On our way, we stopped at Torroella de Fluvia, a small village en route where we hoped to get lunch.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed (it was Monday), so we continued to L'Escala.
We walked into L'Escala where our usual tapas bar was closed (Monday), so we went into the bar next door where the tapas was good, but didn't do our favourite Spanish omlette. It was then time to return to the hotel for a siesta.
Here is the usual view from our window.
Before dinner in the hotel, we walked away from the town, towards St Marti, past the Greek and Roman ruins of Empuries. This whole area was once a Roman port and some of the harbour walls are still standing.
Our dinner in the hotel was very good although the service was slow - everyone arrived at the same time and so the staff were overloaded.
Afterwards, we walked along the path by the rocks checking that nothing had fallen down since our last visit.
Then, we went to bed, falling asleep to the sound of the waves immediately outside our bedroom.
The next day was beautifully sunny and so we set out to explore new (to us) areas. We can see Rosas from the hotel and on the map, it looked as though there was a nature reserve en route. We began at the beach at Castello d'Empuries. There is a long stretch of sand and a leisure port at each end of the beach.
The nature reserve stretches the length of the beach and someway inland.
These are snails gathered on a twig, not a new variety of flower.
The ground cover is mostly low grasses.
The Pyrenees were visible, but not particularly clear.
After a walk, we moved on to the town of Castello D'Empuries to find some lunch. Castello d'Empuries was the capital of the county of Empuries between 1079 and 1385 when Empuries became part of Aragon.
This is the old wash house from the 19th century. The columns are older and may have been part of the cloisters of a convent.
The church of Saint Maria de Castelló
The Grand House from the 14th or 15th century was a residence of Catalan nobility.
This building, which was built around 1336, served two roles, the curia (or court) and prison.
The door of the convent de Sant Domènece and county palace, built in the second half of the 14th century.
This is simply an interesting window.
In the evening we ate in a very small village, close to the hotel, St Marti d'Empuries which was the capital of Empuries before Castella d'Empuries, that is, before 1079. St Marti is on the coast and was being sacked by pirates on a regular basis, hence the transfer of the capital.
There is a choice of restaurants in the small town square and we chose one that we had not eaten at before. Pat had a whole monkfish and John a sea bream. Both were delicious.
We are now back in Thézan with the next scheduled trip being in November to look after Ernie for a few days.
Pat and John on tour