natjtan Happy May!
This weekend made me realise just how much I love/need the sea, colour and nature. I might live in a city, however I’m lucky enough to live in a more open part of it, see the sea, greenery and of course I’m a 25 minutes fast cycle (21 min sprint) to the zoo, my own tropical garden during late summer afternoons when everybody’s at the beach. My Mum always says you can take the girl out the country but you can’t take the country out the girl.
I hope you had a great long weekend! Aside from realising I need colour (P sometimes says all the white and cream furniture can be a bit stark, but it does make the golds, warm yellows, blues, pinks and plants pop) we hired a car and enjoyed a few outings out the city. Well kinda, I get car sick and set a new record. 3 minutes down the road it hit! If I’m driving I’m fine, on the back of the motorbike I’m fine, I think that as I cycle everywhere I’m not used to the movement. I researched natural motion sickness remedies, got some peppermint oil to sniff and P added extra ginger and basil in salads for lunch before we left. By Monday I was okay, sniffing the peppermint oil every now and then like smelling salts and burping; totally ladylike but it helps equalise everything. It wasn’t even twisty roads I was feeling sick. It was straight up straight motorway!
Friday after work, saw a run along the beaches before heading up the coast to see if we could walk part of the smugglers route from Cala de Sant Francesc in Blanes, however like last time, the elusive locked gate leading to the path was locked. We’ve walked part of it further up the coast from Platja d’Aro so it’s not like we haven’t walk parts of it. I’ve since found there was a fatal accident resulting in the path being closed off to the public. We explored a little of the cove before seeing if we could find the next cove by the car. We never found one while checking out all the millionaire villas and houses nestled in the hill overlooking the sea. No idea if they are millionaire houses, the area reminded me of Cap Ferrat, near Monaco which is packed with some spectacular villas. Sometimes along the Mediterranean all the places look alike and I have no idea if I’m in the South of France, Italy or Spain.
Heading back, on a whim we stopped off at a garden centre and had fun looking around. Even though I can’t fit anymore plants on my balcony, there’s now a strawberry plant, basil and lemon balm plant.
Saturday after respected gym workouts or rather the new Tone It Up Bikini Series 5 no gym workouts for me, we headed to Girona an old castle inland regional city of Girona about an hour away. We’ve been before, but I kinda felt time it was to visit it again and I think that will be the last time. It’s not a place I wish to go back to in a hurry. I think it’s quite an affluent city (dress was like the posh end of Barcelona), however the place had no colour or any it had has was washed out, there wasn’t much energy and the river wasn’t as full as I remember. We had more fun exploring parts of the old castle ramparts and getting locked in.
Translation: Women have also written history.
You can still walk along parts the castle rampart/wall I think for about 2km. Heading back the car I saw people walking along it as said lets see if we can. It was getting dark, the gate was open and there was no timetable sign, so we thought whatever, let’s explore. The car was parked up near the wall further along and we knew there was access to it from there as we walked through an old gated arch tower (with old hinge settings still in place) to get to the centre, so we weren’t too worried. We explored old turrets, past others walking, heard bull frogs, the view was amazing as you could see the rooftop designs and were having fun until taking one path and seeing a guy lock the gate and drive off! We were too far away to shout “wait!”! Thinking it was maybe the first gate of many he’s locking up, we picked up the pace retracting our steps back to car exit only to find all the other gates locked. Thankfully P already had an idea. I knew we have to climb a gate at some point, but he’d seen a low lying platform that looked easy to jump down off. Well easy for him, I needed help jumping down breaking out of the great wall of Girona. Read I kinda freaked out and I’m meant to run Spartans.
Have you ever got locked in a public place or park? Prefer bright colours or dark colours? I prefer bright colours as they make me happy to look at.
[…] Part of of the last weekend of April and May Day can be found here. […]
Such beautiful pictures!
Thank you!
Looks like such beautiful places to discover there. Definitely putting Spain on my bucket list.
It’s a beautiful country even the cites have hidden gems!
I get carsick if I look out the side windows. If I look straight down the road, I’m fine. I can read in the car if the road is straight and flat. If it twists or turns, I get sick as a dog. I read somewhere that if you have a point of reference ahead on the horizon, you won’t get sick. I took a bus trip years ago with work and sat in the back of the bus. I wanted to die I was so sick. On the way home, they made me sit up front. I was fine.
I’ll have to try the look at a horizon trick (thank you). A few years ago I took the coach to my first Spartan Super in the mountains. I was fine until we let the motorway, for the twisty rads and combined with the smell of the coach I was please open a window! I sat deliberately in the middle for stability but it didn’t work. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing, but the scenery was too spectacular! On the way back, thankfully I was out like a light!
I’ve gotten carsick since I was a kid and used to ride with my cousin in the backseat of my father’s big sedans. We were small and couldn’t see past the adults in the front seat so we couldn’t look out the front. We’d look out the side windows, and we’d both get sick. If you look at scenery whizzing past out the side you get sick. It has to be straight ahead that you focus.