I started out with a few aims: 1: call Rosa to arrange the weekend; 2: find stronger painkillers than paracetamol; 3 buy a USB C double to connect phone to car; 4: sun.
A call to Rosa proves better than expected – she is happy to meet for dinner tonight. I research a few places half way between Lloret and Girona and am delighted when Rosa selects Ca la Manela in Caldes de Malavella. Spain must have a farmacia for every ten people and the first one I encounter is organic/non chemical so I have some potion specially for joints. It has my knee on the packet so I buy it. I do however get plan B at a normal chemist later. Both come in a form I have not encountered before – they are sachets that you tear the top off and suck the contents into your mouth. The cable too is acquired from one of the multitude of phone shops and I have SatNav on the big screen. And there is a hint of sun on the beach at Lloret. So far so good.
Lloret is not for me. The Benidorm of the Costa Brava without the extent and height of the tower blocks. I did find a quite nice church but no casc antic that makes so many towns interesting. I walked the streets filled with gift shops, ceramics and how ever many watch shops. How are the Spanish renowned for a mañana attitude with so many options to keep them to time? And it dawned on me that Lamine Yamal is the new Messi given the almost total absence of other players’ strips parading the promenade and tourist traps. I found a square away from the front for a coffee and another local place for some tapas and then headed out of town for my planned dinner with Rosa.
I had stayed at the Vichy Catalan spa in Caldes de Malavella on my 2017 newly widowed sort-myself-out trip and, while small, it has some fine buildings and a good restaurant. As I was there well before our booking time at 20:30, I was able to explore further and discovered that the mineral water it is famed for was originally discovered by the Romans in 300 BCE. The Roman Baths are free to enter and proved an interesting wander for half a hour with some good multilingual explanatory display boards, charting is uses and misuses through the centuries/until the nineteenth century vogue for “taking the waters” gave the town a whole new commercial life. I think there are half a dozen companies the most famous of which is Vichy Catalan. And despite some very threatening clouds over the mountains I did get some sun with a green tea in the square watching much coming and going of the local populace.
There was a convenient free parking space two minutes from the restaurant in which I think I had a quick lunch ten years ago. It seemed much expanded and had an attractive menu from which we were encouraged to order far too much food. On enquiring what the portion sizes were the patron’s hands indicate a cazuela or saucer size. When they game they were charger sized and I am afraid there was some waste of very tasty seafood and grilled vegetables. I think the meal was unique in my history in that we each consumed one glass of verdejo as we both had to drive back.
It was a lovely evening catching up and making plans for the weekend in Girona. As a conceptual artist, often waiting for the next commission, Rosa is taking a sabbatical into the world of work with a 10 till 2 and 4 till 8 Spanish hours job which she finds wonderfully liberating being allocated tasks and timescales to achieve. Fortunately I did have a glass of last night’s Ramon Bilbao to render the evening a bit more normal.
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