Thursday, well we  are off home tommorrow an lots to o today. last minute shopping, fags a nd booze to purchase, washing and ironing to cach up with, so not a lot of travelling or adventures today, just a visit to the tobacconist to get supplies for the next few months or so, but as prices are rising almost to UK levels they are not such a bargain these days, then off to the Supermarket to get some "own brand" cheap boxes of rosé thet we have puchase whilst we have been over here, €0.63 per litre and very nice drinkable stuff it is too, we will probably get a few litres to take home, the only problem is weight in the suitcases,.   we are not very big wine drinkers, but this stuff was very nice and drinkable   Most of the day we have been washing and ironing our stuff that has been wrn and thrown at the bottom of the warrobe ! then it`s paking the cases and early to bed.    The weather is on the change now, mi afternoon and it is starting to blow up a bit and cloud over, looks like there is some rough weather on the way tonight.

well it did get rough during the night torrential rain, thuner and lightening, but we missed it as we were sound asleep.

Friday up early and out of the hotel before breakfast, for the walk down to the railway station, lukily we were there early as the train was 10 minutes ahead of the advertised schedule, we boarded and were on our way, by the time we had travelle three or four stops the train was getting very full with commuters and younsters on their way to work and college  by the time we had got halfway to Barcelona the carriage was really crowde, but as we started getting closer to the city, so the train began to become less croweded, eventually we got to Barcelona Sans where we had to change trains for the airport,  after a 10 minute wait we boarded the airport train near the front and of we went again, we were entertaine on the way by a couple of buskers playing jazz on a trumpet with a young lady supplying the vocals, quite goo they were too, when we arrive at te airport station we were supprise at how many other travellers were on boar, we waited on the platform whilst they all rushed past, were ha plenty of time, we joined on the end of the line leaving the platform,them heading for the departure lounge, a mad crush, we headed for the station buffet where we got ourselves breakfast of cafe con leche and boccadillo con becon i queso (white coffee and cheese and bacon butty). when we had finnised we headed for the departures and check in, what a difference from Manchester, no queue at the check in desk, just put bags on the conveyer, collect boarding passes and of through security to lounge and gate 50, took us quite Aa while to get there, and had 25 mins ofr so before our flight was called, I had disposed of the last of my euros purchasing a couple of bottles of iced lemon tea and 2 packets of crisps,   over 12 euros, not cheap.  on to the flight the weather had caused delays in departures and there was a queue of planes waiting to take off.  It took us nearly half an hour taxi-ing around El Prat Airport runways, eventualy airborn and a pleasant flight back to Manchester, cloudy all the way except when we flew over guernsey, which was basking in sunshine, I was miffed that I could not get a photo out of the window, but we were almost directly above the rock, and the angle was all wrong for the camera.     We got to Manchester and having made up most of the time we had lost and were put into a holding pattern for nearly half an hour, so all the time we made up was lost, we eventualy landed and made our way to the border control desk, there were only 2 officials on duty bloody, Cameron`s cuts, and joined one of the queues, when we got near to the front there was a sign informing us that "this queue, chippe passports only "  Buggrit! we haven`t got those new chippe ones, so we had to go th join the other queue at the back, another 20minutes wait,   a border control lady came out of a door way and looked at the length of and said something to the effect of  "shit, look at these queues!,  I will have to do something about this" and started walking toward the kiosks, she spotted me with my walking pole(reduced to stick size) and says " come with me Sir", so I grab `er upstairs and follow her, thinking "Hello, I don`t like the feel of this, what has she picked on be for "  thought of body searches and other unthinkable things crossing my mind, the lady leads me to a kiosk with no queue, "there you go sir, this is for disabled people"   Oh I love my walking pole, we get to the desk and the border control lady say to the girl in the kiosk, "We are going to have to sound the fire alarm and clear the hall in a mo, the smoke alarm is going off in the loos, some bugger has been smoking "   "Wasn`t me" I says to the officer, "but I am gagging for a fag"  "nor me " she replies, "but I will be getting one soon when the alarm goes off.  You had better quick grab your bags and get out before it does", so we did. and we were the first off our flight to get our bags,  we got out the terminal and I had a smoke,during which time the taxi driver phoned me to ask where we were, outside by the meeting point I told him, ok he says be with you in five, sure enough he was, then a pleasant drive home and WOW the house is still in good order, fridge and freezer stockred up. the Boys have done well whilst we have been away, not the usual mess we have got used to coming home to.     It has been a great holiday, but it is good to be home, see the dog and cat oh and of course the lads, we have missed them.

