From Barcelona via Vic Ripoll, Vallfogona to Camprodon 25th August 2010

We left Barcelona straight after an early breakfast and so were on the road by 8.30.  We headed to Ripoll – this was a nice place.  We parked by the river and walked to an old square.  Nice to have a stop and a break from driving.

Then back on the road and headed for France.  My map reading hadn’t improved and once again I had us on the wrong road.  It is quite mountainous, the area between Spain and France.  The road I had us on was particularly windy.  I felt car sick so I asked Pop to pullover when he could.  He pulled into a side road which led to a medieval town without knowing what was there.  ‘Vallfogona’ was quite a surprise and a delight.  (Unfortunately I had leant forward to put my head between my knees to stop from feeling car sick and made my back go into a spasm which would give me trouble for the rest of the trip).  We chatted to an old couple with the help of a phrase book and one of their friends who had come to see what the excitement was all about – ‘us’ – Australians – they had never seen any Australians before.  They asked what language we spoke?  We had found that this area understood Spanish as well as French so with a few French words we managed to explain that we spoke English.  They thought this was great.  They pointed out the old church that was built in the 12^th century.  We stayed and had some lunch in the little café and drove on.  It was still very windy and so at the first town we came to we decided to stop and take a break.  I was feeling quite bad with the pain in my back and still feeling car sick.  We pulled into the outskirts of Camprodon.  At first we thought it was awful – very average looking town but when we went around a corner into the old part of town we changed our opinion and thought it was charming really gorgeous.  We decided to stay the night.  We booked in with a deal for accommodation, dinner and breakfast for 118 euro total.  We tried to find a Laundromat but none.  So bought some washing soap and did it in the bathroom.

Camprodon was the home of Isaac Albenitz – Pop’s favourite composer.  There is a museum here and so we decided that we will stay another day.