2-3 June - Returning to UK

Tuesday wasn't very eventful other than we had about a minute of rain, it stayed overcast all day and we spent the majority of the day cleaning. The apartment is all ready for the summer season.

The view for our last breakfast.

There's still a bit of snow on the Andorra mountains.

Remember this photo from our drive down in April? It was taken whilst at a service station - the castle of Severac d'Aveyron.

We decided it would be a rather nice spot to stay on our way home so we booked a hotel with an outdoor pool. Ideal for June we thought.

Unfortunately the pool is currently being prepared for opening at the weekend, and 3 June is apparently not in season!!! No swim for us so we headed out to explore and a sit down in a cafe. Well, we thought we would!!

Our view from the castle today. If you look carefully you can see the service station!

Severac d'Aveyron is a medieval town with history going back to the 11th century.

It's definitely out of season. No one around (other than the helpful man in tourist information who gave us a recommended route to walk around the town.) We searched high and low for a bar or cafe. None open!! Even the local supermarket only opened until midday so that wasn't even an option for us. But at least we located a place to eat tonight - otherwise it would've been a bit of baguette and cheese from our cool box.

The oldest house, built in 1423.

The town's fountain/well dating back to 11th century.

Overlooking the town - the roof tiles are an interesting shape.

A close up of the castle - it's mostly ruined but there's a modern museum built to the side and an area where they hold concerts.

We ended up having an enjoyable meal in a little restaurant near the portcullis and just a short walk from the hotel. With an expected 9 hours drive tomorrow it's going to be an early start.

31 May - 1 June - Last Few Days

We went off exploring around Roses and came across Torre Quimeta. Now converted into tourist accomodation this tower was originally used as a lookout for pirates.

We spent Sunday morning in Roses market trying to find a particular bag for someone back home. Unfortunately despite the quantity of bag stalls only one sold the wanted design and none were in the required colour.

The Jacaranda trees are out in bloom.

They have unusual wooden seed pods.

Today we noticed the sandcastle has had a bit of an extension. More walls, a water feature and candles for lighting at night. A pretty impressive piece of work which has avoided being squashed by the tractor that cleans the beach in the morning.

All the beach volleyball teams have now departed to be replaced by a line dancing event at the hotel where they had all stayed. A very lively bunch stomping and doing the docie doe!

Much of this afternoon has been spent starting to pack away and pack up for our departure on Wednesday. Only some wine and bits to take home to be purchased tomorrow and we'll be all ready.

For once we've successfully got ourselves down to a bit of cheese, salad, milk and enough for a few breakfasts. So tomorrow evening we'll be out to La Cassola for our last dinner here!

29-30 May - Keeping Cool

These past two days we've stuck to pottering about in the bay or cycling as venturing out with the car leads to a bit of a Russian roulette as to whether we'll get a parking spot on our return.

So Friday we walked at a leisurely pace off into Roses. Probably a bit slower than normal as we kept stopping to watch the volleyball. We've no idea who's winning or what countries/universities are participating as there does not seem to be any way of differentiating the teams. Although we think the majority are from Germany as that seems to be the only language we've heard on the loudspeaker or between team members. There might be a UK university there but so far we've not spotted them.

Saturday being Empuriabrava market day was a chance to get the bikes out and probably the final one for this stay. We spent quite a bit of time at one of the meat stalls trying to work out why the trotter on the bottom of the pig's leg looked more like one normally found on a goat. The only reason we could think of was that they've used a bit of artistic licence in their cured meat display. Unless it was smoked goat 🤔.

As it's been another sweltering day I got myself a fan, which was immediately put into use. It's also been in use for most of today.

There must've been a few coffers left in the tourism budget in Empuriabrava as there's another sign! Personally I think it would look better if the 'Brav' was closer to the 'A', although the gap was being used by visitors to sit in to have their photos taken, so maybe they did get it right 😄.

Anyway with just 3 more days to go before we start heading back to the UK on Wednesday, it was time to check out Mercadona on our way back for our wine and food requests. We'll have to return with the car in the week when parking is a bit easier🤞🏼. There was no way we'd get it all on our bikes 😂.