On the Road: New Books, New Plays

By Elizabeth Converse, with Joanclair Richter

I love being at home in Sierra Madre, nestled in a village against the mountains, rimmed by hiking trails and scenic wildlife (there is an entire family of deer hanging on east Grandview these days with a small male with huge antlers!). 

Spring is in full bloom and hiking is delightful. The only thing is the deer flies are out for a few weeks so beware. Sierra Madre reminds me of a town a tourist guide will offer to a visitor in a large city. 

You all get in a van and travel a hour to a delightful small town with local hiking, quaint shops, pastries, food and coffee, art and artsy folk , great shops. Nearby, there's interesting wildlife and scenic walks with great photo opps. We did this when we were in Sydney, Australia. I was struck by the similarity. However the local wildlife there were kangaroos.

I’ve been wanting to finish that blog on our Spanish trip that I posted on May 23. Someone else’s vacation has gotten me to do it.  

Last Friday night we visited very good friends Ibarionex and Cynthia Perello who had just come back from Paris. Ibarionex showed his photographs.  He is a masterful photographer, teacher and creator of an award winning online Photography Podcast,   http://www.thecandidframe.com/. 

His new book “Chasing the Light, Improving your Photography with Available Light” is a great companion to any photographer.  So check out his work on his site. You can also buy his book as an ebook to travel with. Their pictures of their trip and lovely evening prompted me to finish my travel piece. 

I took my recent trip to Barcelona, Pyrenees and Costa Brava with my daughter, Joanclair Richter. Joanclair is a playwright who grew up in Sierra Madre. Her first play, "It’s Good 2 be Crazy," (a play where people take risks) is premiering July 8th at the Hudson Guild Theatre in Hollywood. There is  a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/good2bcrazy devoted to the play where you can see clips of all the actors, and hear from the cast, directors, producers and playwright. Check it out, support our young artists. And go see the play!  The play will run for six weeks and you can buy tickets at https://www.plays411.net/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=2783 . 

While Joanclair and I were in Spain she was working on the play with her director and producer. We made a video for the Facebook page, she had Skype meetings with the director about Casting.  She worked on revisions to her play.  When we flew home on an very long flight we wrote the following journal of the remainder of our trip. The first part is in my post on May 23.

The writing credit for the following goes to Joanclair.

We awoke for our four day excursion out of Barcelona to the Pyrenees and Costa Brava.  We caught a cab from Plaza El Catedral to PepeCar underneath the Plaza Catalunya.

•  Our  rental car was very European – a bright blue Toyota Aero
•  With the help of very confusing but informative taxi drivers, we were able to make our way out of the city to the Autopista
•  We spent the day taking the scenic route through the foothills of Catalunya and up the Spanish Pyrenees following the directions of locals and at times even venturing down hills via dirt roads
  • Time seems to have slowed down to a more pastoral existence
• Getting the hang of being behind the wheel in Spain, we crossed the border into Andorra and drove to Escaldes Engordany
  • Finding our hotel was a bit of an adventurous detour through the mountains but the views were rewarding and kept our spirits high
• Our hotel Roc de Caldes turned out to be a 5 star timelessly elegant and immensely comfortable Palace
  • Not to mention that our suite  was huge with multiple rooms and closets and a large balcony 
  • Pieces of furniture and articles of linen that we didn’t understand
• We ate dinner in a local pub, which gave us a sense of the difference between the Andorran people and those in Spain
• We headed home and enjoyed what may have been the first truly restful sleep of the trip

May 3

• Joanclair woke up early and went for a swim
• Elizabeth slept in
• We enjoyed our first sit down breakfast buffet at a hotel 
• After breakfast, we decided to spend the day at the famous Caldea Spa. http://www.caldea.com/en/
  • We signed up for the Wellness package and began the extremely unique, futuristic famous spa set in the heart of the Pyrenees
    • Grapefruit baths, Aztec foot baths, outdoor Jacuzzis, sauna and Hammam, cold face showers, finished up with a massaging personal milk bath
    • Disneyland music – amazingly powerful in a kind of startling way
• We were spent but regardless found the energy to locate the #1 Catalan restaurant in Europe, Borda Estavet.  (according to Lonely Planet) and had an incredibly entertaining waiter named Francisco from Portugal.
  • He seduced us into eating 5 desserts and we had a laughing fit until we cried
• We headed home fully and happy for another exquisite sleep in our new luxury apartment-size hotel room

