This was the walk we saw in our travel dreams. ……..

And we did, as we’d promised ourselves, walked northerly on the Cami today. We walked as far as Platija de Sa Conco and back with the castle and Senya Blanca (“First House” which is a euphemistically simple descriptor for the gorgeous estate) above us. The castle and grounds celebrated 100 years in 2024. 5miles by Fitbit reckoning. We even took a break from the gps navigation system – no need. It was a relaxing stroll. I’ve more photos than I can share! May add more later just for me.

See, there isn’t enough space to share the beauty and the wonder of building a castle on the rocks!

We followed this walk up with a memorable lunch at the historic La Taverna Del Mar which is still operated by the Ensesa family. It really was a special setting and meal.

Leisurely let the day slip away. A walk and toe dip on the S’Agaro pebbly beach. Dinner at a lovely place called Godard (nearly all ours, a fun waiter who said they have “fish, whole fish, local fish and fish of any type” and then laughed with us. He upsold us one more dish to share than we intended – it was a rich meal, with a good local wine.

On to Barcelona!!!!

You may remember I said I wasn’t above bending or breaking the tour route – I’m calling them “guidelines” for a reason:). As we planned the trip I’d proposed altering the final leg and avoiding a full 10.5 mile walk. My idea won out ………. Get to S’Agaro and walk north again as far as we wished. We did!

Met a delightful woman cab driver who greeted us and said “20 minutes with me, but you tell everyone it’s about a six hour walk” with a broad smile. She was fun. And her conversation led me to believe we were not the first to cut the last leg short. I’m even betting (to assuage my sense of self as an active woman) many don’t double back as we intend 😉😂😉.

Not a highlight, but interesting to note she showed us where the July wildfires we’d been watching encroached upon the Costa Brava. She mentioned on the news at the time it seemed all of Europe was on fire.

We got settled in our “not very special” hotel – Mary coined the phrase. No WiFi and an elevator that made you look for the stairs. Also our first blah reception staff – really quite blah.

S’Agaro has a history of being a place of Hollywood stars and filming location. It’s a gorgeous setting. But the amenities in the off season are limited – makes for a quiet place to be in the sun and listen to the waves though.

We walked along the beach to explore some to the south further. We saw lovely homes and coves. One could’ve been an example of the storied smugglers coves many years ago.

Beth had gelato before noon and we really just enjoyed knocking around – for me not having my hiking poles was good for the day.

Early to bed tonight, even by our standards secondary to the quiet coast life here, no wifi – Beth couldn’t even watch the news. We’re pretty sure there’s a lesson in this regarding our “smart device attachments”, but I’d just as soon learn it when I’m not vacationing!

Bona nit.

It wasn’t pretty ……. but we’ve got bragging rights for trail completion despite seriously asking ourselves about a taxi midway……. At least I did. Billed by the tour operator as “Easy to Moderate”, this is another case of “advertising license” that pushed the limit of believability.

Distance wasn’t an issue, but elevation and descent tested my fitness and my sense of safety on downhill stretches. Needed those hiking poles!!Again, terrain influenced by rain erosion (they didn’t notify us until we were enroute (SeaTac) that there was landslide risk on the Cami de Ronda trails, with one change in route to accommodate). I was exhausted at midpoint. And very glad as the trail evened out and we hit the coast line.

La Fosca is a lovely smaller bay and community. We settled outside and gobbled up Beth’s chips, Biscoff chocolates and celebrated with drinks. We shared the hotel with a large party of French hikers who made the dining room alive with chatter and laughter later in the evening.

We visited with the couple from Atlanta that Beth chatted up at La Franc. They’d noticed us beginning in Begur and we shared walking stories and tales of travel. This evening they shared they were watching for our arrival today. Should we have been too late they said they’d have contacted the tour operator! Glad we didn’t require that!

Navigation worked well today, but damn the terrain. Here’s a sampling.

It was another long day. Hotel Ancora was nothing special but we were oh so happy to arrive! We crashed after dinner, big time!

La Fosca

This fun (and very helpful) interaction with Hotel Sant Roc’s hospitality team began with what I think is my weirdest ever travel travail!

