We have been fortunate enough to meet some really amazing Catalan families during our time here in Girona.
We have become good friends with one family in particular and they are kind enough to frequently invite us over so the kids can swim in their gorgeous pool.
We were swimming on Tuesday afternoon when they invited us to join them for a day on their boat.
A day on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea?
Gee, I guess we could do that...!!!!
After much discussion with Rory, we decided the day was going to be a bit much for Aurelia.
This was really hard for me because I've never been away from her for more than a couple of hours, but she spent the morning at her nursery school and the afternoon with our longtime sitter, so she was absolutely fine and loved having Rita to herself.
We left Girona at 10am and drove to Empuria Brava, where the boat is docked.
We stored our things in the stateroom and then went over safety stuff with Eston before we left the dock.
It was the most beautiful day and I can't even describe the tranquility I felt.
Water always does this for me and it was much needed and appreciated yesterday.
Costa Brava translates to "wild coast" and most of the coastline is protected.
The Catalan government even sued ClubMed and had them tear down their facilities about ten years ago.
Not sure what that did for the local economy, but it does preserve this beautiful coastline.
There are also no roads along the coast, which is different from where I grew up in California.
I have memories of cruising along PCH in a car or on bike, but that is not possible here.
There are major inland roads and then smaller roads lead out to various coastal villages.
I must say, I love it.
We left Empuria Brava and set out for Cadaques.
We visited Cadaques last December, but seeing it from the water in the summer was another experience.
The kids asked to sit up front, so Rory and Natalia sat with them as we puttered around the small bay in Cadaques.
I felt sorry for the throngs of tourists trying to enjoy the small beach.
We could just dive off the boat to cool down.
This was also a good mental note--never visit Cadaques in the summer!
Cadaques was crowded, so we looped through the bay and then headed to a cove a bit more private.
This beach is only accessible by boat or very rough dirt road, so it was mainly people in boats.
There is a small restaurant on the coast that is pretty popular with locals, but you have to have a reservation and it is only open in the summer.
We anchored the boat and spent some time jumping off the boat and enjoying the beautiful water.
I felt completely relaxed for the first time in a long while, so it was perfect.
Most Catalans eat lunch between 2pm and 4pm, but since we knew the kids would be ravenous after swimming, we made our reservation at 1:30.
The water taxi came out to get us and dropped us off at the small dock owned by the restaurant.
Then the two hour feast began.
I do love Catalan/Spanish lunches.
Calamari, octopus, clams, seafood paella, seafood fideua...it was amazing.
The octopus was my favorite.
They sautéed it for about a minute with fresh onions and bell peppers and then sprinkled a bit of olive oil and lemon over it...simple and perfect.
Eston and I both ate a ton of it and he asked for more.
We finished off with a bit of gelato and then went down to the small beach.
We built castles, found crabs, walked around the small tide pools in the rocks, and just relaxed.
The kids started getting a bit tired at about 4:30, so we packed up and took the water taxi back to the boat.
View from where I sat at lunch:
There was a nice sandy beach a bit to the right in the above photo.
