquès, which was a true love from the first sight, and three years ago I came back to Barcelona with a friend with a blogger’s optic I had back in those days. So, we skipped both these stops though one can hardly call Barcelona “a stop”.

Normally, when we go to Spain, our goals are very simple: relax and enjoy their excellent food. This time, however, things were slightly different: we acquired a new hobby. As if we didn’t have enough to do already, we both started sketching – ink, watercolors and colored pencils, so on the top of the usual list “drawing as much as possible” was added.

One of hundreds Independent Catalonia flags we saw on this trip

Slow travels had already been our main travelling mode and philosophy, but with this new hobby it all got a new even slowlier perspective. What to say – sketching turned out to be a way to connect with what we see much more powerful than clicking on the camera. Who knows, probably there will be a new page with our artwork on this blog any time soon? 😊

But let’s go back to Catalonia. As it was my birthday, the whole organization fell on Xavier who coped with the task brilliantly – there was a good share of sea, villages, nature and 100% (!!) of food we tried was excellent. If Ripoll didn’t particularly impress us, Besalu was a pleasant surprise, inaugurating thus our Spain sketchbooks! This town is quite far from the sea, so the architecture and general vibe was very close to French Catalan towns, but one can never have enough of them!

Even if we didn’t plan much for five days of holidays, there were still some things that had to be missed. We had to sacrifice a hiking walk in the Volcanic zone of Parc Naturel de la Zone Volcanique de la Garrotxa. We saw some of the local towns, ate gorgeous food but unfortunately visiting ancient volcanos will be for the next time.

Castellfollit de la Roca

I was very looking forward to seeing Girona – it is one of two towns in Catalonia (after Barcelona obviously!) that I knew of before actually coming here. Mainly thanks to beautiful Girona articles from one of our favorite travel bloggers’ duo. Overall I loved it – it’s a bright place, mixing touristy and local lives in quite a harmonious way (at least in the middle of April!).

Two things spoiled the general mood though: the price for the entrance to Girona Cathedral (it’s a cathedral, it’s not supposed to charge at all!) and the water level of the local river. I guess 2023 will be remembered as a year of draught after a dry winter and, anyway, with global warming it won’t be a rare thing in future, but seeing just a thin layer of water with several meager fishes in it was a sad thing. Sad and a little bit scary.

We decided that I deserved to start the day of my 31 years somewhere else than in our van Robbie (Robbie, we love you very much!) be it only for the hygienic purposes. So, Xavier prepared me a treat – a room in Cap Sa Sal hotel. Our hotels experience isn’t very large for the spiced travelers we are, so it didn’t take much to smit us completely with the gorgeous view from our room. I woke up as early as I could just to stare at the scenery without leaving the bed, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Besides, the old hotel building and little calas around were incredibly beautiful too – had it been more budget-friendly, we should have definitely stay there for an extra day.

Birthday girl’s breakfast

One day we will travel with our personal photographer…

Costa Brava has a reputation of a mass tourism destination with everything that comes along – huge concrete buildings, stores with cheap souvenirs etc. However, if you know where to go (and Xavier obviously did!), it’s hard to believe that we were so close to crowds of tourists from all Western Europe. On the contrary, all these calas with white houses villages looked quite exclusive – it’s so weird how two opposite worlds can live so close one to another.

A short stop in the medieval village Peratallada – a lovely place with excellently restaured architecture. I often mention my grief about certain ways to take care of the local architectural heritage but in Catalonia this problem is’nt striking at all.

Getting back to Robbie after the stunning hotel in Begur wasn’t easy, but on the other hand, our morning breakfast view was no less spectacular. A rotten avocado and Laughing Cow sandwitch is a decent opponent to a fresh orange juice, scrambled eggs and croissants, isn’t it?

Showing off my breakfast

Four years ago Xavier and I got a diving certificate! Then we put it on the shelf and never touched it again. We were supposed to, but Covid-Lockdown and whatnot. Finally putting it to use with Triton Diving was incredibly exciting and even if we took no picture and made no underwater sletches (hehe), please belive that we saw a beautiful octopus. Not sure his joy to see us was comparable to ours but it definitely made our day. 🐙

This moment at Platja del Port Pelegri will be a highlight of the trip. Not only we had THE meal of the week in the local fish restaurant on the beach but we also spent two hours (two! no joke!) just…sketching. As I said in the beginning – we had three main goals: eat, sketch, relax, so here there was a moment when three of them joined together. What a bliss.

If you concentrate, you will see a tiny orange on the flower’s end

Even if Tossa del Mar is a very beautiful place, here you start catching the mass tourism vibe. It doesn’t feel like a different country anymore, albeit close to the border, and 99% of people we met on the streets of the town center were speaking French. Just like us. 😅

We will remember Tossa del Mar by the amazing patisserie “Fleca Neras Pastisseria” where we had our last orange juice of this escapade.

That was it. How weird, I spent weeks of looking forward to this trip, which was supposed to be quite long, but at the end these five days flew by with an astonishing speed. At the same time it’s normal – the trip was perfect – absolutely nothing went the way it shouldn’t have. It will be an amazing trip to remember. 💙

If you want some more Catalonia inspiration, visit these posts!

• 13 Things to see in Barcelona
• Visiting Cadaqués – the Pearl of Costa Brava