Chilling out in Figueres

November 12, 2024

I don’t remember if I’ve described what our plans for our few remaining days here are, but they’ve changed. Up until a week ago the idea was that we’d bike most of the way to Barcelona from here, passing through Girona before dropping down to the coast and following it west a ways before catching the suburban train to the airport at the end. We weren’t going to stay in the city at all, but just catch the train right to the airport and stay at a hotel inside the terminal.

That all changed a week ago, and was replaced by a train-assisted base-centered approach. We’d take the train from here to Girona, stay there for about five days, and then take the train again down to Sant Pol del Mar as our final base before heading to the airport. In other words, our final real travel day by bike is behind us, darn it.

That plan held for about four days, when we saw that rain was predicted for the entire time we planned to be in Girona. The whole point of going to Girona again is because it’s such a good base for biking and hiking, but if it’s going to rain the whole time it doesn’t sound so attractive any more. So the new plan was to book an additional (fifth) day here in Figueres because the weather was supposed to be fair for one more day before the rains set in. And then we booked ourselves in an Airbnb apartment in Barcelona for four nights, because it sounds like a much more interesting place to hole up for four rainy days. And following that we booked ourselves at a B&B in Calella, a coastal resort east of Barcelona with an abundance of good hiking opportunities nearby.

So, to summarize: here’s the final, final plan:

One more day in Figueres, for Rachael to hike to Peralata and me to take a bike ride up into the hills somewhere.
Train to Barcelona, for a rainy four night stay in an AirBnB.
Train to Calella, for four fun days in the sun.
Train to the Barcelona airport on November 21st.
Fly home on November 22nd.

If you’re keeping track (heh, heh), that will make a CycleBlaze record-setting 27 train journeys on one tour, a record we suspect will hold for a while. And that doesn’t even count credit for multiple trains on the same day because of transfers - if we included those we must be somewhere above 40 boardings. And only two of them were on the wrong train to the wrong destination! Well done, Team Anderson!

So that brings us up to today, and the fact that Rachael’s not taking that hike to Peralata after all because she woke up with. Very sore lower back for some reason - a first-ever condition for her. So her day starts with her lying on the floor looking at pigeons flying above the church and me coaching her on back exercises.

So, no last Figueres hike for Rachael, poor thing. And no last bike ride for me either, because the weather changed. We always expected today to be very windy, which is why I’d mapped an OAB to Sant Llorenç de la Muga - it’s on the south side of a ridge which I hoped would protect me from the 25 mph north wind with gusts to 40.

What we didn’t expect though was that it would be so cold today. It’s overcast and showering lightly when we get up, with a temperature of 58F/14C that is forecast to get colder rather than warmer as the day goes on. Biking on a cold, overcast day with near gale-force winds doesn’t meet my criteria for a disgressionary bike ride so I opt out and decide to stay inside and try to keep warm until lunch.

Its not so easy keeping warm though because as nice as this apartment is we can’t get the heat to come on; so we close the curtains to keep what warmth inside that we can, and bundle up. Rachael does go out for a short walk to see if that helps her back at all, but keeps well bundled up and reports that everyone else is too.

And when lunchtime comes we walk down to the same restaurant we ate at yesterday - because it’s close, we liked its menu, it’s economical, and I want a chance for a closer shot of that wall mounted vintage motorcycle because I don’t know yet that Bob Koreis beat me to it and already figured out it’s a Motobecane.

No blowtorched goat cheese salad today, but today’s menu is just as good.

And after that we go back to our chilly apartment and hang out until four when I muster up the gumption to wander around the neighborhood so you can get a picture of Figueres. The wind has died down, but it’s still chilly enough that the streets are largely empty and the few people out are well layered and moving briskly. It’s actually quite a nice time to have a look at the place, a town I like very much and would be happy to return to someday.

And just to orient you, everything here is in the historical heart of town within about four blocks of our apartment. If you come here yourself, I’d look for lodging in the same area - maybe in an apartment like we did, or you might try sleeping with the cows or horses at the Plaza Inn Hotel.

Pretty quiet out. Nice conditions for photography actually. The streets aren’t dead like early morning, but they’re not cluttered either.

Maybe the most appealing spot in town is La Rambla. To save you the work of opening the link to see if you want to check it out, here is a leader to tempt you to learn more:

La Rambla is the city´s central avenue, its most symbolic area, at the heart of the shopping zone and forming the axis which links the old quarter with the zone that expanded with the city in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its origins go back to 1828, when it was decided to cover over the bed of Galligans Streams for health reasons.

Grabbing the last bit of sun. The benches will all clear before long.

The perimeter of La Rambla is lined with fine 19th century buildings with an occasional well-wrapped person walking briskly by.

Towering over La Rambla. I’ll bet you could rent an apartment up there somewhere and enjoy the street scene from the warmth of your room.

Near La Rambla is what must be the primary restaurant district of the city, on our street and the attractively arcaded ones just below it. We went to four different restaurants here, all within a block of our room. There were probably another half dozen just as close we could have tried.

Not now though. It’s the afternoon break.

Though there always a bar open somewhere, with outdoor seating even on a day like today in case you’re a smoker.

If you’re looking for a hotel in this district, you could try this one.

Maybe the best known or most iconic structure in town though is either the giant egg building (the Salvador Dalí Museum) or the towering structure right next to it - Sant Pere Church, with its 11th century Romanesque base blended with a 14th century gothic upgrade.

If I’d thought to take up a collection first I could have put down the €17 admission fee so you could see inside the museum, but it’s outside is interesting enough and satisfied my curiosity. I didn’t need to see any melted clock faces to get the general idea.

The Salvador Dalí Museum and Sant Pere Church.

Sant Pere Church. This is the same structure we see the backside of from our apartment window.

Sant Pere Church, and what I think is a Dalíesque war memorial.

This is a shot I took from two nights ago. I was lucky that a flock of starlings streamed past at the right moment, there would be a more full moon tonight, but I wouldn’t be able to see it.

Oh, and one last-minute update. The weather forecast changed significantly again. Tomorrow will rain alright, but after that there are eight beautiful, sunny days in the forecast. Girona would have worked out fine after all!

So it goes. Four sunny days in Barcelona will be awesome.

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Bob KoreisMy compliments on your ability to avoid the easy Hello Dali jokes.

Have you started looking at the PDX forecast?
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1 month ago

Karen PoretTo Bob KoreisOur neighbor has a Dalmatian whose name is ….yes. “Salvador Doggy”..He got tired of saying “Dolly”, ( NOT Dali ?!) and made the name change.
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1 month ago

Scott AndersonTo Bob KoreisYup. Typical. There’s a reason we only plan to stay in town for two weeks before heading south.
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1 month ago