Ripoll

At the confluence of the Ter and Fresser rivers is Ripoll, a rather gloomy and industrial town, but at its heart containing one of the most famous and beautiful monuments of Romanesque art, the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria. During the centuries in which the Pyrenees were the only barrier separating the Islamic world from Christendom, the monastery here flourished as a great center of learning and cultural exchange. Before heading for the high Pyrenees, Ripoll is well worth a visit, and save for the odd coachload that descends on the monastery and quickly departs, Ripoll is refreshingly free of tourists. The old town below the monastery is worth a stroll, with a few modernist buildings, such as the tiny church of Sant Miquel de la Roqueta, built in 1912 by Gaudi´s contemporary, Joan Rubió.

The Monestir de Santa Maria (Tues.-Sun 9-13, 15-19h, 200pts) was founded in 888 by Guifré el Pilós (Wilfred the Hairy), Count of Barcelona, as a means of resettling the surrounding valleys after the expulsion of the Moors. Guided by the powerful Abbot Olivia, a cousin of the Counts of Besalú, the monastery rose to prominence as a center of learning in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, acquiring from the Moors classical texts that had been lost to the Western world at the fall of the Roman Empire. The center attracted scholars such as Brother Gerbert who later became Pope Sylvester II. Under Olivia and succeeding abbots the monastery was completely rebuilt, using some of the finest craftsmen of the age. Sadly, this building was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1428 and the destruction was completed in 1835 by anticlericals who damaged much of the fifteenth-century remolding. The only part of the original work that can still be seen intact is Olivia´s magnificently carved west portal (the main entrance to the church, now protected from the elements by a glassed-in conservatory). This portal is one of the most important works of Catalan Romanesque. Its impressive carvings, known as "The Stone Bible," consists of 87 distict panels depicting important biblical stories and allegories in seven concentric bands. Among the stories told by what is effectively a great stone graphic novel, are Jonah and the Whale, and the Parting of the Red Sea. The delicate columns and arches supporting the sculpted façade contain such curiosities as ornamental signs of the zodiac and an agricultural year calendar. The portal and the lower gallery of the adjacent two-story cloister, with its rhythmic arches and fine capitals, both date from the twelfth century, probably the greatest period of Spanish Romanesque. The capitals display scenes of a more secular sort than the portal, including mermaids, smug centaurs, and pudgy lions gnawing on various limbs. The cloisters also contain their own museum, the Museu Lapidari, which displays assorted stonework, masonry, sarcophagi and funerary art laid out along the walls. Sadly, the monastery church itself is less compelling, heavily restored over the years though still with an impressive barrel-vaulted nave.

Adjacent to the monastery in Plaça Abat Oliba is the rather severe facade of the fourteenth-century church of Sant Pere. Inside, up a long spiral staircase and on the top floor, is the eclectic and sometimes excentric Museu dels Pirineos (same hours as Monastery). This museum details- among other things, Ripoll´s history as an important seventeenth-century arms-producing and metal-working center. While nearby towns were busy mowing their fields and feeding their cows, Ripoll was busy manufacturing many of Europe's guns and most of Spain's nails. Also on display is what must be the porrón (wine dispenser) with the world's longest spout. There is plenty of Civil War memorabilia including unexploded bombs, Franco´s declaration of the town's capture, and a display of gas masks. Look for the curious scull and crossbones-shaped pipe carved by a local shepherd.

Market on Saturdays. Pastries and assorted desserts available at Costa, Sant Eudald 7, and at Junyent, Sant Pere 14. Visit the iron and copper foundry/workshop at Cal Peroler, Bisbe Morgades 13. Although the best eats in Ripoll are found at the masias outside of town, here are a few recommendations for good prix fix meals in town. Cala Paula, c/ Berenguer el Vell 4, (open after 21h) just left facing the tourist office, has good Catalan dishes, cannelloni and trout a specialty. Restaurant Perla, on the arcaded Plaça Gran, or the dining room at the adjacent Hotel Monasterio have decent menus. Seafood at restaurant Tot Peix, Passeig Ragull 10. There´s a bar just opposite the monastery with perhaps the best selection of tapas in town. For a relaxing drink, Café Canaulas, c/ Puente de Olot 1, is an interesting find: arty surroundings, music and board games (some food served ). Ripoll Municipal Pool on Concepció Ducloux (70 23 56).