Today we decided to visit some of the towns along the coast toward Barcelona, we thought that we would go to Materò, then walk back along the coast to the next station on the way back,then catch the train to the next station and get off and walk again and so on until we got back to Malgrat.

Well things didn`t start too well, we got to the station and it worked out the cheapest way to do this was to get a T10 ticket for 2 zones which worked out at about €18, and me like a numpty paid for one for each of us, when we only needed one (five journeys each), still never mind, we might use them again tommorrow, we had set off early as we wanted to get to see the Roman Villa in Materò this time, we duly arrived at the town and we had great difficulty getting off the platform as the turnstiles would not accept our ticket until a guarda seguridad (railway security guard) eventualy allowed us through and explained that Materò was three zones from Malgrat and said that we woud have to purchase new tickets to return, bloody hell it looks like I have wasted £30 quid on useless tickets, we set of into the town and started heading to the Roman Villa when  `er upstairs found that she was in urgent need of a loo break, so we found a nice local bar and had cafe con hielo and she made use of the lavabo,  we set off again through the town and halfway to our destination, near a local contempay art gallery we were confronted by yet another noisy protest, this time against cuts being imposed on the gallery, we duly arrived at the enclosed ruins, only to find a new sign on the gates informing us that with effect from the 1st October, tours of the site would be conducted on Saturdays at noon, Buggrit! and Buggrit again,   Ah well there is allways next year. so we took a different route back through the town to the railway station where we presented ourselves to the ticket clerk who remembered us from our arrival and hassle, we explained that we did not wish to go all the way back to Malgrat, but only the next town down, Oh she said your T10s can be used for that, no problem, well things were starting to look up again, so we used our tickets to gain access to the platform and caught the tran to Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, crossed under the track and onto the beach and started walking in the direction of Malgrat, it was a beautiful sandy and almost deserted beach with some magnificent beach villas and apartment blocks on the land side, as we got closer to the town centre we came to an enormous marina, filled with yatchs and pleasure craft, not a fishing or working vessel in sight, a sign of the times that we did notice, was that many of the boats were for sale, as had been quite a few villas and apartments, we continue on along the sea front passing several small exclusive beaches, one of them, the busiest was a nudist beach, we had to put our cameras away as a sign just before the beach warned us that photography from the path was forbiden and warned of dire concequenses, I had to hurry `er upstais along as she was all for going to the onto the beach to "catch some rays", my gawd ! I couldn`t inflict that sight on a bunch of innocent sunworshippers.   After walking for about an hour we arrive at the next town Caldes D`Estrac, here we found another marina and many superb beachside villas, by this time we were feelling somewhat peckish and decided to go for a drink and tapas, we came to a likely looking smart hotel/resturaunt and thought, yes this looks  a likely place, although there did seem to be quite a lot of local police standing around doing nothing, they would not allow us to enter the place, one of the cops pointed to a large flashy coach coach nearby, it seems that the Barcelona football team were there for lunch before us, we didn`t get to see them, but we both agreed that they like us, must have good taste to choose the same place to eat !   And so we found another nice place to eat, Jamon Iberica, Patatas Bravas and Pa tomate, (selection of Spanish hams, deepfried potato cubes in a hot spicy sauce and mayonaise and tomato bread, Mmmm!   then on to the station, we decided not to get of at the next 2 stops as there are mountains between them and we really didn`t feel like any mountaineering today so we got of at the 3rd stop. Sant Pol de Mar, a lovely sleepy old Catalan town set in a valley between the hills, it is largely forgoten by tourists although it has some lovely beaches and apartments along the sea front, but none of the tacky tourist shops that are seen everywhere else, we found a super park with lots of shade from the many trees next to the river, this is another Catalan joke river with no water, piss poor fishing I would think. there are three beaches the first is the Platja del Pescadors, a little cove sheltered from the east by a high hill, this is where the local fishermen drag their boats up onto the sand, it was quite popular with the locals, we followed the road around the hill with apartment blocks built into the hillside, there were several sandy inlets between the rock outcrops with steps going down to them, almost like private beaches, further on around the hill are the main beaches, Platja del Morer, then a small rocky outcrop and the next beach on the lee of a high rocky mountain, Platja de la Roca Grossa (Grandes Rocques ?) this is another beach much favoured by nudists,and today the place of choice of mainly middle aged male couples, out of shape and condition, not a pretty sight to be frank, but there were some younger mixed sex couples, not that I was looking of course, then back to te station just in time to jump into the train which ha just arrived, we had walked onto the station from the beach and did not have time to validate our tickets at the other platform, next stop off was Pineda de Mar.where we just once again just walked of the platform onto the beach and walked the remaining four miles or so along the beach to our hotel, it was starting to cloud over by now, the weather is on the change, but no complaints from us, it was lovely and cool, we got back to the hotel, had dinner and then went to a local bar to watch Man. City get hammered by Bayern Munich, all in all another good day.

