17

Our dinner last night at Casa Clara in Castelló d'Empúries was quite lovely. It was a set menu. They gave us an amuse-bouche of Spanish tortilla "gone upscale" with paprika and balsamic vinegar reduction. We started with a fish soup (mussels, clams, langoustines) and a warm salad with four cereals (grains) and roasted vegetables. It wasn't clear what the four grains were - one seemed to be barley. Think of Kashi cereal and you've got the idea. The vegetables included zucchini, peppers, and spring greens. Our second courses were chicken with a port wine sauce (it was supposed to be duck, but as the waiter Juan said, the duck was still flying, so it was chicken instead). It looked like a fish, the way it was presented, wiht a zucchini fan for a tail. We also had a roasted sea bream, whole fish again. Very nice. We had a bottle of wine-- local product, 3 Fincas, 11 euros.

For dessert we each had colossal chunks of manchego with walnuts and raisins.

It was a very pleasant place, sitting on the terrace of Casa Clara, so modern in the interior, looking out at the medieval buildings, and watching cars negotiating the corner right in front (used to be a baron's house).

Interesting food related art in Casa Clara (we totally missed the gallery): our favorite was chicken feet on a white background. They were somehow whimsical and threatening at the same time.

The next morning, we came down for breakfast at 8 am - the gal serving told us she had to run out to get the bread. We had pretty much the usual: bread, ham, serrano ham, chorizo, but this morning we also had plums and a garlic and olive oil rubbed on our bread with tomatoes on top. (As usual, we ignored the muesli, cereals, and yogurt.)

Steve came to "collect" us promptly at 9 and drove us to Platja Canyelles. On the way we saw giant clowns, the skydiving center (biggest in Europe), schools, houses on the beach -- sometimes it reminded us of Puerta Vallarta. Steve regaled us with stories of crazy skydiving stunts, having water dumped on him by a firefighting plane, and getting his reverge by putting the offending bombero's bike up a tree.

Today's walk was 16.7 Km long. We made it longer (let's call it 17 km) by taking a wrong turn early on, just past a viewpoint of Cap de Norfeu. We recovered by walking on a tarmac road for a while and rejoining the trail at Cala Rostella. (I'm very proud that we recovered so nicely there, and we saw great views from there that we wouldn't have seen from the coastal trail.)

The trail all day was up and down right along the coast. We kept encountering nude sunbathers along the way.

Early on we were overtaken (passed, handily) by a young woman walking alone - we saw her again later in the day. She was wearing sneakers.

We realized that we need to eat even though we're never hungry. So we ate an orange early on, around 11. By 1:15 we were ready to eat again. We had just reached Cala Pelosa. We stood around for about 5 minutes, and then realized there was a restaurant just next to us. An honest to goodness restaurant! On the beach! The cove had a lot of boats in it, and the boaters seemed to be having lunch.

We ordered two Fanta Limon - however, we were served Schweppes Limón which is an inferior product. Still, we were complaining. We ordered a gazpacho and anchovies (rosas) - we thought the combination of salt and sugar was a good idea. We perspire so much that there are white marks on our backpacks and our backs are always damp. The restaurant had a lovely restroom too. We had a little trouble putting the lunch on our Visa, since our credit cards don't have the chips that the European ones do, sometimes they don't get read - this may be why my card was rejected at one point in Barcelona. We were much refreshed by our luncheon and rest and continued on with renewed vigor.

There was a lot more up and down on the trail. There was a point around 3 pm that was straight up a hot hill. We were starting to feel this trip was not as much fun as we'd hoped for it to be. Now, I thought, I understand why Dali's watches are melting. I was melting too. But finally, after a scramble up some narrow shale trails, we reached a flatter, gravel road, and then finally came around a bend and saw Cadaques.

One of today's achievements is that we got really good at noting (gleefully) the GR-92 trail markings (red and white) and the Cami de Ronda trail markings (yellow).

As usual, we managed to get lost right as soon as we hit town. This is despite (or maybe due to) the fact that we looked at two maps of the town. We were at that point no longer actually reading our trail notes, which is generally not the right approach. We finally came upon the tourist information center and learned that our hotel was actually about 50 meters away - just across the plaza, smack in the middle of town.

Our room is on the 3rd (4th) floor and we hear a good bit of street noise when the window is open, but not when it's closed and the A/C is on.

The Hotel La Residencia is full of Dali touches and memorabilia. We are looking forward to our "day off" tomorrow. We will walk to the Casa-Museu Dali (it's supposed to take 20-45 minutes). We have reservations for 11 am and are supposed to arrive by 10:30.

Now it's time for dinner - our materials recommend Sa Gambine or Don Quijote, both of which are so close to our hotel that we'll probably only get lost twice trying to get there.