Spain - Day 5 - Cadaques, Ingrid Says

Well what can I say... I'm now over seven months behind in posting, and catching up at this point seems almost impossible, but I'll keep truckin' along. After the recent developments in the lives of Kevingrid, I'm very eager to catch up and share our stories, but sacrificing quality for quantity is something I'm just not prepared to do. In any event, back to Spain... day 5. That morning, we woke up to enjoy the complimentary breakfast, which to my pleasant surprise included wine. The best part about the breakfast was that there was the most tragic opera music playing in the background, which at the time seemed so apropos, since the night before Ingrid and I had a little tiff.



After joking about the tragic opera music and quickly making up, we headed for the beach with our bellies full.



The walk to the beach was beautiful. Particulary because there wasn't a tourist in sight, except for Ingrid... blah. Here's the view from right outside our hotel.



Here's the place we ate the night before. Definitely a thumbs-up for this restaurant. But a huge thumbs-down on those dorky white socks I'm wearing. If I wasn't seven months behind in posting, I'd Photoshop this picture to hide them.



There's really nothing to say about this picture other than that I like it.



Ahhh, yes. The wonderful beach at Palafrugell. This all looks so relaxingly familiar.



Here's a better panoramic video of the beach. I'm sure most of those doors are shops of some sort during peak season, but we were there just before the huge crowds. Perfect.



We claimed our stake on the beach and Ingrid immediately applied her sunblock to protect her beautiful face.



E-mailing friends from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea is the best "in-your-face" move ever, and such moves are clearly not beneath me. And neither is gaining 10-15 pounds since our trip to Brazil last year. Life of the beach was great, but we were faced with a decision as to whether we would lounge on the beach all day long, or take a trip up to Cadaques.



We opted for the latter, since Ingrid was convinced that there were beaches everywhere like the one at Palafrugell. Of course, although our guidebook said Cadaques was a must-see, it also said that there we no sand beaches there. But Ingrid disagreed with the guidebook (as she does on occassion) and we hit the road.



At one point we stopped to use the restroom and grab a beer at this hostel. Imagine entering a grungy bar filled with men all staring at Ingrid. It certainly didn't seem like the safest place in the world, but thankfully, we escaped unharmed after I quickly downed my beer.



As the navigator, Ingrid studied the map on the way to Cadaques and noticed that the town looks relatively close to the Pyrenees mountain range (on the map, I might add...). She was convinced this tiny mountain range was the beginning of the Pyrenees and repeatedly stated that she had seen the Pyrenees mountains. Ummm, I don't think so Ingrid. Those are more like hills and we're nowhere near the Pyrenees, babe.



In order to get to Cadaques, you have to take a winding road over the "Pyrenees." And looking back, we could see the beautiful coast of Spain.



We stopped on the roadside to take a few pictures. Not only do I need to get rid of those white socks, but I need to shave. I look like a dirty bastard.



As we descended the "Pyrenees," we could see our destination in the distance. It only took about 30 minutes to traverse the entire "Pyrenees" mountain range. I guess it's not as big as they say it is.



The water in Cadaques was crystal clear and the town was beautiful.



The shores are lined with uniform white architecture, which makes for a breathtaking view.



Understandably, Ingrid didn't particularly care for the beach here in Cadaques, as it consists primarily of rocks. As I mentioned above, having read this in the guidebook beforehand, I had informed her that there weren't going to be nice beaches there, but she didn't believe me (or the guidebook).



We decided to turn our trip to Cadaques into a day trip and return to Palafrugell by late afternoon. Since we would ultimately have to make our way back to Barcelona to catch a train, this made perfect sense. But before leaving the beautiful town of Cadaques, we enjoyed a fantastic lunch along the coast, consisting of fresh fish and soup (and wine, of course). It was excellent!



On the way back to Palafrugell, Ingrid suggested we stop at this tourist info bureau and get some ideas about where we should visit. It turned out that the lady at this tourist bureau was the same lady as the one we spoke to back at Palafrugell. She recognized us and suggested we head to Llafranc.



So after a two hour drive back through the "Pyrenees" and down the coast, we finally arrived at Llafranc, which turned out to be only a ten minute walk from the beach at Palafrugell. Ingrid fell in love with this place at first sight.



Especially this lovely little hotel where we stayed -- Hotel Llfranch. She loved the place so much, she even bought a bath robe from there and added it to the litany of things we were lugging around Europe. Great.



Pizza!? Someone feed me pizza!



Since the pizza place wasn't open, we gathered at the hotel restaurant and sat down for a pitcher of sangria. It turned out to be the gathering spot for some of the locals to watch the big Barcelona championship soccer game.



The place got pretty packed as we all sat back, enjoyed dinner and drinks, and cheered for Barcelona to win.



When I said before that the Spanish people love soccer, I meant all of the Spanish people, including the little kids, who gathered on streets and sang us what I assume to be a patriotic song.



As the Spanish people got excited over soccer, Ingrid got excited over dessert.



In the end, after some great competition, Barcelona emerged victorious, and we all cheered and had fun.



After calling it a night, we realized that we weren't the only ones cheering over the win. The streets of Barcelona were filled with soccer fans celebrating the victory. We would be heading there tomorrow, so hopefully it wouldn't get crazy.