Author: Kate Wilson

Caldes De Montbui – Part One

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It was a huge effort to get myself off the couch and into the car on Sunday to drive to Caldes de Montbui.  I’m struggling a lot at the moment to find energy to go out.  I like walking into Granollers for coffee and cake, I am fine about driving to the beach at St Pol or taking the high road to the Costa Brava and Sant Nicolau. But every time we plan to do something cultural here in Granollers, I start to feel sleepy, to crave another chapter of Anthony Trollope, to remember emails I need to send.

But, in the end we went and of course the healing waters of one of the Catalan spa towns gave me a massive energy boost which I am still feeling today.

There was a dance and art festival on there this weekend. It is called Miao and I wrote about it before here.  Caldes is an amazing place with constantly running hot mineral water which you can sample in the various balnearis in town. It is also available in the safareigs which were traditionally the places the women went to wash the clothes

The first performance was in the vegetable allotments below the church. What a place!

  It is an incredibly beautiful vegetable patch with lemon trees

 and peppers plants and little ditches which carry the mineral water around the land

We all walked in single file along the narrow walls.

 Afterwards Pep and I went for a beer and missed the second performance in the little safareig where two years ago we wrote our desires on the walls.  Instead we watched the bars and cafes preparing for the Barça Madrid match.  And then we went back for the next dance, described in Part Two!







Canet de Mar

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Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. We set off to look at flats by the sea on the Maresme.
It is a recent plan – that instead of looking for a new home to move into, we stay based here in Granollers and also rent a small flat, mainly for me to use as a peaceful retreat and as somewhere to put my ‘stuff’.  Stuff which is still in packing boxes one year after moving it to Spain.

There is a train line that goes along the coast from Barcelona and ends up at Blanes where it turns inland. If we could find somewhere along that line it would mean an easy trip to and from town – big town I mean.  There is a problem with getting across to Granollers – there are no easy connections by public transport so it would mean driving, and more importantly, parking!

And then there is the problem of the coastal towns. They were heavily developed in Franco’s Spain and so appear to my Cornish/Scottish gaze, pretty ugly and sprawly.
But their horrible industrial, modern, high-rise exteriors often hide a central area that is beautiful and more village-like

Canet de Mar is one example of this. Of course there is the busy road and the railway line which cut off the town from the sea but there is also a long sandy beach and on the other side, a town with some interesting Modernist buildings and a peaceful seaside atmosphere

There is a resident radical theatre company called The Comediants.
And posters around town advertised drawing classes and dancing.

My favourite place would be Sant Pol.  It is near the beach that we go to regularly and is like a jewel on the coast, the road has turned inward and so the town is much more peaceful. The water is blue and the streets are narrow. We looked at a few flats – one too expensive, one too big, one too dark.  There was a lovely one for the right price close to the beach, but far away from shops and cafes.
We picked up a free smile to keep in the car

And then went to the beach for a glorious afternoon of sun and sea air. There was hardly anyone else there – a Friday in October – a gift from the gods

Pimientos de Padron

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I have made these for lunch today.  To go along with salmon and rosemary roasted potatoes.

 
And somehow couldn’t imagine eating them without a glass of cava so have put a bottle in the fridge!


It’s to celebrate many things, amongst which is the fact that these pimientos were grown by us on our very own terrace here in Granollers!

Bon Profit!

And home again

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Back in Granollers.  And it is good here too!
I went to my first Catalan class of the year, actually the first in two years.
I am now doing Elemental 1 which sounds high level to me but someone  asked me  ‘is that all?’
This time my class is over the bridge in Canovelles. It’s like a different village, like going from Penzance to Newlyn. They are joined up but not the same.
The class was nice, The others were very friendly and even when the teacher wasn’t there they spoke CATALAN!  In my other class everyone couldn’t wait to revert to Castellano which meant I was at a disadvantage. Perhaps it is because we are paying for this course. It’s only 30 euros or so but still we pay so we are keen to succeed.  Class makeup – all women: one African, four Moroccans, one Valencian, two from other parts of Spain and one Scottish. A good group.

On the way home I looked again at the fields of yellow plants and still can’t identify them but now I am sure they are not Jerusalem artichokes. And I saw lots of fish in the river – so it must be fairly clean.

Then Bonnie and I walked to the Casino to meet a friend, we talked Catalan and nothing else for two hours, Bonnie didn’t bark at anyone and on the way home there were still bands of screeching swifts high above us.  Today is October 3rd and they are still here or at least some of them are. They must be the last broods, preparing to fly off to Africa.  And I am the only person in Granollers who stops mid conversation to point up at the sky and scream ‘Mira!  Falciots!  Encara!’   (Look!  Swifts!  Still!)

What’s Not To Like?

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I am back at Sant Nicolau and although I was supposed to go home today I am still here!
It’s the light.
It’s waking up to birdsong.
It’s the pleasure of letting Bonnie out into the garden for her morning pee without having to get dressed to face the people of Granollers.

I called this post What’s Not To Like?  because I’ve always loved that strange phrase, learnt from my old friend Hannah in London.  Being here in Sant Nicolau makes me feel that way.
I love being here.
Helen and Francis are such warm generous people, the little cottages for rent feel like home from home, the resident dogs and cats are friendly and chilled, the gardens are beautiful, the swimming pool is inviting, there is healing energy in the air. We are near the lovely beaches of the Costa Brava and from the Mas you can walk along quiet lanes with the Pyranees and Mare de Deu del Mont in the distance.
Here there be light and love and magic!
The only thing that would make it perfect would be if Pep was here too!
This is the walk that Bonnie and I take most days from the house.