Girona

Good P & P &P

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.

Pals beach with the Islas Medas special marine environmental area in the distance. Great diving!

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!

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Giro de Girona

Although we met for dinner on Thursday, the prime purpose of this trip for me was to spend a weekend with Rosa in her new home in Girona. The drive up on Saturday morning was easy and I had, thanks to local advice, prebooked a car park space close to Rosa’s apartment. Number plate recognition raised the barrier, shared location on Google maps allowed Rosa to come and find me. Oh the technology!

Her apartment is brilliantly situated in the old town – 5 minutes from the market, and well placed for bars and restaurants. We stopped for a coffee on the way and I learned that Girona is a training hub for serious cyclists – police impeded my progress a couple of times so that a peloton could emerge on they up from Lloret. And the cafe we stopped at was full of them.

Having dropped off my bag, we headed off to the not very visually exciting market and bought ingredients for a light lunch. Rosa’s flat is in a fabulous old building and is very comfortable and she is an excellent host. We sauntered through the old streets admiring the graphics on shopfronts and their contents!

Before eating however we had to take a typical Girona pre-lunch vermut. Not a regular drink of mine but most enjoyable with olives and crisps with a Tabasco style sauce. We later added a delicious little tin of cockles. It is a good thing to have someone with whom to explore local customs. And on the way back we booked a table in Safo restaurant for the evening.

The plan after lunch back at Rosa’s, was to visit the Girona Museum of Art which Rosa had not yet managed since moving here. The Museum is misnamed. It stands next to the cathedral and should be called the Girona Museum of Religious Art and Artefacts. There were some interesting things on display from many centuries of life in the city. It did not capture our imagination or demand a revisit any time soon. Rosa had thoughtfully found us a sloping route up since the cathedral steps well outrank the Spanish steps in Rome and are apparently often featured in Game of Thrones. It did give us an opportunity for a selfie looking across the city to the mountains in the distance.

We wandered back with a stop for a beer and a pass by a shop that used to sell a brilliant range of automata of which Jo has quite a collection. Sadly no more clockwork toys. We did venture into a few other shops and this gave us a chance to look at the buildings along the river Onyar which I remember with affection for their colourful reflections and sense of peace.

The choice of restaurant for tonight was important for Rosa who suffers a little from the conservatism of some of her new friends. With a taste for good food she would head for P&P bars and restaurants which would be spurned by her mates as too Posh and Pricey. Safo was one such although not so pricey. The food was exquisite – a pâté so runny I asked for a spoon to load it onto tacos, roasted polenta that was the best texture and taste combination ever with a salad – now here’s service! I asked if the leaves included spinach and was shortly presented with my personal salad which the chef confirmed had no spinach. Wow! Posh! Then a rarity for me and a first for Rosa – veal sweetbreads which were in a divine sauce. Big thanks to Safo for a superb dinner with an excellent organic local rosat wine to accompany it.

We had eaten quite early by Spanish standards but the night was not over as friends John and Noellie had been at a friend’s gig nearby and were up for meeting for a nightcap. We tried to get onto the roof terrace of the Roca Brothers posh hotel by I suspect my shorts and polo shirt proved improper dress. However a happy hour was spent on the terrace of a Georgian restaurant Qvevri at which wine and snacks were taken by some and a huge meringue-cum-Eton mess that satisfied Rosa’s craving for something sweet which she had been denied by my aversion to puddingy things. It looked amazing and was devoured by the three sweet eaters. It was a real delight to meet John and his wife. I knew that John had worked with Rosa on some of her arts projects and we had a fine chat until well past midnight when a scowling proprietress indicated it was closing time. Having slightly failed to clock locations as we tried to find the right place, before I knew it we were back at Rosa’s setting up the sofa bed and retiring after a fabulous day in Girona.

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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.

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. — The original source

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.