- Darryl Darwin -: Witty Walk

The Witty Walk for April was a romp along the seaside south of Barcelona. Below is how our guides, Roger and Nichola described the walk they had designed.

The Altafulla Beach

DETAILS:

Roger and Nichola write:

"Walk 18th April from Altafulla to Tarragona

15 kms; 150m altitude; 4 hours

Pretty easy walking plus a break for breakfast at Cala de la Mora and a beer break, if available, at the far end of Platja Larga.

It seems that it ends at this restaurant, if I’m correct:

https://www.google.de/maps/place/Cappuccino+Pla%C3%A7a+de+la+Font/@41.1184163,1.2704557,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xe19dfbfea8e8ac70

The start is at Altafulla station.

There is a train from Barcelona which departs SANTS (BCN) 0803 arrives Altafulla 0859. (Direction Tortosa – from Estacio de Franca? 9 EURO Train Num? 18051)

NB There is no coffee available here but an hour into the walk there are bars for coffee and breakfast.

We will start the walk as soon as the Barcelona train has arrived. For those preferring to come by car there is plenty of parking on the road on the sea side of the railway line. (Arriving by car? remember we start walking on arrival of the train at 0859!!)

The route takes us along the beach past Tamarit castle and through a pine forest to Cala de la Mora and breakfast. After breakfast we go on along the beach to the camping site and the Torre de la Mora.

The next section leads through pine woods. The path is not clearly signposted, but keep the sea on

Back yard of the derelict sanatorium

your left and go above the beaches of Calabecs and l’Arbocar. We then go down onto Platja Larga.

After walking the length of this very long beach the route again goes over rocks to reach Capellans beach, and after that, Savinosa beach. Go out of Savinosa beach past the huge derelict sanatorium on the right. Then descend to l’Arrabassada beach.

At the end of this beach take the road (Cassanova) above the rocks which has a wide pavement and goes between the hotels and houses on the left and right. At the children’s play area on the left go down towards the Platja del Miracle beach on the steps and paths in the park gardens.

At the beginning of the beach we can cut up into the city under the railway line and turn left along Via Augusta to the Rambla Nou. At the very beginning of the rambla close to the statue of Roger de Lluria is Restaurant Cappuccino on the right hand side.

Roger and Nichola are a couple of English expats who came to Barcelona in 2002 for a six month holiday, while they awaited the completion of their new home. They had just retired, sold the big family home and had bought a spot in a new development. For those of you who have been to England in the winter, it's easy to understand why Nichola mused that if they were going to rent for six months, why do it in an English winter? Especially since they had been to the coastal towns near Barcelona in the past. I'm sure that bit of musing didn't last long.

Sitges, Catalunya Spain

As so many other expats have discovered; it's easy to come to Barcelona, but virtually impossible to leave. There is simply something captivating about the place. It wasn't long into their stay when their son saw the light; or certainly wanted to, given that English winter I was talking about and joined them. Now they were three sun junkies, hooked on sunshine, fair weather and the Mediterranean. This addiction sent them looking for a more permanent home in the seaside town of Sitges. I've been to Sitges twice now and I can easily see why they chose to live there. In fact, just last year about this time, I ended up at their home after a Witty Walk.

Their children, were far from being children, with families of their own, when they elected to sell the family home. As anyone who has gone through that can tell you; your adult children suddenly become bellowing babies about the loss of THEIR home. What they are lamenting and guilting their parents about are their memories, as if the loss of the house will bring about the loss of their collective memories.

It's a very real phenomena where adult children want their parents to continue living in the family house, so they can occasionally return and relive their past at the expense of their parents future. This desire can be so strong as to cause amazing problems within the harmony of a family. To Roger and Nichola's credit, they chose to go on with their lives and leave the old house as a pleasant memory.

I found Gramps

They had no sooner passed that hurdle, when they found themselves house hunting in Sitges for a home they never intended on having or imagined they could afford. Their son found work in Sitges and a wife too. A wink and a blink later and Roger and Nichola were grandparents and their son was in need of a home for his family. It was decided that if they could find a home for their son and his new family, with an in-law apartment, they would consider a joint financial venture. Fun fact. The Brits call an In-law apartment a Granny flat. This leaves one wondering, where's Gramps?

The right house was found. Granny and Gramps put up the cash and their little family living upstairs, pay the bills. Their six month holiday in Sitges has turned into a 13 year change of life.

Allen Saunders, 1957: Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.

These two people understood this concept and now live in Sitges and in Bristol, England, enjoying all that life has to offer them.

