Tight Lipped Tuesday ~ 2 (The Costa Brava one)

I rather like the idea of my Tight Lipped Tuesday series so will take the opportunity of boring the pants off you with my recent trip across the border into Spain (aka Catalonia) with lots of photos and few words (relatively speaking!). Feel free to go and do something more interesting but my blog seems to have become my photo album lately and means I have an online record to refer to – so, a bit selfish really.

Mr. Tialys and I took a break of four days and drove down to the Costa Brava.

Only about 3 hours drive away.

We walked the coastal path to work off all the mussels and Sangria. The water was crystal clear.

So different from the usual perception of this coastline.

Did I mention the Sangria?  The waiter raised an eyebrow when we ordered a litre jug between us but we were not deterred.

An interesting looking restaurant.

With a crafty touch.

and an atmospheric interior.

The town of Begur is awash with bougainvillea.

As well as Moorish and Spanish architecture there are neoclassical examples dating from the late 19th century when merchants from here went over to Cuba to make their fortunes and returned to build houses.  Lots of vaulted, decorated ceilings and beautiful tiled floors.

I love peeping in at courtyards.

We spotted this lovely view from the road and booked to have cocktails and tapas there in the evening to watch the sun go down.

On the way back home up the coast we stopped at Empuries which, according to Tripadvisor,  is one of the finest historic settings in Catalonia.Two cities, one Greek and one Roman, set by the sea at L’Escala on the south of the Bay of Roses, named by Unesco as one of the most beautiful in the world.

The archaeological digs are still going on as I think they’ve only uncovered about 20% of what’s there.

Some of the mosaics they’ve found in the Roman city are almost intact which is amazing when you consider how long they’ve been there.

My quilters eye was drawn to them instantly.

We only stayed away four days as Mlle. Tialys the elder had come over for two weeks to house-sit with her sister for a bit and, as we don’t see enough of her these days, we wanted to spend some time with her too.

Back in France, we took her to our favourite restaurant to say ‘thank you’.

Then the girls and I went across another border to Andorra  which is most famous for the skiing but, in Summer is very good for shopping hiking, cycling, etc.   Also, as we do every year now, we went to the free show that Cirque du Soleil put on here throughout July.  This year was probably my favourite as the music was so good – usually, it’s a bit more like wailing for atmosphere if you get my drift – and the ‘surely not human’ bendy people put on their usual amazing spectacle.

Plus, it is tax free so it seemed a shame to go home without a bottle of gin or two.

Here’s a brief look at the Cirque du Soleil show – as usual with these shows I have very little idea what the story was about and the sound quality’s not great on this clip but you get the idea.  I want those long stripey socks!

Not that tight lipped after all. Sorry.