So Saturday was a lovely day in the city and we had a brilliant meal at a (P&P) Posh and Pricey restaurant. Sunday introduces three new Ps – Pubol, la Pera and Playa de Pals.
Salvador Dali bought and restored a castle for his wife Gala in the hamlet of Pubol. I had visited it twice many years apart and had always found it fascinating. Gala accepted it as a gift from Salvador on one condition: he only ever visited at her invitation. Their’s was a very strange relationship! This was Rosa’s first visit and she was enthralled by the place. We would both find it very easy to live there. It is not too big overall but has spacious rooms, modern facilities like phones, TV, a fabulous 50s record player and a fridge. It also has a lot of Dali features, painted or installed by him as he converted the ruin. There is a Cadillac car and a horse-drawn carriage and several photographs of Gala in various poses around the house – one of which we recreated. There was a temporary exhibition of shoots for Vogue magazine with Dali and the photographer Horst.This too was fascinating with contact sheets from the sessions and the final magazine pages. Real insights into the creative process.
And the densely overgrown garden has concrete elephants and a pool dedicated to Wagner (good man).
The village of Pubol has a couple of very Posh restaurants. However the whole of Spain eats lunch with extended families on Sunday so we were tolerated for a beer and a mineral water but not for lunch. So we head for La Pera the next village where the SatNav tries to take us up a no entry and then does take us into a cul-de-sac where we have to do a multipoint (I lost count) turn and then the nearest parking involved reversing close to a precipice – Rosa nobley got out to shout stop as appropriate. We then walked up the no entry and found a very unposh bar that gave us a fine lunch of croquettes, grilled artichokes and a rose wine so nice Rosa photographed the bottle for future reference. It is very rare to get really bad food and service anywhere in Spain apart from the tourist hotspots. Local, unfussy bars like this are usually reliable and friendly.
Rosa had booked us tickets for a concert in Girona at 6 pm so, with a few hours to spare,I suggested a trip to Pals beach for a brief wander along the strand. It is always good to see the sea. We both agreed that Pals village had been over-restored so as to become almost a film set. However, Rosa did not know that it had an eight kilometre beach. So we drove there a walked a bit and then made our way back to Girona for the gig.
The concert was being given by the Catalan Community Gospel Choirs and we didn’t really have much idea of what to expect. I was glad to visit the Auditori de Girona, a modern edifice at the edge of the big tree lined park on the north side of the city – La Devesa – which is a real Girona landmark. We are both amazed by the number of people arriving and the distance away we had to park. Poor crowd management meant long queues and a late start! They were probably as surprised as us!
The concert itself was an evening of rollicking fun. There were eight choirs from all over Catalonia who had been part of a workshop weekend with a renowned gospel singer Colin Vassell. 250 people filed onto the stage all wearing CCGC tee shirts and filled with enthusiasm for their task. They were accompanied by a great band with keyboards, bass guitar and drums on one side of the stage and pairs of trumpets, trombones and saxophones on the other. The singing was loud and mostly in unison but it was very affecting and they managed to get the majority of the audience – and the hall holds 1200 – on their feet and dancing and certainly clapping along – us too – to many of the songs. It is a good thing when you go in with low expectations and come out with a buzz and a smile. No it wasn’t the highest quality musical experience of the year but seeing so many people having the time of their lives is infectious.
We wandered back to the distant car with broad smiles and I dropped Rosa off close to her home before making my way back to Lloret. After all Rosa is now on an employment sabbatical and two late nights would not be good before Monday morning back at work. I really enjoyed exploring places with her and introducing her to some she didn’t know. I did have a house here for seven years and came back again with Dee a few times after that had to go; so I do have some knowledge of the area. It is a truly beautiful part of the world. Super weekend! Thanks Rosa!
