Costa Brava: Pals And Empuries

Next up on the tour of Costa Brava was the Catalan town of Pals, a walled-in, medieval village whose main feature is a large clock tower known as Torre de les Hores. A promontory known as Mirador del Pedro (bottom photo) allows sweeping views across the coastal plains to the Mediterranean and the Illes Medes offshore from L'Estartit.

The narrow, cobblestone streets are framed by semicircular arches, stone balconies and facades with pointed, arched windows. Walking from one medieval corner to the next, my Canon Rebel slipped from my hand and hit the paving stones with a crash. It sounded awful. Incredibly, the camera survived intact, without a scratch.

“You don’t want to take another bite out of that apple,” commented one of my fellow travelers, amazed that my camera still functioned properly after watching (and hearing) the entire incident. Hats off to the folks at Canon for making such a tough, resilient little digital camera. It took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’.

Founded by the Greeks in 575 B.C., Empuries is the ancient civilization’s largest outpost on the Iberian Peninsula. Eventually, Empuries became a city-state of Rome as legions attempted to cut off a key supply route of the Carthaginians. In the 20th century, the site became a major archeological dig that continues to this day.

Costa Brava: Calella Palafrugell And Llafranc

Costa Brava, literally meaning “rough coast," is easily accessible from all of Europe, and is but a hop, skip and a jump (or floatplane) from Marseille, France and Genoa, Italy. Its white-tinted-with-gold-flecks of sandy coastline is popular with Northern Europeans and the region features the influence of its favorite son, Salvador Dali.

The fishing village of Calella de Palafrugell, in the province of Girona, was our first stop on the tour. The town reveals a picturesque bay speckled with boats, along with a beach to die for. Though busy in the summertime, Calella de Palafrugell does not have the large hotels and mass tourism of other villages along Costa Brava.

The coastline in Calella de Palafrugell stretches south to the Cape Roig headlands, which hosts a golf course and botanical gardens. To the north, the little village features a number of small coves linked to Llafranc by way of a delightful -- and amazingly short -- coastal walkway dotted with pines and cacti (below).

Though locals visit Llafranc, it’s the international tourists who dominate the site in the summer months -- particularly the English, Dutch and Americans. Monica, our tour guide, noted that it was Ava Gardner, American glamour queen and movie star, who “discovered” Llafranc while filming Pandora and The Flying Dutchman.

Llafranc, which has a smaller bay but a longer stretch of beach than nearby Calella de Palafrugell, was popular with artists such as Salvador Dali, and was a favorite of American author Ernest Hemingway. Just to the north of Llafranc is the El Far lighthouse perched on a steep cliff overlooking the town and the beach.

Many Spaniards view Llafranc as a luxury town, considering that it costs 4 million euros for a small “casa” overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (below). Some have described the village as the Laguna Beach of the rich, beautiful people who own the nothing-short-of-amazing homes in the area. Shades of Portofino!

Montserrat: The Holy Mountain

Toured Montserrat, a mystical mountain of unusually rounded rock spires shaped by wind and rain from a bed of limestone, pebbles and sand that once lay beneath the sea. The Benedictine monastery embedded in the side of the mountain is the most popular outing from Barcelona. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Pyrenees.

The monastery, the second most important pilgrimage in Spain after Santiago de Compostela, was founded in 1025 in honor of a vision of the Virgin Mary first seen by -- and I’m not kidding here -- shepherds. Destroyed by Napoleon in the early 19th century, the monastery was rebuilt in 1858, and soon began receiving pilgrims and visitors.

The mountain provides an ethereal backdrop for the Virgin of Montserrat, the patron saint of Catalonia, who is enshrined in the monastery’s Royal Basilica. Pilgrims come from around the world to venerate the Virgen de Montserrat known as “the Black Madonna,” a dark wooden sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.

Today, a community of about 80 monks lives in the little abbey. The site is also home to the world-renowned boy’s choir known as L’Esclonia. Founded in 1223, the choir includes about 50 boys with some of the most talented young voices in Spain. Listening to a CD of the choir on our way back to Barcelona was inspiring.

Boarding the tour bus in the center of Barcelona, I felt a bit odd being such a “touri,” as we used to call them at Crater Lake. But as I’ve found on these excursions, you meet folks from all over the world and it’s fun talking to people about where they’re from and why they’re here. Aussies are always particularly entertaining.

Anna, our tour guide, spoke excellent English and provided a thorough commentary along the way. I marveled at a pair of Californians -- mother and daughter -- of Mexican heritage as they spoke with Anna fluently in Spanish, and wished I had pursued my study of the language after only two years of the basics in high school.