One thing that helped their transition from Merry O'l England to Muy Feliz Sitges was that Nichola had learned Spanish in school and was close to fluent. Once they settled in, she learned Catalan, the regional language. This helped immensely with their fitting into the local culture. Roger on the other hand, suffers from the same condition as I do. Apparently we were dropped on our heads. That seems to be the only explanation as to why after spending a small fortune on Spanish classes, we just don't get it. I'm currently the point man on the linguistic dance of shame in the Dunce Cap parade.

Their description of the walk leaves little for me to add, but of course, there is always something that I can expound on. Take for instance the inclusion of Lisa's grandson, Soren. It was Marta who observed as we walked along, that this walk was particularly taxing for

Soren's Lament

him. Not because of the terrain, but because we were walking along at least four beaches, often times at the waters edge and we were not stopping to play in the sand or frolic in the water. I'm sure he would have gladly forgone our coffee and croissant break in the morning for an opportunity to play in the sand. Perhaps the next time this walk is made, it can be adjusted, so all of us Witty Kids, can have a little play and frolic time.

There is a registry of beaches in Spain that explains the type of beach. Not its composition, but rather the degree, or lack of, beach attire. There are a wide variety of beaches. Such as, clothes only, clothes & topless, whatever, and nude. This walk took us past all all four beach varieties. Coming from a culture that finds nudity abhorrent and the sight of a woman's breast somehow obscene enough to be tantamount to the very damnation that turned Lot's wife into salt; these beaches should have little kiosks that provide blinders to Americans who hadn't read the register.

I had noticed that our group was among the youngest walkers, but usually lagged behind. I think this is because we are the best gawkers. For this hike our group was comprised of Josephine, Graham, Marta, Jordi and me. Another walk with the Five F's. This time it was Marta and Jordi that fell well behind. Not due to gawking though. It was because at the last beach we crossed, Marta finely took pity on Soren and waded out into the water with him. Jordi didn't miss a beat and waded out as well. The Brits call it paddling. I wonder if they wadel a canoe?

Michael, Marta, Jordi

Nichola and Michael were waiting for the stragglers at the road that would lead us away from the beach and on the way to lunch. I pulled up and waited there with them. Now Micheal, Lisa, Soren, Jordi, Marta, and I were being lead by Nichola to the restaurant for lunch. We were running well behind the other 28 walkers, so we had to pick up the pace a bit. That seemed like a good idea, but it just made us more tired and thirsty. Nichola called a halt to our march at a little cafe overlooking the beach cove just before coming into the center of Tarragona. Refreshed with beer and Shandies, we set out on the final leg of our walk that would take us to the restaurant for lunch.

Left: Marta & Michael
Right: Darryl & Nichola
Other: Two tables of Merriment

Last year on the Nichola & Roger Walk, they had organized a fantastic barbecue, with Clive as head Cuer. ( spell checker went nuts trying to figure out Cuer ). After that beautiful walk and fantastic lunch, I had no doubts that our lunch for this walk would be a good one. The restaurant had set aside two long tables for our group and provided us with a three course menu that offered an impressive number of choices. Even though our little troop came wandering in after everyone else had ordered, we were seated and given excellent service, that got us caught up to the others.

Whilst we waited

The lunch included one glass of wine per person. I'm sure the restaurant had not anticipated the degree of wine a Witty Walker wants whilst waiting wantonly for lunch. Of course this doesn't even come close to the wine that goes so well with a delicious meal. We exceeded our wine budget but it didn't matter because the food was excellent, the wine was good and we all enjoyed the afterglow of a delightful walk.

Amphitheater

We took our glow out to the plaza and bid our farewells. The Five F's reunited for one last little walk. Tarragona was the capital city of Tarraco, a Roman province in Hispania. The name Rome gave to the Iberian Peninsula. There is a Roman amphitheater (small Colosseum) in Tarragona as well as other buildings dating back to the
Roman Empire. Since the amphitheater was directly in front of us and the train station was just a short walk away, we elected to take a walk around this rather unique archaeological site. This little colosseum is much smaller than its counterpart in Rome, but it served many of the same purposes. In particular, the killing of early Christians. What makes it very unique, is that it has the remains of a church inside of it.

Amphitheater

At some point, the Christians in the area decided to build a church inside the amphitheater to honor the martyrs who died there. Now you had a ruin within a ruin. You could really get your money's worth with that tour. We elected to skip the tour and look at everything from a slight distance.

The short walk to the train station was next. We had all come on the train, and now we would all be going back on it. Well, sort of. Josephine and Graham had to get off a few stops down the line in order to make a connection to the village where Graham lives. Marta was getting off at The Estació de Sants and Jordi and I would be going to the end of the line at the Estació de França. The station that is about a 3 minute walk from my flat and where I had started this walk from.