Costa Brava y St. Feliu de Guixols
So upon arriving in Spain, we rented a car and drove about 1 1/2 hours northeast to this rather small and absolutely gorgeous beach town of St. Feliu de Guixols...chosen for its scuba diving. Well, it exceeded our expectations because it is jaw-dropping beautiful.
Our hotel was on the hillside just on the far right of the main beach and the town center. Hotel Montjoi is just our cup of tea, very clean, a little fancy and the views are superb. We had a corner room with large windows on two sides overlooking the mediterranean. Our balcony overlooked the pool and the beach. We were on the fourth floor so we were high up thus enhancing our view. The restaurant has big windows all around so you see 270 degrees of beauty around you as you eat. There is outside eating and the weather of course was perfect...70-80 degrees and nice breeze always. The pool is quite long and big, and it had an ledge above it covered in tiles and florid plants. If you have never been to the mediterranean and only imagined a quaint beach town with beautiful aqua-green waters...well, this is exactly how it really is!
We were just about a ten minute walk downhill to the town. It had really two main streets parallel...one was a shopping street with many cute restaurants and shops, and the other is the beach street where there is a park along one side where kids play or they put up little stands that sell food.
We dove with Pisces Diving and loved all, the experiences and the people. The waters were crystal clear...a little chilly so we wore 5mm suits with hoods, but I did not feel as cold (most of the time) as I did in Rio that first dive.
The rocky cliffs are beautiful all around. We liked our "guide" David. The owner is Fran. They gave great briefings with pictures.
a server finishing paella
Our hotel was on the hillside just on the far right of the main beach and the town center. Hotel Montjoi is just our cup of tea, very clean, a little fancy and the views are superb. We had a corner room with large windows on two sides overlooking the mediterranean. Our balcony overlooked the pool and the beach. We were on the fourth floor so we were high up thus enhancing our view. The restaurant has big windows all around so you see 270 degrees of beauty around you as you eat. There is outside eating and the weather of course was perfect...70-80 degrees and nice breeze always. The pool is quite long and big, and it had an ledge above it covered in tiles and florid plants. If you have never been to the mediterranean and only imagined a quaint beach town with beautiful aqua-green waters...well, this is exactly how it really is!
We were just about a ten minute walk downhill to the town. It had really two main streets parallel...one was a shopping street with many cute restaurants and shops, and the other is the beach street where there is a park along one side where kids play or they put up little stands that sell food.
We dove with Pisces Diving and loved all, the experiences and the people. The waters were crystal clear...a little chilly so we wore 5mm suits with hoods, but I did not feel as cold (most of the time) as I did in Rio that first dive.
The first night we splurged and ate "local catch" grilled and it was superb. It was in a cute old restaurant called El Cau de Pescador. They offered local wine that was a light white wine, fruity but not too sweet that we loved...it went perfectly with the grilled fish. Then we had flan that was so delicious but they also gave us two small cream filled pastries in honor of Sant Joan's festival which was the first night we got there, June 23rd.
a server finishing paella
So Sant Joan's festival is a long tradition especially celebrated in Spain and Portgual and it's especially popular in this area; it is before the day they celebrate the nation of Catalan....and most people set off fireworks. In older times they would build a big bonfire on the beaches or wherever. People would write bad experiences from the past year on paper and throw these into the fire to get rid of them. Susana says that many people go swim in the ocean at midnight. Unfortunately we were too tired to stay up until midnight so we missed on that part, but we saw and heard plenty of fireworkshttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfires_of_Saint_John
One of the most beautiful views in this area is atop a cliff by the sea where this author from the turn of the century supposedly looked out on the coast and named it Costa Brava. Over 700 years ago there was a fortress in this spot but since about 1700 there has been a chapel. They call it Ermita de Sant Elm or St. Elm's Hermitage.
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