Travel

Saturday night much needed Vermut

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

As Fly Lady says, ‘you are not behind, just start from where you are’   So……

I’ve just had a friend to stay with me here in Granollers who I haven’t seen for two, or is it three years?  We had one of those wonderful weeks where there is plenty of time to catch up with everything but not in one great gulp.  We let the conversation meander between memories of when we were 6 and first met, to recent life changes, to current concerns, to music, back to families, stories from when we were teenagers, drugs, books and poems, kittens and dogs and everything else in between.

I’ll try to do the same thing now with you, letting the subjects rise and fall in their own rhythm.

Diet
I gave up my fasting diet for the week and ate and drank solidly throughout. It was lovely but now I’ll be returning with pleasure to the 5/2 diet where for 2 days a week you reduce your calories and feel hungry for a change. I’m pushing myself to get fully into kilos and grams and let go of pounds and ounces in more ways than one!

The Foot
Every morning this week I cycled to The Mútua for physiotherapy on my foot.
The journey up through France and north to Scotland then back down again caused a repetitive strain tendinitis in my left ankle.
I now know that this is a common injury and could have been avoided if I had rested more.   It didn’t start hurting until it was too late and by then I still had to drive and walk so compounded the problem.  For two months now it has been hard to walk, not helped by my impatience to take Bonnie out so that as soon it gets better I overdo it again.
I am having Laser and Ultrasound and Tens daily. It’s a sort of DIY system in the clinic where you clean the equipment and get your own ice-packs thus freeing up the staff to spend more time chatting with each other at reception

Art at Last
My friend Christine and I went to an art class in Granollers this week. It is amazing and is exactly what I have been looking for since I arrived but before I could only find classes for children.
We practised mixing colours in acryic paints which was like a meditation and totally absorbing

 I’ve always ended up before with mud brown and now I know why.
For days afterwards we were ‘seeing’ colours all around us. Look at this street corner in Granollers

Did you know that Malva is the Spanish word for Mauve?   And the Malvinas?

Now to get to the biggest theme of the week. The car.
In brief (which is difficult to do when something is obsessively churning around in your head) I bought a left hand drive Spanish registered car when I was in the UK. We drove home in it which meant that I could rest my ******* ankle.  It is a lovely car but when we went to Sabadell to register ourselves as the new owners, we couldn’t. We don’t have the correct paperwork from the UK dealers.
This is Spain. You need the correct papers and lots of them.  It is all a terrible muddle and errhhhh!
It has driven me crazy these past two weeks.  Very luckily we were able to get it through the ITV which is nothing to do with television but is the Spanish equivalent of the MOT.   You don’t need  to be the owner at the test.  The car is insured but that is it –  we don’t legally own it, there are several outstanding debts on it, we are not able to pay the road tax as we are not the owners…….. and the phone calls to the dealers are no fun.  I’m sure there will be a follow up to this saga….

That’s it for now then. If you are interested in seeing lovely photos of our town then can I invite you to take a look at the Facebook page Aboutgranollers?   I am building up a collection of images about what was called in the Guardian, this nondescript Catalan town.
And a last picture from today’s walk/limp in Montnegre. These are the trees that give us cork – they look so naked and unprotected after their outer bark has been taken. Think of them when you next open a bottle of wine.  But meanwhile, Salut and have a happy weekend wherever you are.

Windy and Wonderful Ametlla del Mar

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Before those days gently slide away into the past I want to write a little about the rest of our trip to Els Ports and the Delta.
The campsite began to fill up on Easter Friday and as it wasn’t very special staying there we decided to move on. There was nothing wrong with it but I’ve become fussy about campsites after visiting so many in the past three years and this was one of the ones, for example, with no toilet seats!
We thought we’d set off early and have breakfast before going to hear some drumming.
The van had other ideas

Luckily a campsite is a great place to find experts in almost anything and we had two car mechanics arguing over what exactly was causing it to refuse to start.
Then there were at least 12 people who helped push-start us and we were off to visit Vallderoures a beautiful walled town over the border in Aragon, with a castle and church and a bridge leading into the old central square

There was a special Easter celebration of drumming at 11am and even with the van problem we got there in time to find a shady parking place very close to the town but far enough away so that Bonnie wouldn’t be frightened by the sound of 100 drums.
Everything was easy and we went first to look for a cafe with wifi and found one overlooking the river and the town

Thank goodness we had ordered our breakfast before finding out their password was ‘vivaespaña’!  While this sounds innocent enough to any British person who remembers the song, to a Catalan it is a code for something not so light-hearted!

