Full day

We packed in a lot of activities today, and now it’s late, so my account may be incoherent.

We kicked off with a visit to the ceramic museum in La Bisbal d’Empordà (blip). It is the most important centre for ceramics in Catalonia, which is already ceramic central. The main street is lined with shops selling it in its many forms. I think the museum must have been closed when we were here in 2012, because we went to La Bisbal a few times, and I’m sure we would have found it. It is housed in a vast pottery works with a row of kilns running the length of it (one visible in blip) and tall chimneys outside. The kilns were not fired directly, but had a complex system of channels circulating the heat and venting it via the chimneys. It was interesting, and we spent well over an hour there.

After that we followed a route recommended by the tourist office in Begur, around medieval villages. Most of these were picturesque but obviously suffering from second home disease as opportunities for refreshment were scant. We ended up in the square of the very attractive village of Monells where a group of about 30 people had just finished a 15 kilometre trail run and were now intent on a marathon of sangria, charcuterie, cheese, and tortilla. We ordered beers and sat at the one free table enjoying the ambiance. Just as their food was served the clear blue sky delivered a rain shower, and we all rushed to cram under the arcade.

We decided to seek our lunch elsewhere, so when there was a lull in the rain we returned to the car and continued our route. Drawing blanks in each attractive but deserted village, we ended up making a beeline for Palafrugell 20 km away. Surely we’d find somewhere there. After a long slog from the car park to the main square, we were getting a bit fractious, more so when we ended up in a bar that could only offer tapas. So our wedding anniversary lunch was a bowl of patatas bravas, a far cry from lunch at Az-Zait in Seville last year. They were good patatas though :)

Afterwards we found an ice cream shop, and with a jolt of recognition found the Frankfurter restaurant we visited occasionally in 2012, totally unchanged. Would have been a good option for lunch.

Oh well. Next we headed for Grau, the truly massive wine supermarket on the outskirts of Palafrugell. It is astonishingly big, with wines from all over the world. We bought seven bottles, including cava and some LBV port.I tried to take a photo with my phone but it’s so big I could only get about half of it in (see extra).

Enough … we headed back to Begur. The sky was very menacing by now. I returned to the hotel and S dashed into town to buy some nibbles. Within seconds of my getting back the sky erupted with dramatic flash-bangs of thunder and lightning directly overhead, accompanied by hailstones and then torrential rain. S got back only slightly bedraggled.

The storm soon moved off though, so we headed to the bar in the square with the enclosed terrace for a quick apero and tapas, along with many other tourists sheltering from the rain. Here I paid even more for an admittedly extremely generous G&T (8.50) than I did in Seville. One was enough … then back to the hotel for our DIY tapas. Happy anniversary to us!