We set off quite late for Barca today, about 2:30pm, arrived there about an hour later, we had decided to visit some of the lesser attractions, we have seen most the others so many times that they are becoming old hat to us.   We got off the train and started to head down to visit the Palua Musica, which is one of the sights that we had not seen, so we headed for Via Laietena, the quickest route only to get held up by a huge leftwing union demonstration and march, boy what a noisy lot, whistles and hooters and klaxons, they were moving quite slowly and we got to the front of the march and tried to cross the street, but the Mossos would not let us, by this time we were mingling with reporters from the press and tv stations filming the leaders of the protest who were walking backwards and chanting slogans through loudhailers, whilst walking backwards, facing the march, the press and tv crews were darting back and forth across the road getting their "exclusive" shots of the parade.   "Wait a minute" thinks I " I`ve got my camera here, and it looks like theirs" so grabbing `er upstairs says " Stick close to me kid and do what I do" and boldly stepped into the middle of the road and started taking photos, working my way to the other side, nearly at the other side, a friendly cop ushers us out of the way, and onto the pavement.  Success !! we have crossed the road whilst all the other tourists are being held on the opposite side, and we were right by the street that goes to the music theatre,  Wow what a place ! we Llouis Companyswalked all around it grabbing our tourist photos, a pity that the streets are so narrow, it is very hard to find room to take photos that do the place justice, and get decent shots of the various architectural features, but we got some, then we went into the foyer, for a coffee and saw guided tours around the inside advertised, so I made my way to the tour booking office and bugger me! tickets were €17.50 each, bloney heck! £30 odd quid, for the two of us to look around an empty theatre !   tickets for the concerts advertised were cheaper, so we decided to give the tour a miss.  We walked through the old quarter of the city, just taking turnings when the thought struck us, eventualy we came out by the Arc de Triomphe and walked down Passag LLouis Companys, I will not bore you with my knowledge of this Catalan Patriot, suffice to say that he is much admired and revered by all Catalans, Just about every city,town or village has a Placa,, Carrer,, Espaice.Llouis Companys,      we went into a supermarket and got ourselves a bottle of water and packet of crab sandwiches each and carried on to the bottom of the road and entered the Parc de Cuitadella for a picnic.

Well we were close to the beaches and it was bloney hot and we idn`t wish to go to them again, so we got the metro (3 line changes) to Placa Espanya and the bull ring,  we wandered around the expensive that are now in the bullring ( Bull fighting in Catalonia has been banne since the 70s), and here we could see the affects of the financial situation as many of the lesser branded outlets that we saw last year have now gone and not been replaced, and only the very posh shops are left, the mall was half empty, we came out and wandered around Parc Joan Miro which is where the old slaughterhouse once stood, it is now just a paved area dominated by Miro`s woman and bird,  behind this plaza is a new green park filled with trees and excersise and sports areas and the Joan Miro library and research rooms, this is surounded with water features, we spent quite a long time here relaxing in the park and strolling around the park and then crossed the square and climbed the steps (made famous by Freddie Mercury and Monserrat Cabella) to Montjuic where we spent more time just strolling around the parks and gardens there, we came back down the steps and past the Majic Fountains, and then made our way on foot back to Placa Catalunya for the train back to Malgrat where we arrived just in time for dinner.   After dinner we set off again into to town  for a pleasant evening at the Blanc i Negre, and then back to the hotel for bed,   Another tiring but enjoyable day gone

.

