Homage to - Castell d`Empordà

Homage to
Catalonia
Images: Riccardo Spila/SIME/4Corners
Culture buffs will lose their hearts on a bike tour of Catalonia — a rugged, pinescented coastal region that Salvador Dalí called home. Far beyond the hubs of mass
tourism this two-wheeled trip reveals hill-top towns, wild beaches and the training
paths of Lance Armstrong. Words by Carlton Reid >>
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CATALONIA
CATALONIA
Images: Carlton Reid
The view from the next bay is, in my
opinion, the best in the whole region.
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Artist Carles Rebull was talking about l’Agulla
de Castell, a bulbous spur jutting out into
the Mediterranean, on the northern coast of
Catalonia. This outcrop’s ‘eye’ (agulla means
needle) is a magnet for sea kayakers and,
evidently, landscape painters. Rebull said he’d
be painting there again the following day.
Today, I was sneaking a look over his shoulder
as he was finishing a watercolour of Cala
S’Alguer, a cove edged with chic beach cabanas
converted from fishermen’s stone huts.
Turning from the watercolour, I climbed
some pine-shaded rock steps to the adjoining
beach, Platja de Castell, and stripped to my
cycle shorts for a quick swim. I dried off
by climbing to the top of Poblat Ibèric de
Castell, where the Iron Age Iberians had built
an acropolis and a temple. The crown of the
hill is dotted with their dressed stones. The
view down to the needle’s eye, as Rebell had
promised, was spectacular. Turning three-sixty,
the view across Platja de Castell was also a
postcard: curving yellow-white sand framed by
umbrella pines. This half-moon cove — saved
from development by a local referendum in the
1990s — is an indentation on a ‘rugged, brave
coast’ (or in Catalan, the Costa Brava).
Costa Brava? British pubs, lager-tops and
concrete? Not a bit of it. We — that’s me and
my wife, Jude — were on a romantic cycling
trip, entitled Contrasts of Catalunya, booked
with Headwater Holidays, a six-night trip
taking in Calella de Palafrugell, Pals, Begur,
and Castell d’Emporda. “If we marketed
this as Costa Brava, it would put people off,”
admits Alan Hughes, the regional rep.
“Costa Brava doesn’t have the best of
connotations with Brits, but once people are
here, they can see why the region is special.”
Avoiding the brassy resorts in the southern
half of Costa Brava, we cycled each day from
hotel to hotel, clustered around the hill town of
Begur on the floodplain of Baix Empordà. The
Pyrenees were omnipresent but the steep, >>
Previous spread: View of
Cala Sa Tuna beach and
village, Begur
Left and above: Artist
Carles Rebull painting at
Cala S’Alguer
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I climbed some pine-shaded steps to the adjoining beach,
Platja de Castell, stripped to my cycle shorts for a quick swim.
I dried off by climbing to the top of Poblat Ibèric de Castell,
where the Iron Age Iberians had built an acropolis and a
temple. The crown of the hill is dotted with their dressed stones
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And cosmopolitan Llafranc, a 10-minute ride
further along the coast, has a small marina
that attracts yachties. It’s a pretty spot to dally
in but my wheels and I had other ideas.
From Armstrong to Dali
Inland Costa Brava is perfect for cycle touring:
much of it is flat, there are lots of roads
— most of them lightly travelled — and
distances between points of interest are
short. The roads to avoid are the straight,
busy highways running from Girona to the
sea, where driving standards are trademark
atrocious. Almost everywhere else is quiet,
and the driving saner.
“Catalan drivers are courteous to cyclists,”
Alan had explained. “Even if you ride on
the pavement, drivers will stop for you
at crossings.”
The floodplain that is Baix Empordà might
be flat but rising out of the former marshland
are islands of stone: the hill towns. The
prettiest is Pals. Perched on a rock outcrop, it
has artful cobbled streets, medieval archways
and twisting alleys, overlooked by cute-asa-button stone balconies. Half-destroyed
during the Civil War, Pals was abandoned
until painstakingly restored, over a period of
30 years, by the town’s wealthiest family. The
restoration — undeniably picturesque — left
the town squeaky-clean and it shines like new,
though few people now live here.
Close by, Begur is a large hill town topped
by a squat, 11th-century ruined castle. PalauSator, meanwhile, is a small hill village and the
perfect place for an evening stroll followed by a
paella made with the local rice.
And then there’s Peratallada. This, like the
other hill towns (they look very much alike),
has an imposing, thick-walled church but,
unusually, it’s sited outside of the town walls.
Peratallada means ‘cut stone’, and many of the
pre-medieval buildings here are indeed hewn
from the living rock. Those of the narrow
streets that aren’t cobbled are planed from this
rock. One stretch has deep ruts in it, showing
where carts have passed and re-passed over
hundreds of years. Sadly, however, the fat tyres
of my bike failed to manage it.