On the outskirts of Ripoll, El Racó del Francés (70 18 94), at the Masia Can Querol in Ordina heading south on the N-152, is, as the name 'Frenchman's corner' suggests, a French influenced restaurant with a select bodega of fine wines. Frog legs and scallops à la provençal, escargots à la bourgonaise, sole à la créme normande with shellfish, duck foie-gras à la mi-cuit, sirloin à la perigord with fresh truffles, fondues, and home-made desserts. Solana de Ter (70 10 62) a hotel-restaurant on the same road specializes in wild game. Boar and venison casserole, duck with truffles, salt-cod with raisins, etc. On the N-152 north towards Puigcerdà at km 109 is the Grill El Gall (70 24 51), another masia dishing up local specialties. Escalivada, stuffed potatoes, grilled meats, grilled trout with almonds, etc.

Dòrria

Staying on the N-152 from Ribes heading west, you will come across roadsigns pointing to isolated stone and slate-roofed communities off improbably precipitous roads, such as Ventolà and Dòrria, a tiny village at 1500m altitude now only inhabited by two shepherd families. In September of 1997, a routine inspection of the little hermitage of San Víctor de Dòrria revealed the existence of important Romanesque frescos which had hitherto been concealed by five coats of plaster. The church has approximately thirty square meters of original frescos dating from the end of the twelfth century. Restaurantration experts highlight the great unity of the iconography represented, with a clear narrative sequence beginning in the Presbytery, continuing on the vaulted ceiling, and winding along the lateral walls. The ceiling is dominated by a representation of the Pantocrator, set in the typical oval mandorla. The Apostles, in two groups of six, continue the sequence linking the ceiling and the lateral walls. The frescos on the south wall were mostly lost when a window was put in, but the northern part has a detailed representation of the Last Supper. The sequence is completed with representations of the four evangelists: Saint John is shown with an eagle clasping a bible, Saint Matthew with an angel, and Saint Lucas with a cow. The image of the fourth evangelist, Sant Mark, and the fantastical animal that accompanies him, is perhaps the best defined of the entire fresco. The lines and original colors of the winged and horned bull conserve most of their original splendor. The excellent condition of the frescos is such that the paintings only need slight touching up in a few highly deteriorated areas affected by humidity. After Dorriá is Toses, another stone and slate village at 2000 mtrs altitude. The snow-capped mountain scenery is grand, and the driving is fairly easy going as of kilometer 145, which has recently been repaved. Halfway down the mountainside, you'll see the turnoff for Das and the Tunel del Cadí. Just off this road, near the little town Fontanals, is the Golf Fontanals de Cerdanya, (14 43 74), with 18 holes (plus 3 more for learners) and set in the wide Cerdanya valley surrounded by high Pyrenean peaks. Rental of clubs, caddie carts, buggies. Tennis, sports center, child care crèche, golf shop. Open year round. Nearby Vilar d'Urtx has a good restaurant, Ca la Laia, specializing in duck with turnips and picadillo, a chopped meat and veggie stew.

The Corniche between Tossa and San Feliu

This is one of our favorite stretches of coastline. Once out of Tossa the coastal road (G682) climbs steeply and for the next 22 km runs high above the red cliffs, twisting and turning through luxuriant groves of pine and cork oak, with sudden views of jutting headlands and small calas, the water changing in color from emerald green to cobalt. Make a point of stopping at the miradors, the little parking lots from which you can take in the scenery. At intervals, the road swoops down to circle an inlet and you will see abrupt turn-offs that lead to little calas which you can drive or walk down to, some with restaurants or a chiringuito, (a makeshift snack-bar, sometimes with a busy barbecue). Tucked away in these little calas are beaches for all tastes. There's an expensive and highly rated camp-ground located on the beautiful Cala Pola. (Park outside the campgrounds and walk to the beach through the grounds.) Nearby Cala Bona is also beautiful. On the next cala, called Giverola, the Swiss have built an ugly high-tech resort of boxed bungalows. So as not to feel homesick, they also installed a typically Alpine yellow funicular to freight tennis-players to the astroturf courts on the beach below.

Seven km into the drive, just after passing the cala de Salions, there's a left turn to the Sanctuary of Sant Grau which twists 5km uphill, offering splendid views. To the right you have a splendid panorama of Tossa del Mar. Turn around and you have one of the most ruggedly beautiful stretches of the Costa Brava. In 1908 the journalist Ferrán Agulló, inspired from the view up here, was the first to name this coastline la Costa Brava, brava meaning rugged, savage, or wild. The existing Sanctuary is of the nineteenth century, although evidence of the ancient Romanesque building remains. It's a charming spot for a stroll, with numerous paths through the typical Mediterranean forest. On the way down, see if you can spot the curious rock formations at La Roca del Rei.