Tordera is an industrial town in the middle of nowhere with very little going for it, but on Sundays everything changes, it becomes home to the biggest street market in Catalonia, the whole town is taken over by street traders and stall holders, and almost completely blocked with stalls, they overflow and take over a local park and riverside car park, people come from as far as Barcelona and Gerona, Catalans as well as tourists.    The goods on sale include clothing,footwear, toys,furniture, carpets and floor coverings, kitchen utensils, fruit and veg, meats and fish, livestock, poultry, antiques, junk and just about anything else that you can think of.

Well we hadn`t been for a couple of years and on a whim after breackfast we decided to go there, got the train and arrived at the station, it is about half a mile away from the town, one of the most desolate stations ever, no buffet, no buses, no taxis, sod all, apart from a dogging bay, of which we didn`t see any (See photos), well we set off up the hill to the road into town, a dodgy treck with cars and coaches whizzing along it and no foot path, until the pedestrian bridge over the Rui (river) Tordera usually a wide expance of sand and silt and scrub, but no water, it mostly runs underground, but Saturday night there had been thunder and lightening up in the hills, which we had seen from our hotel room, and blow me down, there was water actually running along the river bed, so there must have been rain in them thar hills also, this is only the second time we have seen this phenomenon in about six or seven years, the last time was in April or May, when the snows in the pyranees was starting to melt.

We went into the park area of the market first, as most people were heading for the town, and it appeared to be sllghtly less crowded, this was mostly selling fruit and veg, flowers and plants, dairy products and fish, sausages and hams, whole legs of cured hams selling for around €25/40, They are wll over €50 in the supermarkets and even more in charcuteries, the fruit was someting to behold, apples, oranges of all sizes, pears and peaches all for sale at about 90cents per kilo, tomatoes the size of the buggers that I used to grow in the 60`s before the supermarkets insisted that they all be round and the same size, peppers so big, about 3 or 4 to the kilo, salads and green, beens of all sizes and mushrooms of every size colour and description, some fresh and others dried, again everything less than €1 per kilo, oh and onions, I never knew there were so many different sorts, I always believed that there were 3, spring, white and red !  that was an eye opener, then the stall changed to more clothing and hardware, there were lots of bargains to be had, and some to be had by !    Caveat emptor seems to be the rule.    we stop at a mobile kiosk for some refreshments and people watching before moving on to the town, by now most people were making there way to the park, having seen all they wanted nto of the town, others were already heading back to their cars, coaches or the train.

we wandered around the town looking at even more and more stall, most selling clothing and shoes, but some furniture, hardware electrical appliances and jewelery, the place was heaving, and we were by this time taking little or no interest in most of the stalls so we made or way down to the river and strolled along the bank away from the town, it was really pleasant an quite a change from the hustle and bustle of the town, we found a local playground/park area an just sat and enjoyed watching the local kids do their thing,   We then made our way back along the river to the carpark with the livestock stalls, most had been sold by now and the stallholders gone, piglets and lambs and other live animals ,all that was left were the poultry and gamebirds and pets, mainly birds and reptiles, all sorts of exotic birds, parrots, budgies and of course song birds, that the Catalans love to own, but many of them are captured wild birds like finches and thrushes and should really be flying free.    then it was back to the railway station walking through the forest this time and back to Malgrat for dinner, another enjoyable unplanned day.

Saturday, as the air show in Barcelona has been cancelled in a bit of tit for tat by the Spanish authorities, we decided to visit Mataró, to see the roman remains.   we set off quite early and arrived there at around 10:30 am having learned from the hotel receptionist that there were guided walking tours daily around the old town, we got off the train and after a little trouble found the tourist office in the ajuntament (town hall) we went in and asked about the guided tours and were given a basic street map with numbered locations and after handing over our passports, we were given a paddle like device wih a number pad on it that we had to dial a nunber and hold the device to our ears, and heard a dissemodied voice tell us about the particular attraction that we were looking at, the walk will take about three hours, the lady told us.   We decided to start at number one and work our way around in numerical order, a mistake as we were to find out later.

