A visit to Blanes and dinner at Les Caves
This morning I tried some different meats, all good stuff especially tucked up neatly with some cheese in that roll. No beans this morning but hey, I was taking a break from the Full English breakfast so this was not a problem at all.
Today we decided to visit the resort of Blanes, we had read about a botanical garden high up on a cliff there called Marimurtra Botatanical Gardens. Some friends decided to join us for the day, we walked beside the beach to Pineda De Mar and met them at the train station.
It was just a short train journey to Blanes.
Blanes is known as the gateway to the Costa Brava. It will be remembered by me though as the resort that's a bloody long walk from the train station.
The long walk from the train station required some sangria.
One jug lead to another jug..
This one footed pigeon joined us for quite some time.
We made our way up the winding foot path towards the top of the hill.
Marimurtra Botatanical Gardens could be found at the top.
It contains around 300 exotic species and is said to be Europe's most important botanical gardens. It was a beautiful place and definitely worth the €6.50 entrance fee.
These cabbage like plants got me thinking about food.
We stopped for an ice cream, I was up for trying something new and Alibom caught my eye.
The makers Helados Alacant say "Who said three's a crowd? In just one bite there's delicious cream, bits of chocolate and a fine chocolate coating." I won't argue with that, a fairly tasty biscuit ice cream bar costing €2.60, it didn't blow me away but it was pretty nice.
A beautifully maintained park but some humans had made their mark on this poor cactus.
This little cove was visable from the top, probably only accesible by boat though.
Back by the beach in Blanes we cooled down with some cocktails, not bad ones at €6.00 each, mine was a pina colada.
Back at the hotel we considered the possibilty of just going for a meal this evening and not going to the festival. We couldn't decide what to do so decided to see how we felt after some food.
I have been to Calella eleven times now and I had eaten at Les Caves every year, the spit roasted chicken here is just amazing! We were not about to break tradition so we headed inside feeling particularly hungry.
The waiter recommended their homemade garlic mayo, it was really special but also very garlicy.
The portions here are huge and the plates are massive!
Half a spit roasted chicken stuffed with their special blend of herbs and spices, it falls off the bone and almost melts in your mouth.
Stacks of double fried homemade chips and plenty of fresh salad, I tried so hard to finish it but it beat me in the end.
The hazelnut liqueur that arrives with la quenta is the perfect end to this incredible food experience.
As soon as we were back on the main street of Calella we realised that we were way too full up and knackered to make it to the festival tonight.
We took a look around the local supermarket and headed back to the hotel with a Cadbury's crunch. Tomorrow we decided we would hire some bikes out for the day and see what else we could discover.
Loving that brekko, looks like some Iberico next to the roll and some garlic sausage?
ReplyDeleteSeriously Spanish style breakfasts are great for a change, my favourite is slow frying a cooking chorizo till almost done, prick the skin and let all that spicy paprika juice leach out, crack a couple of (free range) eggs in the pan, bathe with the oil and serve with thick chunks of sourdough bread to mop up.