Third day back from Catalonia and beginning to recover from the journey. Not the bit between Roses and St Pancras – the bit between St Pancras and Norwich. But it could have been worse. When I bought the tube ticket, I was told we had to travel via Holborn because of work on the Circle line. Simple enough, except that everyone else in London seemed to be doing the same thing.
After battling our way through the system we emerged at Liverpool Street to find no trains scheduled for Norwich. On mentioning to one railway guy that we wanted to travel to Norwich, he riposted: “You’ll be lucky.” But he had a twinkle in his eye and directed us to Platform 13, and the train to Southend. Apparently we had to alight at Billericay, catch a coach to Witham and then another train to Norwich. Us and a large number of Norwich City fans. Norwich City had just lost 4-1 to Chelsea.
And that’s roughly what happened, with a half-hour wait at Witham and no buffet on either of the trains. The Norwich train was painfully slow and felt as if it was going to break down any minute. We reached Norwich at about 12.30am. Happily the City fans did not turn nasty and were quite funny, except for their inability to control certain bodily functions. Note to City fans and young men everywhere: this is actually not funny at all. Really. What was funny was that all the railway staff had jackets bearing the words “Customer Services”, which obviously has a completely different meaning for them.
Anyway, back to the holiday, which was exceptionally good. Here is a day-by-day summary:
Friday (September 28): Straightforward journey by train and tube to our hotel, which turned out to be only yards from St Pancras Station. Excellent hotel (London Pullman), friendly staff. Walked to the station for good meal at Carluccio’s, followed by coffee/tea back at the hotel.
Saturday: Started off sunny, but worse and worse the further south we got. Raining at Roses. Early start in London (6am alarm) meant we were very tired towards the end. TGV very impressive up to Valence, then slower, but scenery was beautiful near the coast. In the hotel, which was first class, we had a really nice buffet meal. The quality of this was high all through the week. Half a bottle of wine free each time, and a huge choice of food.
Sunday: Fine, sunny but very windy on boat for our cruise to Cadaques, a stunningly beautiful town beloved of Salvador Dali. The coastline was rocky, and on the way back the rather large boat nosed into a cave for a close look. Act of bravado, or just normal behaviour for a Catalan? I suspect the latter. While in Cadaques we had a wander round the narrow and steep streets and eventually stopped for coffee (and loo) in a seafront cafe. Back in Roses we had lunch at the Balkan Grill (mushroom and garlic tapa with chips) then spent a couple of hours in the Citadel, a huge walled area full of history. All in all we walked about six miles during the day.
Monday: Sunny and warm throughout. This was a free day, so we slept in a bit. Left at 11.15 for walk to north end of Roses and along the coast to the next village, a tiny one called Canyelles, where we had lunch in Antonio’s restaurant: grilled prawns and sangria. Delicious. On the way back we stopped at a small beach, where Dot paddled, and we saw huge numbers of Laser dinghies lined up for a big European event. Everywhere in Catalonia quite big fish were visible in the clear water. Back at the hotel we had a dip in the rather cool swimming pool, but it didn’t last long. Went to bed early after a short post-supper walk. Eight miles in all during the day.
Tuesday: Very warm again, and we spent all day in Barcelona – a two-hour coach trip away. After a comfort stop at a motorway service station (today featured the worst loos of the entire holiday) we progressed to the cathedral, which I’m sure would have been much more impressive without its scaffolding. What was visible was certainly up there, if you see what I mean, and even in October the building was surrounded by huge crowds, most of them probably on coach trips like us.A coach tour of Barcelona’s high spots followed, ending at one of the highest, from where we could look over the town and the huge port, featuring two or three massive cruise ships.Most of us were gasping for the loo by now, and again they were very poor (but at least they were there).
The coach dropped us at Placa de Catalunya for some free time, and here we met our friend Monica, who took us for a lovely lunch round the corner and off the beaten track. Really nice to see her: she was very welcoming and insisted on paying, which was not the idea at all. Rejoined the bus at 4.30pm for the trip back to Roses, and the guide, who was very nice but spent much of the time warning us about pickpockets, eventually stopped talking.
Wednesday: Again pleasantly warm. We took the optional excursion to Girona on advice from people on the previous trip (relayed through one of our more sociable members), and it was an outstanding trip. Girona is a lovely old town reminding me a little of Chur in Switzerland, but there was a great walk along the walls, which we followed with a coffee stop, where Dot made her first successful attempt at ordering tallat, as recommended by Monica. This is a strong, smallish coffee with a dash of milk, and Dot quickly became addicted. Afterwards we wandered the narrow streets and shopped a bit for gifts. Back in Roses for the afternoon Dot bought a scarf and we had a tapa each of chips and sauce. Catalonian tapas are quite big (one is usually enough), and they are very good at chips. Six miles in all today (3 yesterday), but not enough to offset the large evening meals and very tempting breakfasts.
Thursday: Sea mist at first, but soon sunny and warm. Left at 9.15 for official excursion to Figueres and the impressive Salvador Dali Foundation. An amazing place, and our appreciation of him as an artist went up several notches. After a crepe we took in his jewellery exhibition as well, then returned to the coach (this was more of a coach holiday than a train one) for a short drive to Besalu, a small town which features a spectacular fortified bridge. Lovely narrow streets again and a brilliant miniatures museum, of which the high point was the micro-miniatures, eg a camel train created in the eye of the needle (quite witty, that one). Afterwards we had time for a stroll and a delicious mango ice cream before returning to the coach.
Friday: Our final free day, so a slightly later start. Rather more cloud as we started our journey by road trail to Joncols. Bit chilly to start with, but it quickly cleared out as we got high up on the cliffs and into the Parc Naturel, which is apparently “sauvage”. For some reason the commentary seemed to assume that “sauvage” is an English word. Spectacular journey on rough roads, ending high up on a cliff with great views (after 100-yard walk). Whole thing was “magical” – Dot Lenton. On the way back by a slightly different route saw Angela and Gordon Reynolds hiking into the interior. Got to know them later in the bar after dinner, and it turns out she is a retired vicar and they live not far from St Luke’s! They passed us again as we sat in a cafe drinking sangria and eating tapas. Before returning to the hotel we watched the Lasers coming in after a day’s racing, and I helped a Swiss guy with his boat trailer. Claim to fame. Seven miles today (3 yesterday).
Saturday: Homeward bound, as our excellent tour manager put it. The entire group was in the coach eight minutes early, but we were like that. Dot and I were frequently last or almost last, but we were never late. After a bit of a wait at Figueres station,we were on board and ready for the off, which was at 10.20, after the Barcelona connection arrived. Various comments gave me the idea for a poem, so it was time well spent. Straightforward journey to Paris, though the buffet inexplicably had no milk. It was raining in Paris, so we got a bit wet transferring to coach and back to rail again. While we were alighting from the coach, someone attempted to steal our tour manager’s bag, but he was spotted and pursued by said TM, who was able to retrieve it. Happily, because it contained all his documents, including our Eurostar tickets. Quite a long time to wait for Eurostar, but we spent it convivially, buying wine with our last euros and chatting to Angela and Gordon. On time at St Pancras, thanks and well-earned tip to TM, and the rest you know.