We started with #1, guess where, the Ajuntament, then down the main road to the chapel of St. Sebastian, which was also one of the gates into the city through the walls, then across the square to the church of Santa Anna which dates from the 18th century, it was beautiful inside, but photography was forbiden, I cannot see why, it oul have been different if they had been selling postcards, then out and on to the old fish markets which has been converted into a large cafe/resturaunt, it was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, a Catalan modernist architect and contempary of Antoni Gaudi, but I must say that I prefer his work, not quite so outlandish as Gaudi, next on to some roman remains, part of a bath house, not a lot to see, but part of the water system is included in an ultra modern building housing a college for architects !    Then on to the remains of the old city walls which date from 1569 -1600 and  now form part of the boundry of a magnificent Plaça with cafes and bars, we stopped at one for refreshments,  then on to the Hospital de Sant Jaume i Santa Magdalena built in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was built outside the city walls as it was filled with sick and dying people with many horrible diseases and plagues, apparantly the inhabititants did not wish to catch whatever it was the patients were suffering from.   It is still used as a hospital and is very modern behind the old facade, attached to the hospital is a beautiful chapel, dedicated to Sant Jaume, next stop was a shop selling selling pasta and cereals designed by Puig i Cadafalch, it was quite small, but had wrought iron work and tiles in the front depicting the goods that were sold there, it was built in 1896 and still has the original wooden sign hanging inside and still carries out the same family business then on to the Rengle Market, another of P. i C`s designs, by  this time he was employed as the City architect,it is situated in the Grand Plaça (Great Square), a bit of a misnomer as it is one of the smallest squares we have ever seen, the market wasn`t that spectacular either, a row of ten back to back stalls five on each side, with an arched tiled roof over them, quite an attractive little building though,  then on to the Basilica de Santa Maria, a really large and impresive church dating from the 17th century,

the front has been remodelled at a later date, maybe the late 18th century, you will be able to see this from the photos as the tower is much older then the facade, it also houses a museum of the religous history of the town, but was closed as it was Saturday, next on the list was Casa Parera, anoth of P i C`s houses with a Modernist facade, then on to La Presó ( a Model prison) built in 1863 to an English design with seperate cells and levels, it is now no longer in use but was used up until Franco`s death, not a well loved place by the locals, there is an ongoing debate as to whether it should be demolished or retained as a memorial to those who suffered in it durng Franco`s reign, a difficult problem as when democracy returned to Spain a policy of forgive and forget was taken, but now younger Catalans wish to know and learn of the oppresion thet was suffered after the civil war.

We decided to miss the next one on the list, an old Fransican College, it was a long walk over a mile away and when we got there we would have had to walk back to the prison again.   So it was on to Casa Coll i Regàs, a modernist house built for Señor Coll i Regàs by guess who, this one is much more in the Gaudi style that we are used to from Barcelona, Señor Coll i Regàs made his money from textiles and the decorations show this whith statues and wrought iron work whilst the higher floors lean toward Dutch architectural design as he travel there frequently about his business, but the tiles and mosiacs are included, it is a small frontage by Barcelona standards, but the house would not look out of place there. next stop Residència Sant Josep, an old folks home run by Fransiscan monks and nuns, and paid for by our benevolent textile baron, which was built in 1912, I do not have to tell you who was responsible by now, next door is La Beneficència, built a bit earlier, again by the textile oligarth, but this time for fallen women and single mothers then on to the Conjunt de Sant Josep, our Fransiscan friends monestary and Comvent built at the turn of the 17th century,  then next to Can Serra Arnau the oldest complete house in Materò, a date carved under the main entrance states 1565, it is now a museum, closed on Saturdays, but intact as origanal, and guess where it is, in the bloody square behind the Ajuntament, and it`s number effing 18 on the tour, number 19 is in the same square, a building dating from the 18th century, now completely modernised and used as council offices, all concrete and glass, but it does retain one, yes one, original stone window and the cellars, why bother we wondered.

