This trip has been billed as a Parador tour and so it was only fitting that our original first stop off point should be one of the government owned hotels. As Paradores go Cardona – castle does not disappoint. It’s a historic castle complete with chapel, walls, armouries and more. A very cool place to spend a couple of nights. As an Amigo we get a complementary welcome drink at each place, which we enjoy on the terrace overlooking a stunning panoramic view of the valley – it’s obvious why they built a castle here! We get talking to an American lady who was born in Catalonia but moved to San Francisco as a child; she is supportive of Catalan independence and we wonder whether her family left Spain to escape the Franco regime.
The other feature of this area is salt mining and we take a pleasant 7km walk around the local area taking in the open cast mines. There is so much salt in this area that it is made into household objects for decoration – our tables have candle holders made of salt and it also explains yesterday’s salt baked salmon in Tiurana.
We discover a cute little café which furnishes us with breakfast on both mornings at a fraction of the price of the hotel buffet, but we do take lunch in the hotel, intrigued by the duck paella to share. It’s good, but we’re not convinced that the food is twice as good as other places we have been (yet it costs twice as much). The American lady also comes in for lunch and gets talking to a Spanish couple sat next to us. When they realise she is alone, they ask her to join them – this general friendliness crops up again and again, and especially when we try our halting few words of Spanish, we are always met by smiles and encouragement.
Beck tries to keep up with her running but with the castle being perched on a hill, opts for the treadmill in the hotel gym. Unfortunately, no-one has turned off the adjacent sauna and the gym is stiflingly hot, meaning a paltry 4km is all she can manage, but at least it helps work off some of lunch!
After two nights, it’s time to move on to Barcelona. There is no Parador in Barcelona itself, as an early objective of the hotel group was to spread tourism to less well-known areas (the other objective being to safeguard historic buildings). Instead we have an Airbnb close to Park Güell. We arrive early and message our host, who is quick to arrive and sort us out with free, secure parking. The car will stay there now for the duration of our stay as we opt for public transport over braving the crazy roads and even crazier parking. The accommodation is great – perfect for our needs. As it turns out, the public transport system is also great. A T-10 card gives you ten trips on all forms of public transport for around €1 per trip. The card is interchangeable between people so we can share one card, punching two journeys at a time, between us. It cuts out the hassle of buying tickets each time we travel and means we only have to make five journeys in total to make it worthwhile. One validation runs for one and a half hours, meaning on one day we get the metro into the city centre, funicular up to Montjuïc station and bus to the castle at Montjuïc, all for less than a £1 each! The metro runs until 2am on Friday and the weekend, and trains are frequent. We wonder why this can’t be managed in the UK?!
For this part of the trip we are joined by Beth & Bobby, who arrive late on Friday night to be told to expect a early start on Saturday for our trip up the Sagrada Familia. It doesn’t disappoint – I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves! After our early start we relax into holiday mode a little more with a lazy lunch, siesta and then tapas crawl round the Gracia area.
On Sunday Bobby treats Beth to a tour of Camp Nou, the Barcelona football ground, while we make our excuses and head off on that trip to Montjuïc. En route we spot a man with, what looks like a misshapen baguette in his rucksack. So far, so normal, plenty of people are picnicking on the Montjuïc hillside. On closer inspection however, it is in fact an entire ham leg, complete with trotter poking out his bag! We take in the various parks and fountains. It’s so nice to see everyone out enjoying the sun, relaxing and picnicking and we realise that we are liking Barcelona. A lot. We had been warned by so many people to be wary of pickpockets and con artists that we had started the visit with some trepidation, but in reality, it’s easy to avoid the risky areas at risky times (think La Rambla at 2am) and with only a small amount of precautions and awareness, you can easily relax and enjoy the city.
We reconvene with Beth & Bobby in (Abirraderro)[https://www.abirradero.com/], recommended by our friends at MashtunandMiaow. Calamari sandwiches (heavenly!) and pints of Abirradale, Abirraderro’s collaboration beer with Abbeydale brewery (delicious!), are enjoyed. Our next stop is Bier CaB where we discover the best patatas bravas in Barcelona (and maybe Spain?!)
Our final day in Barcelona begins with another early start (sorry BnB!), this time to visit Park Güell and marvel at the weird and wonderful buildings and colourful mosaics. We are booked on the first entry time slot at 8.30am, and with 400 people admitted every 30 minutes thereafter, with no time limit on duration of visit, we are glad to steal a bit of a march on the crowds. It’s very strange to think that the Park was originally designed as a residential community but that it was never completed – seemingly something of a running theme for projects involving Gaudi!
From there we head downtown to La Boqueria, Barcelona’s massive indoor food market. To do so we must first negotiate the crowds along La Rambla. It seems all of Barcelona is out, enjoying the atmosphere for Sant Jordi’s Day – our own St George’s Day! In Catalonia, this is celebrated by buying books for men and roses for women and we are accosted every few metres to do this. We marvel at how all local Catalonians seem to embrace this tradition and contrast it with our own way of celebrating patron saint’s day, namely by getting pissed!
At this point, Beth and Bobby leave us to return to the UK, but it’s ok, we’ll see them again in about 6 weeks for Beck’s 40th birthday party!