We would have fared better with a skinnytyred road bike. There are plenty about. The
back-roads of Baix Empordà hum to the whirr
of carbon-composite bicycles spinning along;
and Girona, 20 miles closer to the Pyrenees, is
home to a great many pro-team road cyclists.
Lance Armstrong started the trend. While
still a professional, he lived in a plush
apartment in Girona, Costa Brava’s inland
city. When not hill training, one of his
favourite flat rides was the short spin out to
Castell d’Empordà, a boutique castle hotel
dominating a small, medieval hill village
in the middle of Baix Empordà.
The artist Salvador Dalí was once in
the running to buy the ruined Castell
d’Empordà, but when his offer to pay for
it with his art was declined, he secured the
Castle of Púbol instead. Castell d’Empordà
— once owned by a sea captain who sailed
with Christopher Columbus — continued
to decay until, in 1999, the ruin was bought
by Dutchman Albert Diks and his wife,
Margo Vereijken. Their restoration is chic,
quirky and yet homely. One of Albert’s
ancestors fought at the Battle of Waterloo,
which is why there’s an 195sq ft scale model
of the battle, built by Albert, in one of the
anterooms. Ask nicely to be shown the castle’s
13th-century chapel of Maria del Remei
(Mary of the Remedy). Every year, on the
second Sunday of October, this chapel is the
focus of a healing rite attended by hundreds
of Catholic pilgrims.
Since the hotel’s bike rack is under a fruiting
fig tree, we moonwalked to the hotel’s front
door, trying to use gravel and motion to scrape
the sticky fruit from our clicky-in cycle shoes.
This improvised dance routine is probably how
the hotel knows cyclists are on their way in.
Clicky-in shoes — and Lycra skin shorts
— are admittedly overkill for the short
distances on this break but one piece of cyclist
kit is a must. Since 2004, helmets have been a
legal requirement when cycling in Spain. But
there are get-out clauses: you won’t cop a €90
(£74) fine for riding without a helmet in >>
Clockwise from top left: Jude riding in the medieval
town of Pals; Cove hopping, Calella de Parafrugell;
Riding along the beach at Platja de Castell; Heading
for an early morning swim, Calella de Parafrugell
Images: Carlton Reid
short climb to Begur was our hardest ascent of
the week; the rest of the riding was mostly flat.
With no more than 20 miles of pedalling a day,
this wasn’t a challenge; no ‘brava’ required.
The routes we followed — lined with
giant bamboo, cork oaks and olive trees
— were a mix of quiet country lanes, off-road
paths and a former railway line converted to
a family-friendly gravel bike trail. We used
the paper map and turn-by-turn instructions
supplied, but no follow-the-leader guiding.
You’re left to your own devices and can
complete the daily rides at your own pace,
adding on hill-laced loops at the end if you’re
feeling energetic.
Those who stop for long, lazy lunches along
the way — perhaps lubricated with a little of
the region’s wine — may wish to forego the
loops. I never did; 20 miles is a warm-up ride
for a keenie like me (and I don’t drink and
ride). Jude preferred post-ride swims in the
hotel’s outdoor pools.
On one of the long, extra-curricular,
evening ascents, I ditched the bike at the
top of the climb and clambered between
coves on the serpentine steps of the Cami de
Ronda coastal path — a well-signposted trail,
originally stamped out by farmers and, later,
by smugglers during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil
War. The path links inlets and bays that can’t
be reached by car, or bicycle.
Mainstream Costa Brava has high-rise
resorts with long expanses of sand; northern
Costa Brava is punctuated with a great
many craggy coves and rocky bays. The bijou
beaches have pebbles and slivers of sand.
At Tamariu — named for its tamarisk-lined
promenade — fishermen’s huts have been
transformed into restaurants, and framing
the cove are pink crags and umbrella pine
trees. The indented coves here are real honeypots, since much of the coast plunges sheer
into the sea, with pine-clad cliffs hiding
the next bay.
The next bay to Tamariu is Calella de
Palafrugell, home to a busy market town with
a large museum devoted to cork, the crop
that dominated the region before tourism.
Calella, meanwhile, is spread along half-adozen sandy and rocky coves connected by
high-level promenades and rock tunnels.
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Image: Carlton Reid
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towns, or when it’s hot, or when it’s hilly.
Hot hill towns could therefore be considered
helmet-free zones, should you so choose.
Locals certainly seem relaxed about the lid
law. Even on the flat, rural Ruta Del Tren
Petit bike trail, we saw very few cyclists
wearing helmets.
This former railway line, now a wide,
gravel path, is one of the many traffic-free
sections of this trip. Another was the
riverside trail heading into the town of
Torroella de Montgrí, a medieval port for
the kings of Aragon before the River Ter
silted up. Two miles from town, a fierce
wind had brought down a tree, blocking the
path. Retracing our steps and finding a road
route into town would have been the sensible
decision (the tree looked likely to collapse
some more). Instead, we dismantled the
bikes and fed them beneath the felled tree,
hurriedly, not wishing to be squished, like
one of Dalí’s famous clocks.