Back onto the corniche, a popular and pristine beach favored by nudists is the cala Valpresona, which lies a half-hour walk down from the road at km 16 -where you see the greatest concentration of parked cars. Perhaps the most pleasant beach is at Rosamar (at km 36 - turn in at the olive trees and drive down through the eucalyptus grove). This place is a little paradise, and you would do well to plan at least a few hours to stroll aroung here. A rocky promentory with a bronze Minerva separates a sandy beach backed by sheer red cliffs from another, this on rocky and ideal for snorkelling. The restaurant just behind Minerva, called Sr Ramon, is one of those places that feels just right. Albeit the service is slow, but it is a lovely place, the padded rattan chairs are comfortable, and a daily menu can be had for only 1,500 pesetas. This little semi-private development seems to be unknown to sun-seekers, and the beaches are usually empty.

Warning to drivers: though the dramatic beauty of this route makes it well worth the trouble, don't undertake this 22-km drive lightly or in a hurry. This 22 km stretch is extremely winding, with only one lane in each direction. Although the blacktop has recently been repaved and re-engineered, the road is extremely winding, and with only one lane in each direction.

San Feliu de Guixols

Upon descending into the natural port of San Feliu de Guíxols, the corniche ends abruptly just below the town's most famous monument, the horseshoe-shaped tenth-century door at Porta Ferrada. San Feliu lies encircled by hills and, despite being a resort, still feels like a real town, with only low-rise buildings, and a pedestrian Rambla surrounded by busy commercial streets. The narrow beach of golden sand is backed by a broad Passeig de Mar, laned with plane trees and a few modernist buildings. It is an agreeable stroll through the flower gardens and petanc courts to the yacht harbor- the fishing port lying just around the promontory crowned by a lovely modernist villa, now home to the local Red Cross. The old town, laid out on a fairly regular grid pattern, is commercial but pleasant, with plenty of decent cafés with outdoor terraces, and there's a large daily market in the central Plaça d´Espanya.

San Feliu owes its attractive buildings and air of prosperity to the nineteenth-century cork industry which was based here, but the origins of Sant Feliu go back to the tenth-century, when the town grew up around the Benedictine monastery whose ruins still stand in the Plaça Monestir. (Now the Museu de la Vila, with an interesting exposition about the cork industry. The collection includes of all manner of artifacts fashioned from cork, as well as some old Catalan glasswork, and a few paintings). The town cemetery ( first right turn uphill after Plaça del Monestir on road to Tossa, beyond the bullring and the football stadium) has a neoclassical wall dating from 1833, and houses numerous pantheons and tombs in different turn-of-the-century styles.

Market on Sundays. The typical almond-based sweets in the shape of corks, trefins, are best at La Vienesa on Rambla Vidal 33. Casellas is a good wine and liquor shop, carrer Clavé, 9. The best selection of fresh fish in town is found at Sara, on the main road out of town, Carretera de Girona 2. Prepared fish is best at Casa Callol i Callol on Sant Domènec 7. Antiquities at Plaça d'Espanya 8. Fiesta major is celebrated the first week in August.

The most famous restaurant in San Feliu is the original Eldorado Petit, Rambla Vidal, 23, (32 18 18). Its creator, Luís Cruanyas, who is from Sant Feliu, later started offshoots in Barcelona and Manhattan. Shrimp canelones, marinated cod salad, fideuá (pasta-based fish stew), beef sirloin with mustard and rosemary sauce, custard ice-cream. In the off season they have a lunch and dinner menú which is very reasonably priced, though I suggest you consider not sticking with the plonk wine offered with the menu. If el Dorado Petit is too crowded, which is ofter the case, as they really pile them in at midday, you would do well to have a menu at nearby La Segura, c/ Sant Pere 11-13, which offers good meals, congenial atmosphere, and is very popular with locals. Can Toni, at Sant Martirià 29 (32 10 26), has been a popular family restaurant in the heart of the old town since the beginning of the century. Fileted anchovies, grouper with sea urchin and sweet fresh green onions, young pigeon with cod tripe and shrimp, boiled fish, and wild game. L'Infern at Sant Ramon 41 (32 03 01) serves good seafood in a pleasant garden patio. La Plaça has a menu del día, with tables outside on the Plaça d´Espanya. The Club Nautic at the far end of the harbor in among the yachts is nice for the sea views. La Cava at Maragall 11 (closed Wed) is a good place in the old town. The Moorish-inspired Modernist building housing the Nou Casino de la Constancia across from the port at the far end of the Passieg has become run-down and frequented in large part by immigrant north African farm hands, but it is still a fine place to have a carajillo, play a game of babyfoot, and watch the old timers fleecing each other at cards and dominoes. Sant Feliu has a scuba diving club operating out of the Hotel Eden Rock. Call me for info.