With Bonnie safely sleeping in the van, outside the city walls, we squeezed into the square to listen to and feel the drums. I got interested in all the faces – this guy for example.

By the castle there is a garden with a Via Dolorosa – a walk taking you past each station of the Cross. Here is the fourth one – Jesus meets Mary on the road.

Later we drove to the coast meaning to find a campsite by the Delta. But Ampolla was full and too much of a culture shock after our quiet walks so we continued east to Ametlla del Mar. There we found one of the best campsites in the world. It was dark when we got there but the following morning we woke to find the sea only minutes away down a quiet cliff path and the sound of the waves all around us

I liked Ametlla del Mar very much – even though the Tramontana was blowing and the internet wasn’t working in the campsite and the harbour cafes were a bit expensive.  It was one of those places where you arrive and immediately start planning when you can come again!
Oh and the campsite is called Camping Nautic!

On Sunday we set off for home but it was so hard to leave that we took a little diversion to a Naturist beach. And had our first swims of the year!  No pictures – sorry!

a change of scene

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

We set off in the van heading south. now we are exploring the Ports de Beseit.
Walking along the rivers is like being in a fresh unsullied world. We have seen some magical places.
for now…this is just a taster


Water Does Not Resist

~ Kate Wilson ~ 6 Comments

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. We left Granollers and the industrial zone of Valles Oriental behind us and headed north to Sant Hilary Sacalm

Sant Hilary Sacalm is known as the town with a hundred fountains. Two generations ago it was visited annually by hundreds of Catalans who came to taste the natural spring waters. There were hotels and restaurants and a busy Casino in the town centre. People came for two or three months in the summer with their whole families. Every year they would stay in the same hotel, walk the familiar pathes which lead to the different fountains, drink the various waters which were known to heal different parts of the body. They would meet the same friends every year and the annual ritual seemed as if it would never change

But now the town is quiet. Many of the hotels have closed down – one has even been knocked down to create a new plaça with a covered market. The Casino and the cinema have disappeared. Habits change and people stopped making this regular pilgrimage to drink the waters

But the fountains are still there

We visited the Font Ferro which heals the eyes

And the Font de Cirers which has the sweetest waters

And the Font del Pic which was not so popular

Font Vella is now the centre of a vast bottled water industry – presently owned by Danone!

That one was surrounded by signs saying ‘No Dogs’. Funny how big businesses go daft!

A lovely town with fresh clear air. I slept all the way home – drugged by cleanliness


“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” 

Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

Bonnie takes the train to Barcelona

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Bonnie and I travelled down to Barcelona yesterday to stay with our friend Cristina.
We took the train from Granollers Canovelles station which is the third railway station in the Granollers area and is on a different line – the one that goes from Vic to Hospitalet.

As far as I know you can’t take dogs on the metro or the buses so if I travel with Bonnie I need to aim for somewhere on the railway line. Cristina lives in Nou Barris so we were trying out the route  to Sant Andreu Arenal which is only 30 minutes walk from her flat

I like the station at Canovelles – it feels like a country station – out in the open air and you even have to cross the railway tracks to get to the right platform which they only announce a few minutes before the train arrives.
(By the way. another person asked me for directions as we walked to the station. It is one of my callings – being a town guide either in Barcelona or Granollers! I don’t feel like a local but obviously something in my manner gives confidence to strangers!)

Bonnie has to wear the muzzle on the train. We don’t mind as it stops stray children from trying to touch her – they actually give her a wide berth ‘Mira mama! Un perro malo!’
She was really good on the train and all the way through Nou Barris to Cristina’s house. I used to think it incredible that she would go to Barcelona. What a grown up dog! But it’s no different from any other collection of shopping streets. She doesn’t seem fazed at all by the thought of Gaudi or the Sagrada Familia!

We went for a walk later up the Turó de la Peira which is a rare public green space in this very built up district. It used to be larger but pre-democracy there was a lot of building in this area which ate into the park. Many of those flats later had to be pulled down due to their poor construction which made them unsafe.  The park is a much needed breathing space in the city and all the better for being on a hill.

there are wonderful views from the top over Barcelona to the sea

and in the other direction, the Collserola Natural Park. We sat together on a bench and took photos of ourselves! She is such a great companion.