apathtosomewhere

Woke up too early.

Got up, fed the Pup, made a cuppa and then took Pup out for her ablutions. Then a leisurely breakfast watching Sant Pol de Mar waking up. A couple of street cleaners turned up to quietly sweep the streets which really didn’t really need doing – maybe empty the bins. Despite all of the Halloween celebrations, there didn’t seem a scrap of rubbish. A few families, joggers and people exercising their dogs wandered past in the morning sunshine.

We decided last night to head down to Arenys de Mar by train and so walked the few metres to the train station. We tried to purchase tickets via the ticket machine, but it wouldn’t accept our payment, so we turned to the chap in the ticket office. Again, the card payment wouldn’t go through, so we used another card just as the train pulled in. The chap shoved a piece of paper through the window and told us to get on the train, but our timing was lousy and the train doors closed before we got onboard. Annoying, but another train was due in 20 minutes. The train parped its horn and made us all jump – again!

We lurked by the beach before we went back to the station and jumped on the southbound train – we had just one stop before Arenys as the train hugged the coastline, running alongside the beach. We jumped off the train and came up against a row of exit gates which refused our piece of paper. There was a chap sat in the ticket office and he gesticulated to go to the end gate which we did and spotting a “customer service” help button, we pressed it expecting to hear his voice. It rang a couple of times and as we looked back at the ticket office the chap was signalling “go through, go through” which we quickly did and got burped out onto the main coastal road. We had made it!

We crossed over and walked a little way until we arrived at the bottom of the main shopping thoroughfare and decided to have a stroll up there to see what we could find. It was quite pleasant with people wandering around with quite a few shops open considering it was Sunday. We stopped at a little cafe – one of many – and sat outside for coffee and a piece of cake. It was very warm with the sun high in the sky. We walked up one side and down the other, before re-joining the coastal road lined with restaurants. As lovely as it was and being very busy, it was right against passing traffic which was a bit of a downer, so we turned tail and decided to go over the road towards the harbour to check that area out – we strolled along the harbour wall with other people, watching all the different boats coming in and out of the marina with long distance views down towards Barcelona. This was lovely.

After a while we wandered back – we had spotted a beachside restaurant, Justo, on our way in to the harbour and decided to eat there. We sat under the shade of the canopy and ordered beers. The tables and chairs sat on the sand so as we sat down, our chairs sunk lower. Pup positioned herself under the table, but couldn’t get comfortable for some reason and kept digging holes, burying our feet. Finally she settled as we ordered mussels, sardines, patatas bravas and a jug of sangria. We had a really lovely relaxed lunch on the edge of the beach with lovely staff who joined in with our silly humour – finally with the afternoon wearing on, we decided to catch the train back, after filling the hole under the table that Pup had dug.

We were starting to wonder about our little train ticket as we entered the station and queried it with two staff members. They started to book us another ticket and we were trying to tell them that we had already paid. After several minutes and with the assistance of Google Translate, we finally understood what the staff were saying – we hadn’t paid for our train journey as it had been refunded. Our piece of paper was a refund receipt. It appeared that with the train at Sant Pols approaching and with issues with the card payment, the ticket chap had just ushered us to the train without really explaining what he had done (given us a refund on our second card for some reason) hoping we would sort payment out on our arrival at Arenys. Why he had done this, we didn’t know, but these two very patient and understanding staff members finally sorted out tickets for us and gave us individual proper train tickets before we finally got popped out onto the platform, after another brief tussle with the ticket gates!

With perfect timing, the train appeared and we jumped on, arriving back in Sant Pols about 15 minutes later. We spoke to an English girl who had lived in Spain since she was small and she told us that it was cold here at the moment. Cold? We had light clothing on and felt hot! It was 20 degrees for goodness sake! We told her it was around 10 degrees with rain back home which was cold, so this was like summer to us. She laughed at the thought.

We walked back to our house and took our positions on the balcony, the street below busy with people taking a Sunday afternoon stroll. Our road curves round and ends in a dead end some 250 metres away so a little while later, the same people come wandering back, but it’s lovely to see families and couples enjoying the afternoon sun, meeting in little groups and engaging in conversations and admiring our campervan, seemingly still amazed how well parked it is. It’s busy deep into the evening, with a great atmosphere and vibe.

