Via Collioures to Barcelona

Time to hit the road for our grand road trip! We had a rather ambitious itinerary planned – through Catalonia in Northern Spain, across the country to the Basque country, and then up to Angers along the west coast of France, then back home via Paris. Should keep us pretty busy for the next two weeks!

Our first stop on the way to Catalonia was Collioures, a seaside town located on the French side of Catalonia. The drive up to Collioures was what could be called adventurous – we were hit by some pretty of the worst rainfall in France (apparently it rained the equivalent of one month during an hour or something silly like that). Thankfully, we arrived unscratched... Since we arrived pretty late, we hit the sack after having a rather nice dinner in one of the numerous restaurants near the port area.

The next day, we spent a couple of hours exploring Collioures. It’s a real gem of a city, actually, located in a rather amazing bay. We were not surprised to learn that quite a few painters (such as Derain, Matisse…) had spent time here, painting the amazing views, the picturesque port and the medieval, cobble-stone streets. We spent a good hour walking around the port area, the citadel (overlooking the port). The gale-force winds made the visit all the more, hmm, exciting. All in all, pretty much the perfect choice for a stopover!

From there on, we hit the road and headed down South all the way to Barcelona, where we were planning to stay for two days with our friends Mireia and Richard (and their young son, Eric, whom we’ve not had the pleasure to meet!). After checking out their lovely apartment, we made our way to have some lunch. We spent the afternoon exploring central Barcelona, mostly Barrio Gotico. We know Barcelona pretty well already after a couple of visits, but it was very nice to re-discover this great city.

After a very pleasant dinner at Richard’s and Mireia’s place, we decided to explore the local bars. We kind of struggled to find any place that was open, but finally found a somewhat dodgy bar, which was nearly deserted. We had a bit of a surreal experience there, first watching Pulp Fiction without sound (a testimony to what a great film it is, since we still enjoyed it a lot!), and then mingling with some locals who spoke nearly as bad English as I spoke Spanish (one of the guys, who was very proud to show a picture of himself and Barca half-god Messi, seemed to be very keen for me to “watch his shoulders” and “dance with him” – I politely refused his proposal several times…)

The next morning, we hit town for a bit more tourist action. We started off in Montjuïc (means something like Jewish hill in Catalan), at the Caixa Forum. It’s a pretty cool exhibition center, located in an old modernist factory complex (not surprising, considering Barcelona is one of the cradles of modernist architecture). The views from the rooftop over the surrounding area are pretty nice…

From there, we made our way up to the Catalan National Art Gallery – which is located in an old palace up on a hilltop, with predictably amazing views over Barcelona. We spent quite some time there, mostly so I could take loads of pictures…

The next stop was a rather unusual shopping center, just down the road from the museum. The complex is basically located in an old bullfighting ring (which has apparently been banned in Catalonia) – quite a creative solution I would say. Since it was a Sunday, the shops were actually all closed, but turns out it was quite a good spot to have lunch, so we decided to do just that. We ended up in a nice little place serving proper Catalonian cuisine – I decided to go really local and have pork trotters. Not really my sort of thing, I have to say, but at least I can say I’ve tried it! We then had dessert in our favourite ice cream shop – Amorino!

For dinner, we headed downtown to hunt for a proper, authentic tapas bar. Richard found one for us, and it turned out to be a rather excellent choice. It was frequented by locals only, was quite atmospheric without taking it too far, and most importantly, the tapas they served were excellent.

The next morning, we got up early, to make carry on with our road trip. After saying bye-bye to Richard, Mireia and little Eric, and thanking them for a super weekend, we hit the road. Before leaving Barcelona, we followed Richard’s advice and did a nice hike in the foothills near Barcelona. The weather was perfect, and so were the views.

All in all, an excellent stay. Barcelona is still the fantastic city we remember from our last visit. It’s true that there is some tension in the air with the economic crisis in Spain waking up the Catalan spirit of independence. There was a fair bit of tension in the air, hopefully it all works out for the better for both Spain and Catalonia…