Tag: Caldes de Malavella

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A better day two

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.

Close-up of a person's knee with visible skin texture, next to a box of Regenidol Forte, which highlights joint health.
Box of Enandol 25 mg oral solution containing dexketoprofen, indicated for short-term treatment of acute pain in adults, with 16 sachets of 10 ml each.
A car's dashboard display showing a navigation map, with a highlighted route, estimated time, and distance to the next turn.

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.

View of a weathered stone ceiling with a small rectangular opening and patches of greenery.
The original source
Ruins of an ancient stone structure featuring an archway and a staircase, with weathered stones and brick elements.
Convenient steps
Ruins of an ancient structure with stone walls, partially covered by a transparent roof, showcasing steps and a central space with exposed ground.
The sharing bath

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.

Front view of a restaurant named 'Ca la Manela,' featuring a yellow facade and large glass doors, with menus displayed on the windows.
Interior view of a cozy restaurant featuring wooden beams, stone walls, and tables set with glasses and flowers.

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.

Spain again

Vichy Catalan

3 Away on the windThe first four months of this year have been rather busy so after fulfilling Dee’s last wishes on her birthday by letting her fly free from the Ivinghoe Beacon, I thought it was time for me to fly away too for a while and catch up with me and my thoughts. Friends and family have been wonderfully supportive and made sure I didn’t sit doing a bottle of scotch every night or something equally daft and making sure that I had plenty of stimulating company, excursions and diversions. So I decided to take off for three weeks in May and where better to go than Spain which has meant so much to us both over the last twenty plus years. So here we go on a visit on my own to some of the places we had enjoyed together and see how it all stacks up.

Well the planning is all rubbish for a start:

  • DataCars persuade me to leave home at 10:30 for a 14:45 flight despite my assertion that 11:30 would be good, So an early last water of the plants that kind people will keep alive while I’m away and off we go. Not even the slightest pause at the Blackwall Tunnel so we get to Stansted at 11:20 and I’m checked in and through security in double quick time with two hours before they even announce the gate! One of the perks Dee had on her bank account was an airport lounge pass which we had made good use of in the past. I decided to continue the pass from a Groupon half price deal. Was I glad of it today! In a quiet room with a view of aircraft if that’s your thing I had coffee and croissants, read the paper and started to write this. Then it was time for lunch and a glass of wine and then off to the gate feeling calm and relaxed not having had to spend my time being screamed at to buy duty free goods – to get to the lounge and the gates Stansted has copied IKEA so you have to walk past all those designer outlets, and Boots and Smiths, before you can reach your destination.
  • The best car hire deal was direct with Budget who claimed their office was on Girona airport. It’s not. And they close at 18:00. My flight arrived at 17:45, slightly early, but after baggage reclaim, determining the location of Budget and walking the half a k to get there, the office was closed. However the lady in charge had not quite escaped so a young lady with a bicycle in a big black case and I were allowed to collect our pre-booked cars BUT we had to pay €60 extra for “out of hours’ collection” which the boss lady was most apologetic about and gave us detailed receipts and instructions on how to reclaim it. It’s clearly a scam she doesn’t approve of. She also “upgraded” me to a smart red Audi which is quite nippy and fun to drive.
  • My first hotel Balneari Vichy Catalan was carefully selected just 20 minutes from Girona Airport and at the source of what had always been our favourite mineral water Vichy Catalan. You can really taste those minerals doing you good – just don’t put it in whisky.IMG_2217

I don’t know how good your Catalan is but this banner  mocking my arrival says Festival the last Saturday in April. When do I arrive? The first of May. It also features the person who gives the place its name. Mala vella is an evil old woman who reportedly haunted the castle in medieval times. I checked in to the hotel and set off to find a bar with a UK TV feed so I could watch Watford v Liverpool. Everywhere was closed in fiesta recuperation mode so I came back to the hotel to find that there was a  Spanish channel showing it so I could watch us just miss out on at least a point thanks to a wonder goal from Emre Can, a great save from a Capoue shot and the crossbar from Prödl. The Spanish commentators found Vicarage Road very difficult to pronounce. This led to me being by a long way the last person in the restaurant – a time honoured Lesley-Raggett tradition so I excused myself by indicating my watch still being on London time. As with the majority of Spanish staff they were gracious, attentive and had a laugh about it. They didn’t mention Brexit. I did leave a tip. An interesting fact – well I thought so – is that the Balneari  Hotel and the Vichy Catalan company were established in 1881 the same year as a certain football club!

IMG_2221So day 1 is nearing its end and my poor planning has been rescued by the fact that the hotel is a spectacular example of modernisme architecture, the town has a lot of fine houses in similar vein and I’m doing a hydrotherapy circuit tomorrow morning just like we did together with such delight in San Sebastian last August. A comparative report will follow.