Thinking about the young girls comments about it being cold, we noticed a lot of the locals wearing coats and jackets, all wrapped up and we were sitting outside on our balcony in summer clothing having tea. No wonder people were staring at us! Around 7:30, the young people started to gather again, but an hour later they had disappeared and all was quiet outside apart from the crickets (and the crossing). With school tomorrow, they all went home early after celebrating Halloween weekend – it all kind of made sense now with them bouncing around to the early hours.

The daughter heads back to the UK tomorrow, so an early departure for her to catch her flight home before we also leave Sant Pol and start heading north and for home. We have just under two weeks left now and it’s whizzed by. Maybe I will have to change the title of this blog to Heading North.

Had a lovely sleep and it’s so nice to just to get out of bed without having to clamber over a dog and a human to get to the loo.

The house is vast! Over three floors, the balconies overlook the beach and it has a beautiful little courtyard at the rear. We’re doing a lot of running up and down the stairs as the kitchen is on the ground floor and the lounge area and balcony are on the next floor! Keeps us fit!

The Pup discovered that she could peer into daughter’s bedroom via the balcony and the patio doors and barked to be let in – bit of a rude awakening for daughter who was sound asleep at the time!

We went to the local bakery for the usual croissants and ate breakfast overlooking the sea. It was quite noisy as the street cleaners were out in force and the trains were still parping and the klaxons wailing, but it was okay. The trains are rapidly becoming background noise and it’s great to see the streets so clean (it was mainly leaf litter) despite the early hour.

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk on the beach so we wandered south of our place, along the Main Street until we came up to the river which was dry and sandy. We dropped on the beach which was a bit of a disappointment – grubby from either seaborne debris or careless visitors, there were bits of rubbish everywhere especially on the tide line. We walked in the surf to escape the worse, but it dropped away and it was hard to walk on barefoot. It was more grit than sand – our feet had a good exfoliation! The Pup enjoyed playing in the water albeit on a long lead (as per local by-laws). We got to a point where there was an old concrete bunker from the Spanish Civil War and we had to walk up close the railway line which was totally unfenced – we were practically yards from a live track. So weird. We walked a little further, but there seemed to be no bridges or underpasses to get to the other side and it wasn’t the prettiest path. So we turned around back to Sant Pol de Mar and followed this sandy path by the side of the railway track, until we spotted a few locals skipping across the tracks from a shady park area. We hesitated to whether to follow their example, but the park was so much nicer than this path, so we scuttled across (looking both ways) and through a flattened piece of fencing. This was so much better, under shady plane trees and grass on either side. We bobbed out by the dry river again and stopped for coffee at a little cafe amongst the locals before taking the higher road to check out a couple of monuments. We ended up wandering through the residential area which was very nice and finally came out above the railway tunnel and the back of our house – we could peer over a bit of rusty fencing and down into our sheltered courtyard from high above.

We could hear music on the beach, so we had a quick look at a nearby prominent church, then dropped down to the railway crossing and back to our little pad. The music was coming from a basement tapas bar directly opposite our place and it sounded fab. We had a quick look at the menu and scurried back for wine, beer and nibbles on the balcony, enjoying the music wafting across. This was perfect! We decided to try and book a table there for tonight and once the music had finished, I sauntered over armed with my best Spanish.

I did my usual introduction – I’m English and my Spanish is crap, so please forgive me – and asked for a table for tonight at 8.30, feeling very proud of myself as the lady behind the bar understood me and I had said fairly fluently. Unfortunately, her face was crestfallen as she replied that the restaurant was shut in the evenings and only opened at lunchtime. Pah!

I took the bad news back to the family. We would find another place, so we settled down on the balcony, catching the afternoon sun on the sun loungers and relaxing. This was the life.

As it was Halloween, there were lots of children and adults all dressed up starting to wander around and having lots of fun. Later we wandered into town and it seemed that the whole town had come out, celebrating – we were sticking out like sore thumbs dressed in normal clothes. We went to check out a Halloween party at the local park, but it was young children so we wandered back into town and found an intimate little restaurant called Celler La Llosa, just outside the main hubbub and enjoyed a lovely meal there. Afterwards we headed back, the town a little quieter as the younger children headed for bed. We sat on our balcony and watched the young teenagers gathering below again, the group ebbing and flowing. It was fascinating to watch – obviously excitable, but just hanging out together. They eventually drifted off and we went to bed.

