Sant Pere de Rodes

Image via WikipediaThis tour goes to one of the most beautiful parts of the Empordà region, the Sant Pere de Rodes monastery and surrounding Cap de Creus natural park. When starting from Girona you need to allow at least an hour's travel time. I always go through the small village of Villajuïga and stop to fill up my water bottle with the mineral water available at the tap next to the entrance to the bottling plant where the well is located. This is a water rich in minerals and one of the few that come out of the ground with a little natural carbonation which is nice and refreshing without producing the aggressive bubbles of gas added mineral waters. From here we enter the Cap de Creus natural park and wind our way up the hill through the olive trees and then cork oaks and meditterranean pines and heavy gorse and broome (called ginesta in Catalan.) The area suffered a very big fire in 2000 which destroyed most of the pine trees while the cork oaks with their thick protective layer of cork survived even though they are still black and sooty on the outside which shows the hardiness of this local species. From the top not only do we have spectacular views of the coast, the Bay of Roses and Pyrenees but also the famous 10th century monastery, Sant Pere de Rodes, set in a commanding position where they could survey the terraces where the grapes and olives made them one of the wealthiest landowners in Catalunya for nearly 500 years. By the early part of the 20th century a combination of phylloxera which wiped out the vines and a shortage of labour from migration to tend the very steep terraces meant the whole area went into dramatic decline until the tourists arrived to bring new life and income to the remaining people. Several of the benefits that the fires produced was to reveal the old terraces on the steep slopes as well as acting as a renovating and revitalizing force for new plant growth throughout the park. Coming down the other side towards Port de la Selva, making sure to watch out for the many cyclists that use this road for training, especially in the spring when all the wild flowers are out and seeing the sparkling sea get closer is a joy. Time to head into this charming fishing village for lunch sitting outside and tasting some of the fresh fish which the fishermen bring in each day.