A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Olèrdola, Sitges, Barcelona Airport, Valencia)

You may note by the bracketed destinations that today's post covers more than one day, dear reader. It spans the last full day with Matt's Produce Tours and a dreaded transit day. As an aside, if you like a food and wine tour with excellent company, check out Matt's itineraries. We're off to Tuscany next year with him.

Our hometown for the week.

It was free time after breakfast with a planned trip to the local Roman ruins. Jayne opted out of visiting the ruins on the premise that she'd seen ruins before, in no specific order and not limited to, England, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and most specifically and unsurprisingly, Rome. What did the Romans ever do for us? She remained at the hacienda and continued her chat with our children who are still in Australia. I opted for the ruins.

Wild alyssum.

The first stop was to the communal recycling bins in town. Staying within the confines of the National Park means disposing of all rubbish generated. Olèrdola was obviously preparing for some sort of bullfighting festival. There were a number of people sporting matador capes, a bin full of swords with which to depose the bull and a couple of people wearing bull costumes with horned head pieces. Anything to pass the time until the bars open I guess.

The remnant ruins were on a hilltop outside the town. I realised on arrival that the belltower we could see from the hacienda was a part of the ruins. Entry cost was €5 and walletless, Tim spotted me entry. Champion. 

Part of the entry to the ruins.

Map in hand, we commenced the walk up the hill toward the church, obviously a part of the later Roman Empire. The inside was sparse and I imagine the walls were once covered with frescoes. Now it contained an altar and a number of pews. 

The church on the hill.

Outside in the grounds were burial sites. The graves were not deep because the soil on top of the hill is shallow, barely covering the limestone. I doubt the bodies were left in the graves for long but there was no indication of what might have happened to the bones. However, Romans often used ossuaries after cremation or decomposition of the bodies.

Graves in the church grounds.

The other areas of ruin were unremarkable. There was no grand wall or amphitheatre, just low walls or depressions in the limestone with a cursory explanation. Evidence of the local wild pig population abounded and not just in areas that had been dug over. Aromatic would be the more polite way to describe it.

The hacienda from the Roman ruins.

Heading back to the house, a few of us opted to walk from the nearby village. While it provided some much needed exercise and an opportunity to take photographs back toward the ruins, it meant we missed out on the cooking class.

Looking back to the church on the hill.

An old watchtower at the nearby village.

We returned to find Jayne, Mick and some of the others aproned and up to their elbows in preparation. Our light lunch today was stuffed squid, baked fish on potato with a sauce, anchovies with pickled onion, razor clams and a side dish of white beans and chorizo. Really, I'm over-simplifying the menu. It was amazing. And that was, apparently, a light lunch.

Anchovies and pickled onion.

Tuna and avocado bites.

The sauce for the fish.

The fish.

Stuffed squid.

The white bean mix.

A few of our number drifted off for a quick nanna nap prior to dinner in Sitges, but not before a group photo. Vivero was the destination and we arrived for an Aperol Spritz around sunset. Sadly the weather was uncooperative, but the spritz and the rooftop bar overlooking the beach were lovely.

A farewell photo after the 'light' lunch.

Downstairs in the restaurant, we enjoyed tapas (of course) and then mains of seafood rice or sea bass followed by lava cake. There may also have been some wine consumed.

Sitges by night.

A church near the restaurant.

Back at the hacienda it was time for last drinks and some more packing before tomorrow's departure. I had one beer and retired. Others, well, next morning at breakfast, let's say you could tell who partied on.

Dinner at Vivero.

Packing was finalised next morning and then we were in the van with the first group heading for the airport at 8:45am. We bid farewell to Matt, Raylee, Kristin and Tim at the airport and picked up our hire car which we will keep for the remainder of the trip.

The processes at Europcar could do with some refinement. You are required to head into the terminal to complete the paperwork there, then go back to the carpark and collect the key. It sounds fine in theory, except the guy who hands out the keys went m.i.a. When he returned, he was in no rush to engage with clients. Out to the back room, adjusting the air con, checking the computer screen and finally, he morosely acknowledged our presence.

The 12 year old girl who served me at the first counter, was more efficient but dismissive of my choice of car. She informed me to drive from Valencia to Madrid required a much larger engine than the 1.2 litre - my car of choice. A larger engine would cope much better she scolded. What absolute bullshit. I hire a small car because of the narrow roads in older areas.

In the car, I discovered that the USB cables I bought with us to connect our phones, don't work because Europe has already upgraded their cars to USB C. Excellent. Not. Out came the powerpack to keep the phone charged and use Waze because the navigation system in the car speaks Spanish (until Jayne somehow changed it to German. Still not helpful) and wanted us to detour away from the toll roads. It was like being in Sydney, except you still had to stop and pay at a toll booth.

We received a road warning at one point, informing us the road we were on was closed and there were no alternate routes. The sky was black and the rain commenced about 45 minutes into the drive and continued for the next 2 hours, with intermittent lightning cracking across the sky. There was a slight pause as we arrived at the hotel. The news that night reported mass storm events and flooding across a vast area of Spain from Alicanté to Valencia and up towards Barcelona. And that brings us to today's title A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, yes I'm aware it's a Dylan song but the Bryan Ferry version is superior - and I'm generally not one for cover versions.

The rain recommenced after a brief hiatus. We were tired anyway and opted to eat in. Thankfully, my travel agent and I had discussed a luxury stay after completing two tours and had booked The Level - we'd refer to it as the Executive Floor back home. We had a quiet, comfortable lounge to repair to where we enjoyed tapas and maybe a glass of wine before retiring for the night.

Tomorrow's weather doesn't look a lot better so we might not be moving far from the hotel room. However after 6 weeks on the road a day off won't hurt.

Until next time.