Happily headed up to my room to refresh after the trail and oops, my TSA lock didn’t respond to its code of many years. No evidence it’d been damaged really – but it did not work! I spent at least a half hour trying and became exasperated when I checked online and it reassured me there were only 1000 possibilities. Lord knows what happened, but I started by heading downstairs with a photo of the lock and a smiling “could you help me”. The reception team leapt into action and I brought the offending suitcase down. They tried online solutions, pulled an Allen wrench and awl out of their desk ……. And tried to no avail to reset or otherwise jimmy the lick. It was clear nothing short of a bolt cutter was going to work and as that wasn’t at hand I asked them to break the zipper! Surprisingly easy to break into a suitcase I must say. Just jam the awl, pen or pencil into any portion of the plastic zipper and you’re in! Which solves one problem and creates another – that suitcase wasn’t going anywhere with me! Really the only issue was that replacing it was going to steal time from our day of relaxation in Callela de Parafugell:(

Next day we took a taxi into Paraflugell (kinda the real city behind the tourist seafront), and ultimately found the best luggage shop in town! The kindest businessman showed me I think every suitcase in his store! Model and color, functions and interior design, wheel quality and all! He was careful about pricing, meticulously explaining in limited English with Beth listening for words she could pick up to help me understand. He set the new lock and off we went to celebrate in Plaza Nuovo with coffee drinks ☕️. Travel crisis averted!!!

Back to the hotel…….. I arrived triumphantly with my new suitcase. Showed it off for the hospitality folks. I asked the man who most stuck with the suitcase challenge his name, thinking to extend special appreciation. He told me he was “Jaime“ and thinking I would not recognize the name said “Bond, Jaime Bond” to lots of laughter! “Stirred, not shaken” etc. – we had a lot of fun. Enough we had a photo – meet Jaime!

Our walk into Callela brought us to our hotel terrace overlooking the Mediterranean where tapas and self congratulatory drinks awaited!! It felt both satisfying and a little glamorous. Absolutely stunning views at the end of today’s walk!!!!!!!

We enjoyed our walk today sooooooo much more than Sa Tuna (the deceptively advertised “easy” walk). This stretch wasn’t plagued by trail erosion and “anything but easy” spots of terrain. We loved it! The views ….. can’t say it enough!

Except we’d forgotten Beth was staying in a hotel round the block here, smooth going. First luggage transfer successful (with aforementioned realization of where Beth’s went:) and a lazy day. We encountered pleasant, fun hospitality staff. Leaving Begur while waiting for the taxi, a housekeeper leaned out of the window above us to get a converter to us – dropped it down to a man walking by, but it wasn’t ours! We were chatting with reception staff here in Hotel Terramar who suggested we could cheat on our next leg ………. We laughed heartily together over our unanimous response of “We already did – today”!! Then she told us “Solo una vez/only once”😉. We’re not above breaking or bending that rule!

LlaFranc is a pretty affluent, manicured little bay marina and hotel location. When we got here some water sport competition and DJ music greeted us. A fun, if raucous, kind of vibe at first that slowly turned into quieter coast retreat.

Excellent lunch away from the music! Topped off with gelato, naturally ………

And a nice marina walk to end the day.

Begur turned out to be a nice surprise for me – I hadn’t expected the ambience or sophistication. Glad of the two day stay to explore!

But getting here was loads of fun too courtesy of our “Citizen of the World” driver, Liam. Born in the US, of Spanish and Irish parents, he holds passports in each country and the UK and has plenty of family stories to tell. Of course Beth would run into an Irishman for a grandfather with a history of clandestine activities in the “Troubles”, a bit of time playing with the Dubliners (but before they hit the big time) and a mother and grandmother he now lives near here in Spain!!!! It was fun. He also danced around politics for a while until we revealed our disgust and embarrassment at Trump. He believes Trump has damaged our regard in the world (Duh!!) but says he hasn’t yet in his three years in hospitality here encountered a Trumper. (He believes they don’t travel or have an international perspective:)

But Begur was hopping for a four day holiday, which included Fiesta Nacional de España / Día de la Hispanidad and a film festival!

We joined the beautiful people in the historic centre and became part of the tapas crowd. Might have included a couple of beers and G&T’s if I remember right!

And of course we walked the red carpet before heading to bed !

Begur Day 2

This was our first day walking. Gorgeous coastline, generally effective smartphone tracked trail, but we beg to differ at the walk descriptor “Easy”.

You confirm the digital navigation with the signage and international walkers coded “painted markers”.

And then the terrain and elevation gain discouraged photography! The recent rain contributed to eroded trail conditions and even some scree to walk across. We ultimately ”lost“ our trail even though it was within feet of our gps location. Who knows, but we followed the small coastal road back to Begur and picked up our breadcrumb trail to the hotel – a very welcome site! “Our” rogue trail added a little over 1000ft of elevation and was half mile or so shorter. I was fagged! There are “incidents that shall not be named” behind this end of trail story……

Saying goodbye to Begur the next day was leisurely and relaxing. I’m listening to the local church bells as I write. Birds are talking. The weather is lovely and we chose not to take today’s walk which was the most strenuous of them all (I’d been advocating even before our departure). But we’re well, happy to be meandering the town and looking forward to more Catalan coastline!!

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Everything does look better under blue skies!

We leave Girona today, but not without walking the city under blue skies😊. Just look at that intense blue!

