Some of the best days are free

GPS location of our campground: 42.04235N 3.18449E
Camping Les Medes - a very nice, very friendly campground.

We came to l'Estartit for a day or two and have stayed a week. In part, it's the beautiful weather; in part, we have Internet access and have been updating the blog (now if only I wasn't so wordy...).

But, to get back to the title. Some of the best days are free and we've found that here. The town is a tourist destination and is completely boarded up right now. On the outskirts, there are a couple of grocery stores that are open. On weekends, the Harvey's in town (British fast food) opens, but are hard pressed to serve food. The boats that take tourists around the Medes Islands are operating only on Sundays, and we missed the boat, so to speak, due to a misunderstanding of the prices posted outside the vendor's office.

So, why stay? Let the pictures do the justice on this one, keeping in mind that it's January.

Sunsets:




Playing:
There are playgrounds everywhere along the beach.




The beach:
Sometimes, you've just gotta roll up your pants, kick off your shoes and go with the flow.

Hiking:

Outing 1 (1/21) - we didn't really have a goal - there's a street, running up the side of the hill to the villas and we followed it. At the top is a nature preserve as well as two view points / hiking destinations. We called it good though, to reach the entrance to the nature reserve - we weren't provisioned for a long stroll. Looking at the map later, we were on track for Cala Calella and just didn't know it.

Outing 2 (1/22)- Castell del Montigrí

A fortress built to protect Torroella de Montigrí in 1294, but never completed, this was a fun, somewhat spontaneous activity for the day. The summit is at 302m (992ft) and it took us about 1 1/2 hours to make it (keep in mind we had two little ones along for the "walk"). Megan was a trooper and handled the ascent and descent with no complaints. Sophia too, but parts of the trail were too rocky and steep - so Dan carried her most of the way up. You can climb up one of the towers and walk the perimeter of the fortress (another 13m in height)! We made it down the mountain as the winds were starting to pick up and arrived at the bus stop just in time for the (late) bus. Happy bunch tonight!

Go up this:

Pass 3 chapels:

The cross is about the mid-point (or, as Dan says, "You've done 90% of the verticle, don't stop now.)

Summit + 13m - the perimeter of the fortress.

Swimming:

This campground has three pools, one of which is indoors and open in the off-season. The kids have never slept so well!

We've been fortunate that the winds have not been present until today. The winds have a special name here, La Tramuntana. According to the climate tab on the tourist site, the area is generally mild, but the NNW Tramuntana winds can be as high as 100km/h! The wind has been gusting through, starting this afternoon. At certain parts of our bike ride home, there was no need to pedal as the wind provided plenty of push! For that, the climate write up also mentions the area has an average of 2,600 hours of sunshine every year... we're not missing the rain in Seattle.

Ciao for now.