Costa Brava

By the time we had left the bars of Valencia and traipsed through the many streets of Barcelona we were ready for some relaxation, lucky then that beaches of the Costa Brava were calling!

Our guide book described the Costa Brava as once being the "package holiday, chips and sangria" destination of our worst nightmares, but went to pains to explain that it is also the most unfairly maligned and misrepresented stretch of coast in Europe. Satisfied that we could head north to avoid the worst of it, on we drove, armed with the list of towns and villages personally recommended by Iolanda.

Chilling out in the Costa Brava

"Costa Brava" means "rugged coast", and you can certainly see how it gets its name. It's here that the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean, resulting in wild sea cliffs and many small coves, rather than the long stretches of sandy beaches further south. It has also a very rich heritage of art and culture, being the home of Dali, Picasso and many others over the past century. Definitely worth some time exploring.

A day at the beach at Calella

Unfortunately though,the weather wasn't quite as optimistic as we were, and although we did manage a couple of great days on the beach, it really was just two. What followed was a series of really amazing thunder and lightning shows that really did inject some drama into the rugged landscape - with pelting rain and thrashing seas - some of those nights where you're really happy to be indoors and not in a tent!

We must have spent almost a week in this small corner of Spain - to keep it brief, here are a few of our selected highlights...

Exploring the well preserved beauty of Girona...

The medieval streets of Girona

The river Onya as it flows through Girona

Wandering around the perfectly restored medieval town of Pals, housing what would have to be my very favourite home and garden ever...

Picture perfect in Pals

Cava tasting (from the bottles bought at Cordoniu a few weeks earlier) underneath the pine trees at lovely quite camping in Calella...

Refreshing and delicious

Absorbing the absurdity that was Salvador Dali's life at his house in Cadaques...

Dali's house in Cadaques, built from a series of fisherman's huts

Yes, that's a stuffed polar bear folks!

The artist's studio

Strolling the shops of Platja d'Aro, where we managed to find several things for the wedding, including the very important bridal shoes. Who would have guessed in such a small resorty town?!

The perfect camping shoes!

But alas, after a good week of relaxation, rain and gazpacho, it was time to head north.

Barcelona

We last visited Barcelona in 1998 on our last European tour and have been looking for an excuse to come back ever since. Lucky for us then that it was directly on our path north up to Central Europe!

We were very keen to revisit the numerous works of the celebrated local architect Gaudi, including the Sagrada Familia - his world famous cathedral - still very much a work in progress almost 100 years on.

The Sagrada Familia

Fighting off the hordes of tourists was no mean feat, but we managed a good hour wandering around gazing upwards at his stunning nature inspired designs - such as the inside columns inspired by trees in a forest. There was a great exhibition displaying further how his love for nature had inspired almost every nook and cranny of his master project, but the quantity of material on display, coupled with the heat and the endless stream of tourists did limit the amount that we were able to take in.

Interior support provided by a forest

A luckless turtle providing some external support

Overall though, it was really quite hard to notice what had changed since our last visit, (but I'm sure we'll notice when we find our old photos) and we were quite disappointed to find that it has still got another 13 years to go before it will be completed! Oh well, I guess than means another return visit!

It's still got a long way to go...

...which means a return visit!

After the cathedral, we headed on up the hill to Park Güell, another of Gaudi's works, with it's amazing mosaic tiled pavillion. Great view from up there, but unfortunately yet another view totally obscured by the thousands of tourists milling around. We literally had to fight for some space to enjoy our lunch, but was it worth it? Yes definitely!

Park Güell

A great view on albeit a moody day in Barcelona

Spot the Eric amongst the throng

Detail of tile mosaic

The famous Park Güell gecko

It was also great to be able to catch up with Iolanda, and old friend and colleague from our Amsterdam days, who we hadn't seen in about 9 years. She hadn't changed a bit, although is now the proud mum of the very gorgeous Nora, who kept us amused all afternoon - despite our non existent Catalan and our up-til-now lack of enthusiasm for Teletubbies! Iolanda proved a great source of information on where to visit in the Costa Brava (our next adventure) and it was great to reconnect again after all this time.

Although it was Barcelona we had come to visit,we opted to stay down the coast a bit further in the coastal resort of Sitges. A very salubrious neighbourhood indeed, although very much a resort, which was quite a shock to the system after our recent destinations. It had a series of lovely beaches, catering for all sorts of preferences if you know what I mean. Barcelona was an easy train or bus ride in, and it provided a nice and relaxing alternative to staying in the big smoke, which to be fair is almost impossible now that they have removed pretty much all of the camping grounds in Barcelona proper.

The America's Cup in Valencia

Proxy 'Home of the America's Cup'?? Hopefully not for very long!

