Mon - September 11, 2006
High Rockabilly and low maintenance
This past saturday, Steve and I drove down to
Calafell to go to High Rockabilly for the first time. We'd heard
of the event, but being crap, completely forgot about it until Steve's old
flatmate from London rang us up to let us know he was going to be there. We
didn't need any other excuse and I started to look for a hotel to stay for the
night immediately. It wasn't actually that easy. Booking.com, who I
normally book through as their prices tend to be the best, only showed 2 oe 3
available hotels in Calafell. As it's primarily a beach resort (south of
Barcelona), most of the hotels I could find would have a minimum booking of at
least 2 nights, if not an entire week.
I eventually found Casa Antiga in the old town of Calafell. What a find!! This place is awesome - easily the best hotel we've stayed in along the coast of Spain. We panic'd a bit, because googlemaps pointed us in the direction of Segur de Calafell which is one of the (pretty ugly) 'new town' bits of Calafell. When we got there, I pointed out it couldn't possibly be right, as all the places there looked like they were built sometime from the 60s.. and eventually we kept driving and found the old poble. Thank goodness!
The Casa Antiga is right across from the Ajuntament (town hall) and just below a pretty cool castle. (We love castles - and hiked up there on the sunday morning before heading home.) There's some Iberian ruins in the area as well, and we'll probably explore those more next time we go. The hotel was friendly, very reasonably priced (cheaper than it would have been if we'd stayed in one of the generic beach holiday hotels along the beach), comfortable rooms and a nice garden and pool area. It was about a 15 minute hike down to the beach (the old town is up on a hillside, as all old villages should be!) and the event, but this was a small price to pay. (Although, note-to-self, wear practical shoes for distance and non-practical shoes when just sitting or standing at the bar.. sheesh.) We saw quite a few old faces around at the Pool Party in the Solimar Hotel and met a few new folks as well. Later on, at the event itself, it was so busy we didn't really get the chance to talk to many people. We zoomed home the next day after breakfast and a hike round town - Calafell is about 2 and a half hours south of us.
We've had a bit of a travel-bug for the past few weeks since watching the Hairy Bikers' Cookbook on DVD. These guys are great - and it's the only cooking program that Steve watches and enjoys (besides Nigella, obviously, but we all know he's not watching the cooking there...). I can't wait for the next series which has just been commissioned according to their website. Of course, now I'm bugging Steve to fix my XS650 so I can zoom round on it again - and so it can go get it's ITV/MOT in October. I've bought an electronic ignition and we've going to take it to the local bike shop to get that fitted. I know it's possible to fit ourselves, but we don't have a strobe and it needs a good service anyway. So hopefully, we can do a bit of traveling on BOTH bikes before winter sets in in February when it's too rainy to ride around. (The cold isn't a problem - the wet roads and wacky drivers are.)
Work on the house starts up again now that the summer is over and we hope to have a bathtub (!) by Christmas. Finding taps is proving a problem as the ones we like and agree on are way too expensive. Still contemplating the Stephen Einhorn taps, as ever, but can we really justify the expense? Probably not.
In the world of the reluctant web designer, I've finished (more or less) the Space Ranch website. I built this website for a friend (and ex-manager of the Ace Cafe) who has opened a really awesome bed and breakfast for bikers on the Costa Brava. It's in Pals and all the rooms are designed based on old motorbike movies. Think Barbarella meets Clint Eastwood. I mentioned this before - but her site wasn't finished then.
Speaking of cool hotels - here's another beautiful place to stay on the Costa Brava. Lindos Huespedes Hotel. We toured around this place the other day which is halfway between Torroella de Montgri and Pals as a friend of ours works here during the summer. It's a beautiful place and would be a great place to stay. It's hard to find though - which I think adds to its charm.
I eventually found Casa Antiga in the old town of Calafell. What a find!! This place is awesome - easily the best hotel we've stayed in along the coast of Spain. We panic'd a bit, because googlemaps pointed us in the direction of Segur de Calafell which is one of the (pretty ugly) 'new town' bits of Calafell. When we got there, I pointed out it couldn't possibly be right, as all the places there looked like they were built sometime from the 60s.. and eventually we kept driving and found the old poble. Thank goodness!
The Casa Antiga is right across from the Ajuntament (town hall) and just below a pretty cool castle. (We love castles - and hiked up there on the sunday morning before heading home.) There's some Iberian ruins in the area as well, and we'll probably explore those more next time we go. The hotel was friendly, very reasonably priced (cheaper than it would have been if we'd stayed in one of the generic beach holiday hotels along the beach), comfortable rooms and a nice garden and pool area. It was about a 15 minute hike down to the beach (the old town is up on a hillside, as all old villages should be!) and the event, but this was a small price to pay. (Although, note-to-self, wear practical shoes for distance and non-practical shoes when just sitting or standing at the bar.. sheesh.) We saw quite a few old faces around at the Pool Party in the Solimar Hotel and met a few new folks as well. Later on, at the event itself, it was so busy we didn't really get the chance to talk to many people. We zoomed home the next day after breakfast and a hike round town - Calafell is about 2 and a half hours south of us.
We've had a bit of a travel-bug for the past few weeks since watching the Hairy Bikers' Cookbook on DVD. These guys are great - and it's the only cooking program that Steve watches and enjoys (besides Nigella, obviously, but we all know he's not watching the cooking there...). I can't wait for the next series which has just been commissioned according to their website. Of course, now I'm bugging Steve to fix my XS650 so I can zoom round on it again - and so it can go get it's ITV/MOT in October. I've bought an electronic ignition and we've going to take it to the local bike shop to get that fitted. I know it's possible to fit ourselves, but we don't have a strobe and it needs a good service anyway. So hopefully, we can do a bit of traveling on BOTH bikes before winter sets in in February when it's too rainy to ride around. (The cold isn't a problem - the wet roads and wacky drivers are.)
Work on the house starts up again now that the summer is over and we hope to have a bathtub (!) by Christmas. Finding taps is proving a problem as the ones we like and agree on are way too expensive. Still contemplating the Stephen Einhorn taps, as ever, but can we really justify the expense? Probably not.
In the world of the reluctant web designer, I've finished (more or less) the Space Ranch website. I built this website for a friend (and ex-manager of the Ace Cafe) who has opened a really awesome bed and breakfast for bikers on the Costa Brava. It's in Pals and all the rooms are designed based on old motorbike movies. Think Barbarella meets Clint Eastwood. I mentioned this before - but her site wasn't finished then.
Speaking of cool hotels - here's another beautiful place to stay on the Costa Brava. Lindos Huespedes Hotel. We toured around this place the other day which is halfway between Torroella de Montgri and Pals as a friend of ours works here during the summer. It's a beautiful place and would be a great place to stay. It's hard to find though - which I think adds to its charm.
Posted at 04:51 PM
Fri - July 28, 2006
The rain in Spain...
It's raining!!
I didn't even notice at first. It's a sort of Apologetic Rain... in that way that seems to say 'so terribly sorry for this, but have to rain a bit... but you won't notice, don't worry..'. It's a nice reprise from the heat.
