As usual, one of John's Christmas presents was a couple of nights on the Costa Brava. When we tried to book our usual hotel, which is on the beach at L'Escala, we discovered that it was closed between New Year and Easter.
With the aid of TripAdviser we found the Hotel St Jorge on the outskirts of Platja d'Aro further down the coast and at a bargain price.
We set out on Thursday with Tom Tom navigating. The Pyrenees were magnificent as we drove towards Spain.
Somewhere along the route, Tom Tom decided that he would like to take a look at a restaurant in Girona that we are planning to visit - the driver thought that she was driving to the hotel and was a bit confused when we started to head inland .... We're there said John, no we're not, said Pat. This is El Celler de Can Roca and we're in Girona!
This is a world famous restaurant where one books well in advance. We had already tried and failed to book a table in April and, because we will be going with another couple, our next attempt will be for October. We were allowed to look around and established that there are a few tables still available in October and November.
This is the courtyard
We drove on to the hotel and discovered that it was quite as good as we had hoped! This was the view from our terrace.
Essentially, the hotel has several connected but separate beaches that can only be accessed from the hotel.
View from the beach to the tower blocks of Platya d'Aro.
The town in the distance behind the sea gulls is Palamos with its two ugly tower blocks.
We walked into the town of Platja d'Aro but were not impressed - too many high rise apartment blocks. It could have been Torremolinos. We only found one restaurant that might be interesting and lots of high street shops with sales still running. We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant and this was the right decision! The menu was varied and reasonably priced and the food was excellent. There was no doubt where we would be eating the next night.
The next day, we were debating what we should do, when a couple at the next table suggested villages further up the coast, Calella de Palafrugell and Llafranc. Here we found a lovely unspoilt Catelonian fishing village. Most of the hotels were closed, but many restaurants were open, suggesting to us that people would come to eat in the middle of the day.
It was a lovely day with a temperature of about 20 degrees, so we sat out in the sun at lunchtime and enjoyed turbot at a small fish restaurant.
After lunch we walked on round the coast to the next seaside village, Llfranc. The large beach which must be full of people in the summer, but was almost deserted at the beginning of February. It was obviously a bit upmarket, given the seal of approval by Hemingway, Dali and Tom Sharpe, and some of its small hotels were open.
In the late afternoon, we returned to the hotel for a rest followed by another delicious meal in the restaurant. There were many more people eating on Friday and when we came done to breakfast the next morning, it was obvious that there were many guests for the weekend.
We left the hotel on Saturday morning and stopped at Palamos on our way home. We had cloud with some blue sky from time to time, but it was not as warm as the previous two days.
Palamos is much larger that the other places we had visited, and has a commercial port and fishing fleet. It was just as deserted near the beach. With the exception of the two monstrous tower blocks the town was on a nice scale. The really large blocks being further from the town at Calonge.
We walked into the town and saw the shopping area and church.
After morning tea and a lunch of tapas, we set off for home. As we reached the Pyrenees, the tramontana was blowing strongly. Crossing into France, we were greeted with rain squalls worthy of an English April. It was still windy when we reached Thézan but no sign of rainfall while we had been away.
So now we go into packing and organising mode for our trip to South Africa in two weeks time.
Pat and John on tour
