Visiting the town of Collioure

We wanted to do something but not to far way today. neighbours told us about a fortress of some kind and pointed us at a small town. Without any other information we went there and had a looksy. Big surprise!

From the carpark we stumbled upon old fortifications, very nice site!

Obviously this was all being restored still.

There was also a "secret" way in.

The nazi's also left their marks here...

After a bit of a walk we drove in to the little town itself. We were told it had nice little streets. But first things first! A nice cold drink and lunch :-)

The town of Collioure is really beautiful and not very crowded.

It's a lovely little village.

Nice little shops and bars.

Nice beaches too!

The views were really nice at times. Like the view in the above picture, of me and Simone ;-)

Then we discovered there was a castle that we could see. For only 10 euro we could all go in so we did!

There was another castle at the top of the next hill.

On the hill slope there was an old wind mill.

And more beach on the other side of the castle.

Private Dobbelaar.

Uhm...

The town's little harbour.

This was a great little visit and the last little trip of our holiday. It's time to start thinking of packing up almost :-(

Reading

This is the view across the street. Currently there is a Dutch family there.

I was checking out Simone's reading material ;-)

The pools

After yesterday's adventures in Spain we relaxed at the pool today. This really means hanging around for maybe 4 hours tops. I usually had two swims, tanned a bit and read my book in the shade.

Nice pools.

Quick visit to Barcelona

We drove to Spain today! Exciting! I've never been to Spain before :-)

Initially we wanted to visit Barcelona but last night decided it would be too far to drive still and planned a trip to Figueres instead. However, driving went smooth and it was all nice and quiet in the back of the car so we asked the kids if they'd rather visit barcelona, even if that was another 45-60 minutes driving. They said yes! ;-)

So I bought us a city map and Simone drove us in to the heart of the city (not easy!) where we found a parking garage right next to the one thing I really wanted to see!

These people have a free view on it every single day!

The Sagrada Familia!

A photo from further away doesn't do much justice to the design of this incredible building by Antoni Gaudi. The level of detail is incredible.

View from the park next to it.

We wanted to walk in to town but it was incredibly warm so we went back to the car instead and drove a bit further in town where we continued on foot.

I believe this is another "Gaudi house" seen from Plaça de Catalunya. Lovely big square.

Lots of people.

Lots of bubbles :-)

Then we got hungry and managed (after waiting 10 minutes) to get a table outside of the Hard Rock Cafe. Very nice food here and they speak English!

For dessert we wanted a McFlurry and went to the McDonalds. I think it was the only one in town because it was insanely busy...

After this we went to our car again and Simone skillfully drove us out of town back on our way to France.

The resting day

Today was a resting day mostly spent next to the pool. It's gotten a bit hotter now and days are now nearly cloudless. Nice! No photos though. Nothing to see here. Keep calm and go to the next post :-)

Carcassonne

I'm reading this book. It's about a guy visiting the people he loans money to through Kiva. I loan through Kiva as well. It's not for profit.

Today we visited the fortified city of Carcassonne.

We were not alone... Carcassonne is kinda like a mini version of Mont St. Michel...

Lovely views though.

Everything dates back centuries ago.

It was great walking around in this little town.

Initially we als wanted to have dinner here and then watch the 14th of July fireworks which should be awesome but we would have to wait in the sun for at least 3 hours and we didn't wanna do that so we left. Instead we watched the fireworks near our camping.