Speaking of heat. I always thought it was so funny in England that people would moan and complain and act almost completely shocked when the weather was crap - like it was a unique experience. "Oh GEEZ. Look at those clouds today! Wow! Didn't expect THAT!" As if everyone doesn't know that, in general, the weather is consistently Not Good in the majority of places in the UK.
But then we move to Spain - and in 3 years we've experienced the hottest summer, the wettest winter, the driest summer and the coldest winter. It's hot - but, darn it, it's Spain - so shouldn't that be expected? But no, I chat with neighbours, shop keepers and friends and more of less, the first thing they say is 'Wow - isn't it hot?' Like it's some sort of shocking surprise. Is this normal all throughout the world? I swear I don't remember this experience in California!
In the time I've typed those three short paragraphs, it's actually stopped raining, by the way. And the terrace has dried up already - so I guess the heat hasn't gone away after all.
Because of the heat, we've moved into another bedroom. It just gets too hot at the top of the house so we moved the folding futon bed thingie that was in my office down to the extra room downstairs. We have every intention of moving the lovely zebra print sofa bed up to the office, but it's too hot for that sort of effort. It's a sort of adventure waking up downstairs - kinda like camping - sleeping on a futon so low to the ground. But the important bit here is sleeping! The bed might not be quite as comfortable, but it's nice to be able to sleep - and we even need a sheet in the middle of the night! Wow!
And it's only July - wonder what August will be like!
I didn't even notice at first. It's a sort of Apologetic Rain... in that way that seems to say 'so terribly sorry for this, but have to rain a bit... but you won't notice, don't worry..'. It's a nice reprise from the heat.
Speaking of heat. I always thought it was so funny in England that people would moan and complain and act almost completely shocked when the weather was crap - like it was a unique experience. "Oh GEEZ. Look at those clouds today! Wow! Didn't expect THAT!" As if everyone doesn't know that, in general, the weather is consistently Not Good in the majority of places in the UK.
But then we move to Spain - and in 3 years we've experienced the hottest summer, the wettest winter, the driest summer and the coldest winter. It's hot - but, darn it, it's Spain - so shouldn't that be expected? But no, I chat with neighbours, shop keepers and friends and more of less, the first thing they say is 'Wow - isn't it hot?' Like it's some sort of shocking surprise. Is this normal all throughout the world? I swear I don't remember this experience in California!
In the time I've typed those three short paragraphs, it's actually stopped raining, by the way. And the terrace has dried up already - so I guess the heat hasn't gone away after all.
Because of the heat, we've moved into another bedroom. It just gets too hot at the top of the house so we moved the folding futon bed thingie that was in my office down to the extra room downstairs. We have every intention of moving the lovely zebra print sofa bed up to the office, but it's too hot for that sort of effort. It's a sort of adventure waking up downstairs - kinda like camping - sleeping on a futon so low to the ground. But the important bit here is sleeping! The bed might not be quite as comfortable, but it's nice to be able to sleep - and we even need a sheet in the middle of the night! Wow!
And it's only July - wonder what August will be like!
Posted at 09:29 AM
Mon - July 17, 2006
Road Trip to Valencia
After the excesses of my birthday weekend at
Calella, and here with a housefull of guests, Steve and I decided to take a li'l
trip south to Valencia province. We'd never been south of Barcelona before
(well, south of Reus/Salou) so it was all new to us once we passed that point!
The first night, we stayed in a little village called Villafames. A short way in from the city of Castellon, we picked this because there was a rather lovely looking Casa Rural featured in my Special Places to Stay in Spain book. We found the place quite easily, but were disappointed that, although the book gave a guide price of about 85 euros a night., we were quote 135 euros! On a wednesday! Luckily, there was another hotel in the town, El Rullo. They were much more reasonable at 40 euros for the double room! Highly recommended place! We hiked up to the top of the town where there were ruins of a castle and the views were pretty incredible. The town itself is pretty neat, considering it's built on, into and with an unusual red rock.
We drove inland through the mountains and at about lunchtime, tried to find a restaurant which proved a lot more difficult than it is here. Everything was either closed, or, at worst, boarded up. We finally found a bar run by a lovely couple (in their 80s?) who cooked us a meal and were very friendly (and quite concerned that we were sitting outside, in the shade, as they thought it was far too hot.) They were also rather impressed with our catalan/valencian. Which was a nice compliment...
Carrying on from there, we stayed the next night at Casa Pilar in Castell de Castells outside Alicante. This was featured in the Special Places book as well, and is a beautiful Casa Rural created from an old family home. The town was nice and friendly (although some jackasses decided to steal the cool dice dust covers that Amalia gave us from the wheels of the car as well as leaving a lovely scratch mark with their keys down the side - what IS it with some people?). That kind of put a damper on the lovely image we had of Castell de Castells, which was a shame. But heyho!
Then we visited my cousin in Monovar and took a tour of the wonderful winery that her husband, Rafa, runs - Salvador Poveda. (Is 'runs' the correct term for someone that, well, runs a winery - there's probably some proper word for that...) Had an absolutely amazing meal at a restaurant in Monover called Xiri which was easily the best meal of the trip - the food, the company, the wine...
The next morning we set off back home and arrived home at about 8 pm on saturday, exhausted but glad to be home. We zoomed back most of the way on the motorway but stopped in a small town outside Valencia called Manuel! Obviously, that's steve's surname and when Rafa told us there was a town called Manuel in Spain close to Valencia, we had to stop there and take pictures! There was a wedding going on there at the time which was pretty stunning to see - the groom's guests arrived in two coaches (and asked Steve for directions to the church, which he was quite pleased to be able to give!). And the bride and her guests were walking, after a grand display of fireworks, to the church from the other side of town (they didn't need directions!).
All in all, it was a great trip, but from what little we saw, we are rather glad we live here in Catalunya. It was quite dry as we travelled further south, restaurants weren't found easily at the end of roads marked by little yellow signs, and the coast - my goodness - that was quite a sight. We didn't actually go into Alicante, or Valencia, or Benidorm, but we saw the high rises... Yikes! And the building work! And I thought it was bad here.... We both look forward to going back, however, when it's cooler and we can explore more. And we are also excited to see Rafa's new winery being built in amongst the vineyards!
The first night, we stayed in a little village called Villafames. A short way in from the city of Castellon, we picked this because there was a rather lovely looking Casa Rural featured in my Special Places to Stay in Spain book. We found the place quite easily, but were disappointed that, although the book gave a guide price of about 85 euros a night., we were quote 135 euros! On a wednesday! Luckily, there was another hotel in the town, El Rullo. They were much more reasonable at 40 euros for the double room! Highly recommended place! We hiked up to the top of the town where there were ruins of a castle and the views were pretty incredible. The town itself is pretty neat, considering it's built on, into and with an unusual red rock.