We think there was a Halloween disco as just before 1am, they were back, still lively and adding a bit of tomfoolery into the mix. In the night air, their voices were amplified and it disturbed us. They were only having fun, but we wanted sleep. Finally they decided to go bed around 1:30. Hooray!

Tomorrow we’re planning to catch the train to Arenys de Mar, a couple of stops south and have a change of scenery.

The mist had cleared out of the valley and another nice day was dawning.

We were on a mission today – meeting our daughter this afternoon. We had a leisurely morning before packing up – we realised that Barcelona bound planes were flying right over our valley so we tracked our daughter’s flight. Of all the planes flying overhead, hers went a slightly different route – typical!

We wound our way down the mountain towards the coast. We had an AirBnB booked and was following the owners directions to the house. Let’s just say that we ended up taking the Van down a very narrow shopping street (we thought it was pedestrians only, but later discovered to our relief, that vehicles do drive down there, but not as big as our campervan), then arrived at very tight right turn into narrow single track lane that ended up us reversing down to get round the corner, then going backwards some 60 metres to the railway crossing, going over that the wrong way round and arriving, some 50 metres beyond the crossing, at our destination. We were becoming a bit of a curiosity as people stood and watched. Stress levels were off the chart!

Our next challenge was to get the Van on the drive, equally narrow and awkward. It just about fitted. Then we wandered all the 50 metres to the train station to meet daughter who had caught the train to Sant Pol de Mar. We unpacked stuff from the Van into the house and went for lunch in a nearby restaurant, got some food for tea tonight and then went back to sit on the balcony, overlooking the beach and sea and people watched. We realised that passing pedestrians were stopping to look at the Van – probably wondering how we squashed it in amongst many other questions. We were becoming minor celebrities.

As darkness fell, we went off into town across the railway line and had a wander around the shops – the Main Street was buzzing with people. It was a great atmosphere. We walked back to the house and enjoyed wine and nibbles on the balcony, watching the trains pull in and out. It’s a touch noisy with the warning klaxon blaring out for a few seconds as the barriers lower and the trains have a habit of parping their horns as they leave which plays havoc on the old nerves. The young people of the town have a tendency to gather on this road of all places, so they were a little lively too, but it was nice to be in a vibrant area, sitting high above and watching it all.

After all the excitement, we headed to bed with the patio doors open and the curtains wafting in the breeze. We didn’t take a lot of rocking……

We woke to a fine, crisp morning and watched the sunlight fall on nearby mountains.

Since we got our new Van, I had wanted to sit in bed at the rear with the barn doors wide open and watch the world, snuggled under my duvet. And this morning, my wish came true watching the day dawn and a beautiful view down the valley. Perfect.

It was going to be a slow day today. The sun itself didn’t appear over the mountains until about 10am and with its warmth shining down on us, we sat outside and enjoyed the peace and quiet. There was probably no more than four more campers on site. The Pup met a 17 year old dog and his owner (got made a fuss) and later a little girl and her dad came along for a pat.

We wondered what to do – Hubby wanted to walk up the valley to the road, but I didn’t fancy a big walk – it was nice to sit here. So Hubby and Pup went off on their walk and after a while, I wandered down to the campsite entrance and walked down the tarmac lane, following the bubbling stream. The valley is so steep here. I probably walked for about an hour before coming back and sunning myself again. It was glorious. Hubby and Hound arrived back – they had followed a track up to the road, found a hotel where the chap didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow Hubby got cheese and ham on a plate and a beer. After a few photos they waddled back down again.

We had lunch with super crunchy bread and relaxed until the cloud started to gather and the temperature dropped considerably. I went for a shower and got cool water which I wasn’t impressed with – my feet were freezing so I sat under a blanket to warm up again. We sat in the Van to read until Pup started to whine for dinner and as we nipped out to get her bowls, we were taken back to find the valley shrouded in mist! It was very atmospheric, almost eerie.

It’s all very well travelling in autumn time, but now with the clocks gone back, night falls heavily around 6:30 (especially when’s it’s misty) so we were cooped up a bit. We tried to watch Traitors, but it kept buffering every few minutes (a little bit of WiFi here, but not enough). We read for a while and then sat in bed, which proved fatal as we both fell asleep!

Tomorrow we’re back at coast and meeting up with our daughter for a few days. That will be great fun!

We had a lazy day.

