1st November Sant Perre Pescador

A slowish start to this bank holiday for All Saints Day. But I did get some washing done, once breakfast was finished and after I'd read a few chapters of my latest Stuart MacBride book.

Ian decided on today's outing to Sant Perre Pescador which is south of Roses. It's a bit too far for a walk but a possibility for cycling in the future - this was a reconnaissance trip. So following our normal route through the town (we've driven through it many times on route to other places but never previously stopped), we parked by the bridge over the River Fluvia. As luck would have it there was a small market just close to where we parked. Well, I couldn't not have a look - although nothing today caught my eye.

We took the river side path all the way to the beach of Sant Pere Pescador which is 7km of lovely pale, soft sand. Here we found a couple of washed up trees which made a decent perch for us to while away the time just gazing along the deserted beach. There were a few fishing boats out in the distance but otherwise it was pretty quiet. To our left we could see Empuriabrava and Roses and our right L'Escala and even the Castel Montgri on the hill in the distance.

With the sun breaking through it was gradually warming up as we completed our circuitous route back to Rolo. Then it was back for our late lunch and a read before we were out again. This time up to Castello d'Empuries where there was a chestnut festival.

Up in the square by the Basilica there was a small stage for the singers entertaining the younger members of the audience. There was a huge chestnut roaster being turned over a large fire - a bit like a huge raffle ticket drum but disgorging black and crisp coated chestnuts instead of bits of paper. 

Once cooked the chestnuts were collected and taken to a length of trestle tables where a team were hard at work either scoring the tops of chestnuts or putting cooked ones into newspaper cones for the ever growing queue.

We tried out some of the chestnuts - Ian got a hot one! I've had them before in stuffing but never eaten a roasted one. The skin was easy to peel off as it was crispy and the inside soft to eat with a sort of mushy nut texture and not lots of flavour. There were 6 in our cone and that was plenty!

So after our nuts and a bit of entertainment we wended our way through the cobbled streets back to Rolo and then on to the apartment. Another busy day 😀.