We drove inland through the mountains and at about lunchtime, tried to find a restaurant which proved a lot more difficult than it is here. Everything was either closed, or, at worst, boarded up. We finally found a bar run by a lovely couple (in their 80s?) who cooked us a meal and were very friendly (and quite concerned that we were sitting outside, in the shade, as they thought it was far too hot.) They were also rather impressed with our catalan/valencian. Which was a nice compliment...
Carrying on from there, we stayed the next night at Casa Pilar in Castell de Castells outside Alicante. This was featured in the Special Places book as well, and is a beautiful Casa Rural created from an old family home. The town was nice and friendly (although some jackasses decided to steal the cool dice dust covers that Amalia gave us from the wheels of the car as well as leaving a lovely scratch mark with their keys down the side - what IS it with some people?). That kind of put a damper on the lovely image we had of Castell de Castells, which was a shame. But heyho!
Then we visited my cousin in Monovar and took a tour of the wonderful winery that her husband, Rafa, runs - Salvador Poveda. (Is 'runs' the correct term for someone that, well, runs a winery - there's probably some proper word for that...) Had an absolutely amazing meal at a restaurant in Monover called Xiri which was easily the best meal of the trip - the food, the company, the wine...
The next morning we set off back home and arrived home at about 8 pm on saturday, exhausted but glad to be home. We zoomed back most of the way on the motorway but stopped in a small town outside Valencia called Manuel! Obviously, that's steve's surname and when Rafa told us there was a town called Manuel in Spain close to Valencia, we had to stop there and take pictures! There was a wedding going on there at the time which was pretty stunning to see - the groom's guests arrived in two coaches (and asked Steve for directions to the church, which he was quite pleased to be able to give!). And the bride and her guests were walking, after a grand display of fireworks, to the church from the other side of town (they didn't need directions!).
All in all, it was a great trip, but from what little we saw, we are rather glad we live here in Catalunya. It was quite dry as we travelled further south, restaurants weren't found easily at the end of roads marked by little yellow signs, and the coast - my goodness - that was quite a sight. We didn't actually go into Alicante, or Valencia, or Benidorm, but we saw the high rises... Yikes! And the building work! And I thought it was bad here.... We both look forward to going back, however, when it's cooler and we can explore more. And we are also excited to see Rafa's new winery being built in amongst the vineyards!
Posted at 07:08 PM
Sat - July 1, 2006
Visitors and the like!
Inspired by mylifeinspain's blogiversary (Congrats on 2
years and much more frequently updated than my own...), I've added one of those
free service things from Bravenet, a guestmap over there in the sidebar. GO SIGN
IT. Come on - it's not difficult and it would be nice to see if anyone other
than my dad and Steve read my blog. Of course, I'm expecting
them to sign it too. Speaking of Steve - he's been a busy guy since taking a
break from working on the house... He's been posting pictures onto his flickr
account. Go have a look - and post a comment or two there as well.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
Posted at 05:49 PM
Fabulous hotels on the Costa Brava - again!
Over 2 years ago, on this blog, I posted a list of nice hotels on the Costa Brava. It
wasn't a complete list, by far, but it was a collection of a few nifty ones I
found that I would love the excuse to stay in. If it weren't for the fact that I
live here, of course.
In two years, there's been a number of new things opening up - and some that we hadn't discovered before. So, in the interest of keeping up to date, here's a few more nice places to stay on the Costa Brava.
Moli del Mig in Torroella de Montgri - I mentioned the restaurant here a while ago but they also have a lovely hotel. Beautiful.
Bliss Hotel in Begur - Down the road a bit from us, Begur is a beautiful town on the top of a hillside. I haven't been to Bliss yet, but will probably check it out this evening as the building looks awesome and I love seeing how people restore the old stone places. They also have an Italian restaurant attached and a bar. And they are open all year round...
Mas de Torrent in Torrent - Again, not far from Torroella and located in a beautiful setting, this place has been restored well. It's gorgeous. They do a great brunch as well. And, according to the website, will be opening a Spa next year. Oooo!
Hostal Empuries in Escala - Cheating a bit, I mentioned this 2 years ago, but they didn't have a website then and now they do. Lovely location right on the beach.
In Jafre - they are building a new hotel/spa at the moment that appears to be aiming for a 2007 opening. That should be interesting.
In Pals - a friend of mine is launching a biker oriented b&b which is looking absolutely lovely! Of course I will post up the link when the website is online, but think of Barbarella and GIrl on a Motorbike crashing into Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. Excellent.
Enjoy!
In two years, there's been a number of new things opening up - and some that we hadn't discovered before. So, in the interest of keeping up to date, here's a few more nice places to stay on the Costa Brava.
Moli del Mig in Torroella de Montgri - I mentioned the restaurant here a while ago but they also have a lovely hotel. Beautiful.
Bliss Hotel in Begur - Down the road a bit from us, Begur is a beautiful town on the top of a hillside. I haven't been to Bliss yet, but will probably check it out this evening as the building looks awesome and I love seeing how people restore the old stone places. They also have an Italian restaurant attached and a bar. And they are open all year round...
Mas de Torrent in Torrent - Again, not far from Torroella and located in a beautiful setting, this place has been restored well. It's gorgeous. They do a great brunch as well. And, according to the website, will be opening a Spa next year. Oooo!
Hostal Empuries in Escala - Cheating a bit, I mentioned this 2 years ago, but they didn't have a website then and now they do. Lovely location right on the beach.
In Jafre - they are building a new hotel/spa at the moment that appears to be aiming for a 2007 opening. That should be interesting.
In Pals - a friend of mine is launching a biker oriented b&b which is looking absolutely lovely! Of course I will post up the link when the website is online, but think of Barbarella and GIrl on a Motorbike crashing into Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. Excellent.
Enjoy!
Posted at 04:38 PM
Fri - May 5, 2006
More great places to eat on the Costa brava!
Well, sort of. Meaning, they aren't exactly on
the coast, but they are great places to eat!
Went to Cafe de la Riba on Saturday for lunch. It's a sushi bar in Girona (Placa Independencia 12). Excellent food although the waiter told us we didn't order enough. We thought it was fine for lunch, but saying that - we don't usually eat a big lunch on a saturday. Lovely lovely tuna wrapped in sesame seeds, great ramen and really nice tuna sushi thingie. (Look - I'm no sushi expert!) Really nice decor as well, which, obviously, is a big selling point for me!
And yesterday I went out for lunch with a couple friends to Moli del Mig which is here in Torroella de Montgri. This is a new 4 star hotel/restaurant which has recently been restored. It's beautiful and what a great location! The Menu del Dia there was great - a little more than normal at 18 euros but well worth it as it was more than just 3 courses with small dishes appearing unexpectedly at the beginning and end. I thought their hotel prices were reasonable for the setting and quality (even after I realized the prices were per person..). Of course, I would have absolutely no justification for staying there, as it's only on the other side of town. Darn.
Other news... our new car is lovely and fun and all the things it should be. Yes, we finally got a PT Cruiser. What a difference to the Nissan Patrol! Which is still for sale, so someone please buy it! We've been exploring a lot in the Cruiser - accidently ended up in France the other day (as you do). It's a pleasure to drive and now I know what all the fuss is about regarding modern cars. WHo knew!
