The Revenge of the Squid
22 miles hiked, 2 Cultural Events Attended
We decided that we are moving in to the Tramuntana Hotel permanently just to have breakfast here. We’ve all had breakfasts at hotels before, from “continental” all the way up to buffets that could feed an army. The difference at Tramutana Hotel is that breakfasts here are perfect! Between the phenomenal food and the kindness of the owners, breakfast is elevated to a positive start to the day that is guaranteed that all bad things that might happen during your day, don’t. One can’t get much better than that!
Seeing all those bloqueros yesterday had me very curious about why they are there. Some bloqueros are circles of slate about 10 feet in diameter and about 4.5 feet high. If square, they are about five feet per side. In each case, they are nothing but dry stone. Other bloqueros are approximately 5x5x5 (feet) but there’s an opening about two feet high on one side where you can access the interior if you crawl on your hands and knees to get in.
The hotel offers olive oil from their own orchards so I thought the owner of the hotel could tell me what they were used for. He laughed and said he as numerous in his orchard, but they are all hundreds of years old, as is most of those we saw on the hike yesterday. Today, all the hills are covered in terraces with olive trees, but in the Middle Ages to around the nineteen hundreds, Cadaqués was a major wine producing region. Slate is the main geologic rock around here, so much so that there’s more rock than soil. When building the terraces, they would hand pick out all the slate pieces so they could infill with good soil for growing. The bloqueros were simply a way to keep a stone pile from spreading everywhere and provided the store when building slate walls. Those with openings and rooms the people built so you could escape the rain as well as stay warm in winter. The bloqueros would take years to build and give you an idea of how much work went into cultivating the land.
What’s so fascinating about the intensive terracing is the unbelievable scale. Yesterday we tried to take a picture that would show just how massive they are. None of those work, but on today’s hike, I found a place where I think you might be able to see the scale of these terraces. In the picture below anything that looks vaguely like a straight line is a terrace wall. The terraces start at the top of the hills and go all the way down to the steam bed at the lowest point in the middle. If you look closely, slightly off center there’s a huge circular bloquero as well as five or six more in middle foreground. I hope this gives you an idea of the scale of what we are seeing on our hikes. Each terrace was built long before mechanical help and built one stone at a time. Sorry for continuing to tell you more than you ever wanted to know about terraces around Cadaqués, but they fascinate me to death.
Our morning hike was to the north so we could see a different part of Cadaqués and to get some walking in so we could close the movement activity rings on our Apple Watches. Confession time: it’s me who’s a weirdo about closing my activity rings and Pam just goes along. If you’re wondering what “closing your activity rings” means, consider yourself lucky because Apple has exquisitely gamified exercise perfectly just for my brain so I must close those rings every single day. It’s great that I’m focused on healthy activities, but I think Apple’s approach is hard for most people. After 2,262 days of closed rings, it definitely works for me.
On the hike we passed a small church (actually small, not a gigantic church but tiny compared to the main church in town), Ermita de Sant Baldiri. The church itself has almost nothing in it so was probably destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. What was interesting is that it contains the modern cemetery for Cadaqués. Pam and I must be odd because we will always seek out any cemetery to walk through. Spanish cemeteries are more like mausoleums with the crypts above ground. It was interesting to see that in Cadaqués there’s the tradition of painted tiles to show the deceased. Some showed the person at work, others showed favorite items, one of which was a Canon DSLR camara on their plaque. The whole cemetery was beautiful and interesting all at the same time.
As we were getting close to the hotel, I was thrilled to find a dog I could pet! I love dogs but am allergic to them. It kills me because there’s nothing better than giving a dog a good ear scratching and seeing a tail almost wag off. I miss that so, so much and to find a dog I could love on was a special treat.
We couldn’t hike all day as we had an appointment at 1:00 PM at the Salvador Dalí house in Cadaqués. Pam’s already asleep so can’t argue with me, but I would not recommend going at all. Contact Pam if you want to know more about it. As for me, I thought it was pointless, tasteless, and a waste of time.
After the Dalí house it was getting-a-little-bit-hungry o’clock. In Spain, that means its tapas time. We found a place on the main street in Cadaqués and began people watching. Pam really wanted fried squid and I had to have more anchovies. Have you ever had that moment where you pop a bite of a dish in your mouth, and you at once think that you must share this with the world? That was the fried squid at Nord Est. The anchovies were amazing, but that fried baby squid wins.
As we sat in the beautiful, warm breeze, eating great food, Pam looked over at me and I had fallen asleep. Back in my working days I used to do a lot of international traveling and for me, the second night in a faraway place is the killer. That’s when the jetlag smacks me hard and last night I got a whole 3.1 hours according to my watch. Old man John had to go back to the hotel and take a nap. I’ve never had to do that before, so I am now having an existential crisis about how little time I have left on earth. Nah, I just needed a good nap.
After waking up, we still had two hours until dinner. We decided to walk around town in areas we hadn’t been, with two goals in mind. The first was to finally figure out how to capture a picture of the fully in bloom bougainvillea covering many houses. The problem is the contrast between the darker bougainvillea, the white walls, and the sky. The only acceptable picture we have is below.
Our other quest was to find more “electric box art.” On the sides of houses and buildings are a metal electric box cover and many are hand painted or decorated in some way. Little public art like this fascinates me because this is human scale public art. This little act goes so far in making the surroundings beautiful. If I knew how to use Photoshop, I could build a collage of these. However, I’m on vacation so don’t want to learn. I’ll show you my favorite three we’ve found so far. We haven’t seen anything like this in other Spanish cities.
For dinner tonight, there was no thinking involved. When setting up the trip, the great folks at Pura Aventura told us, without any input from us, that we were going to eat at Compartir at 8 PM and made the reservation for us. With Pura Aventura having a wonderful Spain-based staff, we never gave it another thought. They were absolutely right!
They reserved us for the 10-course tasting menu and it was so much fun. The staff at Compartir (which is “to share” in Spanish) were fantastic and had great taste after great taste. My personal favorites were all the super fresh fish courses. One of the courses was grilled squid and included a vinaigrette made of squid ink. As we are loving every bite, I cut my last piece in two and it squirted a stream of squid ink right into my chest. That squid must have known I’d been eating his kind all day long so had to get his revenge. Fortunately, the stain did come out, but you must watch out when eating squid because they look out for each other. Even when dead.
The only downside to this wonderful meal is that 10 courses took us 2.5 hours, so we were very full at the end. Pam felt it could have stopped at 8 courses. When you get to Cadaqués, make sure you eat there.
Tomorrow, we start heading west so the adventure continues. Thank you for reading!
Your joyfulness on this trip so far is shining through. Naps aside, I can tell how fully alive you are feeling! And I love the electric box art. That’s a fun discovery!
The art on the electric boxes was my favorite today! :)