The Long and Winding Road

We strive hard not to cut corners or settle for less, and when it comes to car camping in Europe, that mantra is no different... regardless of the result. Cadequés had been a daytrip. A stopping point between Barcelona and the South of France. However, we had two nights to kill. So after Cadequés we set out for neighboring Port de la Selva, which is the next harbor north.

This worked out well. While Port de la Selva doesn't maintain a distinct character or charm like Cadequés, it is still an amazing location, complete with lighthouse. I love lighthouses! So naturally, we chose a camping spot in the parking lot beneath that glorious giver of light.

Once parked, we mixed up some cocktails in the trunk from the mobile bar (some things don't change on vacation), picked the pointiest point in the trio of harbors and set up our dinner picnic with 270° views of the Sea. Paella rice, fresh bread, fresh avocado, fresh tomato, pesto, some delicious sauteed peppers and chicken Ali whipped up in Barcelona, and a bottle of wine. Perfect.

We ate and drank and laughed, took in the sweeping views and then realized, despite the sun having just set, that 10pm had come and passed and therefore returned to the car for a good night's rest. This didn't happen, however, because Costa Brava in the summertime is hot (shocker), Pepé (the car) doesn't have good ventilation, and the area we picked to sleep was scarce on people, but heavy on mosquitos. This meant suffer the wrath of the heat or suffer the wrath of the mosquitos. We eventually chose the mosquitos and I somehow sank into five hours of rest. Ali's tally for the night... one. Maybe.

Needless to say, Ali was a bit tired the next morning, but she was a trooper. After a dazzling sunrise over the Mediterranean, we drove the winding road from Port de la Selva to Sant Pere de Rodes -- a former Benedictine monastery a few thousand feet up the Pyrenees over Costa Brava. Mentioned as early as 878 A.D., Sant Pere de Rodes is considered the cradle of Catalan Roman architecture, and is a remarkably well-kept structure featuring ample construction and artwork dating back to the 10th Century. With an extensive blueprint, we spent over an hour exploring the terraces, naturally-cooled cellars, cathedrals, courtyards and crypts of the isolated sanctuary high above the Spanish coast.

All good things must end though, and we left the halls of two millennia ago in search of new adventures. Unfortunately the next day and night were hardly worth the telling, and even had they been, would have little sway over our next, planned destination...