Other stuff we've been up to: Going to London for the long easter weekend, being completely overwhelmed by the amount of people in Borough Market/Oxford Street/Camden Town/etc, nipping into the Elephant's Head in Camden for a drink on saturday and realizing it's just not the same as the place Steve and I met over 10 years ago (!), meeting some great folks at the Reverend Horton Heat show and ending up at some dive of a bar called the Crowbar (or something like that), getting back home to Girona, evenings playing pool and darts in our new and finished downstairs bar, relaxing on the hammock with Inca, finishing tiling the terrace between the house and garage (that, obviously, was Steve), hooking up the ipod to work in the Cruiser (and that was me), finishing my catalan classes and appearing to show quite a bit of improvement (some may argue with that!), not yet buying a new imac because stupid adobe creative suite isn't optimized for the Intel machines (had to throw in a li'l bit of geekspeak), discovering even more good restaurants around while driving which I'll put up later as I can't remember where I left the business cards... the list goes on!
Went to Cafe de la Riba on Saturday for lunch. It's a sushi bar in Girona (Placa Independencia 12). Excellent food although the waiter told us we didn't order enough. We thought it was fine for lunch, but saying that - we don't usually eat a big lunch on a saturday. Lovely lovely tuna wrapped in sesame seeds, great ramen and really nice tuna sushi thingie. (Look - I'm no sushi expert!) Really nice decor as well, which, obviously, is a big selling point for me!
And yesterday I went out for lunch with a couple friends to Moli del Mig which is here in Torroella de Montgri. This is a new 4 star hotel/restaurant which has recently been restored. It's beautiful and what a great location! The Menu del Dia there was great - a little more than normal at 18 euros but well worth it as it was more than just 3 courses with small dishes appearing unexpectedly at the beginning and end. I thought their hotel prices were reasonable for the setting and quality (even after I realized the prices were per person..). Of course, I would have absolutely no justification for staying there, as it's only on the other side of town. Darn.
Other news... our new car is lovely and fun and all the things it should be. Yes, we finally got a PT Cruiser. What a difference to the Nissan Patrol! Which is still for sale, so someone please buy it! We've been exploring a lot in the Cruiser - accidently ended up in France the other day (as you do). It's a pleasure to drive and now I know what all the fuss is about regarding modern cars. WHo knew!
Other stuff we've been up to: Going to London for the long easter weekend, being completely overwhelmed by the amount of people in Borough Market/Oxford Street/Camden Town/etc, nipping into the Elephant's Head in Camden for a drink on saturday and realizing it's just not the same as the place Steve and I met over 10 years ago (!), meeting some great folks at the Reverend Horton Heat show and ending up at some dive of a bar called the Crowbar (or something like that), getting back home to Girona, evenings playing pool and darts in our new and finished downstairs bar, relaxing on the hammock with Inca, finishing tiling the terrace between the house and garage (that, obviously, was Steve), hooking up the ipod to work in the Cruiser (and that was me), finishing my catalan classes and appearing to show quite a bit of improvement (some may argue with that!), not yet buying a new imac because stupid adobe creative suite isn't optimized for the Intel machines (had to throw in a li'l bit of geekspeak), discovering even more good restaurants around while driving which I'll put up later as I can't remember where I left the business cards... the list goes on!
Posted at 07:48 AM
Mon - March 6, 2006
What - does no one read this thing?
No one has told me that I haven't posted anything
ALL YEAR. That's all of 2006. All 2 and a bit months that I haven't updated, and
no one seems to have noticed.
Am I talking to myself here?
It's not that I've been stuck in a cave for the last two months. Far from it. We've been rather busy (although exactly what we've been doing has escaped me at the moment). Steve's work on the house is progressing slowly as February and january normally involves colds and flu for both of us. Although he's starting laying the tiles on the middle terrace. Not that we didn't have a floor on the middle terrace, there were some weird concrete non-slip type tiles (I don't know how to describe them, but they are pretty darn ugly!). But we wanted to put hot water into the garage from the existing hot water heater. Previously, the house has two boilers. So Steve dug a channel across the terrace and stuck in some hot water pipes and another conduit for.. well, not sure really. I told him to stick another conduit underneath just-in-case. Maybe we want speaker wires into the garage. Or another electric line. Or... I dunno. Just as the channel was there, why not!
So since we have to now cover up this channel, we figure put some nice terracotta tiles out there. Looks much nicer (not that it's finished, but it WILL look much nicer). We bought about 27 square metres of these tiles from our current favourite shop, Creixall, in Palafrugell. They are very thick (much thicker than normal tiles) and in hindsight, we probably should have made two trips. However, we didn't. We stuck all 27 sq metres in the back of the Nissan (which we still have, but is still for sale!). Driving away, I said to Steve, "Wow. Is it really that windy out?" and he replied "Nope. Not in the least. I think the front wheels are barely touching the road..." And he says that so calmly!! Doh!
Of course, doing up your own house means that sometimes you make mistakes. So we were trying to solder the new connection onto the existing hot water. Yes, WE, because I'm the one who apparently knows about soldering. (Yes, Steve, soldering itty bitty silver things, not big copper and brass pipe thingies!) Needless to say, we screwed it up and didn't have hot water for a day or two. Steve's made a temporary repair and we'll get someone in to attached the new piping to the old. And I'll stick to soldering jewellery, thank you very much.
Am I talking to myself here?
It's not that I've been stuck in a cave for the last two months. Far from it. We've been rather busy (although exactly what we've been doing has escaped me at the moment). Steve's work on the house is progressing slowly as February and january normally involves colds and flu for both of us. Although he's starting laying the tiles on the middle terrace. Not that we didn't have a floor on the middle terrace, there were some weird concrete non-slip type tiles (I don't know how to describe them, but they are pretty darn ugly!). But we wanted to put hot water into the garage from the existing hot water heater. Previously, the house has two boilers. So Steve dug a channel across the terrace and stuck in some hot water pipes and another conduit for.. well, not sure really. I told him to stick another conduit underneath just-in-case. Maybe we want speaker wires into the garage. Or another electric line. Or... I dunno. Just as the channel was there, why not!
So since we have to now cover up this channel, we figure put some nice terracotta tiles out there. Looks much nicer (not that it's finished, but it WILL look much nicer). We bought about 27 square metres of these tiles from our current favourite shop, Creixall, in Palafrugell. They are very thick (much thicker than normal tiles) and in hindsight, we probably should have made two trips. However, we didn't. We stuck all 27 sq metres in the back of the Nissan (which we still have, but is still for sale!). Driving away, I said to Steve, "Wow. Is it really that windy out?" and he replied "Nope. Not in the least. I think the front wheels are barely touching the road..." And he says that so calmly!! Doh!
