‘Beyond Barcelona: Exploring Catalonia’s history, coastline and wine’

With a week for exploring Barcelona and its surrounds, and two other occasions arriving by cruise ship, we decided not to limit ourselves to the city of Barcelona, but to see some of the places within an hour or so from there, such as Girona. This meant two coach tours, two train trips, some independent driving and even a boat trip. Here is a short account of our travels.

Montserrat

This mountain range north of Barcelona gets its name from the serrated appearance of its many peaks. Venerated by Catholics, the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat is one of the most visited pilgrim sites in Spain. The reason for its importance lies with the presence of the Black Madonna statue, located in the sanctuary of the Mare de Déu de Montserrat. We visited by way of a coach tour which took us from Barcelona to the rack railway that leaves from Monistrol, which gave us spectacular sightseeing of the surrounding lowlands and craggy peaks. A further two funicular railways can carry visitors to other lookout spots on the mountain. The complex also houses a museum with works of art by many prominent painters and sculptors including El Greco, Dalí and Picasso.

Real Club de Golf El Prat

In keeping with hubby’s penchant for playing golf wherever we travel, we booked him in to the Real Club de Golf El Prat. This course is one of the best – hosting the Spanish Open for the tenth time in 2015. Designed by Greg Norman, this 45-hole course blends seamlessly with its surroundings, to convey the feeling that the fairways, holes and bunkers are part of the natural landscape. The club has a strong tradition, having initially been set up in 1912 in Pedralbes and then moving in the 50s to near the El Prat airport. Today it is located between Terrassa and Sabadell about 40 minutes north of Barcelona and is bordered by a national park.

Terrassa

Since I don’t play golf, this was my chance to indulge my passion for history with a wander around a city that dates back to prehistoric times. Railway tunnelling works in 2005 under Parc de Vallparadís unearthed stone tools and fossils of hunted animals dating back 800,000 to 1,000,000 years, making this is one of the oldest prehistoric sites in Europe. The small Vallparadís creek runs through the city and beautiful parkland, giving me the chance to walk the trail, which stretches along it for about 3 kilometres. Also in that area I visited a collection of monuments and churches of Sant Pere (St Peter), built towards the end of the Roman Empire (69-79 AD). The site also preserves Iberian and Roman remains dating from the 5th Century BC, early Christian structures from the 4th Century, the funerary church of St Miquel and the medieval basilica of Santa Maria. The complex contains a museum and exhibition facilities integrated into the restored buildings.

Today Terrassa is a university and industrial city with a rich artistic heritage. It was a leading centre for the wool and textile industry and a vibrant exponent of the Modernism (Art Nouveau) movement. Many of the public buildings, old mills, and warehouses and both middle-class and workers’ homes have been renovated to show off this unique industrial heritage. There are several beautiful examples of the modernista style to be seen as you walk around the town, starting with the Masia Freixa, a sensuous white house completed in 1907 by Lluís Muncunill, which started life as a factory for the processing of alpaca fibre but now houses the tourist information centre.

The Penedès wine region

This area to the south-west of Barcelona – one of the country’s best wine-producing regions after the Rioja – is known specifically for its Cava (sparkling wine) production, although it still makes other styles of wines. We were keen to visit the Freixenet (pronounced fraytchinett) winery, in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, which had begun in 1861 making still wines and later, in 1889, making Cava by the traditional method used in France for Champagne. Unlike French Champagne, however, the grapes used in this area are Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada. We had a lovely relaxing sojourn there with a tapas style lunch of Ibérico ham, soft bread rolls and the local Llonganissa sausage washed down with a Cava and a Garnacha (Grenache).

The second winery we visited in that area – Codorníu – boasts a very impressive modernista architecture, as well as one of the best Cavas in the region. In fact, in 1976 King Don Juan Carlos declared the buildings a National Historic Artistic Monument as a key example of Catalan modernism. Dating from an amazing 1551, the vineyard started producing Cava in 1872 following the devastation of phylloxera and the need to plant new vines. As well as a Cava containing Chardonnay, they also have a rosé Cava as well as a red variety both made from Pinot Noir. Finishing off with a Tempranillo, we nibbled on the local fret sausage sticks while we admired the interior architecture.

