Hola di Catalunya!
Wow, what a busy 3 days we've had to start our tour of Catalonia. Flew into Barcelona airport on Sunday and transferred to Cambrils. If you're anything like us you won't have heard of Cambrils until the last few weeks add the terrorist attacks. Interestingly there's no sign at all of extra security but the events have had an effect on the place judging by all the "I love Cambrils" signs in the shops and restaurants. It's a very pleasant seaside resort with a lovely tree lined promenade, a wide sandy beach, an up market marina and some very interesting sculptures obviously inspired by Salvador Dali!
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Yesterday we went on a birdwatching spotting trip to the Ebro Delta, a huge expanse of wetlands, apparently the 3rd largest in Europe. Lots of herons (grey & purple), little and great egrets, a huge flock of glossy ibis and the first few flamingos of the season, still in their grey plumage, no swathes of pink yet unfortunately. Sadly, not much opportunity for taking pictures.
In the afternoon we moved on to the town of Peniscola, a medieval town dominated by a castle fortress. We walked along the promenade and spotted this superb sand sculpture. We also took a few minutes as the fishing fleet was coming in to watch them unload their catch ready for the market.
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Thanks Moulesy, nice to hear news from further afield and the see the pics too. I'm trying to find my way round a new laptop just now so excuse the short post. Enjoy your holiday, it's the only area of Spain I've visited and that was a long time ago by train.
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Today we've visited Tarragona which has a superb 14th century cathedral, the picture really doesn't do it justice, and the reamAinsdale of the Romans amphitheatre outside the ancient city walls, backing on to the beach.
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And then this afternoon we went up to another medieval walled town called Montblanc which has lots of narrow cobbled streets and pretty squares and a huge church surrounded by the most amazing mosaic streets.
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Great photos moulesy. Sounds like you are having a great time.
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Wrong time of the year but I love the Jacaranda trees in May. Murcia has a load of them lining the river.
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Visited Cambrils back in the 80s,stayed overnight on the quay car park in those days.Used to wake up and watch the fishing fleet go out at 04-00 ,with a cup of cocoa ,then back to sleep till later.Interestingto see then the fleet returning late afternoon and deposit their catch in the fish market. Used to be a good restaurant out on the main road too,run by Father and Son.They also had accommodation upstairs.Just one of many memories of touring !! 
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Great photos Moulesy, enjoy your holiday
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Hola! M.....
we passed the Delta and Cambrils on our way here to Benicassim on Sunday....
i have a very nice Rioja here if you can make it....
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Moved on from Cambrils up to Sort in the Pyrenees today. It's a very old fashioned mountain resort with lots of quaint buildings and a river where, apparently, rafting is very popular, but the level is so low at the moment that it's not as exciting as it should be! Haven't had chance to take any pictures here yet.
On the way we stopped off at the Cistercian monestary at Pobletts, a UNESCO world heritage site, very reminiscent of Fountains Abbey but much better preserved and still a "working" monestary though with only about 30 monks now. A real mishmash of architectural styles too.
Off up into the national park tomorrow.
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Sort is a typical mountain village, very busy along its main road but sleepy as soon as you move away. A very picturesque church and a river where the main attraction is rafting and kayaking, apparently the Spanish team come here to prepare for the Olympics, but it's very calm at the moment, there's been a very dry summer.
Along the main street are mainly modern hotels and apartments, until you come across the Cafe Pessets; the building is over 150 years old and if you look closely the pillars appear to be supported by a pair of mermaids! I'm not quite sure what the story is there - we're miles from the sea!
Gluttony for punishment we walked up the hill on the other side of the valley to where they are trying to restore some vineyards abandoned some 200 years ago.
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This morning we went up into the centre of the Pyrenees, to a village called Espot and we're driven in a 4 by 4 up into the Aguestorte National Park. We walked along the shores of the Lake of St Maurice and onto a spectacular waterfall. The weather was perfect and the scenery is simply stunning up there.
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More lovely armchair travel. Thank you 😆. Look at that blue sky have you photo-shopped it 😂😂😂 it's very grey here, did see a glimpse of blue early this morning. Great photos. Looks like you're having a great time, are you on an organised tour?
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We moved on to Camprodon yesterday. It's a very pretty medieval town on the edge of the Pyrenees close to the French border. The river is spanned by this mini-Mostar like bridge, we get this view direct from our balcony and it looks spectacular lit up at night.
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Today we went up to the "remote" Nuria valley, more spectacular mountain scenery. You can only get to what is, in fact, a fairly busy ski resort in winter by walking (3 1/2 hours) or on the little rack & pinion train - we didn't walk!
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Great pictures, M. You certainly seeing plenty of interesting places and having the weather to enjoy them Wish it was as sunny here.
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Hello Nellie, you have recently booked our CL - would it be possible to contact me again please?
I haven't learned if you can private message me on here!
Thanks
Dean
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There is no PM facility on this Forum.----- But---- The way to contact others privately is to include an Email address on your profile. Those who need to contact you privately, can then contact you via that email address.
It works well, many of us have been using this method for years.
K
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We've come down from the mountains back to the coast at Roses today and we have this wonderful sea view from our balcony.
On the way we visited a town called Besalu which apparently was recently listed in The Guardian as one of Europe's best "unheard of" medieval towns. It has a superb fortified entrance (sadly reconstructed after damage during the civil war) and historic Jewish and Christian quarters. Luckily for us today was festival day and in the main square the local band was playing and there was a traditional dance taking place which seemed to consist of 4 or so folk forming a circle which then grew and grew as spectators joined in. It looked very informal but there were obviously some rules as everyone seemed to be making the same steps at the same time!
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Bakers - sorry, forgot to answer your question! Yes, we are on an organised tour. Don't tell anyone else, but between you and me and these 4 virtual walls, it's a SAGA tour and is extremely well organised.
We are by some way the youngest couple in the group which has one big advantage for us - at every stop the first thing the tour manager points out is the location of the toilets, resulting in a mad dash in that direction ( well maybe dash is not exactly the right word!) So we get 20 minutes or so to wander round on our own before the group gets back together!
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Thanks for the posts and pictures Moulesy, I'am enjoying touring Catalonia with you, all from my sofa!
It's been almost as warm here today 25°C .0 -
We had rain last night, proper rain just like we get at home!
As our room's on the top floor of the hotel and the balcony has no roof, it meant a couple of extra hours in the bar, so no great hardship. We'do spent the morning at the nearby village of Cadaques, famous as the place where Salvador Dali lived and worked for many years before he allegedly ran off with the wife of a fellow artist who was visiting them. There'should not a lot of evidence of his time there now, just a statue on the seafront. It's a quiet, picturesque little place with a church which looks very plain from the outside, but when you go in you are confronted by this fantastic huge golden coloured altarpiece.
A very pleasant few hours.
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Roses itself is an odd mixture of modern and ancient. A huge sweep of beach lined with modern hotels and a swanky marina, but just over the road, less than 100 metres from our hotel are the remains of the ancient citadel, dating back to the 4th century BC, a mixture of Greek and Roman structures.
Tonight's our last night here - off to Barcelona via Girona tomorrow for the final two nights of the tour.
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