Of course, doing up your own house means that sometimes you make mistakes. So we were trying to solder the new connection onto the existing hot water. Yes, WE, because I'm the one who apparently knows about soldering. (Yes, Steve, soldering itty bitty silver things, not big copper and brass pipe thingies!) Needless to say, we screwed it up and didn't have hot water for a day or two. Steve's made a temporary repair and we'll get someone in to attached the new piping to the old. And I'll stick to soldering jewellery, thank you very much.
Posted at 02:01 PM
Wed - December 28, 2005
A completed bathroom, finally.
All the talk about the zebra print floor and
today I realized that I haven't actually put up any photos of it completed.
Well, here it is. (Not sure what that towel is doing
on the floor, might have something to do with the only-recently-completed
plumbing that Steve finished on Xmas eve).
There are more photos up in The House II, including our handmade Dice Taps. Yes, made by us (well, Steve actually, but I helped!) And a pretty good overview of the bathroom with the Vince Ray tiles in all their glory...
Enjoy the rest of the holidays!
There are more photos up in The House II, including our handmade Dice Taps. Yes, made by us (well, Steve actually, but I helped!) And a pretty good overview of the bathroom with the Vince Ray tiles in all their glory...
Enjoy the rest of the holidays!
Posted at 06:45 PM
Wed - December 14, 2005
A bigger house!
Nope, we're not moving. But Steve in his (almost
over-enthusiastic) DIY mission has enclosed the weird workroom area under the
kitchen. For those of you that have seen the house, you might remember the
downstairs bit as having this really odd not-quite-a-room area at the back.
Well, it now IS a room, with two lovely new -double glazed- windows (bought in
France). It might be the only double glazed thing in the house, so probably
doesn't do much for insulation, but still... a poc a
poc!
Anyway - I have posted more pictures up on viewfromtheroof. I've put them in a new album called The House II. Because it would appear that the other album has over 50 photos in it. And getting a bit tedious to go through. SO the new album has pics of the downstairs in progress. Including my fabulous zebra print mosaic tile floor! The downstairs bathroom isn't quite finished yet - still need to put the sink in and finish off the wall tiling... But the toilet works! Wow - fancy that, we have TWO working toilets in the house now! I'll put a pic of the finished article up soon - we've finally used the Vince Ray tiles on the wall. We'll never want to sell the house now. Shame that we never managed the Stephen Einhorn taps.. but there's still the upstairs bath to do... (unfortunately, I can't see Einhorn's prices coming down...)
Other news - we went to Barcelona the other day for a quick jaunt. Went to the AutoRetro show which was good - lots of lovely lovely old cars. Shame we never see them driving around. Stayed at a really nice hotel called B-Hotel on Placa Espanya. Great location, great hotel, friendly and not too bad price-wise, considering it was Barcelona. Awesome roof terrace! We (sorry, I) booked the room through bookings.es... Highly recommended. Would like to nip down there again, but with a plan... wandering around BCN aimlessly never results in much unfortunately, it's just too big.
And that's that with the updates... Enjoy the pics!
Anyway - I have posted more pictures up on viewfromtheroof. I've put them in a new album called The House II. Because it would appear that the other album has over 50 photos in it. And getting a bit tedious to go through. SO the new album has pics of the downstairs in progress. Including my fabulous zebra print mosaic tile floor! The downstairs bathroom isn't quite finished yet - still need to put the sink in and finish off the wall tiling... But the toilet works! Wow - fancy that, we have TWO working toilets in the house now! I'll put a pic of the finished article up soon - we've finally used the Vince Ray tiles on the wall. We'll never want to sell the house now. Shame that we never managed the Stephen Einhorn taps.. but there's still the upstairs bath to do... (unfortunately, I can't see Einhorn's prices coming down...)
Other news - we went to Barcelona the other day for a quick jaunt. Went to the AutoRetro show which was good - lots of lovely lovely old cars. Shame we never see them driving around. Stayed at a really nice hotel called B-Hotel on Placa Espanya. Great location, great hotel, friendly and not too bad price-wise, considering it was Barcelona. Awesome roof terrace! We (sorry, I) booked the room through bookings.es... Highly recommended. Would like to nip down there again, but with a plan... wandering around BCN aimlessly never results in much unfortunately, it's just too big.
And that's that with the updates... Enjoy the pics!
Posted at 10:22 PM
Sun - November 20, 2005
Catching up
So my entries have dwindled to about 1 or 2 a
month now. That's terrible. I'm the first one to complain when a website isn't
kept up-to-date and here I am falling victim to the same. I suppose everyday
life takes over... We've been here in Spain for almost 3 years now, which is
kinda of hard to believe. Things are settling and although everything is still
exciting and we're having a fabulous time, sometimes I wonder if it's
interesting enough to post on the website.
So here goes a quick(ish) update on almost everything.
The house.
Coming along nicely now. Steve has finished tiling the front and middle rooms and we've relocated out 'front room' to downstairs and made the former front room (which was on the middle floor) into our dining room. I have my much desired Wall of Books downstairs and the cheap Ikea shelves stained dark don't look half bad. It's still a bit echo'y down there as the middle room isn't quite moved into yet, although we've hoping to get the pool table down there today. The back room is slowly turning into a room as opposed to a weird half outside bit, and Steve is building a doorframe as I type. We picked up some windows that we'd order last month in France and they are awaiting the wall to be built so they can go in. My crazy zebra print floor mosaic is on hold as I have run out of room on the board that Steve set up for me so when he installs the first square metre of flooring in the little bathroom, I can finish the second square metre!
Next project looks like it might be the wash room and the much needed bath for the new 'bath' room upstairs might have to wait a bit longer.. Frustrating, but there only seems to be one of Steve, and he tells me he can't do everything at once. Humpth - don't know when that happened!
Work.
Steve is still a stonemason at the local company, been 2 and a half years now, and still enjoying it. SO he tells me. He gets to see the inside of lots of houses and according to him that's how he 'learns' a lot of stuff that he puts into practice on our own house. "I saw some builder doing this..."... Worrying, but true.
My work is going well and the Xpat magazine has been well received down on the Costa Blanca. I'm loving working on it and still manage to dedicate the same amount of time to my other clients. Of course, it has to give somewhere, and sometimes I don't have time to meet Steve for lunch once a week! Terrible.
Bikes.
My new (used) tank is supposedly going to be ready tomorrow so plan to be out on my XS650 more often. Got some marvelous leopard print engineer boots last week although they are far from practical for riding the bike. But they are cool.
Cars.
Still don't have our beloved Chrysler PT Cruiser although that day will come. It doesn't seem like SUCH a far fetched dream now, although...
Lottery.
We still haven't won the lottery. How disappointing.
England.
We went back to the UK for a week this month. First time back for about a year and probably the last time we will spend any large amount of time there. It was good catching up with friends and family and meeting new folks as well. We spent 3 days in Brighton at the Market Inn which was in the centre of the Lanes. Excellent and friendly place and you couldn't ask for a better location. Handy for shopping - which I appeared to do a lot of, judging from the need to purchase an additional bit of luggage for our return journey. Oops. Brighton was fun, although having the rental car was a liability as the parking cost us about 13 quid a day! But all in all, it was still cheaper to rent a car at Stansted for the week than it would have been to take the train to and from the airport. What a sad statement on the cost of rail travel in Britain, no? Actually, still can't get over the whole 2.80 pounds for a pint. I think we're spoiled here.
