Ceret - Cadaques and Cap de Creus, Spain

Breakfast, pack picnic and off to the Costa Brava, the stretch of Spanish coast just south of the French border. The name means "Rugged Coast". The weather forecast called for "partly cloudy, 14 degrees, 7% chance of rain" which sounded pretty good.
We crossed the border at Le Perthus, hung a left at Figueres (getting quite familiar with this area) and hit the coast at Llanca where we turned south. We stopped for coffee and to stretch our legs in Port de Selva.

Fishing nets out on the wharf to dry.

I find I'm struggling to remember my Spanish. My brain decides what I want to say in English, translates it into French (because that's what I've been doing for 6 weeks) and then pushes the translation into Spanish. Dos café con leche, uno café Americano then I ruin it by saying merci and have to correct to gracias. I will have to practice before going to Barcelona.


It had been cloudy on our way but there were some moments of sun here. Port de Selva has
a pebbly, gritty beach, steep hills surrounding, a fishing harbour and a sports activities marina (sailing,
docking, scuba diving, fishing)

According to the guidebook it takes 30minutes to walk the sea front but the town
is only 2 streets deep due to the steep hills behind.

There were an amazing number of the traditional Catalan style fishing boats.

On this stretch of dock they were actually used for fishing.

On this wharf they appeared to be hobby/pleasure boats. Some were wood and others
fibreglass but they all had the wooden masts and spars. As we drove out of town we saw
shipyards where they were being built.

As we drove a windy road high up through Parc Natural  Cap de Creus the weather really socked in.The low clouds that had been obscuring the mountain tops moved even lower til we were driving through their mist. The guidebook states that Cadaques has been protected from the tourist boom because of this "tortuous" drive. It is actually not a bad road though I couldn't drive it fast. It is very steep and windy but it has guard rails which, for me, takes a lot of the anxiety out of the drive.

Our first view of Cadaques

The hills are covered in terraces so steep that I couldn't believe they could be sustained. Some have been maintained and continue to support crops, mostly olives but some vines. Others have been abandoned and are gradually crumbling, returning the stone walls to the mountains they came from.
 

 

We picnic lunched here, looking across the bay at Cadaques.

We found the parking lot beside the old town but, as the "low cloud" was
becoming serious rain, we decided not to walk in.

It is a beautiful coastline with a path,  Cami de Ronda, made up of old coastguard and
farmer's trails that I would love to walk. In better weather.

I had wanted to go to the Dali Museum here but when we found it there was a parking lot and then a walk to the house and it was pouring. We decided not to. Maybe next time I come to Cadaques. We went to the Dali museum in Figueres, where he was born and where he is buried, but he lived, with his wife, Gala, in Cadaques for the last 50 years of his life. They built a home as quirky as his art.

We drove home and noticed fresh snow on the Pyrenees as we came through the pass at Le Perthus. I felt like I had spent too much time in the car so went for a walk around town.

As I've mentioned before, Ceret has provided parking just outside of the old town.
The parking lot close to us is huge and covers a ravine that continues down through
the town. They therefore had to also provide for the water course which they have
done very nicely. This is the bridge between the 2 parking lots, over the stream.

These didn't mind the rain.

The stream is directed around the top parking lot with flowering
bushes along side.