With the sun warming our little corner, we spent the morning lounging around, not doing much. The Pup made friends with most of the Germans in our little cul-de-sac, which in turn, we ended up chatting with. It’s amazing what you end up talking about – today it was travelling on Le Shuttle.

https://www.tamarit.com/en

About 1:30 we waddled down to the beachside restaurant for lunch, near the reception and enjoyed a “plato del dia” overlooking the beach and the sparkling sea. The waiter was great – part of the meal was sharing four little starters and he served and described each one. It was the best service so far.

After lunch, we went back to the Van briefly to change shoes etc for a visit to the beach. The poor Pup had accompanied us on a variety of errands and jobs all morning and each time, she was happily making a bee-line for the beach before we pulled her in a different direction – at each little junction, she would hopefully peel off left, hoping we would follow, but alas, it was not to be. So we took one of her balls and made her day – we went up the quieter end of the beach so we could let her off lead and she could go swimming unhindered. She had a whale of a time and to cap her day, two little Cockapoos appeared and the three dogs chased each other while we and their German owners just laughed. The Pup hasn’t had this much fun for quite a while and it was lovely to see her enjoying the freedom.

The Pup staggered back to the Van and crashed on her mat. We relaxed for awhile and then I headed to reception with my postcards, hoping there was a postbox. There were a few empty pitches now and it seemed a lot quieter though the remaining kids still didn’t have any road sense and seemed determined to mow you down on their scooters. This was such a vast site as it took many minutes to get to reception (yes, they did have a postbox) and then a couple more to get to the supermarket for a baggie. I was sure that you could easily get your 10,000 daily steps in this place, it was that big. But saying that, it was a very pleasant site, with lots of trees and nicely laid out. It was quite fun to wander up and down all the lanes and check out all the different campervans, caravans and motorhomes. Some looked like that their owners had brought everything with them including the kitchen sink – all sprawled under awnings, that made you wonder where they stuffed it all when they were on the move. With it being Halloween, quite a few had decorated their holiday units with cobwebs, skeletons and other ghoulish paraphernalia (it’s so weird walking around in 23 degree heat in your shorts and t-shirts and seeing people celebrate Halloween – so surreal) with one very imaginative and macabre holidaymaker with skeletons dressed in aprons, “cooking” limbs on a barbecue surrounded by giggling ghosts!

And the size of some of these motorhomes/campervans are a bit jaw dropping (and that’s not adding bike racks, trailers for motorbikes and small cars to tow behind them). I spotted one that resembled a 54 seater coach and I was so astounded that I nearly walked into a lamp post. How on earth did he get that in here? It’s quite amazing how people go on holiday.

I went for a shower which was lovely (sorry France, but the Spanish beat you in the shower department). Hot with a tap and a rain shower head so I didn’t flood the rest of the block as well as my cubicle which is the trouble with these fixed and angled shower heads a lot of sites favour. It was a warm evening as we retreated inside and pulled our fly net across – would be nice to sit outside, but fear we would be a banquet for any passing gnat. We didn’t see the Pup for the rest of the evening as she was worn out by her beach excursion and we had a light snack for tea, just to keep us going.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Tamarit and heading back into the mountains around Barcelona. On Friday, our youngest daughter is flying out to spend a few days with us so we’re wheedling our way up the coast to meet her. Fun days!

We woke to another cloudless blue sky and it was quite warm too.

We were hitting the road again, heading towards the coast, just north of Tarragona – we fancied a change of scenery. We sorted the Van out and set off, through the winding, twisty roads of the stunning wooded mountains. This was very beautiful around Prades and probably our favourite bit so far. We must of driven for about 30 minutes, negotiating hairpins and eventually starting to drop down, when we turned a corner and whoa, we had the most fantastic panoramic view of the coastal plain way down below with the Mediterranean Sea in the distance. We gasped.

