Last Tuesday morning Carin and I left Barcelona, checking out of one of the coolest hotels I have every stayed in. We headed north, about 2 1/2 hours away, to Cadaques, jewel of the Franco-Spanish coast. As it turns out, this small town (which I find reminiscent of some of the smaller towns on Cape Cod in Massachusetts) was exactly what the doctor ordered: beautiful and breezy with water so clear you could see all the way to the bottom.
Our only intension while here was to do absolutely nothing, and we accomplished this with great success ;-).The first day, we arrived around 4pm or so and spent most of our time just walking around town, getting aquainted with our new surroundings. Cadaques is situated on a large harbor, so it seems almost everyone has a boat parked there. This picture is of the local church,
the largest building in town (a very medieval feel). The only other pieces of architecture I noticed were an observatory situated on top of one of the hills (which seemed to be in perpetual cloud cover...this was the clearest pictures I could ever take of it) and a lighthouse we saw on our 2nd day adventure...
That adventure would be the short but impressive boat trip we took up the coast toward France. We booked passage on a small tour boat that took us about 45 minutes north by water of Cadaques, and on the return trip, dipped into some small coves and "hidden places" along the coast. I took so many pictures on the short trip, but none of them really do the beauty we experienced justice. I also have a few cool movies I shot with my camera that are available for download from my website.
The rest of the day we spent lounging, playing cards and reading. I finally finished the epic novel I had been reading for most of the summer, "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. It was one heck of a story...a little difficult to keep straight, but one of those books I feel like I can go back and read half a dozen times and always discover something new and interesting.
We finished our final day in Cadaques relaxing together on a rock, staring out at the sea. This pic was one of those automatic timer ones that, I guess, came out a little fuzzy. Its still cute though. You can click HERE to download one last movie of what Carin and I saw as we sat and contemplated our return trip to the U.S.Now that the "Grand Adventure" of this summer is done, I feel as if I owe it some sort of grand summary. It has really been an amazing experience for so many reasons. Not only was it great to just be able to visit so many places and do so many things, but it was great to finally get the chance to really experience such a diverse variety of cultures. This trip has certainly changed my view and opened my eyes to the real richness of having such a variety of people on this planet with their own culture, customs and ways of going about daily life. It has also acted as a bug...a travel bug which has bitten me and made me want to do even more travelling abroad. I'm already starting to convince Carin that a European adventure next summer is absolutely necessary. We'll see how that goes!
Thanks for keeping up with me over the last 2 1/2 months. It has been fun keeping a log of our adventures, and I look forward to going back and reading and annotating it over the years, keeping these great memories alive in my brain for a long time to come. Take care and stay in touch...I know I will. Ciao.
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