The headline on this evening’s news is ‘Spain provisionally sees hottest April day on record with temperature of 38.7C’. Rest assured that temperature was recorded further South in Seville, here in Catalan it only reached a rather pathetic 27C. Although we appreciate the weather at home has been atrocious, we thought it would be lovely to let you all know that our day started with a cup of tea on our balcony in warm sunshine, overlooking the bay. You can thank us later for this little bit of Catalonian warmth.
There was a choice of walks, 16 or 7km, we chose 7 into Begur. The route was uphill all the way, 200m over 2km, and as relentless as the climb had been out of Llafranc yesterday. This has been our warmest day yet and it felt like hard work.
Once in Begur, the views around are stunning, right across to the Pyrenees on a clear day. We stopped at the statue of Carmen Amaya, a famous local flamenco dancer, credited with revolutionising the female dance that we associate with Spain today.
Our route included a tour of the town, which has a fascinating history and retains many historic buildings. Livelihoods were earned through fishing and the coral trade. In the late 19th century many residents decided to emigrate to the West Indies or South America, returning once they had made their fortunes to build large colonial style houses.
Begur Castle stands on top of the hill the town is built around. It was a strategic site, along with many watchtowers, defending the town from pirates. We have all, previously, walked to the top of the hill where only the ruins of the castle remain after being blown up during the Napoleonic wars. We’ve had enough of hills so chose not to do so again.
Lunch was an adventure at Tapas de Begur. A small self-service buffet restaurant located in a shady square. The bill is calculated, based on the number and type of cocktail sticks you have at the end of the meal.
The downhill walk back was significantly easier and faster than the walk out. A moment was taken to admire the craftsmanship that has a door frame completely upright as the fence follows the angle of the hill we were walking up. We checked and the doorframe is vertical.
We had a leisurely afternoon reading before exploring the rocks around the town. It was almost like being back in Porthcothan, just warmer. This was followed by 2023’s most competitive ping pong match ever. It wouldn’t win any style or skill awards though. For the record, Ken won the best of three tournament
We were sorry to miss out on the UK Emergency Alert on Sunday but, happily, we were included in Catalonia’s today. Our phones all made siren sounds but no one was really sure what was happening until this message appeared.
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