JAZ Adventures

A change of plan

We have to admit, we never planned to explore the east coast of Spain. Without knowing too much about it, we had a vague idea of coastal beach areas, and the big cities Barcelona and Valencia which we’d visited before. Our loose Spain “plan” was to visit the mountainous north – Pyrenees and Picos, Basque Country and Galicia, then head south through Portugal to explore the parks and Muslim history of the South, then catch a ferry heading east towards Sardinia and Sicily etc.

Instead 2 weeks ago we found ourselves needing warmer climes and so we headed to the east coast of Spain, and have shelved our northern Spain plans until the summer. We needed to fill the time leading up to Christmas, so we decided to meander down towards Valencia where we’ll be stopping for Christmas to meet up with some friends.

And what a wonderful surprise Catalunya was. Yes there’s been the warm sun filled beach coast where we’ve enjoyed “recovery time”, but exploring the numerous natural parks that run parallel to the coast and are usually a mere 30-45 minutes away has been such an unplanned pleasure.

Catalunya’s natural parks

Montserrat, which we visited last week, was a no-brainer given it’s proximity to Barcelona, and is a well known place to visit. But when we looked at Google maps, we noticed a string of parks that continued south, and so we decided to explore them too.

Parc Natural Serra de Montsant lies west of Tarragona in the Priorat region. It features a long, tall and dramatic ridge which we did an epic hike up. Heading up the ridge you have expansive views of the Prioriat area which looks like a jumble of hills and mountains sandwiched between bigger sierras and mountains. Vineyards scale the sides of the smaller mountains and small hilltop villages dot the jumble of mountains. It was a breathtaking sight. We stopped frequently and took way too many pictures. We wondered if the multiple eagles flying nearby thought Zeus looked like a tasty snack.

Parc Natural dels Ports lies south of Montsant, and from what we can tell is an expansive park of dramatic limestone mountains and ridges. We climbed up Roques De Benet, a dramatic conglomerate rock jutting out of the mountain. We saw climbers scaling it and were greeted at the top by a family of wild goats.

We feel we’ve only scratched the surface too. We could easily spend a week or 2 in each of these parks, and we look forward to returning to them at some point our our future.

Catalunya wine

It’s also been a pleasure exploring the wine regions of Catalunya. Last week we visited a cellar in DO Penedes, Cava country.

This week we visited Perinet, a winery in the prestigious DOQ Priorat region. Prioriat red wines are renowned in the wine world as bold, complex and top notch wines. And you can see why when you visit the region – it’s a tough place for vines to grow. They grow on steep slopes of rocky slate hills, and endure extreme extreme temperatures. So the grape yields are low, but the vines grow grapes with deep and concentrated flavours.

It was great to explore inside the winery – from the lab where the winemaker determines when to start/stop key steps in the wine making process, to where the picked grapes are cleaned and sorted, to the enormous fermentation tanks, to the underground cellar where the wine ages in oak barrels.

Prioirat wines are delicious. And the price of the wine reflects this. We picked up a bottle as a treat to go with our Christmas meal.

Coastal exploits

We previously knew nothing about Tarragona, but when we read about it’s Roman past life as Tarraco, we had to visit. And it did not disappoint. The amphitheatre was an impressive sight, situated overlooking the sea. You could see Roman relics littered throughout the city, including a circuit for chariot racing, the forum, a theatre and quite a bit of the original city wall.

We also spent 3 days chilling in Cambrils, a coastal town just south of Tarragona, which we can report has an epic fishmonger – Peixos Savall. We think Zeus is slowly getting used to the feeling of sand under his toes. He’s still hilariously curious and scared at the same time about waves, but he did manage to have a beserk run on the beach which was great to see.

What’s next

We’ve left Catalunya, and have just arrived in Aragon, where we’ll be spending 3 days in Alcaniz where James hopes to climb some rocks. From here we plan to meander down towards Valencia via a natural park or two.

