Our 2014 travels: A trip to Spain

We are away for a two day trip to Spain for an early celebration of John's birthday. We are staying at Llafranc on the coast at about the level of Girona. On the way down, we stopped for lunch at Mas Pi, a restaurant in a small town Verges where we have been before. As previously, we had a good meal and the restaurant was very busy.

Verges is a small walled town with little obvious commerce. There are the usual sleepy squares and ancient churches.

But there were also signs of a fete in progress - the streets were decorated and a stage was being constructed.

Our hotel, El Far de Sant Sebastià, named after the lighthouse next door, is on a cliff, overlooking the sea above Llafranc .

The main building of the hotel is 17th century and the watchtower attached is 15th century. It has 9 luxurious rooms and a large restaurant. This is the internal courtyard.

From the terrace

This was the view from our breakfast table

The walk down to Llafranc is along the coast and we stopped several times to go down steps to the sea. Here are some of the views.

John down by the sea

Llafranc from the road above

The beach at Llafranc- empty in late September

We ate at a small family restaurant that we had been to before. In the evening, we took a taxi to the next seaside fishing village, Calella de Palafrugell and revisited an excellent tapas bar.

After breakfast on the second morning, it was time to make our way home, calling in at small medieval inland villages. Both were walled circulades - defensive structures many hundreds of years old.

The first was Peratallada. We knew that this would be a tourist village when we saw the SAGA coach in the car park. The village has a number of restaurants plus a few tourisy shops, but none of these spoil the village, as can sometimes be the case.

After a tour of the village and a cup of tea, we move on the a nearby village Palau-Sator. This is a much smaller village with no shops, that we saw, but several restaurants and a most intriguing tower