Homage to Catalunya

Beyond the Costa Brava and away from the resorts and the city of Barcelona lies a sophisticated part of the country which many say pointedly is NOT Spain. It is Catalunya with an increasing amount of separatist politics. A recent political video advert shows a well-heeled Catalan being robbed of his wallet at a cash machine by someone dressed in a ludicrous costume the shape of the map of Spain.

Here they have never forgiven Madrid for incompetently losing the colonies that were important to Catalan wealth and the sores from the Civil War and the subsequent Franco repression of language and culture are still there. For years the only outlet of Catalan national expression was FC Barcelona and how they love the current team's success (although ironically they have been the foundation of the Spain world cup winning team providing 7 of the 11 players which is rather complicating the whole national identity thing).

The beach resorts are definitely reminiscent of the Spain we know but the countryside is lusher, much more like France, and it all has a wealthier feel.  A couple of days here on our road trip made us Valencians feel like country cousins.

First stop was Figueres for the Dali museum where some of his strangest works are on show as well as some of the early stuff from before "he went bonkers" (Su's explanation).  For example, on the patio is an old convertible with three dummies in it, bushes growing all over them inside, a naked woman standing on the bonnet and a boat suspended in the air above it.  We haven't worked out what it all means but then neither of us was ever that "arty".

The city of Girona has some beautiful buildings and a fascinating old Jewish quarter next to the cathedral and we visited some beautiful medieval villages such as Santa Pau and Besalu nearby with their well preserved city walls and porticoed streets.

The Catalan flag flies over Santa Pau

Further south the wine region starts in earnest in Penedes and we stopped by Sant Sadurni the home of cava. The town is full of cava houses and we left with some suitable souvenirs with which we can celebrate our return home.

Poblet Monastery with the pinot noir grapes in the foreground

We spent our last night away near the impressive monastery of Poblet at a country house (Masia) hotel which has great food and fabulous views before making our way south through the Montsant and Priorat wine areas (a couple of our favourites) before descending towards the motorway and the border with Valencia. The hotel was refreshingly Spanish, declining to open its impressive restaurant until 9pm despite all the non-Spanish guests sitting outside on the terrace, starving.

It has been a good three days here with plenty to see and do given the coast, the very good local food and wine, the medieval architecture, museums and countryside. And we didn't even visit Barcelona itself on this occasion. The area deserves a longer visit but we have been living out of a suitcase for seven weeks and great though it has been, it is time to go home.