Thu, May 26 To the Pyranees Foothills

May 26 Travel day, so we slept in and had breakfast at 9. Stephan said his mother-in-law makes the delicious jams and the farm to which her husband and she retired also produces the olive oil. They also own the building that was in ruins before Stephan and Cristina worked four years to remodel it into a restaurant/hotel and rent it from her parents. Pretty neat!


At eleven we finally packed up and left. This is definitely one of the most picturesque and tranquil places we have ever visited and I would love to return. There are plenty of places to explore and things to do around here.

We got onto the Auto Pista 7 and headed south to Barcelona. Bob and Hil had carefully planned the route to the airport and the hotel where Hil is to spend the night before she returns to Tucson, which paid off as it was a maze of highways and big trucks speeding along! A couple of correctable errors and we reached the Renaissance Hotel where Miss Hamlin was greeted as an executive superior person that she is (!) and given a very nice room. We shared a pizza and had cokes and said goodbye to our skillful and calm driver & companion!

We headed west on the A2 until we reached Cervera where we turned north on smaller roads, through large sweeping wheat fields at an elevation of about 1500’, and then continued up into the foothills of the Pyrenees. At the end of a narrow lane at 2000’ we found our lovely next hotel, Can Boix, a 41-bed hotel overlooking scenic forested hills and fields. We relaxed and watched the French Open for a while and walked around the grounds. There are big thunderheads hanging over the mountains and the weather report predicts rain, so we shall see.

At 8:30 we went down for dinner (we have half board: breakfast and dinner included, which means a limited menu) and were blown away! We were brought complimentary appetizers of a slice of broiled octopus sitting on a puddle of mashed potatoes with lemon foam on top and a mysterious black crumble next to it which turned out to be a wad of bread soaked in octopus ink. Amazing! Next Bob had a cod sashimi with passion fruit and arugula salad while I had a small dish of rich mushroom risotto. For our mains I had hake with greens in a garlic sauce and Bob had roast kid with olive oil mashed potatoes. For dessert I had watermelon with basil granita (one of the best desserts I’ve ever had!) and Bob had frozen fig mousse on a chocolate biscuit. One of the most photogenic meals I’ve ever had…and I forgot my camera. There’s always tomorrow!

It’s raining now, so we’ll see what we can do on Friday.