We had some nice interactions with young people out and about. Kenza, a charming young student from Australia on a gap year and a small group of hijab wearing women who staged a photo on one of the ponts (bridges). Kenza visited after taking our photo for quite a while. The women communicated with beautiful smiles – they were exotic!

We had to laugh at our expectations before we left. Wanted to add the Murales of Girona to our sites, but wound round in the warrens of the city for way too long. We finally found contemporary examples of what we had variously thought would be historical mosaics, ancient etchings or religious murals. Beth made extensive effort to get us to them – they were elusive. Probably because we found these, instead of what we “expected”.

Our departure from the city got a little tense despite having been very well planned in advance. The hybrid hotel we were in didn’t staff reception until 2pm, but had ordered our cab the day before and provided us a code to enter and pick up our lockered bags. Except they didn’t work and efforts to reach their emergency contacts were poorly responded to. Finally a Whats App stream of texts got us sorted and to our pick up! Took all three of us scrambling and making calls to leave – it all worked out.

Girona was a really good way to start our trip. New to us, approachable, and as my young train friend expressed, a “romantic place, iluminar la noche”.

The warmth and blue skies of Girona are hidden today. We’re leaving our hotel with hoods and umbrellas. We’re staying right in the historical center of this atmospheric city, but the weather went from drizzling to downfall, accompanied by thunder until maybe 6pm. Our waterproof jackets and shoes got a trial for the walk ahead if needed. Girona is a historic, walled city with a Catedral and beautiful grounds (we’re pretty sure they’d look better with blue sky behind them though).

After one particularly heavy drenching we were offered a refuge in a cozy restaurant, L’Arros, where the owner made us a soupy paella he recommended and made fresh for us from a fresh fish display. The bread and warmth were welcome before we headed to a nap 💤

Following the rousing thunderstorms we headed to the “poorer cousin” of a family of restaurants, El Cellar de can Roca (Michelin ranked and lauded as “possibly the worlds best restaurant recently and booking a year in advance.). We chose to visit their Normal restaurant (since we don’t plan that far in advance) and found it anything but normal! https://restaurantnormal.com/en/. We dined leisurely from 8-11:15 and by Spanish standards began early!! It was a special treat! Our hands down fav was the exquisite salad!!!! Beth and I ordered from the “sampling” menu and were a little jealous of Mary’s full salad!!!

Ah, a satiating evening on a “Normal” corner in Girona!

So, we survived our first day of travel – things went well. We’re in Espana!!! Even the hook up with Beth at SeaTac was slick. (Don’t know exactly how we did it, but we ended up on separate flights PDX-SEA after adding Beth to the trip post medical clearance from her ophthalmologic surgeon. Made for whirlwind bookings!!).

Turns out my superpower is still sleeping on the plane. Neither Mary or Beth slept at all – Beth watched 3 movies and Mary listened to 60’s music. I slept about 5-6 hours of the 9 hour flight. But it was a long day – mostly getting from Barcelona to Girona, a smaller walled city with lots of atmosphere. It was our destination for the day. The new EES system added 35 minutes to leaving the airport. Well, that and another half hour “losing“ Beth after luggage pick up! We got separated when seeking directions on our train from Barcelona. Mary and I were unwilling to leave the airport proper until we found her ….. Beth went rogue! Luckily Beth got the same directions we did – she even got to the shuttle that got us to the train station first! We finally connected by text and she was waiting for us at the airport Renfe connection to the high speed train!!

We knew before leaving that rain was going to be a complication. It was. More than we thought. Landslides in the Valencia region south of us created a suspension in train service near there without estimated return. There was also a bus strike somewhere that added to the mix. I think I counted three tv stations broadcasting from the train station – Beth photo bombed at least one:). Wayfinding in the train station wasn’t as straightforward as usual in international settings. That or our brains were fried….

We had to find a way to buy our ticket – normally not a problem per our travel guru, Rick Steves. A kind English speaking man overheard us discussing an approach and put us in the know about a DMV/Baskin Robbin’s’ “take a ticket” crowd control for ticket purchases. He said he’d spent an hour figuring that out! Thank god he gave us instructions! Our ticket (Mary found the English language kiosk🎉) was 605 and the one being served was 556. Some more waiting – we’re still having “605 PTSD”.

Compensation for the wait came in the form of a delightful young 18 year old man on the train. I engaged him over the homemade lasagna he pulled out to eat -would he like to share? Never offered but praised his mom’s lasagna and chatted with us for much of the trip:).

We settled and wandered a little in the old city this evening. Able to have some tapas and wine outdoors and begin to wind down. And topped them off with gelato!!! I recommend flavors Taorima and Nicciola!

When we laid our heads on our pillows we were out in moments!