We took a bit of a detour from the original plan to come down to Valencia to watch the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, which will eventually determine who is allowed to challenge for the America's Cup against the current defender Alingi of Switzerland...

The Auld Mug, can't spot the axe marks though!

Switzerland, not being known for its extensive ocean coastline, opted to hold the competition in Valencia after it was won 4 years ago by sailing circles around our sinking defending yacht in New Zealand. Long story but Team NZ is here to bring it back!

The Team NZ base (the black shed on the left)

A friend of ours Grant, is also about to be married so this was a great opportunity for the boys to come out from London and see the fun unfold too. I left Sharon at a nearby campground with the English couple we'd met in Tarragona and spent the weekend with the lads, details from here on in shall remain suitably vague so as to protect the innocent :)

Rob & Eric

Coincidentally, our good friends Cheryl and Jase were also in town for the weekend, so it was great to meet up and share in the festive environment, and for Sharon and Cheryl to indulge in a spot of vino rosado!

Cheryl and Jase

Cheryl & Sharon

It's a big money game the America's Cup, and Valencia has spent around €100 million converting the port into a suitable base for the teams. A great job has been done too but nothing can alter the fact that the main city centre is quite disjointed from the port area, and at the end of the day we could have been anywhere. The transport around town was quite ill prepared too and meant that travelling from our hostel to the port could take up to an hour. Maybe if we'd been able work out the subway system as well as we could the bars then may be we'd have had more success??

Cup exhibit in town - one of the few signs of the event being held here

Team NZ returning to the shed after a day on the water

The four teams entering the semis were Team Oracle BMW (USA) frontman being Larry Elison owner of Oracle, Luna Rossa Prada (Italy), Desafio Espana (Spain) and Team NZ. As Team NZ topped the previous round robins, we were allowed to choose our opponent from the remaining three... Oracle being the favorite and Luna Rossa looking tough, Team NZ opted to race the Spanish team who'd only just managed to get through after some surprise wins.

The lads enjoying the views from a spectator boat (Grant as El Matador!)

It would be fair to say that we brought a great atmosphere to the Cup Village, (especially with Grant being dressed up as a Spanish Matador), as it seemed to us that not many locals were even aware that their city was hosting the event on behalf of Switzerland. But with the Spanish team now into the semi finals, there seemed to be alot more interest!

Desafio Espana celebrating a well earned second win

After a couple of wins by Team NZ, Spain managed to get a surprise win back and the racing became a whole lot closer than expected. Desafio Espana wasn't giving anything away! Sunday we were hoping to win the last race to secure our entry to the finals, but the light shifty winds allowed them to go to a 2-4 race score. Our friends from London headed back on the Sunday so we also left town to head back up north and back on track to head to Eastern Europe as we'd planned.

Team New Zealand subdued return following the loss to the Spanish

Team New Zealand managed to get the final win a few days later, sealing our place into the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup against Team Luna Rossa.

Luna Rossa after a convincing 5 -0 win over Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW team

NB: Following a comprehensive 5-0 victory over Luna Rossa in the Louis Vuitton Cup, Team NZ has secured its place to challenge Alingi in the America's Cup which commmences June 23...

Tarragona

Tarragona, the 'Rome of Spain' as it was billed, but it was also a great place to finally be camped up on the beach front!

Unfortunately along with beach and coastal towns comes a few security problems. Such easy access to the beach means that any one can wander into the camping off the sand. A few dodgy people were around and an English couple next door had someone try to break into their tent the first night we were there! While we didn't have any problems it was a reminder to be vigilant after the quieter small towns we'd previously been in.

Location, location location! Our beachfront home for the night

We headed in to the city to view the medieval old town which is built on the remains of an important roman city founded in 218BC, the remains of which are being extensively excavated. The plan of modern Tarragona is arranged in the same way as it was in Roman times, split over three levels each leading higher up a hill. Firstly the Roman Circus, where chariot races and other such entertainment took place. Here the stands which surrounded it later became the bases for the fortifying walls around the city and a medieval market town. They have recently had a go at excavating right below the city to gain access to the Roman remains, giving a great picture of what once stood there. The next level up was the Forum and further up the Temple Of Apollo. Conviently, and as in many other such cities, this is now the exact space where the current cathedral complex stands!

Ok a bit of imagination needed here, this is the edge of the Roman Circus ;)

Nice spot for an amphitheatre!

Looking accross the medieval old town

More imagination needed here to see what the Roman Circus main stands looked like

A good set of museums around town explained it all well and we even managed to catch it during an "open doors" arts festival allowing us free access to them all ;)

Cava

I love bubbles! We both love bubbles!! So what could have been more exciting than realising that our journey down to Valencia was going to take us right through the heart of Spain's Cava making district?!!!

