Begur, Catalunya, Spain
One last breakfast at our favorite bakery in Girona (Jerome had a freshly baked croissant; I a small toasted baguette with fresh tomato scraped across it, followed by a sprinkling of salt and a drizzle of olive oil (try it some time); fresh orange juice and cafe con leche for both of us), one last walk around town, then check-out from our hotel and a taxi ride to the train station, where our rental Peugeot waited for us.
We headed out of town after a stop at a sporting goods store to buy a cheap exercise mat, then drove via back roads to a cape on the Mediterranean Sea almost due east of Girona. Here lies Begur, a town of about 4,000 residents. We will be here for four days, with plenty of time to get to know the place and its nearby beaches and coves. Begur has a medieval castle, and other remains that go farther back in time, but we don't know much about that yet. We do know that, in addition to the fabulous coastline, it is the home of numerous Indiano houses built by locals who emigrated to Cuba and came back with their wealth to impress their neighbors by building large though not always tasteful homes. This is one of Jerome's favorite research themes, and is a good part of the reason for our visit here.
All I can say so far is that this is a charming smallish town, with a tourism infrastructure in place that makes it welcoming and accommodating. The big annual event, a Cuban Indiano festival, took place two weeks ago, so things are pretty quiet. We had a lovely lunch of fresh steamed mussels (Jerome), onion soup (moi), goat cheese ravioli in pesto (Jerome) and grilled fresh dorada (bream, a mild freshwater fish) with skinny green beans and mushrooms on the side (moi). After we had rested and recovered from that, we took a late-afternoon stroll around town. We are staying at the Hotel Hanoi, originally an Indiano house that was purchased by a Vietnamese man from Hanoi, then later became the barracks for the Guardia Civil under Franco and who knows what else. It is now a lovely small B&B, and we are in a spacious room with a view over the town.
Photos can be found at https://goo.gl/photos/7TvS62kbGcnxv5hM7
More adventures, and more photos, tomorrow. We hope you are all well.