We followed the road down as pedal cyclists wound their way up – I am in awe of these guys – hitting the town of Alcover and then suddenly, we were down off the mountains and the roads were more straighter. We decided on a brief detour to seek out the Pont del Diable (aka Ferreres Aqueduct), a Roman aqueduct some 4kms outside of Tarragona. We followed the satnav on quite fast dual carriageways before swiftly turning right into a car park. We followed the signposts some 500 metres and came across the double arched aqueduct hidden in the trees. It was quite stunning and worth the diversion, though somewhat ruined by the noise of two busy main roads close by and overlooked by high rise apartments. There were paths heading off in all directions – think it was a sort of country park, but on the way back, there was a sign saying “hide your valuables in the car”. We had no need to linger and so headed off to the Tamarit Park Resort, our home for the next two nights.

https://tourismattractions.net/spain/pont-del-diable-history

The satnav made us skim the edge of Tarragona which had an emissions zone (eek) and back onto a main road which sliced its way through the gentle wooded hills. Soon we arrived at Tamarit and checked in. This was quite a big sprawling campsite and as we drove down its main avenue to our spot, there were campervans everywhere, all a bit packed in. We were allocated a pitch right at the very back, secluded by hedges and in the full sun. Suited us perfectly. It was 23 degrees, so we pulled out the awning and made some lunch, before going for an investigative walk – I was back in sandals and summer clothes, which I thought I had seen the back of. We wandered down to the shopping village where there was a supermarket, a bar area, a clothes shop and icecream kiosk and then up to the dog park, hoping it was a big green field for Pup to have zoomies in – alas it was a sliver of grass with agility equipment which the Pup was not impressed with. She doesn’t do agility. So we wandered through the labyrinth of chalets that dominated this part of the resort and found the beach which abutted the campsite. Pup had been smelling the sea air as we walked around and was eager to check it out. Most of the resort’s clientele were on this beach, so we kept Pup on the extendable lead as she charged down to the water’s edge and dived in. She was so happy. We walked in the surf, while Pup jumped the waves, swimming in the shallows. This was perfect for her and she so deserved this reward.

We walked about halfway down the beach before heading back into the resort – the gate took us back into our end of the campsite. There was a little beachside bar at the entrance, so we stopped for a beer and an icecream, hoping the sand that we had accumulated would dry off our legs and The Pup. We then wandered back to the Van, noticing that the majority of campervans had German number plates – we later found out that it was German half term, so it also explained why there were hordes of kids running around. We had a relaxing afternoon and even managed to squeeze in a nap and as the sun set, decided that we would go for a drink (we weren’t particularly hungry). We walked back down to where the shops were, wandering into the boutique to see if they had anything I could treat myself with – ended up with a friendship bracelet and four postcards. We then went to the bar opposite, but there were lots of families and screaming four year olds, all overdosed on the recent mini disco. The restaurant nearby was empty so we meandered to see if the beachside bars were still open.

This place is a grid system of avenues, but parts were in darkness as the streetlights had failed – fine, until hordes of children on scooters are bearing down on you, not looking where they’re going. We found the bar we had a drink at earlier and sat down – a lovely waiter came and made a fuss of the Pup – and we enjoyed a beer, two packets of crisps and some funky Ibiza set music. It was cool.

So we wandered back to the Van, the Pup retired on our bed (hope it’s not too gritty later) and we chilled. Not sure what to do tomorrow – whether to walk to Altafulla some 30 minutes away or just chill here. We’ll decide tomorrow.

The clocks went back overnight and we had an extra hour this morning.

We woke up just after 7am which is the new 8am so we’re still waking up at our usual time. We got up slowly and had breakfast, watching all the Halloween revellers start to head home. We’ll be Billy No Mates tonight.

We decided to follow a walk that the reception gave us yesterday – only about 6 kilometres all told, but it would be nice to stretch our legs and with the sun shining brightly, it should be a lovely little stroll. We took a flask of tea and some nibbles in case we fancied a picnic, deciding to follow the The Three Hermitages route to La Verge de l’Abellera.

We walked out of the campsite and into town on a little back road and followed the instructions on the leaflet. It was in English and French, with the English not quite translating as well as it should (can’t vouch for the French). At one point, we were looking for a “raft”, but luckily the route had signposts as well so we only had a couple of headscratching sessions.

Finally we came to La Verge de l’Abellera, hidden behind a wooden door. The small church/chapel was built on the edge of a sheer drop and under overhanging cliffs with fantastic views across the valley and wooded hillsides. We read the information boards and sat down for a quick sip of tea and a biscuit. We then decided to go and find the La Roca Foradada, an arc of rock formed out of the red rock of the area which was on the flip side of sheet. We could have walked back to town and followed the directions on the sheet, but realised that if we walked up the valley a bit we could do a loop and drop down on to it. So we walked through the trees and woods like we had been doing all morning, following a gravelly path which suddenly dropped down into the bottom of the valley and then voila, there was La Roca Foradada. It was quite impressive – apparently you can climb up and stand in the middle, but we weren’t inclined. The Pup smelt water, but the little tarn nearby was a weird green colour and fenced off, so Pup was denied a paddle.

