Went for a longer run this morning along the shore into L'Estartit and then along the tops of the hills above the town.
First stop was the small medieval town of Pals not too far from our house. This had a very well preserved and attractive centre with tower, castle and church and 10 marked points to visit. After and hour or so we stopped for a late morning coffee.
With the wind still blowing we decided a town would provide some shelter. A nice walk around the town with a visit to the Cathedral and another church. A very nice vibe to the town with pedestrian ancient centre. Lots of runners and cyclists in the morning.
Cherry had left her phone behind at the bird reserve so we set out early and thankfully recovered it at opening time. From there we drove onwards to a very dead Roses for morning coffee and snack.
A hill drive then to Cadaques. Colin had a nice walk along the coast while Cherry spend some time sketching. A very pretty town. A nice traditional lunch of anchovies/salad, paella, crema catalana/ice cream.
We drove on in the afternoon to Port Lligat to the home of Salvador Dali where he lived for 40 years. It was closed for a month unfortunately but nice to see the location.
Onwards further to Cabo de Creus. A wild and windswept area the most easterly point in mainland Spain. The wind was howling a gale so we could barely stand. Welcome cups of tea in the restaurant before a long twisty drive home.
Today was a bird watching day. In the morning we walking from our house through the local nature reserve to the mouth of the River Ter. Not too many birds on view but a nice landscape.
Lunch at home and then a drive to the Aiguamolls de Emporda nature reserve. At the first hide there were a lot of ducks, flamingo, stork & heron on view.
We spotted some wild deer and at the far end climbed to the top of a former grain store for good views over the surrounding flatlands with mountains in the distance.
On the way back there was a loose herd of cattle on the path back. We assume they were escaped rather than being herded somewhere.
We headed to L'Escala to look for dinner but couldn't find anywhere open so headed home to cook again.
It was around 30 mins drive to the Greek and Roman ruins at Empuries. We had a good wander round listening to the commentary and visiting the museum. A nice spot in a great location.
We stopped for a really excellent little lunch at the outside bar of the very nice looking Hostal Empuries. Pork loins with figs and pine nuts followed by a traditional cheesecake and coffee.
We wandered along a very nice coastal path to the ancient village of Sant Marti D'Empuries which was very pretty in a great location looking over the Bay of Roses.
We walked back past the roman remains towards L'Escala but didn't make it all the way there.
We drove into L'Estartit and from there did a challenging coastal walk. The town was exceptionally quiet with not much open at present in the very off season. The quiet is very pleasant though with little traffic, easy parking and everything feeling very relaxed and laid back. The walk went to Cala Calella and to Puerto de El Falaguer before heading inland and then back to town.
On return we found some tapas and coffee just before an early closing time.
We had an early 7.15 am flight with Ryanair to Barcelona. Whilst there was nothing to love about Ryanair's performance the journey was generally fine apart from a roughly 1 hour delay.
We hired a car from the airport and then drove around 2 hrs to our rural house near L'Estartit. A nice rural Eco House off the electric grid but powered by solar panels and heated by gas canister. Bigger than we need but very nice apart from the ants which seem hard to escape even in winter.
We arrived at the house around 3 pm and went for a walk to the beach and towards L'Estartit. Clear blue skies and temperature around 17C in stark contrast to the freezing Edinburgh weather. Shopping at Lidl and cooking in the house for dinner which we expect to do every evening.
Unfortunately a cold/flu went through the family over the holiday period. Colin was snuffly and unable to take part in athletic activities from Boxing Day through to 6 January. Everyone was out of action to some extent for a short while.
The four of us headed to the Playhouse for a 6 pm showing of Joseph. It was pretty good but all agreed that Donnie Osmond detracted rather than added to the experience.
With Max and Hannah both home for Christmas we had a Christmas Eve trip to the night lights at the Botanics. It was a lot bigger and more impressive than we all expected. Worth doing this or similar again.
Out for a morning run and arrived at the top of Arthur's seat at the moment of sunrise. Lovely.
Community choir and musicians - with maybe a few professionals as well for a couple of hours of Christmas songs written by Sufjan Stevens. Pleasant fun show.
Excellent Flamenco show from a group that turned out are mainly from Edinburgh but have been touring extensively for the past few years.
Alan Cumming in conversation with Kirsty Wark plus audience Q&A at the Lyceum in a fund raising event. We paid a bit extra for the good seats and for drinks and meet and greet afterwards.
Nice concert at the Queens Hall. Just two guitars, two voices and lots of banter. Very good. Nice acoustics. I remember seeing Boo Hewerdine play in Cambridge back in 1986 or thereabouts as part of The Bible! when their not quite a hit song Graceland was getting radio airplay. I may have seen him another time in between as well.
Competing in the SOSOL event was one of my main goals for the year on the Green course which is a bit shorter than I should probably be doing for my age but wanted to focus on shorter faster events this year.
I took part in 6 events; Balkello Hill (6th), Holyrood Park (27th), Callendar Crags (3rd), Balloch Country Park (2nd), Blairadam Forest (6th) and Strathclyde Country Park (6th).
Overall I came first in the League as only a very small number of orienteers completed 5 or more counting events.
In an effort to support the Push The Boat Out poetry festival we attended a couple of events on what turned out to be a very snowy with all the buses in town being cancelled which may have effected attendances.
At lunch we went to a slightly delayed talk and reading by Alexander McCall Smith taking about his favourite poets (Auden) and some of his published poetry books. Seemed like a very nice chat and quite an interesting hour although sadly with an audience of just 13.
We arrived very late for our lunch at Mother India Cafe which offered small indian plates - nice to get modest portions rather than the usual over eating at an indian restaurant.
In the evening we waded through the slush to Dovecot Studios for a musical evening in the gallery. A very strange venue with a small audience spread round the gallery much of it quite a distance from the musicians and poets. It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening with each of the performers good in their own way. First off was Iona Lee with DJ Nikki Kent layering poetic vocal over electrifying beats. Then was Emma Capponi and Fionnbarr Byrne with a captivating blend of folk and ethereal sounds. The headliner was Iona Fyfe folk singer and very recently appointed Rector of Aberdeen University.
On my own for this gig. eXTC played the extensive "hits" of XTC with one ex member, the drummer, in their line up. Unfortunately the singer sounded nothing like the distinctive XTC vocal so didn't enjoy it much.
Hugh Cornwell was pretty good and got into it for the first 30 mins but he was a bit mean with the old Stranglers favourites and became a bit monotonous after a while. He was looking pretty good at age 75.
Cineworld were running a season of classic musicals. We went along to Grease (8/10), Chicago (5/10) and Moulin Rouge (10/10) - the latter being totally bonkers but great fun.
We also saw The Outrun at the Omni which was good - along with dinner afterwards at Ka Pao.
A very good show with a chronological journey through the duos life and music. The band and singing were excellent and the acoustics were excellent with really clear sound and not too loud. We had a front row seat for this one.