May 4

• On our final day at Roc de Caldes, we got up and after breakfast, set out with a backpack for a walk into the Pyrenees along the GR-7 (Cami de Muntanya)
  • We took a 4 hour hike and passed several locked gites (rural cottages where you can find bed and board all throughout the Pyrenees). and also stopped to look at the gorgeous scenery of mountains, meadows, streams and waterfalls
  • Elizabeth took tons of pictures and Joanclair set a good pace
• We returned to the hotel and had our last swim in the pool and packed up the car and headed out for the Costa Brava, Joanclair at the healm
• We drove through beautiful, diverse landscapes of the Pyrenees as we traversed from the Midi-Pyrenees to the Costa Brava via the Tunnel de Cadi
  • We stopped in a medieval town called St Jaume for a coffee and tea
  • Although the trip was long, it was very scenic and we got a good sense of the landscape
• As we neared the coast, we found our way to Llafranc and our next hotel on the beach
• We were pleasantly surprised when our teamwork got us upgraded to our hotel room overlooking the bay
• That night we had Paella Catalan (sausage and seafood) and took in the fresh sea air and the calm vibe of the small seaside village

May 5

• Joanclair went for a run in the morning along the cliffs just south of Llfranc and scouted some good spots for us to explore
• We had our first delicious breakfast at Hotel Llfranc – grainy toast with Manchego and fresh salami
• We put on our walking clothes with our bathing suits and walked north of town for a mile or so on the road
  • On the way back, we discovered the way down the cliffs along flat rocks on the coast
  • Staircases in the rocks leading down the ocean, coves with clear Mediterranean water
  • Slightly peligroso (dangerous)
• We set back and asked the reception for a better beach for swimming
  • We headed south along “El Cami de Ronda” and after buying Joan a sunhat and refueling on gelato and a fruit slushy, found magical coves just south of Calella de Parafrugell – we went for a dip in our own private cove
• we returned that night and ordered take-out pizza and ate on our balcony 
• we began our SIX HOUR search for a hotel in Barcelona
• Elizabeth discovered at midnight (once Joanclair went to sleep) that the last minute deals started to open up – she found two different hotels for our two final nights

Our journal ends there.  We found our way back into Barcelona but our Google Map led us into the wrong section of town and we became hopelessly lost.  I finally paid a cab driver to lead us to our hotel.  Our advice is don’t drive in Barcelona.  Rent your car in the suburbs or the airport and leave from there because once you get inside the town unless you are familiar with the town you WILL get lost and frustrated!

We spent our last two days using our Art Card to see the National Museum of Art and Juan Miro Fundacion of Art.  We also saw the Palau de Musica, another modernist masterpiece.  We revisited the Born district in Barrio Gotica and strolled through the tiny streets and enjoyed the artisans at work.  We ate at two more typical Catalan restaurants and even discovered that they have a site like Groupons in Barcelona.

Some tips from this trip: 

If you don’t like uncertainty, use a travel agent!!!!!!

If you like to navigate on your own: use the internet for finding good deals in your location.  We stayed in extravagantly lovely places at incredible prices because we did some good searching.  However, I have made one mistake twice.  (In Sydney and Barcelona) Don’t try to book into a large city at the last minute.  There is always something happening in cities on weekends and hotels are expensive and hard to book. Our last weekend was the final soccer match between Barcelona and Madrid, YIKES!.   If you do get stuck, try searching after midnight when they start dumping the cancellations.  That is the only way I found a hotel we could afford in Barcelona for our last two nights.  Also, that five star palace in the Pyrenees was incredibly affordable.  Why?  They were doing some construction on a new wing.  However, everything was powered electrically so we didn’t even know it was happening

Travel is fun, challenging, exciting, risky sometimes, and most of all, always reminds you how blessed we are to have a home to come back to.   

Wherever you go there is always so much more to see and do.  We hope you’ll share some of your adventures with us.

Elizabeth and Joanclair