I went on vacation last month and visited northeastern Spain and southeastern France.
Autumn is a great time to visit as there are few tourists and it is less expensive. (In fact, everything was less expensive than in the United States.)
I found free United Airlines’ frequent flier mile tickets to Barcelona, Spain, and we rented a car to drive an hour northeast to the little beach town of Platja d’Aro along the Costa Brava.
Having spent my life living in a landlocked state, I crave the sea when I travel. We stayed at a peaceful spot overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and each day we watched hikers passing by on the Cami de Ronda trail.
Generally, it takes me several days on vacation to stop thinking about my normal life, checking emails, worrying about the world, etc. But Spanish food and wine, beautiful weather, a slower pace and the sunlight dancing on the sea definitely helped speed up my transition!
The historic town of Girona was just a 30-minute drive and we enjoyed taking a history and food tour there. One of the highlights was trying xuixo, which is a indulgent, custard-filled doughnut covered in sugar. Fantastic!
If you have the chance, be sure to learn about the history of this region. It’s quite complex and interesting.
This area of Spain also is known as Catalonia and Catalan is the main language. Signs often were in both Catalan and Spanish. Menus tended to be in Catalan and sometimes Spanish.
I was grateful to know a little Spanish, but also was thankful for Google translate! And, of course, a smile and laughter helps with most situations.
Later in the week, we drove to France. It never ceases to amaze me how close countries are in other parts of the world!
Living in the United States – and western Colorado – we get so used to long drives or multiple flights. The idea that I could drive from Spain to France in a little over an hour was just astounding. (We kept commenting that it was a similar distance from Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs!)
The roads were great, and it was a beautiful drive to Perpignan, France. This location also is considered to be historically Catalonian and you will see signs in Catalan and French. However, French was spoken most of the time.
Luckily, food is my main language so we were just fine!
We stayed at a fun and quirky hotel named after the artist Salvador Dali that was in a walkable area of town.
Perpignan is located between the Pyrenees Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. I particularly liked a day trip we took for a wine tasting at a local vineyard and to visit the stunning seaside village of Collioure.
The class took a bit longer than expected because our impressive host translated everything he said into French, then Spanish, and then into English! He did a great job, and it was delightful to take the class with other people, none of whom spoke English, but all of whom enjoy local wine.
After a few days in southeastern France, we hopped back into our rental car and drove a couple of hours to Barcelona to return the car and take a train to Madrid in central Spain.
On the drive, we kept seeing electronic signs overhead warning us about “highway robberies.” I looked it up and, sure enough, we happened to be driving on the A9 motorway that has had some issues with crime.
Luckily, we were fine and the impressive modern roads, rest stops and gas stations were clean and friendly. If you go, be aware of your surroundings and drive during the day.
Returning a rental car is often a stressful experience anywhere in the world and this was no exception. Looking back, we should have left even earlier to give ourselves more time for the inevitable confusion.
What we didn’t realize was that the day was a national holiday called National Day of Spain. Oh my! Roads were closed everywhere and lots of celebrations were happening.
But that is part of travel, and we did our best to stay calm and try to figure it out. We finally found the rental return site — it had moved and was not accurate on GPS! — and made it to the train just in time to collapse into our seats for the two-hour high speed ride to Madrid.
The next morning, we only had a few hours before our vacation was over, and I needed my spirits lifted a bit. I had heard of a café in Madrid called Lilo that featured giant teddy bears, so I made it my mission to find it. A food writer needs to dine with teddy bears, right?
Amazingly, it was not far from our hotel and we spent a silly and very enjoyable time hanging out with the teddy bears, sipping cava (a lovely sparkling wine), eating pastries and saying goodbye to Spain.
What a delightful end to our time exploring a beautiful and delicious part of the world!
Email Christine Gallagher at [email protected].
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