Escape to Cadaques

Last weekend Juanjo planned a surprise trip to Cadaques, a small town near the border with France. He rented a house in the old town and we drove there from Barcelona after finishing work on Friday. The drive was about 2 1/2 hours, so it was dark when we got there, and we had dinner and went to bed. The next morning, this was the view from our bedroom window:

Deep blue water sparkled in the morning sun. The whitewashed houses shone, the green mountains behind stood out against the blue sky, and the only sounds were birds and an occasional motorcycle in the distance. As you can imagine, breakfast in bed was in order.

Later on we we bundled up and went to explore the town. It’s a town famous for its art (Salvador Dali had a house nearby), and fishing, and isolation in a small harbor. There were few people, and we wandered the harbor, skipping stones into the bay.

We walked up through cold windy streets, noticing blue doors, whitewashed houses, and winding vines, barren now in winter.We sat in the sun by the water, listening to French tourists walk by, and dreaming about coming back for a week some day.

We had lunch in the old casino, now a cafe.

And in the afternoon, we went back to the house and read like cats in the sun, drinking tea and watching the clouds blow in.

On Sunday, we went exploring Cap de Creus park, a nature reserve that surrounds the town (and the largest coastal nature reserve in Spain). Cap de Creus is the northeasternmost tip of Spain, a mass of slate and scruffy grass jutting out into the Mediterranean. We could see the Pyrenees Mountains in the distance, and feel the cold of their snow on the northern winds that apparantly blow here all winter long.

We drove out to the lighthouse, and went for a hike to the edge of the sea, careful with each step as the cold, wintry wind was strong enough to throw us off balance.

I wish we could go back next weekend! We hear it’s nicer in the summer when the weather is warmer, but there was such a clear, wintry peacefulness to it in February that we’re glad to have gone when we did. Juanjo has set quite a high bar for our “surprise trips” in February…where am I going to find as wonderful a place in California next year? 😉

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By the way, I want to say thank you for your comments, dear readers. It’s wonderful to know who visits us here!