The Costa Brava

This coastal region north of Barcelona extends as far as the French border. It is so called because of its wild coastline – rugged promontories, rough vegetation and rocky cliffs. Tourism has been its major source of income due to the good summer climate, natural beauty and excellent beaches.

Our first stop was at the town of Lloret de Mar, about an hour north of Barcelona, which is the biggest of the coast’s beach resorts, with an exceptionally long wide beach. We had time to wander around the town, admiring the older architecture and shops set back behind an esplanade that was packed with cafes, fast food outlets, holiday apartments and hotels. Back on the beach we were met by the jet boat Neptune, which took us on a short cruise further up the coast, where we could see first-hand the ruggedness of the coast.

The first sight of Tossa de Mar, another of the coast’s popular resort towns, was off the towers and ramparts of the Vila Vella or old town. Beyond the point the “new” town, comprised of a large number of white buildings, stood out blindingly in the sunlight. On the day of our visit there was a medieval fair in progress, with food tents and displays set up along the road that led to the old town entrance. Vila Vella is the sole remaining fortified medieval town on the Catalan coast and was listed as an artistic-historic monument in 1931. The original structure dates from the 13th-century. At its height, there were about 80 houses within the wall, but by the 16th century population growth forced the establishment of a town outside the walls. Inside the Vila Vella there also are the remains of the late-Gothic 15th-century church of Sant Vicenç. Further along the narrow alleyways we walked up to the lighthouse where we saw more spectacular views of the rugged Costa Brava. After all that climbing and walking we headed down to the esplanade where restaurants provided a welcome stop for a tapas style lunch. Then it was time a quick look at the ruins of the Roman villa of Ametllers, before meeting our bus for the one and a half hour trip back to Barcelona.

Girona

Spain’s AVE trains travel all throughout the country at speeds of 310km per hour. It takes only 37 minutes to get from Barcelona Sants to Girona’s main station, so we took it. Girona is a mediaeval city with one of Spain’s last surviving Jewish quarters – El Call – in a maze of narrow winding streets. It still has its incredible thick defensive walls on the eastern side of the old town, which are possible to walk along – the Passeig de la Muralla. From the top of the walls the views are spectacular. The occasional watchtowers allowed us to climb higher for even better views. There are several places along the walls providing access, but we started from the beginning off Plaça del General Marvà. Girona’s walls were first built by the Romans but were expanded in the time of Charlemagne in the early 800s and then enlarged again in the 14th century, due to the numerous attempts by invaders to lay siege to the city.

Along each side of the River Onyar which transects the old city, the colourful buildings that hug the banks provide an emblematic image of the city, while the Cathedral dominates the city skyline. One of the most majestic scenes in the city is the view from the bottom of the stairway at Plaça de la Catedral up to this almost-monolithic building and its baroque facade. Construction of the Cathedral started in the 11th century on the foundations of an ancient Roman temple and continued for many centuries, mixing various architectural styles. Fans of Game of Thrones book tours in Girona to visit various filming locations such as the cathedral steps which appeared in Season Six when they were used as Kings Landing, Braavos and Old Town.

Our time in Girona came to a close after exploring La Rambla de la Llibertat, a wide and elegant pedestrian boulevard parallel to the Onyar, and the arcades, restaurants and bars lining Plaça de la Independència, finally ending up at a café on Plaça Catalunya for a late lunch – even by Spanish standards! We were initially concerned lest we did not get back to Barcelona in time to re-board our cruise ship, but the rail service was so easy and efficient, we needn’t have worried. So the desire to explore this part of Spain was finally satisfied, but there were many more adventures on the Iberian peninsula yet to come!