Now a really long walk, about 2 miles to the highlight of the tour, the Roman Villa, Complete with mosiac floors, bath house and everything, one of the finest in Europe, the guide book says,   we are really wanting to see this, this is what we came here for, we get to where we think it is, there are no sign posts, the last one was a mile up the road saying we were on the right track, we are in a tree filled park, in front of us is a busy roundabout on the main Barcelona _Girona highway, in the centre of the roundabout is a huge enormous statue of a femail archer made of iron about as tall as Nelson`s column, we have seen her in the distance from the train from Barcelona, an old friend, it is not mentioned in the guide or map, in front of us is a hill, fenced off at the top with security gaurds, on our right, a car park with a fancy concrete wall, must be up there we say, and cross a busy road, climb the hill and.................... It is a sports arena and bloody farm, the security guys are for the private sports club.  we clamber back to the busy road, and there facing us is is a huge sign saying " Clos Arqueològic"  and pointing to the fancy concrete wall, "well I`m buggered, there it is " I say, and we cross the road and follow the wall around until we find the entrance, a sign informs us that after 9th September it closes at noon daily.it is now 4.30pm   WTF !  if we had come here first, done the walk in reverse order, but no we followed the instructions, we had told the lady in the tourist office that we had only come to see the Roman Villa, she could have told us.  so we went to a nearby supermarket, and bought ourselve a couple of bocadilos (filled rolls) and cans of beer and found another peacefull park and had ourselves a picnic, we were shattered.  we then made our way back to the tourist office to hand back our "guides" and collect our passports,  the lady recognised us and asked if we had found the villa, "yes " we said, "and it closes at 12 o`clock"  "I know" she replied.

We are determind to return one morning,next week, get a local bus from the station and WE WILL SEE THE VILLA.

stayed a bit closer home after our moutaineering exploits yesterday and took a walk along to Santa Sussana, the next door town, we kept away from the coastal tourist parts and headed inland to take a look at some of the old churches and watch towers, there are several in the area dating from the 15th/16th centuries when this coast was always under attack from pirates from North Africa, most of them are pretty well ruins or just a round tower with nothing to see inside,but one of them Can Ratés (Ratés House) has been added to with a large country estate house with extensive informal gardens and park and now houses a music museum/acadamy and archive, the grounds are open to the public but the music part is only open to serious and authorised students and researchers.  They hold a series of concerts and musical events in the grounds in July and August, again it is another one of these places that are largely overlooked by the visiting tourists, we were the only ones there.    There are superb stable blocks attatched to one side of the tower and the main Can (House) to the other, just bellow is the largest swimming pool that I have ever seen, built in a roman style with pillars and a bridge crossing it, sadly it does not seem to be in use and the water in it was a horrible green and looked stagnant, again here is a super tourist/historical attraction under used and somewhat neglected.  We spent quite a time just enjoying the park and gardens and did go into the tower, but only the ground floor as the rest is blocked of and only opened on special occasions, apparently we were not special enough !    On reading the blurb outside the main house, which gave some of the history of the place in several languages I was suprised to learn that in the 18th and 19th centuries it was owned and lived in by the Gilbert Family who then sold it to the Ratés family who in turn gave it to the local council after the civil war and Franco`s death, I wondered if any pressure was applied, knowing a bit of Catalan history.

We then went back to the hotel for dinner Tappas and traditional Catalan fare on Fridays, not to be missed and then out for a stroll into old Malgrat, sat for a long while at on of our favourite haunts the Blanc i Negre bar in a square with several othe bars frequented mainly by locals and watche some little kids playing football, one of whom we found out was only two and a half years old,, in full Barca football kit, he was very good, one to watch out for in the future !    and then back to the hotel to bed.    We ar planning to visit Mataro tommorrow to see view the Roman ruins there.

We took the bus this morning to the nearby town of Palafolls, famous for it`s now defunct iron works and castle,  there is nothing left to see of the iron works other than a few quarries on the sides of the hills and a couple of mine entrances, the mines were worked out before the first world war when the ore seams expired, the castle stands atop a high hill 165mtrs above sea level, it is now in ruins and to be honest it is in need of some TLC although some work was done many years ago shoring up some of the walls with concrete, effective, but not very attractive on the eye.