So with TomTom set for Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, off we set...

When I think of Cava I think of Freixenet. Now I do know that it's not that exotic, and in the past I've been known to buy it on special at Foodtown Grey Lynn, but I won't have a bad word said about it. I love it! So naturally it was the first place we headed.

Freixenet!!

Unfortunately we missed the last tour of the day by 20 minutes, but fortunately it isn't the only Cava cave in town. So off we set into the unknown...

Cordoniu is, alongside Freixenet, one of the most prominent Cava producers in the business. It owns not only the biggest cellars in the world, but a also the most spectacular Art Nouveau "chateau" - or at least the Spanish equivalent of a chateau, so was definitely worth a visit. And more importantly it was willing to let us join the tour that had already started, so we were guaranteed of a tasting or two.

Josep Puig i Cadafalch's early 1900 Art Nouveau masterpiece, the Codorniu Cava house

Almost like a (cava) house of workship!

To be honest, we've seen the insides of more than a few wine producers over the past few years, but here there was certainly something exciting about watching the bubbles being poured into the bottles, the corks being squeezed on,and their cages being wired on. And the high speed miniature train ride through the aisles and aisles of subterranean cellars - 5 stories underground - surely couldn't help bring out the inner child in me! The expectation was mounting!!

Degorgement of pink cava - they're full of bubbles now!

5 stories under...

Just in case we've forgotten where we are

And so to the tasting...a generous glass of Codorniu Ultra Brut. And the conclusion? Crisp, taut, with good finesse, but a little too on the dry side for my liking.

A bubbly connoisseur at work

Hmmm....

Luckily for us then that we bought a couple of different styles to sample later....I'm really not that fussy!

Opening the bottle wasn't supposed to be this hard!!

Burgundy

Burgundy! O beautiful, bountiful Burgundy!
Even the name condures up so much colour, so much romance and allure and gorgeousness.

I probably don't need to write much more for you to get the picture...we both just totally fell in love with the place, and can't recommend it enough.

From the foot of the Black Forest, and with a bit of a drive through France to the west, we arrived in one of our most much anticipated regions of the trip. Burgundy extends from Dijon, the grand home of mustard, south towards Lyon, gateway to the Alps. I had originally assumed that as with most of the famous wine regions of France, we would be following the meanderings of some great river, so I was quite surprised to find that there was not one in sight. Instead, the vineyards are concentrated in tiny allotments spread out across gentle hills, rather like a lumpy patchwork quilt.

Planning a route

We've never really gotten into the wines of the region, mainly due to the rather substantial level of investment required to gain access. But I did know that the whites are made from one of my most favourite grapes, Chardonnay, and that our good mate and wine connoisseur Toby just can't stop waxing lyrical about the merits of the great Montrachet. It just had to be done.

Sharon's spiritual homeland?

I guess that's a right turn ahead

We chose as our centre the compact and appealingly named Beaune, quite encouraged with Lonely Planet's description of it being one of the best places in France for wine tasting. It is absolutely beautiful - with honey hued buildings, flower beds on every corner, filled to the brim with medieval architecture, including the magnificent Hotel Dieu (a medieval charity hospital designed more like a grand chateau with its improverished patients eating from silver platters and lounging in red velvet draped beds) - and a certain je ne sais quois. Absolutely stunning.

Hotel Dieu, Beaune

More like a hotel than a charity hospital in the 1400s huh?

It also housed a fascinating wine museum, and the totally absorbing 'Marche du Vins', where we embarked upon a self guided, wine tasting wander through subterranean wine cellars, sampling 18 different wines, including premier and grand crus! It was just totally crazy, and we'd never seen anything quite like it. You're given a flat, silvery 'tastevin', rather like a Scottish quaich, and allowed to wander freely around in the eerie candle light, filling up your vessel from the opened bottles left out for you to taste. And the building itself was magnificent - the tour passed through the ancient tomb-cum-crypt of a former church, eventually leading up into the grand hall of worship itself, although in here it's all about worshipping of a different sort!

Here's what it's all about folks!

Tasting by candlelight

The big boy! Chassagne Montrachet Grand Cru

After all this fun, we just couldn't leave the area without a good cycle through the fields of vines, just to see where it all begins. Fortunately for us, the council had thoughtfully signposted each individual plot, so we could identify the birthplace of each of these famous crus. We had been diligently attempting to study all the differing geologies and soils, climatic conditions and solar angles of the region in order to try to understand the concept of 'terroir', but at the end of the day, it's still really hard to grasp just how one particular 50x50m plot can command €100 more per bottle than its neighbour...

Tearing through the vines

Hmmm, you'll be paying at least €100 for a bottle from this field!