Catalunya

We're now in Portbou. Try finding it on a map! The accent has noticeably changed. The Spanish is written and said differently here. Words for some things we'd got used to have changed. Like toilets are no longer Servicios. Catalan is softer and the lisp sound has gone too. Interesting, not better or worse maybe a little easier for our untrained tongues.

We had a great time in Madrid apart from spending way too much. But hey it's part of the adventure. We tossed and turned about where to go next. We really are making it up as we go along. I wanted to return to the sea or to some medieval town with towers and mosques? Wendy felt it was time to move on to Franca and try out our school French (actually she did it until Uni but anyway). We eventually agreed on some Fou do fa fa...But we haven't quite made it yet, we are 3Kms from the French border in Catalan country. It almost fit all criteria. We wanted something a little smaller and you can't get too much smaller.

Portbou used to be the border town but now the border has been moved or they use a town a little further way. Borders seem less important so far in Europe, the EU has lessened border control. Portbou has a massive train station for such a small place, (it's as big as the town including the sidings), and you can see from wandering around it a bit that there used to be a lot more business here. Hotels have closed and some parts of the town are a little in need of some love/investment. Doer uppers going cheap! I really like it here though. Partly it's quieter than the city and we feel a little special being able to visit without throngs of people. Last night we were the only people in the restaurant (L'anchore, great food). It's off season now as it has got colder, Autumn is on it's way and the tourists have blown away leaving a sleepy little village. The French are still driving over for dinner and moin cher booze. The people who rent the kayaks are on holiday and the restaurants are planning on closing soon for a well deserved break. So we got a bit of a bargain. We walked into town from the train a day ago with all our bags and made it to the playground where the littles made themselves at home. I went wandering to check out accomodation. Wendy was talking about if we don't find a place we'll get back on the train and go to Perpignon or somewhere bigger where we can find accomodation. This little place intrigued me and the quiet appealed to the country boy side of me. Devizes in my blood.

So after a quick walk around I went to talk to a cafe owner who had a little sign offering habitacions, chambres, rooms. I had my best Spanish prepared but he was French, car meme. So then my brain got all confused and I was speaking, Spanglaise, a new hybrid that surprisingly did the job. I thought the rooms must be above the cafe and was looking for the stairs but...He said follow me and we set off. Down the hill, around the corner, down another hill, around a few more corners, through a nice tree lined petite avenue and into a once grand old building. We picked our way past skill saws, sawdust, plaster and paint and two Eastern European labourer types. Then he set off spritely up a winding staircase and we climbed and climbed up to the 4th floor. The rooms looked great, Karen Walker colour palette very now very cool. Air conditioning although it is only just needed now. Nice bathrooms, brand new but needing a slight finishing touch on one. They were missing a bit from one of the showers it isn't quite attached to the wall. Anyway as you can tell I took it, after the obligatory check with W of course. She said nervously "if you think it's good we'll take it", phew. We found one bathroom is slightly smelly I think from the washer on the one shower not being correctly done. Hey it's cool not a biggie and it'll be fixed next week. I think the plumber was slightly rushing that day? We agreed to take it for two days including breakfast at $35 each room, so $70. Seems like a good deal to me. I'm sure once it's finished and the entrance is up to scratch it'll go for a lot more in high season. I would definetely stay here again.

It has been relaxing here, I went swimming in the sea yesterday. Was cold getting in but then fine. Wouldn't stay in for an hour but it was nice. The water here is very clear. I think it's because the sediment is quite coarse here. Fine gravel instead of sand so it doesn't float so much. You can see easily 10m. There are lots of fish and they are curious and almost wanted to get touched it seems. Henry and Bella had a great time playing and Bella had a sllep with W on the beach. One not so nice thing about the beach is that people let their dogs go on the it. Not so nice, one does need to be observant. There are three other little beaches which are just a couple of minutes walk where it's cleaner. Today we walked and climbed around the corner and very gingerly picked our way along the cliff path. Henry falls over all the time and this was not a good spot to do a Charlie Chaplin act. Much hand holding later we sat down and looked back at Portbou. A nice little town with an interesting past and many stories to tell.

One story here is of Walter Benjamin, a Jewish-German philosopher who committed suicide here 26th September 1940. He had escaped from France over the Pyrenees to Spain on his way to the United States. When he got here he was exhausted and stopped to rest at a hotel. He reported later to the Spanish authorities as he thought it was the right thing to do. He found he would be deported and so committed suicide in his hotel room with poison. There is now a memorial to him designed by Dani Karavan, Passagen. We haven't made it there yet but we'll walk up to it tomorrow. From the pictures it looks like a long slice into the hillside with a glass ending. Maybe signifying the journey Walter took. I read in the town something like Walter Benjamin felt he carried a hunchback of bad luck. He wasn't destined to have an easy life. It adds a depth to this little border town to have a dark story of despair told on the corners of a darker time. Gestapo were in this village during WWII. I can't imagine what it was like to have that in the background going about your business here over 60 years ago.