7-15 September - Birthdays in Spain

John's birthday on Friday was a pretty cruisy day, capped off with a party with 16 friends at our place that evening. Many of our friends had arrived back in Ceret from abroad just that week, so there was plenty of gossip to be had. Most come back for September/October because the weather is still lovely but not as hot as in July/August.

We've been following the All Blacks matches in recent weeks, which we can catch live using our TV box at 9:30am on Saturday mornings French time. Hence, we typically go on a walk/run beforehand, watch the match, then catch the end of the Sat morning market for a coffee. However, after a late night for birthday celebrations, we didn't make the early morning exercise this time around!

Sunday evening saw us around at one of our friends' place for a BBQ meal. Unfortunately it was raining lightly so everyone decamped inside.

We walked one of our favourite local routes in reverse on Sunday, and another one Monday morning. It's quite surprising how different a track and its environment look going along it in the opposite direction. Wednesday was the start of a mini trip over the border into Spain. For the last three years perhaps, we have headed to the coast northeast of Barcelona only an hour and a half's drive from Ceret  for a birthday getaway. It's typically been for just one night, but this time we splurged and went for two, and also went to Sant Feliu de Guixols, where we had been last year. We think this is our favourite haunt along the coastline. It's a little further to go, but still less than 2 hours, and is a lovely little town, with a wonderful crescent beach, and great hiking in the hills behind.

However, we only drove the first 20 minutes before stopping off at our hairdresser for a quick spruce-up, in the Spanish border town of La Jonquera. Off again, and into SF de G by 1pm, about the right time to check in and then go in search of lunch. We returned to a restaurant we had loved on our visit in June, i.e. the one with 10 desserts on its dessert menu! The meal (all 3 courses including bread, water and wine for 13.50 Euro) was as good as we'd expected. Being a little more circumspect with our wine, we both ordered a white, hence just the one bottle was brought out. If we'd asked for one white and one red, we'd have got two bottles. 

The weather was patchy cloud so we gave away going to the beach and had a good wander around the town instead and then a bit of a rest. 

A light repas of tapas and beer was a perfect dinner, before an early night. Unfortunately, the traffic outside the window, plus rubbish truck collection and a bit of yahooing put paid to some sleep. I awoke on my birthday feeling a bit groggy. Downstairs to a nice Spanish-style breakfast and then we set off on our planned walk, uphill of course. We have actually both been a bit under-the-weather early in the week with some sort of tummy bug, so weren't sure how our energy levels would hold out, but we wanted to give it a go. We could opt for a shortcut or two if we needed to. In the event, we both felt really good once we got into the swing of it, racing passed a few younger ones, with our walking poles flying and plenty of huff and puff. It felt good to be powering up some of the steep stuff. Maybe we're not quite ready to be put out to pasture yet, though we've each aged a year within the last week!

On the way up, Costa Brava coastline in the background

On the descent down

We'd grabbed a pastry before leaving town, so snacked on that after a few hours, but on descending back into SF de G I didn't feel like going out for a proper lunch. It being my birthday I got to choose what to eat. There was no contest - ice cream! The only thing was that it was after 1pm so most of the food outlets, except for full restaurants, were closed for lunch. However, we came across a yoghurt place and enjoyed that, with trimmings. John generously informed me that my birthday was actually World Chocolate Day. How fitting. The chocolate fudge sauce went down a treat with the slightly healthy yoghurt.

Birthday lunch

Then it was time to hit the beach. After heating ourselves up a little we jumped into the water - a little cool getting in but just lovely after a few minutes. The edge of the sea laps onto a ramped sandy beach, then it's rocky with plenty of colourful fish swimming in schools around about. A little deeper out the seafloor becomes white sand again. The water is extremely clear, so while wearing swim goggles we can float around and watch all the fish zooming around us. It's a real treat, and not one we expected in Spain. There are actually plenty of fish to see in amongst the rocky areas around the coastline. We stretched out for a bit of a swim to the buoys anchored further out.  

One of the reasons of coming to SF de G is because of the excellent art gallery in the old monastery. Every year it hosts a special Thyssen collection exhibition over summer, accompanied by a temporary exhibition by a Spanish artist. Last year it was brilliant. We dashed home from the beach in time to shower and get to the gallery to spend an hour strolling around the artworks. We needed all of it. The summer exhibit was great, but, like last year, it was the temporary exhibition that took the cake. The artist basically went wild in his interpretation of a formal table setting.

Brilliant exhibition - with flowing paint

Candelabras on the walls

Still not wanting to eat much, we settled for another plate of fish tapas and a beer. We then set off hoping to find a bar that offered sonsos (like whitebait), but despite a few boards showing it was available, it wasn't. It was apparently a very short season for harvesting this year. We loved it in 2015 but probably haven't had it since. A glass of cava followed by a gelato finished off a fine birthday. However, we extended it even further by watching a French movie, in French, on our laptop before Skyping with Bella and her family at 11.30pm. It was 7:30am the next day in Melbourne, hence Bella and I were having a birthday at the same time. They were just about to head off to the Yarra Valley for a few days of family time to celebrate Bella's 30th birthday.

We find it hard to go past a plate of super-fresh anchovies

After our 21km of mileage the day before, we slept really well that night. Didn't hear a thing and went down to breakfast fairly late. Mind you, being in Spain, breakfast doesn't start until 8:30am, so it's not possible to make an early start to the day anyway.

With the extra day up our sleeve this year, we could spend a lovely lazy morning lolling on the beach. With our sun umbrella we can happily set up for a few hours, but we also put in a decent swim offshore along the string of buoys demarking the boundary between the swimming and boating area. There was plenty of boating/kayaking/boarding activity to watch, as well as the many Spanish families on the beach. What a pleasant time it was.

We opted out of a formal lunch again and set off home in the early afternoon. When we arrived home a few hours later we felt as though we'd been away for a week.

On Saturday afternoon we caught up with our neighbours, the English couple who have bought the apartment immediately below us. They are a really nice couple, and we hit it off straight away. Their place is in dire straits. They've just got the power on but still have to sort out the water, then get some plumbing, kitchen and all the basics installed. The previous woman who had lived there, on and off, for the last three years apparently had no water or power for the entire time - we thought it had just been for the last three months. Apparently she hadn't ever paid any bills and had been disconnected ages ago. The real estate agent basically apologised for the literally stinking mess the place was in when he showed the new couple around! I guess that helped with lowering the price quite a lot. The new owner is an interior designer so could see her way through the dirt and grime and envisage how the place would look with an almighty make-over.