We strolled back into town and decided to have a coffee/beer. The town was again busy with people wandering around which was great. Our little cafe of yesterday was full, so we sat in the cafe next door. It was a bit off putting as the tables hadn’t been cleared, but we sat down at a table, pushing the debris to one side. We waited for someone to come out and take our order and possibly clear the table, but nobody did (the one person on duty only seemed to drop off drinks) so eventually I went inside and got them myself. The two staff seemed a bit nonplussed about serving and taking my money – it was all a bit odd. So we sat in the warm sunshine and drank our drinks, watched other customers come in and move dirty cups to other tables, not blinking an eyelid and sitting down. Perhaps this was this particular cafes style.

We sauntered back to the campsite via a little shop to pick up a baguette and once back, booked a table at the campsite’s restaurant for tonight. We had a bit of lunch outside though it was very breezy (the mat flew up and knocked Pup’s waterbowl and dust all over us) and there were some pesky flies. So we had a lazy afternoon until it got cooler and the sun set an hour earlier (the downside of the clocks moving back). We had this corner of the campsite to ourselves now as everyone had gone back home after the weekend including the wailing ghoul family. We had booked the restaurant for 8pm as we didn’t want to be the first in when it opened at 7:30 – so we wandered down at 7:50 and found ourselves still the first ones in and wondered why the reception told us we had to book. We told ourselves that maybe everybody would start coming in around 8pm and yes they did – all four of them. To make it worse, we ended up in an area overlooking the reception all on our own, presumably because we had Pup with us. So we ate alone – the meal was very nice and we had wine too, but it wasn’t what we were expecting – the restaurant had been packed yesterday when we arrived, but now everyone was gone. Maybe a blessing – it would have been full of excitable kids and would have been mayhem.

So we waddled back to the Van and settled down. Tomorrow we’re heading to the coast for a change of scenery and hopefully a beach so Pup can have a jolly good run which she hasn’t had for ages. She certainly deserves one!

We had a plan. Breakfast at the campsite’s cafe by the reception, walk to Bot and check out the town’s market, walk back and head off.

So we wandered down to the cafe only to find that dogs weren’t allowed inside – it was quite chilly and not conducive for sitting outside. So we knocked that idea on the head and decided to walk into town as planned. We’ll get breakfast in Bot. We walked along the road and up the hill, passing the chicken farm (urgh) and found the streets eerily quiet. We came up to the little square with a little cafe to one side, but still a severe lack of townspeople hauling bags and trolleys full of produce. We looked down side streets and alley ways for any signs of a bustling market and eventually resorted to asking a passing lady who pointed us in the right direction. Following her instructions, we came up to a covered area featuring a single fruit and veg stall lining the back wall and another stallholder just starting to unload boxes of shoes on trestle tables and that, ladies and gentlemen, was Bot’s market.

So not quite the bustling market we had hoped for, so we wandered back to the little cafe and ordered a consolatory croissant, a pain au chocolate sort of cake and two coffees – total cost 6.60 euros. The coffee was very strong, enough to put hairs on your chest and we mused that throughout France and Spain we hadn’t seen any decaf coffee advertised. Was it just not in their vocabulary, a complete and utter abomination to coffee drinkers, more of a cosmopolitan thing or we were just too wimpy to ask for it? Most likely the latter.

With nothing else to do, we wandered down to the old railway line – we had discovered another way back to the campsite avoiding the road while having coffee. Here, out of the blue were some information boards describing Bot’s chequered history in several languages and a fancy set of brick steps leading down to the station – in total contrast to the town itself which, on the face of it seemed just an ordinary rural Spanish village getting on with life and not being a particular tourist attraction.

The disused railway had been converted into a pathway, the old station in disrepair which was a shame – it would of made a lovely residence or a brilliant cafe stop. There were big bill boards announcing some form of regeneration here, but apart from the gravelled path and another new building, nothing much else had happened – it just felt that this part of town had been forgotten, though we reminded ourselves that we were deeply out of season and it may be a different story in high summer. With this path connecting with the campsite, maybe the local planners had something special in mind and on the verge of executing their vision.