Tributes to Costa Brava’s most famous artist
are scattered throughout the region. And while
our bike route didn’t pass close to the main
Dalí sites here, they were a short bus ride away,
and reachable on the trip’s rest day.
The Theatre-Museum Dalí in Figueres
— topped with giant model eggs and a variety
of other, oversized trademark motifs — is
the second most visited museum in Spain and
part of the ‘Dalí Triangle’ of key buildings;
which also includes Portlligat’s HouseMuseum and the Castle of Púbol. The latter
was bought by the artist as a run-down
medieval castle in 1969 and restored for his
wife (and muse) Gala, as a place where she
could take refuge. Mostly from Dalí: he was
as loopy as he looked.
The house has been preserved from the time
when Gala died, in 1982, and the heartbroken
Dalí moved in. Gala is buried below the house,
in the crypt, watched over by the same stuffed
giraffe that was at her funeral.
The area isn’t just famous for its artists and
hill-top towns — food is big business here.
Restaurateurs from Barcelona take the twohour trip to pick up the best cuts of meat, while
Palafrugell and La Bisbal — Baix Empordà’s
two main inland towns — produce gourmet
meats that are exported around the world.
Above: Calella de Palafrugell
Another highlight is its seafood which
is fresh and abundant. Catalan specialties
include rice flavoured with squid ink, and the
mar i muntanya cuisine, a coastal idiosyncrasy
combining sea and mountain produce to make
some stand-out dishes. Think sweet and sour
paella of pork, chicken, prawns and cuttlefish;
or lobster with chicken served in a chocolate
sauce — this was one of Dalí’s favourite dishes.
Fish and meat is cooked simply and delicately,
either baked in salt or grilled, or served in
dishes such as the tomato-based stew suquet.
In keeping with Spanish culture, Costa
Bravans eat late — restaurants can be quiet
until 9.30pm, so early diners like us could
often bag a table with the best views. El Far,
the hotel restaurant at the Cap de Sant Sebastià
on the cliffs above Llafranc, has a lighthouse on
its terrace. The illuminated-every-few-seconds
vista over the bay makes the climb, even after a
full day’s biking, well worth it.
And when you’ve cycled to the lighthouse
on a steep, winding road, there’s no guilt-trip
in ordering the calorific crema Catalana. The
Catalonian version of crème brulée is the
perfect finish to a Costa Bravan dinner and
day’s biking. >>
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essentials
CATALONIA
WHEN TO GO
>> During October, when the
hill towns and their Gothic and
Romanesque churches can be very
quiet, but it can be chilly and wet in
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this part of Spain at this time of year.
Costa Brava — inland included — is
very busy in the summer months, less
so in spring and early autumn.
NEED TO KNOW
>> Currency: Euro (€).
£1 = €1.20.
>> International dial code: 00 34.
>> Time difference: GMT +1.
HOW TO DO IT
>> Headwater Holidays’ Contrasts
of Catalunya trip is a six-night break
around the Catalan coast, taking in
Calella de Palafrugell, Pals, Begur, and
Castell d’Emporda. Available April to
October, costing £1,399 per person
in peak season, flight included. Two
nights are spent at Castell d’Empordà.
www.headwater.com
EATS
MORE INFO
>> El Celler de Can Roca, Girona.
www.cellercanroca.com.
>> El Far, Cap de Sant Sebastià
lighthouse, Llafranc. www.elfar.net
www.costabrava.org/en
www.visitemporda.com/en
www.visitpalafrugell.cat
www.salvador-dali.org
www.castelldemporda.com
>> Language: Catalonia is a bilingual
part of Spain. Pack a Catalan
phrasebook as well as a Spanish
one. Road signs are sometimes only
in Catalan. □
SLEEPS
>> Hotel Tamariu.
www.tamariu.com
>> Hotel Aigua Blava.
www.aiguablava.com
>> Hotel El Far de Sant Sebastià.
www.elfar.net
Illustration: Clare Nicholas
GETTING THERE
>> EasyJet, British Airways, BMIbaby,
Jet2.com, Monarch, Ryanair and
Vueling Airlines all fly to Barcelona
from various UK airports.
www.easyjet.com www.ba.com
www.bmibaby.com www.jet2.com
www.monarch.co.uk www.ryanair.com
www.vueling.com
>> Average flight time: 2h.
>> The closest train station to
Calella de Palafrugell — best for
this trip — is Flaça on the Barcelona
to Girona-Figueras line. It’s just
under two-hours to Flaça from
Barcelona. Calella de Palafrugell is
a 40-minute drive from Flaça.
www.renfe.es