lovelytravels

About two hours north of Barcelona sit three charming towns overlooking the Mediterranean Sea: Calella de Palafrugell, Llafranc and Tamariu, well worth a visit. There are more delightful towns all over the Costa Brava, but these three create a cozy home base from which to explore, over to historic Girona and Figueres with the Dali Museum, or even up to France and down to Barcelona. This coastal area is free of high rises, chain stores and overdevelopment, and if you like to walk, you can stroll a coastal path which connects the villages and cover the whole distance in about two or three hours (one way). Every step of the way is a feast for the eyes.

We started in Calella, where we stayed in a comfortable bed & breakfast called Casa Dos Torres, run by a down-to-earth British couple. Our tiny cobbled town spilled over with shops and restaurants, wrapped around a sweet cove of fishing boats. Among white buildings and narrow alleys, windswept pines and colorful vistas, you may think you have arrived in Greece. We headed north on the beach boardwalk, simple to find. Almost immediately we passed another cozy beach, Aigua Blava, where families plant umbrellas and lounge for hours on end, all ages, sizes, nationalities. Fifteen more minutes along a rolling stone path complete with steps, walls and railings, brought us around the corner into the next small charming town of Llafranc. The beach at Llafranc features a much longer stretch of white sand than Calella, still dotted with fishing boats, but boasting gentler winds and a better swimming area. Old fishing towns now transformed into tourist hideaways, these spots attract Spaniards who have summer homes there and flock to the beaches on weekends, as well as French, British and other European visitors. France is less than an hour away, so French and Catalan are heard frequently.

Pulling up the steps out of Llafranc, the real journey begins. The next stretch, all uphill, unfortunately has no path, only sidewalk along the road, although walking past many gorgeous houses and properties, not to mention views, softens the vertical pull. Just buckle down and do it. In no time you have arrived at the top, offering a great panorama of everything you have just left behind and more. To your right up a little path is the lovely El Far Restaurant and Bar, once an 18th c. inn. Stop for a drink and some great ocean viewing, and when you’re ready, you will go to the north end of El Far building, by the little chapel, and follow a small footpath into the woods.

At first you may think it is just a path to a caretakers house, but very soon you will see the telltale sign on a pole pointing the way to Tamariu. The rest of your trip, an hour or two, will all be on trail or backroad and the way is marked with red and white stripes painted here and there on a rock or tree. First you will drop down stone steps along a hillside over the ocean, stunning, and eventually come out into a serene inland meadow. This moves past farmland with giant shredded wheat rolls on the pasture, wild dogs chained up, and the occasional Spaniard farmer. You will come to another sign on a pole signaling you to take a sharp right down a cozy wooded path, coming out at a quaint, old-fashioned café set at the back of a very picturesque rock beach cove. The café owners were hanging laundry and tending their garden plot when we walked through, nodding at us as if we were regulars. I felt we had gone back fifty years.

A couple large yachts sat in the cove and we wished we could jump on them to experience the ocean that beckons at every turn. The steep windy path led onto our final stretch of woods, a flat area of pines opening out onto an expanse of large beach rocks. We climbed down onto the rocks and made our way across the most uneven portion of the hike, rounding the corner to our alluring destination, Tamariu. The white town shines with a dozen outdoor cafes around a beautiful cove full of boats and a swimming area. On the way in, we passed a diving board at the end of a large rock directly over a deep pool of turquoise water. It would have taken a little climbing to get to it, but we were tempted. Instead we headed for a civilization, a glass of vino, a goat cheese salad, and a rest after our toasty three hour trek.

After lunch we searched for Paco, owner of the local boat company, going here and there and everywhere people suggested, but he seemed to have disappeared. We gave up on our dream of arranging a boat ride home, fortified ourselves with a large gelato, and headed back the way we came, on our own two feet, this time sprinting it in at the end to make a return in just over two hours. Next time, I would like to arrange a rental house for a week, live like a local, and make friends with Paco.

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