After Brighton, we headed up to Great Yarmouth to attend the Speedfreaks Ball at Hemsby. Very fun indeed. Saw some excellent bands like Long Tall Texans and Hot Knives, 999, Lurkers, Guana Batz, Go Getters and missed a few bands as well..... but it wouldn't be a proper weekender if we managed to see ALL the bands. Shame on Pontins for running out of beer on the saturday night - come on, these weekenders have been going on for years, it's not a surprise that there's considerably more alcohol consumed compared to your typical summer holiday camp families!
Catalan.
Coming along nicely, thank you very much. Nervous about returning to class tomorrow after missing 4 lessons and apparently skipping quickly through the book! Ah well, hopefully will catch up without too much trouble.
Music.
Going to see Marlango play in concert in Reus next month. Looking forward to that. We were going to see them in Barcelona but Reus works out better as it's on a saturday night and we don't have to rush around to get there.
And on that not-so-interesting-to-anyone-but-us note, there's a nice month of updates.
So here goes a quick(ish) update on almost everything.
The house.
Coming along nicely now. Steve has finished tiling the front and middle rooms and we've relocated out 'front room' to downstairs and made the former front room (which was on the middle floor) into our dining room. I have my much desired Wall of Books downstairs and the cheap Ikea shelves stained dark don't look half bad. It's still a bit echo'y down there as the middle room isn't quite moved into yet, although we've hoping to get the pool table down there today. The back room is slowly turning into a room as opposed to a weird half outside bit, and Steve is building a doorframe as I type. We picked up some windows that we'd order last month in France and they are awaiting the wall to be built so they can go in. My crazy zebra print floor mosaic is on hold as I have run out of room on the board that Steve set up for me so when he installs the first square metre of flooring in the little bathroom, I can finish the second square metre!
Next project looks like it might be the wash room and the much needed bath for the new 'bath' room upstairs might have to wait a bit longer.. Frustrating, but there only seems to be one of Steve, and he tells me he can't do everything at once. Humpth - don't know when that happened!
Work.
Steve is still a stonemason at the local company, been 2 and a half years now, and still enjoying it. SO he tells me. He gets to see the inside of lots of houses and according to him that's how he 'learns' a lot of stuff that he puts into practice on our own house. "I saw some builder doing this..."... Worrying, but true.
My work is going well and the Xpat magazine has been well received down on the Costa Blanca. I'm loving working on it and still manage to dedicate the same amount of time to my other clients. Of course, it has to give somewhere, and sometimes I don't have time to meet Steve for lunch once a week! Terrible.
Bikes.
My new (used) tank is supposedly going to be ready tomorrow so plan to be out on my XS650 more often. Got some marvelous leopard print engineer boots last week although they are far from practical for riding the bike. But they are cool.
Cars.
Still don't have our beloved Chrysler PT Cruiser although that day will come. It doesn't seem like SUCH a far fetched dream now, although...
Lottery.
We still haven't won the lottery. How disappointing.
England.
We went back to the UK for a week this month. First time back for about a year and probably the last time we will spend any large amount of time there. It was good catching up with friends and family and meeting new folks as well. We spent 3 days in Brighton at the Market Inn which was in the centre of the Lanes. Excellent and friendly place and you couldn't ask for a better location. Handy for shopping - which I appeared to do a lot of, judging from the need to purchase an additional bit of luggage for our return journey. Oops. Brighton was fun, although having the rental car was a liability as the parking cost us about 13 quid a day! But all in all, it was still cheaper to rent a car at Stansted for the week than it would have been to take the train to and from the airport. What a sad statement on the cost of rail travel in Britain, no? Actually, still can't get over the whole 2.80 pounds for a pint. I think we're spoiled here.
After Brighton, we headed up to Great Yarmouth to attend the Speedfreaks Ball at Hemsby. Very fun indeed. Saw some excellent bands like Long Tall Texans and Hot Knives, 999, Lurkers, Guana Batz, Go Getters and missed a few bands as well..... but it wouldn't be a proper weekender if we managed to see ALL the bands. Shame on Pontins for running out of beer on the saturday night - come on, these weekenders have been going on for years, it's not a surprise that there's considerably more alcohol consumed compared to your typical summer holiday camp families!
Catalan.
Coming along nicely, thank you very much. Nervous about returning to class tomorrow after missing 4 lessons and apparently skipping quickly through the book! Ah well, hopefully will catch up without too much trouble.
Music.
Going to see Marlango play in concert in Reus next month. Looking forward to that. We were going to see them in Barcelona but Reus works out better as it's on a saturday night and we don't have to rush around to get there.
And on that not-so-interesting-to-anyone-but-us note, there's a nice month of updates.
Posted at 06:06 PM
Thu - November 3, 2005
First steps to catalan independence?
Spain
approves Catalonia autonomy
Kinda suspected this would happen. Eventually. But it's still very exciting. It's only fair that the money raised from taxation should go towards the area it comes from. I hate paying tax, doesn't everyone? But it makes it slightly less irksome when you can enjoy the benefits paid for by your tax money!
Kinda suspected this would happen. Eventually. But it's still very exciting. It's only fair that the money raised from taxation should go towards the area it comes from. I hate paying tax, doesn't everyone? But it makes it slightly less irksome when you can enjoy the benefits paid for by your tax money!
Posted at 05:39 PM
Thu - October 20, 2005
Catalan milestones
I think I've finally reached another milestone
with my Catalan. Today I was stopped in the supermarket for a quick (!) survey
regarding the shop. And I managed it all in Catalan. Phew.
And on tuesday I stopped into the town hall to find out what the plans are for the house across from us that apparently has just been sold to a developer or something. No plans in place yes for the building, but I still find it ridiculous that they would be allowed to knock down an old, recently restored building to build modern flats. What's the point in having a 3 page list of rules that you can and can't do in the old part of town, when it appears to be perfectly okay to knock down history and rebuild characterless flats!?
Admittedly, some of the flats being built are actually not bad looking, but it's no replacement for a 200 year old building. Moan moan moan.
And on tuesday I stopped into the town hall to find out what the plans are for the house across from us that apparently has just been sold to a developer or something. No plans in place yes for the building, but I still find it ridiculous that they would be allowed to knock down an old, recently restored building to build modern flats. What's the point in having a 3 page list of rules that you can and can't do in the old part of town, when it appears to be perfectly okay to knock down history and rebuild characterless flats!?
Admittedly, some of the flats being built are actually not bad looking, but it's no replacement for a 200 year old building. Moan moan moan.
