Cadaques-early-evening

Saturday, May 26, 2012
Had a very pleasant flight on air France. Air hosts and hostesses were very friendly, a refreshing change from some airlines who believe their personnel’s “stiff upper lip” attitude can be fobbed off as professionalism. Well done Air France.

Transited via Paris and arrived in Barcelona at around 7:30. Picked up our luggage and proceeded to Avis to pick up the rental car that was booked. With five customers in front of us we estimated a waiting (wasting) time of 20 minutes. One hour and twenty five minutes later (not a typo, 85 minutes later!!), we were out of there. Shame on you Avis !!

With our Peugeot 207 we headed out from the airport on the main highway, through and past Barcelona, up the coast towards France. We left the highway at Mataro and continued from there up the secondary coastal road. At Blanes we found a Carrefour supermarket where we thought we could get the iphones and ipad connected. We managed to get the one iphone connected to the Orange network (20 euro for sim, some calling time and 100 mb of data to be used within a week). Apparently they had no sims for the ipad. Thought I could use the iphone as a hotspot for the ipads but no such luck, that option miraclously disappear from the setup menu with an Orange sim. At least I was now connected to update the blog.

From Blanes we headed further up the coastal road, very winding, up the one side of the mountain and very winding, down the other side. Progress was very slow but the scenery was truly worth it, with different shades of lush green mountainsides intermingling with the different shades of blue from the sea far below. We passed though lovely little towns such as Tossa de Mar (Picture: Tossa de Mar) and reached Saint Felui de Guixols (Picture: Felui de Guixols) t was where I had my first beer on Spanish soil (Estrella). It was getting late, we had to make up time, so we headed inland towards Girona, then north to Figuires, east to Roses and on to Cadaques where we had a room booked for our first night in Spain.

Cadaques is special. Saw a snippet of Cadaques on a travel program and I was hooked, I knew I had to see it. I was not disappointed and you won’t be either. With its narrow walkways and lovely promenade with cafes, restaurants and bars along its waterside, truly mesmerizing. Fishing boats and yachts lie side by side in the calmness of the bay, a sight for sore eyes, and they were sore and tired after a long flight and a long drive (Picture: Cadaques, early evening and Cadaques, also early evening).

Strolling along the promenade we settled for a drink (Picture: Cadaques: waterfront bar) and supper at a pizzeria on the main square (Picture: Cadaques: pizzeria on main square) which serve a mean pizza and calzone. Earlier the day there was a band playing in the main square (Picture: Cadaques: Band playing in the main square), making a huge racket, but once we settled down to listen, they were actually pretty darn good. We finished supper at around 23:00 and retired to our hotel room.

The hotel we stayed in was really not that bad….. Although at around 23:00 our neighbors decided to rearrange the furniture in their room, and again at 07:00 in the morning they decided, with the benefit of natural light, that they actually preferred it the way it was. The walls are thin, wafer thin. At around 04:00 in the morning, some nocturnal sounds, emanating from the courtyard of the hotel, woke me with a jerk. The leader of this cacophony starts up at intermittent intervals, with the rest of the choir joining in, from baritones to falsetto, mostly falsetto. Not sure whether it was a gaggle of geese, but a gaggle it was. Sleep did not come easy. The hotel we stayed in was really not that bad…..

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