.Anyway as I was saying we caught the ten past ten bus from the town centre of Malgrat, the bus eventualy arriving at 10:40, about right for the local buses, they publish a timetable and run when they feel like it, the journey took about 10 minutes, we could have walked it! but we were aware of a steep climb when we got there, the bus driver was a very nice, freindly man and told us when we reached the right stop, but would not let us off until he had had a conversation with a teenager out walking his dog, when he let us off the bus, he indicated that we should speak with the young guy, which we did, he was very helpfull and spoke excelent English and walked part of the way with us and giving us directions on where to find the dirt road that would take us up to the castle, and before he left us he warned us about a dog at the farmhouse at the end of the tarmac road,telling us to say "Ola ! " to the dog or else !  When we got up to the farm about 10 minutes walking later, this great beast of a dog was lying in the shade of a tree, but when it spotted us it leapt up and came bouding toward us barking and slavering, quite scary ! we both shouted "Ola ! gotto" (Hello Dog), and the beast stopped in it`s tracks and began wagging it`s tail and still barking made it`s way back to it`s shady spot under the tree,   the old farmer looked over to us and waved saying "bon dia !"  and laughing, he must be used to the dog scaring the life out of tourists.

We carried on going uphill on the gravel road, it was starting to get a bit steep now and te sun was getting warmer, there had been a nice breeze down at sea level, but now we were getting into a forested part of the mountain and the wind was being blocked by the trees, the road was getting steeper, almost vertical by now, god what have we started out on ?      there were lots of grasshopper/cricket things along the road, a dull green/brown colour like dead leaves they were jumping and flying huge distances for their size, about half an inch long, and flying 10to20 feet at a time, they were a beautiful irredecent blue colour when in flght, but as soon as they hit the road again they comletely dissapeared so good is their camoflage.   There were also lots of enormous swallow tail butterflise, so big they could be mistaken for small birds of fallng leaves, they were either black with red or yellow markings and impossible to photograph, they just would not stay still.

Up and up and up we climbed, thank goodness we had brought our walking poles with us, we were sweating like pigs (or perspiring freely, for my more genteel readers), eventualy after about an hours walking we arrived at or destination, Castel Palafolls, wow the veiws and vistas were awe inspiring, we could see all the way to the pyranees in one direction, huges vistas of the meditereanian coast in another and miles inland in another, you could understand why the original builders in the 9th century chose this spot, watching over the main Girona to Barcelona road and the Tordera river down to the sea, the Tordera River is a tad on the optomistic, as even though it is one of the main water supplies for most of the Costa Brava region, it is nothing but sand on the surface, most of the water flows underground, in fact, we have only ever seen water there on on occasion in five or six years, and then it was just a little trickle after the snow melt in the mountains, the locals jokingly refer to it as the Missippi !

the castle itself is quite something, a ruin but it should really be cleaned up, there is fallen granite lumps everywhere making it very difficult to get around,the authotities really could put some work in to tidy it up as some parts are quite dangerous.   It is constructed from the local pink granite, very similar to Cobo and Grandes Roques.  I was in my element, the schoolboy in me taking over and climbing everywhere, even right to the top wall where a huge Catalan flag was flying, the wall there was about a foot thick with big drops on either side,  when I got down and was at the base of the castle, I looked up thinking shit! was I realy up there? pity `er upstairs hadn`t seen me and taken a photo !

Coming back down the gravel road was as bad if not worse than going up, we were slipping and sliding all over the place, the only good thing about it was that it was downhill, it took us as long to get down as it took us to get up !  eventualy we got back to the tarmac road and our friend the dog, we got the drop on him this time though and shouted "Ola gotto !" before he spotted us, but he did get up and bark an answer and wag his tail furiously, this time the old farmer just waved, and we waved back, we made our way through the town to the bus stop for our return journey and couldn`t help noticing that the recesion has real hit here, lots of new appartment blocks empty and for sale, many new shops closed or having liquidation sales, makes you think what must the rest of Spain be like as Catalonia has been the least worst hit.     The bus again was running on it`s own private schedule only 15 minutes late this time, we got out at Malgrat centre and walked back to the hotel for a shower and late siesta, it now being nearly 5 o`clock.  what a day ! superb, but we won`t be doing it again tommorrow !

We have done absolutly nothing today, just the super market for water and some fresh fruit, we are both absolutly futu after the last couple of days........