Posted at 04:04 PM
Mon - August 29, 2005
Torroella de Montgri's Festa Major 2005
We went on the CercaBirres on saturday night
followed by the Barraques down by the river. We got home early though, about
4.30 in the morning. It goes on 'til 7. We know that because ever since Thursday
morning, Steve has encountered people coming home from the party when he's off
going to work at 6.45...
I've posted tons of pictures of the evening at viewfromtheroof, so have a look at the proper way to have a pub crawl complete with Scottish Bagpipe band. After the pub crawl we went down to the fair and it was absolutely packed. We realized that last year, it was probably just as packed, but we didn't manage to get out so late - the bands and bars don't actually start until midnight. We're learning, if not slowly...! Next year Steve is thinking of actually taking some time off work so we can enjoy more of the celebrations - it's hard when you work 'out of town', see... Unfortunately, the Ducs de Foc was cancelled this year due to rain (so I expect it'll be a HUGE display next year..!).
We've had the most unusual summer ever weather-wise this year. I mean, wearing jeans in August? We even discussed putting the duvet back on the bed, but it's the principle of the thing - we can't have a duvet in August. It's just so wrong!
Ah well, I'm sure we'll have a nice October and November to make up for it...
I've posted tons of pictures of the evening at viewfromtheroof, so have a look at the proper way to have a pub crawl complete with Scottish Bagpipe band. After the pub crawl we went down to the fair and it was absolutely packed. We realized that last year, it was probably just as packed, but we didn't manage to get out so late - the bands and bars don't actually start until midnight. We're learning, if not slowly...! Next year Steve is thinking of actually taking some time off work so we can enjoy more of the celebrations - it's hard when you work 'out of town', see... Unfortunately, the Ducs de Foc was cancelled this year due to rain (so I expect it'll be a HUGE display next year..!).
We've had the most unusual summer ever weather-wise this year. I mean, wearing jeans in August? We even discussed putting the duvet back on the bed, but it's the principle of the thing - we can't have a duvet in August. It's just so wrong!
Ah well, I'm sure we'll have a nice October and November to make up for it...
Posted at 09:57 AM
Best places to eat on the Costa Brava
Okay. This isn't going to be your typical list.
And you're not going to find Castell d'Emporda or Mas Torrent or even El Bulli
here. I'm sure those places are all very nice (and in the case of Castell
d'Emporda, I KNOW it's very good). But I wanted to make a list of restaurants
that we've been to, enjoyed and can recommend for one reason or another. Also,
the title is a bit misleading, I mean, most of them aren't actually on the
coast, either.. But if I listed 'some really nice restaurants near us' it just
wouldn't have the same impact.
El Persa - c/Riera, 4, Peratellada, 17113 Girona. Tel: 972 634 292.
Persian restaurant in Peratellada which is excellent, good value, fabulous food and a lovely setting. It's just outside one of the 'doorways' to the town which means that all those poor people who go to Peratellada to wander around looking for a restaurant (there are tons there) miss El Persa, which is a shame. Probably one of the only restaurants in the area where you can get hummus!
La Muralla - Av. Lluis Companys, 63, 17257 Torroella de Montgri. Tel: 972 760 694.
Technically, this is a 'snack bar' according to their card and I suppose that's true. Their specialty is traditional Spanish tapes and they do this well. But he also makes one of the best paellas I've ever had. I think they are usually to 'take away'. Perfect opportunity to impress your guests by pretending you've actually made it yourself!
Mas Concas - 17130 Cinclaus, L'Escala, Girona. Tel: 972 775 158.
Notice how they don't have a proper address? Not difficult to find, the village name is 'cinclaus' which means '5 keys'. So yes, there are just 5 masias here and Mas Concas is one of them. Excellent traditional catalan restaurant serving really good food. They do an amazing chocolate dessert - I can't remember the name, but it's something really undescriptive like 'chocolate pleasure'.
Hostal del Caçador - Sobrestany, Girona. Tel: 972 788 419.
Another traditional catalan restaurant. Friendly and with an extensive menu serving local and in-season food. (Actually, that's a silly description, don't they all serve local and in-season food!?) Near Bellcaire d'Emporda.
Ca la Paquita - c/Major 22, 17257 Gualta. Tel: 972 758 303.
It says 'Cuina s'autor' which means, kinda, 'creative cuisine'. I suppose you could call it a french restaurant though. Very lovely food (smoked cheese vegetable risotto, anyone?). They do an excellent menu del dia for just 15 euros, which sounds expensive for a menu del dia but for this place is excellent value. Actually, I've only ever eaten lunch here - but I figure if they can do such a great lunch, dinner must be excellent!
El Ginebro - Ctra. de Vilopriu a Garrigoles, s/n. 17466 Vilopriu. Tel: 972 768 101.
Another excellent catalan restaurant and one of the first we discovered when we first moved to the area. Beautiful old building in a lovely setting with a seasonal menu. Excellent desserts as well! The kind of place you can while away a sunday afternoon with either a group of friends or just a couple of you.
Quatre Pebres - Carrer Fatima, 2, 17257 Torroella de Montgri. Tel: 972 760 084.
Opened this year, it's run by the same guy who runs La Sala, Can Carcan and, if rumors are true, the new pizza restaurant in town which is due to open this week. Nice and unusual menu, modern setting and friendly, attentive staff. It's on the roundabout at the top of Torroella de Montgri before heading to L'Estartit where Hotel Coll is. They also do an excellent lunch, always a good sign.
Sol Blanc - Barri Molinet, 14, Pals. Tel: 972 667 365.
Not -another- traditional catalan restaurant! (You can see why I put El Persa at the top of the list, being different!). This place is great for a sunday afternoon. Beautiful building, tucked away between Torroella and Pals. They keep ducks and chickens outside (and also on the menu). More seasonal cuisine!
Can Llado - Plaça Major, 14, 17464 Viladasens. Tel: 972 496 157.
This is where Steve and I have lunch once a week as it's quite near to his work. It's always packed at lunchtimes. We've been on a sunday before and they have a menu the size of a small novel. Very friendly and just basic, non-fancy, good, hearty food.
Kam Lung - c/Dels Horts 8, 17310 Lloret de Mar. Tel: 972 369 801.
A bit further away for us and the only one I've listed that's actually on the Costa Brava, Kam Lung is a chinese/indonesian restaurant. (Yeah! Indonesian food!! My favourite!) Really nice atmosphere. Try the Rijsttafel which is a selection of dishes.
I could go on. This list could go on forever, there are so many wonderful places to eat in the area. But the problem is, when there are so many great restaurants, choosing one becomes difficult! The dilemmas that we face, eh?
El Persa - c/Riera, 4, Peratellada, 17113 Girona. Tel: 972 634 292.
Persian restaurant in Peratellada which is excellent, good value, fabulous food and a lovely setting. It's just outside one of the 'doorways' to the town which means that all those poor people who go to Peratellada to wander around looking for a restaurant (there are tons there) miss El Persa, which is a shame. Probably one of the only restaurants in the area where you can get hummus!
La Muralla - Av. Lluis Companys, 63, 17257 Torroella de Montgri. Tel: 972 760 694.