So we followed the path back to the campsite which was lovely, looking across the valley and the mountains in the distance. Once back, we packed up the Van and headed off as we had a lunch date booked. We were in a fantastic mountain region and we followed some fantastic roads through some incredible valleys and wooded hillsides. This was wine and olive country with rows of vines and orchards of olive trees on the higher reaches. We passed small communities perched on hillsides, which seemed to be miles from their neighbouring counterpart, their houses cascading down on top of one another – some half built and seemingly abandoned, others just falling into disrepair while others were well kept and looked after. It was just a strange scene repeated in every community.

We had chosen the longer route that was offered by the satnav which was fabulous and had us gasping in awe as we rounded corners. This was probably the best day scenic wise and we loved every minute. And then the road started to narrow – it was an ordinary two way road wheedling through the mountains, but both lanes narrowed considerably so our Van straddled the white line in the middle as did the oncoming traffic (of which there was very little, thank goodness). Basically there was nowhere to go if we met anyone – we had thick metal barriers on our side, protecting us from a precipitous drop and the opposite side alternated between barriers or a rock face, though it did have a channel/gutter to drop into. Luckily we met other vehicles at points where the road widened slightly and we slowed down accordingly whereby the other motorist was either supremely confident of his width or didn’t know what brakes were for. With raised eyebrows we waited for either a scraping down the side of the Van or my wing mirror pinging off and flying into the abyss, but in reality, there was probably acres of space – its just alarming to find a speeding Seat flying round a blind corner.

We found ourselves at our destination of Gratallops, in the heart of the wine country. It was Hubby’s birthday and we decided to treat ourselves. We parked in a dusty car park behind a cafe and as we were getting organised, a huge cement lorry parked next to us. Eeek. We wandered through the deserted town which seemed to have its fair share of wine cellars and restaurants. We found our particular place with huge plate glass windows framed in wood and introduced ourselves. We had booked a wine tour and was taken into the small fermentation room with huge metal vats by Jessica who gave us a talk about the region and how the cellar started (a former chicken factory of which there were many working ones scattered along our journey today). She then took us down a metal spiral staircase into the actual vaulted cellar where the oak casks laid on their side. It was very interesting.

We went into the restaurant and enjoyed a lovely three course meal with a glass of wine and got chatting with a couple of Swiss ladies who made a fuss of The Pup and who knew our part of North West England well. It’s amazing what you learn from people. We thanked our hosts for their hospitality and wandered around the town and back to the Van. We hadn’t booked anything for tonight so after a quick look on our phones, settled on a place just south of the town of Ulldemolinas and headed there. Another 45 minutes and lots of winding mountain roads (and more gasping at scenery and fast oncoming vehicles) we arrived at Montsant Park Camping. Hubby went to check in and was faced with a non English speaking receptionist – with a mixture of fingers indicating the number of adults and by pointing at our parked van, he was getting away with it until he came to mentioning the Pup. His limited Spanish (like me) deserted him completely as he tried to think of the Spanish word for dog and with delightful quick thinking, just said “woof” to the lady and bless her, she understood completely and booked us in.

We have been a bit all over the place linguistically in Spain for several reasons. Firstly, our Spanish comes from the classroom from many years back which we can’t remember much of, secondly we’ve been in France and had got fairly comfortable mangling French and now have been thrown with the sudden change of language and thirdly, after getting confident to blurt out a stuttering sentence, the Spanish reply in English (are we that crap?) and fuse a few brain cells. So instead of saying “Si” we say “Oui” and many other French phrases and when we not looking completely blank, we manage to reply using all three languages simultaneously in one sentence (which is quite a talent and one which Hubby excels at). It doesn’t help that Catalonia has its own distinct dialect so our strangled Spanish sounds nothing like how the locals speak. We’ve got away with it with a lot of hand gestures and if necessary bark.

We found a pitch opposite a row of caravans with awnings attached that had evidently been parked there for many months, presumably as an alternative to buying a static caravan or lodge. It was gone five as we plugged in electric and turned on the gas and by the time we had fielded family phone calls sending birthday wishes, the light was going. We didn’t make tea – we were still full from lunch and settled down to write blogs and to find campsites for tomorrow. We’ll probably book two nights – the laundry bag is overflowing again and the Van could do with a bit of clean. A bit of a reset is overdue.