Costa Brava! March 23-25

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks since I last posted and I’m going to try to break it down into three new posts! As I mentioned in my last post, my mom, dad and Clara arrived in Barcelona on March 23^rd. After a little bit of confusion with their connecting flight from Madrid to Barcelona, my mom and Clara managed to meet up with me at Plaza Catalunya right in the center of Barcelona while my dad circled around the block in our rental car. Seeing them all again was the best, I’ve really missed them over the last couple of months and was so happy to be with them again (sorry, Erik!). We said our hellos and then hopped in the car to spend the weekend on the Coast Brava, a series of medieval beach towns north of Barcelona on the Mediterranean.

I didn’t know much about the Costa Brava except that many Barcelonans vacation there and was excited to be going somewhere new in Spain with my family. We drove up along the coast, which was very pretty. The beach towns weren’t as great as we expected them to be until we got pretty far north of Barcelona, but the views were incredible the entire way. We had a blast trying to figure out the Spanish highway system while catching up in the car. We stopped a few times to take some pictures and eventually made our way to Tossa del Mar where we stopped for lunch.

My mom and I during the drive up the coast

One of the small towns we passed on the drive up

The town of Tossa del Mar was an incredible little beach town. It was very small and tucked into a cove on the sea. We drove down the narrow streets toward the beach (we’re still not totally sure we were allowed to be driving down the narrow streets but played the “sorry we’re stupid Americans” card). We found a great outdoor café on the beach and had some delicious muscles, paella, and Sangria for lunch in Tosssa del Mar and then took a walk up to the castle that the town was built around. The walk up into the castle was incredible because it was actually an old medieval town as well. We walked the medieval streets for awhile, took in the views of the sea and watched some Spanish kids trying to shoot a basketball from way up on a hill down into a hoop they set up on the beach. Then we hiked further up the hill the castle was built on to the lighthouse at the top. The views of the Mediterranean were gorgeous from up on this hill so we stayed for a while and took some pictures. After hiking back down, we walked a little more through the town and then made our way back to the car so we could continue up the coast.

Clara and my Mom walking up to the Tossa del Mar castle

The medieval town of Tossa del Mar

View of the beach from the castle

Another picture back at the medieval town

The view up the coast from just outside Tossa del Mar

The rest of the drive up the coast was beautiful as we passed through a number of other small beach towns and had views of the coast the rest of the time. After a long afternoon of driving, we finally arrived in LLafranc, where we were staying in the Hotel Llevant. Llafranc is a very tiny beach town and our hotel was right on the beach. It was a very cute little hotel and since it was the off-season, few people were staying there and everyone seemed to know each other. After checking in and getting settled in our rooms, we walked to a nearby grocery store to buy some bread, cheese, coldcuts, chocolate, wine and beer for dinner. Our lunch in Tossa del Mar was huge so we were very happy to have a small dinner at a café table down by the water.

We woke up the next day, had breakfast in the hotel and then set out in the car to see more of the medieval towns. Our first stop of the day was a little town called Besalu. Besalu was a very typical medieval town. It was built around a church on a small hill that was surrounded by a river. We had a great time wandering around this little town and went into the church, took pictures on the entrance bridge and walked around down by the river. We then got back in the car and drove down into Comodron, a small ski town in the Pyrenees.

My mom walking into the main gate in Besalu

A view of Besalu

All of us walking into Besalu

Comodron was a picturesque little ski town. The drive through the Pyrenees Mountains was beautiful as we passed through a number of small villages and farmland. It was so great to be in mountains again and we had a great time wandering through Comodron. The main street through the town had many little shops and cafes so we stopped at a café and took in the mountain views as we had a drink and some olives. We then decided that we were so close to the French border that it would be fun to head into France for some lunch. So we wandered back out of Comordon and got in the car to head to the border.

Comodron

Clara walking down the main street in Comodron

The drive to the border was very pretty. For the most part we were driving up switchbacks further into the mountains. It was amazing to see a number of people out biking, jogging and walking up these intense roads, needless to say we were very happy to be making the climb in a car! We reached the French border and there was even snow on the ground because we were so high up in the mountains (around 5,000 ft). The views were amazing so we stopped for a bit to take some pictures and build some snowmen right on the border (our version of a border patrol!). We then descended into the town of Ceret. Ceret was another small medieval town built around a chuch and a fortress, very similar to Besalu. We wandered the town for a bit and then found a café in a small square to have a late lunch. It was pretty confusing to have to order our meals in French when I’ve been so used to Spanish but we managed and had a delicious lunch.

The French border

After lunch, we got back in the car to head back to Llafranc. The drive out of the Pyrenees was equally as pretty as the drive in and after getting lost for a bit we found our way back to the Hotel Llevant. We were pretty tired from all of the walking around during the day and were very happy to return to our rooms and have some more bread, wine, ham and cheese for dinner on our balcony.

We got another pretty early start that Sunday and headed out towards Cadaques after another hotel breakfast. On the way to Cadaques we made two stops. The first stop was at a small castle we saw up on a hill. This was a great stop because the hill was a high point in the area and offered us amazing views of the coast and up towards Cadaques and the Pyrenees. We didn’t stop there for long and soon made our way to Pals.

At the top of the castle!

The view from the castle

Pals was another small medieval town on the way towards Cadaques. This was my favorite of the medieval towns we saw during the weekend. It was exactly what I pictured a medieval town to look like with its narrow streets and stone buildings. We walked through the town until we reached the church where services had just let out so everyone was gathered in the small square outside the church. The views from the church looked out over the surrounding farmland and had an almost Tuscan feel to them. We had a great time walking a little more through Pals before getting in the car and heading to Cadaques.

My mom walking down the streets of Pals

more of Pals

Mom under an arch

Cadaques was very different from any of the other towns we had seen that weekend. We had to drive over a mountain pass to get to it from Roses. On the descent from the pass, the white buildings of the town and the small cove it was nestled into unfolded before us. Cadaques had a very Greek feel to it, the building were all white with beautiful accents and were built right up to the beach. It was the hometown of Dali and a number of other artists also spend time there, which I totally understand because it was gorgeous. We walked through the town and along the water for a little while before finding a tapas bar right on the water where we had lunch. The tapas were delicious and the view of the sea couldn’t be beat. After lunch we walked the town some more, did some shopping and then headed back to Llafranc.

My mom, Clara and I sitting under the Dali statue in Cadaques

view of Cadaques

Cadaques again

When we got back to Llfranc, we realized we had been doing so much travelling around the area that we never really explored Llafranc so we decided to take a walk. We walked down the beach and then up into the hills next to the town to see the view from above. Unfortunately, the pictures of Llafranc are on my parent’s camera so I won’t have them posted here! We then hiked back down and had our bread, coldcuts, cheese, wine and chocolate dinner on our balcony. After dinner, we headed down to the hotel bar to have a drink and met a very nice Irish couple and a Dutch couple who doing a group wine trip on the Costa Brava. It was pretty late at that point and we had to head back to Barcelona in the morning so we called it a night.

On Monday morning we once again had breakfast in the hotel and then hit the road for Barcelona. Our weekend in the Costa Brava was by far one of my favorite weekends I’ve had here. It was so much fun to be with my parents and Clara and I loved being able to explore a part of Spain with them where I hadn’t been before!

to see more pictures from this trip go to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151486440835481.834572.588220480&type=3&l=60ebf55ae0