June 22 Tuesday Spain here we come

Was it the soothing effect of the lavender that made us sleep like the dead last night? Very good anyway and so we were well refreshed to pack up for the next leg of our adventure, 3 nights in Spain with Gemma and David who had boarded in Nelson with Dan and Andrea for several months in 2008 when they were at NMIT improving their English. Once again we minimised our bits and pieces to a little backpack each and left everything else with Bruce and Diana and the car so that we could travel lightly on the train.
Over to Tarascon, a town of 11,000 on the Rhone. It’s symbol is the Tarascon – ½ fish, ½ animal monster - which apparently terrorised the villagers for years until Saint Martha befriended and tamed it at which stage the villagers promptly killed it anyway! To this day they hold an annual celebration in its honour!!! Very weird.
Anyway; our train duly left from here at 12.45 and we headed South on our best French train to date. 20 minutes to Nimes, 40 to Montpellier, traditional plaster and tile houses, ochre and terracotta colours as the land flattened out in the Languedoc/Rouissillon district. Here vineyards stretched for acres and acres, sheltered by windbreaks of cypress, occasionally interspersed with stone fruit groves, artichoke gardens, kiwifruit and many wind farms. Narbonne, Beziers; on we raced through land which provides the season's earliest French apricots and cherries plus ½ of France’s table wine, though apparently changes are happening here in the wine industry as they move away from the couple of varieties traditionally grown, to a greater variety of more aromatic style wines.
On we went toward the Coast - much of the coastal land here has been developed from mosquito infested marshland to productive land with beautiful family friendly seaside resorts. Here on the Coast, are huge salt farms. Then suddenly train tunnels heralded the approach of the foothills of the Pyrenees and the proximity of the French/Spanish border.
Crossing the border here required a passport check by French police in Cebere, then a check by Spanish police in Portbou, plus an adjustment to the train wheel gauges as the Spanish train tracks have a wider gauge than those in France.
With glimpses of the rocky coast of the Costa Brava we raced on through tiny villages and little towns to our destination, Girona; the nearest centre to Gemma and Davids that we could leave this train.
And there they were to meet us, 8.15 as planned. Looking great; exactly as we remembered them from NZ and so welcoming! Both of them speak such excellent English now but I guess for us the biggest change was with Gemma's English which now is so fluently conversational! Both of them still so full of life and fun, so you can imagine what a cacophony it was driving the 20 minutes to their new home town of Rupia!
Since Christmas Gemma and David have opted for the rural life. David has had a change of genre with his reporting and is very busy with that, plus overseeing a team, but able to do so from home which he finds just great. Meantime Gemma commutes daily by train into Barcleona for her work - two and a half hours each way, but managing that OK. They've let their Barcelona apartment and rent a three bedroom, 2 bathroom, three level apartment in Rupia (an old but beautifully refurbished home). The living, dining and kitchen take up the first floor and all open out on to terraces with wisteria and other climbers tumbling over the pergolas to provide much needed shade and temperature control.Gemma is really enjoying having pots brimming with geraniums, cactus, herbs and flowers here, while in the courtyard on ground level she's created a raised vege garden with some great veges coming into production.
Rupia is a tiny medieval town with ancient stone buildings crowding in on narrow cobbled streets and lanes. It boasts a bar which opens on to the square, a bakery churning out delicious breads and pastries all cooked in a wood fired oven, plus a butchery which has existed there for generations and concocts the most delicious cured, vaccuum packed meats (my favourite was their pork and mushroom roll and Fred's the cured sirloin!). The village has just 200 permanent residents with over half the properties owned by out of towners as holiday homes (weekend escapes from Barcelona often). The bar is the centre of the community offering appertives from midday till 2.00, then opening again about 4.00 after which locals gather for a chat and a drink. Euro 1.50 for a stubbie of beer and Euro 1.50 for a glass of wine. All residents live within a two minute walk of this Placa/Square.
By the time we'd driven home, popped our gear inside and had a quick tour of the premises, the day was at its best with the scorching heat gone and everyone gathering at the bar for a cold refreshing beer. Fred always love sampling different beers so enjoyed David's choices, while I went with their recommendation of wine which was very yummy.
Eventually a relaxed amble the 100 metres home for David to whip up a scrumptious Catalonian chicken dish brimming with the biggest mushrooms you can imagine! Mushrooms are a prized ingredient in Catalonian cuisine and we were lucky enough to enjoy them several times while here. Dinner was at 10.30, which in summer in Spain is pretty standard and makes bedtime around 1.00 and a siesta a good idea!