Trip to the Sea: Exploring Costa Brava

Another day tour today. A late start because 2 girls were significantly late arriving.

This time to a town called Girona to the north east of Barcelona. It is known for its medieval architecture, walled old quarter and Roman remains. What we liked best was standing on one of the many bridges spanning the river and seeing the reflection of the colourful houses.

As we traveled through Catalonia we appreciated why they would want independence from Spain and why Spain would resist. The farmland was lush with olive groves, orchards, dairy cattle, rice paddies and then tourism to top it off.

We then headed to the coast to the region of Costa Brava (wild coast) and a town called Calella de Palafrugell A white medieval town perched on a hilltop overlooking the ocean. It used to be called the Women’s Town because Franco decreed that the eldest son inherited the bulk of the property. This land was worthless in terms of farming and went to the women. Then when Spain was opened to the west, wealthy holidaymakers discovered the town and beach. It was a cultural shock for the black clad women to see the bikini clad bodies. However they sold their houses for large sums of money, while the men still work the land.

We had lunch in a restaurant by the beach with great views of the rocks and ocean. We are with an American mother and daughter and with their google translator we tried to establish if there were bones in the fish. Translation was obviously lost as the fish I thought had no bones came with an entire skeleton!

Back to Barcelona with a vivid sunset as we drove.