After we landed (the pilot literally threw the plane on the floor by the way! Quite a jolt!) we got through the gates remarkably quickly and looked for our very short and tight jeaned driver. Eventually we found him and he explained he was a bit delayed because there had been a fatal crash. However, this wasn’t the most astounding thing. It was his voice!  he sounded like if the Cookie Monster’s voice had broken! I’ve never heard such a voice. It was quite distracting. But he was very nice and got us to our destination, from Girona Airport, to our Apartment. We got into Central Tossa at roundabout 12.30pm and our Apartment wasn’t due to be ready until 2 pm. It was extremely hot to be walking around with the backpack so we went to a café and tried to order an omelette and some salad. As you can see below that is not quite what we got. Yet another cheese and ham baguette! There was a thin omelette inside the baguette and the cheese and ham was extremely tasty. We were both worried for our bowels with this amount of bread though. I left half of my ciabatta even though it was very delicious fresh bread.
Linds had eyed up some kind of Roman ruin at the top of our street so as we had another hour to kill, we wandered up to it and she was happy as a kid in a Sweet shop! Excellent mosaics apparently! Really nice fuse and we saw a really lovely looking bird that was dark brown/black and about the size of a starling (Lindsay thinks more of a magpie size), but with a terracotta tail. We saw some exceptional examples of something I still can’t remember the name of… hydracaulic system? Basically, they had stacks of tiles and had this heating system from underneath. Fancy bathing from 1700 years ago. People after my own heart.
2pm came, and we went to our first floor Apartment in the most tiny terrifying lift. It wasn’t really necessary to go in there but our host insisted and we were like sardines. Lindsay was not happy. Once we got into the flat, she made me promise we never had to go into that lift again. The flat is very spacious and has excellent air-conditioning and really well located. We unpacked and rehydrated.
We then decided to go to a supermarket, which was four minutes away. Everything seems to be four minutes away. Quite handy! We took both our backpacks and a tote bag each and managed to fill the lot! We got some fresh pasta, ingredients for a risotto, some yoghurt and beautiful looking fruit for breakfast, dark chocolate, and quite a few different varieties of hydration, including pomegranate juice and a decaf coffee drink that Lindsay was thrilled about. After we got back, we had a little cherry snack (the best I’ve tasted!) and I read some Charlie and the chocolate factory to Linds whether she liked it or not… but then the tiredness hit me, so I decided I needed a nap which ended up between 4.30 and 6.30pm. Linds didn’t manage to sleep but she had a ‘cosy ten’, where she managed to relax and switch off.
After I woke up, we went for a slow amble down towards the seafront, through the twisting cobbled streets. The heat was still fairly high, but as the Sun had gone down a bit, it was more shaded. We got to the sea! It was beautiful, with a castle up high to the right and huge walls, and quite a lot of greenery too. The sand was quite thick, not quite shingle but not as comfortable as sand in your sandals. There were lots of boats where people were sheltered in the shadows of them. It was a lovely atmosphere with a mix of all different cultures and ages of people. We stopped and had a cold drink and some ice cream at the seafront to cool off. The ice cream was a special Catalan flavour that Lindsay is desperate to try the dessert of at some point so she’s had a little bit of a preview of the flavour and the review is very good. It kind of had creme brûlée/lemon/cinnamon flavours to it. Gosh, I seem to have a lot to write about today. I think I will do a part two. We had a lovely amble through more gorgeous ancient streets, enjoying the sights and smells wafting past on the warm breeze. Mainly ham. To be continued….