Tuesday, Market in Santa Sussana in the morning a huge market all along the main seafront road for about 2 miles, we took a couple of hours to browse our way through all the stall and purchased ourselves a camera bag each, similar to some that we had seen in Malgrat, but half the price, we both also stocked up with more undies, you can never have too many knickers !, at around 3pm we set off on the train again for Barcelona to catch some of the evening entertainment this time, also the last day of the Mercé Fest,  we got off the train before we got into the city centre at Sant Andria de Bessos (at the bottom of the Diagonal) where we caught a tram having purchased our T10 ticket, which gives ten journeys on any public transport within Barcelona, we got off after a couple of stops as we had spotted an interesting looking park, we crossed over the road and entered the Park and WOW ! what a strange and interesting park it is, all sorts of tree sand shrubs, all themed differently, there is a peacefull area with dozens of weeping willows, a fragrant area with all sorts of flowering trees and shrubs with honey suckle trained and growing around the tree trunks in spirals  "Modern"area with cacti and succulents growing in strange tall steel structures, very weird, an excersise area with static training machines and a couple of petanqe courts/pitches, and a basket ball court.  we spent quite a time in there before resuming our jouney on the tram to the Olympic Village, one of our favourite parts of the City, where my favourite building the Torre Mare Nostrum is situated, the natural gas offices, a towering skyscraper with odd bits sticking out of it, and all mirrored, giving wonderfull reflections,  we walked all along the beach front right up to the World Trade Centre, with it`s nudist beach below it.  Why is it that all the nudist beaches are mainly populated by middle aged gay men?

On one of the beaches near the Olympic Village we spotted about 100 soldiers in camoflauge uniform lined up on beach, on closer inspection they were instilations made up from discardes beer and drinks cans a la Anthony Gormley`s people on the sands at Formby, very strange, not the sort of thing you expect.   We continued down along the quayside of Port Vell as we had done on Sunday and stopped for a snack and drinks and then made our way up to Placa St. Jaume where we wanted to watch th prjections on the facade of the town hall, we walked up the Via Laetiana, one of the main roads of the city, which was closed to traffic, couldn`t have been for the fire run as that was on Sunday, we cut of to go to the square which was crowded when we arrived, we wondered whya as there was still more than an hour and a half to go before the first of the projections, but it was for the parade of the Giants and Big Heads, another odd Catalan tradition, some were very stange and odd whilst others although huge looked amazingly real and human,  these belong to different parishes and organisations and are very important to them, being brought out for all sorts of religious and festive occasions, they are built over a wooden structure that is carried by one person, the carried being changed at regular intervals, they dance their way along never walking, always dancing and accompanied by their own pipe and drum bandsthere are some sort of reed pipes and are quite an unusual sound, but with the rhythm of the drums quite enjoyable to hear,  the Parade ended with the "King and Queen of Barcelona dancing around the square to a traditional catalan band whilst all the other giants made their way home to their respective homes, it was quite moving really, happiness tinged with a sadness that this was it for another year.

We had about half an hour to wait before the projections began, so we found ourselves a good vantage place at the back of the square, which fortunately is on a slope giving it something of an amplitheatre look, with the slope running down to the town hall.      Suddenly all the street lights went out and to crashing music the projections started, once again a wonderos spectacle, totaly different to the previous one that we have witnessed themed around a shipwreck a la Titanic, the show lasted for about 10/15 minutes and when it was over we started to make our way back to Placa Catalunya where we planned to watch a rock concert featuring a Catalan band, well it took us ages to get out of the square, with some people trying to leave and others trying to get in for the next showing, we were not able to leave by the exit we wanted to and just had to go with the flow out through an exit in the opposite direction to the one we wanted, we eventualy got out near to the Via Laitenia again so walked uo there all the way back to Catalunya, when we got there we checked the times for our last train back to Malgrat, which was leaving in 20 minutes, so the concert was was a no-no, it had taken us an hour and a half to take a journe that would normaly take about 10 minutes,  we have never seen the crowds as bad as that before.      We caught the train back and arrived at the hotel just after 12am.  phew what a day !

We slept in a bit late this morning after our busy day yesterday (and Cava) and decided to take it easy, so we took a 10km hike around the local area, up to the hills nearby, then back into Malgrat and a visit to Parc Francesc Macia, a local park for all ages, super quiet relaxed place with trees, kids play areas for all ages from 0 to 90 !  we love the place but most tourists miss it as it is a bit of a walk from the main shopping and sea front, but so worth the effort, peace and tranquility loely little "locals" bar Can Nona over the road where we had café con hielo, our favourite tipple on a hot day, in fact we didn`t do a great deal other than walk all day stopping off here and there to chill and just watch the world go by, well that`s what holidays are for.