As soon as our campervan was fixed in Rodez, we took decisive action and headed to Spain. It has been nice to feel our fingers and toes again this week.

Southern France was lovely – we enjoyed some spectacular walks, visits to wineries, good food etc. But it was just too cold and wet, and we weren’t prepared. Yes Sud-Ouest, France gets cold and wet. The toll of the chill was made evident when we took Zeus to the vet for his ICAD registration and found that he had lost almost a kilogram. For a 6 kg dog, that’s a significant % of his total body weight. He was also sleeping all the time, had no energy and frankly seemed like a depressed dog. The humans in the campervan weren’t fairing well either. We weren’t sleeping well, and constantly being cold was definitely affecting our moods.

But before Spain….

We stopped by Perpignan on the way to Spain where James got to climb at La Grappa Escalade, and we had a memorable lunch at L’Emile, a tiny hole in the wall restaurant in the old town area of Perpignan. It had some high tables and bar stools outside and a lot of happy people, eating and drinking. Inside was a small bar counter, where we sat. We love watching all the action in a kitchen, so lunch was a leisurely 2.5 hour affair that involved 3 courses and 3 glasses of wine each. We left feeling stuffed of tuna carpaccio, croquettas, tartiflette and more cheese.

Out of the freezer

Our first order of business in Spain was to thaw and relax. We booked a spot at a campsite in Pineda de Mar for 4 nights. PDM is a coastal town north of Barcelona, so we enjoyed day-time temps in the teens and overnight temps hovering just below 10 degrees, which is far nicer that overnight temps of 0. And the sunshine felt glorious after 2+ weeks of cold rain.

So everyone’s mood has vastly improved in the past week. Zeus has gained some weight (we’ve been trying to fatten him up) and has been his usually curious, energetic self on walks. He loved the day trip we took to Barcelona to check in on the progress of Sagrada Familia – still some ways to go, they’re targeting to complete in 2026, but it was awesome to see the progress since we both last saw it. Zeus got to meet and get hugs from lots of strangers on the train and underground. Aileen’s fingers sufficiently thawed and she managed to finish knitting a pair of socks. And James is glad his fingers aren’t frozen when he locks/unlocks the bikes, and he enjoyed a mountain bike ride around the nearby hills.

In addition to thawing, we got to give our van and selves a good clean, and we also got to cook some nice meals. We made a Spanish inspired pork stew, grilled some pork secreto (YUM), and had some rather tasty pork chops (notice a trend here? LOL). We’re finding that Mercadona supermarkets have a great selection of fresh food – we also made some grilled cuttlefish and a wild mushroom pasta.

Exploring Montserrat

After resting for 4 days we were ready to start exploring again. We headed southwest to Montserrat, a mountain range near Barcelona that is quite a spectacular sight. James likens it to a giant crinkly crisp jutting out of the ground. Aileen thinks it looks like the spikey ridged back of a Stegosaurus, but with nubby worn spikes. It is quite the sight to behold. We did several hikes in the area, and although overnight temps reached close to freezing, we knew we’d have to endure it for a only 3 days, before heading east again to a campsite we’ve booked near Tarragona.

Cava

We’re at a Cava producer as we type this blog instalment. The Penedes region just outside of Barcelona is Cava country, so we couldn’t not swing by for a swig. Penedes is a small valley tucked in between 2 mountain chains west of Barcelona, and Montserrat towers over it’s northern end. We enjoyed a wonderful tour of the Cava making process, and got to sample 3 Cavas. It was great to learn more about Cava, a sparkling wine that’s less appreciated in the UK than its sparkling brethren Champagne and Prosecco. Which is a shame as it’s distinctive it its own right. It is made predominantly from Xarel-lo, a variety local to the Penedes region, they use the traditional method to produce Cava – the same method used to make champagne, and it has DO designation.

We’re now heading back to the coast to thaw, and are looking forward to exploring further south in Spain.