Technically, this is a 'snack bar' according to their card and I suppose that's true. Their specialty is traditional Spanish tapes and they do this well. But he also makes one of the best paellas I've ever had. I think they are usually to 'take away'. Perfect opportunity to impress your guests by pretending you've actually made it yourself!
Mas Concas - 17130 Cinclaus, L'Escala, Girona. Tel: 972 775 158.
Notice how they don't have a proper address? Not difficult to find, the village name is 'cinclaus' which means '5 keys'. So yes, there are just 5 masias here and Mas Concas is one of them. Excellent traditional catalan restaurant serving really good food. They do an amazing chocolate dessert - I can't remember the name, but it's something really undescriptive like 'chocolate pleasure'.
Hostal del Caçador - Sobrestany, Girona. Tel: 972 788 419.
Another traditional catalan restaurant. Friendly and with an extensive menu serving local and in-season food. (Actually, that's a silly description, don't they all serve local and in-season food!?) Near Bellcaire d'Emporda.
Ca la Paquita - c/Major 22, 17257 Gualta. Tel: 972 758 303.
It says 'Cuina s'autor' which means, kinda, 'creative cuisine'. I suppose you could call it a french restaurant though. Very lovely food (smoked cheese vegetable risotto, anyone?). They do an excellent menu del dia for just 15 euros, which sounds expensive for a menu del dia but for this place is excellent value. Actually, I've only ever eaten lunch here - but I figure if they can do such a great lunch, dinner must be excellent!
El Ginebro - Ctra. de Vilopriu a Garrigoles, s/n. 17466 Vilopriu. Tel: 972 768 101.
Another excellent catalan restaurant and one of the first we discovered when we first moved to the area. Beautiful old building in a lovely setting with a seasonal menu. Excellent desserts as well! The kind of place you can while away a sunday afternoon with either a group of friends or just a couple of you.
Quatre Pebres - Carrer Fatima, 2, 17257 Torroella de Montgri. Tel: 972 760 084.
Opened this year, it's run by the same guy who runs La Sala, Can Carcan and, if rumors are true, the new pizza restaurant in town which is due to open this week. Nice and unusual menu, modern setting and friendly, attentive staff. It's on the roundabout at the top of Torroella de Montgri before heading to L'Estartit where Hotel Coll is. They also do an excellent lunch, always a good sign.
Sol Blanc - Barri Molinet, 14, Pals. Tel: 972 667 365.
Not -another- traditional catalan restaurant! (You can see why I put El Persa at the top of the list, being different!). This place is great for a sunday afternoon. Beautiful building, tucked away between Torroella and Pals. They keep ducks and chickens outside (and also on the menu). More seasonal cuisine!
Can Llado - Plaça Major, 14, 17464 Viladasens. Tel: 972 496 157.
This is where Steve and I have lunch once a week as it's quite near to his work. It's always packed at lunchtimes. We've been on a sunday before and they have a menu the size of a small novel. Very friendly and just basic, non-fancy, good, hearty food.
Kam Lung - c/Dels Horts 8, 17310 Lloret de Mar. Tel: 972 369 801.
A bit further away for us and the only one I've listed that's actually on the Costa Brava, Kam Lung is a chinese/indonesian restaurant. (Yeah! Indonesian food!! My favourite!) Really nice atmosphere. Try the Rijsttafel which is a selection of dishes.
I could go on. This list could go on forever, there are so many wonderful places to eat in the area. But the problem is, when there are so many great restaurants, choosing one becomes difficult! The dilemmas that we face, eh?
Posted at 09:39 AM
Thu - August 25, 2005
On chutney
Sometimes, in Spain, I miss the selection of
'fancy food' that places like Waitrose or, even Sainsburys had. Don't get me
wrong, we have a marvelous selection of fresh fruits and bread and fish, fuet
and chorizo, but when it comes to finding some Nori to make sushi (my new craze)
or perhaps even some Very Lazy Garlic or Very Lazy GInger, the supermarkets in
our area suck.
But yesterday I discovered something that made me very very happy indeed. Chutney. (Agredolce, in Catalan.) At Cellar del Tast in Torroella they have a rather large offering of Can Bech products. I got the Pear and Ginger chutney, but I's sure I'll go back and get the mango chutney, figs chutney or even prune chutney soon. You never know, soon it might be possible to purchase the curry spices that I currently buy from Seasoned Pioneers! Can Bech's website is very good and very comprehensive. It's also well-designed, which obviously just serves to enhance my happiness - everyone knows how partial I am to good web design. They have listings of all their products (jams, marmalades, fruits in syrup, oils, salsas and more stuff that I don't know what it is. They also have recipes listed for various products. My only gripe with the site is that it has dodgy music playing in the background, but there is an obvious on-off switch so I shouldn't complain too much. Seasoned Pioneers's website, however, is pretty dire but they assure me that it's being redesigned at the moment...!
In other news, I've finally updated whangdoodleland with current samples of my work. It really was long overdue. You'll also see samples of my latest Big Project which is TheXpat magazine based in the Costa Blanca. A monthly luxury lifestyle type mag for expats on the Costa Blanca. Sorry there aren't more examples, I guess you'll just have to nip down to the Costa Blanca and pick up a copy. Come on, even I don't have my hands on a printed copy yet...
On a completely unrelated note, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this site before, but it has loads of pics and information about Torroella de Montgri and LEstartit. It's constantly updated and has some great photos on it of the town.
But yesterday I discovered something that made me very very happy indeed. Chutney. (Agredolce, in Catalan.) At Cellar del Tast in Torroella they have a rather large offering of Can Bech products. I got the Pear and Ginger chutney, but I's sure I'll go back and get the mango chutney, figs chutney or even prune chutney soon. You never know, soon it might be possible to purchase the curry spices that I currently buy from Seasoned Pioneers! Can Bech's website is very good and very comprehensive. It's also well-designed, which obviously just serves to enhance my happiness - everyone knows how partial I am to good web design. They have listings of all their products (jams, marmalades, fruits in syrup, oils, salsas and more stuff that I don't know what it is. They also have recipes listed for various products. My only gripe with the site is that it has dodgy music playing in the background, but there is an obvious on-off switch so I shouldn't complain too much. Seasoned Pioneers's website, however, is pretty dire but they assure me that it's being redesigned at the moment...!
In other news, I've finally updated whangdoodleland with current samples of my work. It really was long overdue. You'll also see samples of my latest Big Project which is TheXpat magazine based in the Costa Blanca. A monthly luxury lifestyle type mag for expats on the Costa Blanca. Sorry there aren't more examples, I guess you'll just have to nip down to the Costa Blanca and pick up a copy. Come on, even I don't have my hands on a printed copy yet...
On a completely unrelated note, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this site before, but it has loads of pics and information about Torroella de Montgri and LEstartit. It's constantly updated and has some great photos on it of the town.
Posted at 08:11 AM
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Published On: Sep 11, 2006 04:52 PM
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Published On: Sep 11, 2006 04:52 PM