Month: October 2024

We’d journeyed from Germany, through Switzerland and France, to Spain to escape the constant rain which seems to have been a feature of Northern Europe this last year. That was a good decision with the weather in Sitges (Catalonia) proving fine and the forecasts in Galicia and Asturias, in the far north west, looking even better. We decided to make our way to Galicia next (provided the weather stayed fine) by way of Aragon, Navarra, La Rioja and Castilla y Leon. Our next overnight stay would be in the small Aragonese village of Mequinenza, a 2.5 hour drive west.

We were almost halfway to Mequinenza when, looking for a place to stop for lunch, we discovered the small fortress town of Montblanc at the edge of the Prades Mountains. The town was founded by Alfonso I of Barcelona (Alfonso the Chaste) during the 12th century to protect the road between Lleida and Tarragona and it clearly prospered; as is evidenced by it’s huge church and various other impressive buildings. I don’t understand how I could have previously overlooked such an interesting place. It really is a hidden gem.

I parked just outside the medieval town walls close to the Convent de la Serra (on Paseo Josep Conangla) to take a quick look at the large church near the top of the town. There’s a sizeable flat topped mound just inside the town walls which provides views over the city and towards the Prades Mountains but the view of the back of the church (the Iglesia Santa Maria La Mayor) is less than impressive and for a moment I was tempted to return to the Van. I’m so glad I didn’t.

When I say ‘less than impressive’, I actually mean ‘odd’. It’s a mishmash of styles and, well, on the outside at least has a wholly peculiar appearance. The back of the church can be counted amongst the least attractive of any church I have seen. This can all be explained in that it started life as a small Romanesque church dedicated to Santa Maria and as it’s congregation grew, work began on a Gothic style expansion. This expansion was frustrated by the Black Death (the Plague) which devastated the town in terms of the population and money with which to finish the church and so one side of the church was simply bricked up without any ornamentation. When work resumed in the 17th century an ornate Baroque facade replaced much of the Gothic facade, which had never been finished because of the Plague and had also been damaged during the Reapers War, leaving us with the confused architectural structure that is now the Iglesia de Santa Maria La Mayor de Montblanc.

Don’t misunderstand me. The church still has much going for it. It just looks less than impressive from the back. The front of the church, with it’s Baroque style facade with Renaissance influences, is stunning. It also has some beautiful chapels (another sign of the town’s previous affluence) and a bell tower which it is possible to ascend.

I said bell-tower but it is not a tower as such. You actually climb stairs to a roof terrace where a half dozen or so bells are situated. Timing is everything and as I was climbing the stairs, the bells chimed for 11am. Let me tell you, they were loud.

I had stayed too long in the church already but had to see a little more of the town before returning to the Van for lunch which Vanya was preparing (had long finished repairing) and; I might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb. No, it was a cold lunch and I was okay for a while yet. Thank goodness for cellular phones.

Montblanc’s old town centre is enclosed in some of the best preserved medieval castle walls to be seen anywhere in Spain and the narrow cobbled streets I followed on my way to the main square proved much the same. Higher buildings than is usual for such a rural part of the Region provided yet another example of the town’s previous wealth and, given how hot the day had already become, made for refreshingly cool streets.

There were a surprising number of people out and about; both on the streets, where local women were chatting excitedly with friends or neighbours they had chanced upon while on their way home from whatever it was they were doing and; in the Placa Mayor, where local men (their husbands?) were drinking beer andarguing and laughing loudly together. It was that happy, cheerful time of the day shortly before the afternoon siesta begins and after which the town centre would suddenly and quickly empty. I’m not trying to typecast men and women with that description but, the whole scene simply took me back to my childhood in Cyprus and Kenya where much the same scenes were played out almost every day before us kids were sent off for an afternoon nap. I really hated that time of the day.

It was time to get back to the Van. The return journey took me back past the church.

This was only a short stop but it proved a pleasant surprise and I would gladly revisit Montblanc. Also there is a World Heritage Site, the Monastir de Poblet, just 9 kilometres down the road that could be worth visiting.

Oh, and I don’t think I mentioned that according to local legend, Sant Jordi (Saint George) killed his dragon in Montblanc. It’s known as The Golden Legend in Catalonia. I reproduce below what I read about it:-

It seems that “Saint George was travelling on horseback when he came to Montblanc, which at that time was being terrorized by a large dragon. In order to appease the dragon the townspeople had started to give it 2 sheep each day. When sheep weren’t enough they were replaced by human sacrifices. The king decreed that the person to be sacrificed should be chosen at random. Finally the day came that the king’s beautiful daughter was chosen for sacrifice.

The king tried to bargain with the townspeople but they insisted that the princess should be sacrificed as their children had been. Dressed as a bride, the princess was led to the dragon’s lair when, by chance, Saint George arrived at the town. St George asked the princess what was happening and she told him about the dragon and asked him to leave before he was hurt. Instead of leaving the princess to be eaten, St George fought and slayed the dragon.”

Clearly the people of Montblanc believe this legend because every year during April the town stages a week long Medieval Fair which includes a medieval feast, jousting tournaments, a correfoc and a re-enactment of the legend of Sant Jordi. That would be fun.

Anyway, on to Mequinenza.

I was last in Sitges some 20 years ago for a conference with my then employers and, from what little I saw of the town at that time, I liked the place. It was always going to be interesting to see how much the town has changed over the years and during this visit I would get two chances to check the town out; the first would be during the day on my own and the second in the evening with Vanya and our two dogs.

The day started with me walking some 15 minutes or so past the golf course and through a very pleasant residential part of the town to one of Sitges’ beaches, the Platja de Terramar. There I joined the wide palm lined promenade (the Passeig Maritim) and headed east for a further 15 minutes to the 17th century Eglesia de Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla (that’s Catalan for the Church of Saint Bartholomew and Saint Tecla). This route took me past what is often called the Platja de Sitges but it is in fact a series of 7 different beaches (each separated by groins); the Platja de la Barra, the Riera Xica, L’Estanyol, the Bassa Rodona, la Ribera and finally the tiny Platja de la Fragata. There are three more beaches to the east side of the church which lead all the way to the harbour (the Platja Sant Sebastia, the Platja dels Balmins and finally the Platja Aiguadolc) but I decided to leave these beaches to a later visit. For information only, I found out later that there are a few nudist beaches in Sitges and one of them is on the Platja dels Balmins.

The beaches I saw during the walk are all blue flag clean and mostly sandy. They are as good as any to be seen in this part of Spain and at this time of the year are mostly empty. The busier ones, complete with street hawkers selling fake designer handbags and trainers, are at the church end of the Passeig Maritim where most of the restaurant-bars and, of course, the old town are located. Given it was mid September, I was surprised at how busy the bars were but; perhaps I shouldn’t have been with Ryan Air currently flying into Girona from Belfast, Cork and Dublin for as little as £40 return. There were probably more Irish in Sitges during our visit than any other nationalty.

The Church of St Bartholomew and Saint Tecla is Sitges’ most recognisable landmark; so much so it is known locally as La Punta – the Point. The church was closed during my previous visit and it was the same again this time. It’s shame, if only because the views from any one of the bell tower or the clock tower will, I think, be exceptional. I read that the local museum used to run tours of the church which includes an ascent of the bell tower but I don’t know if that is still the case.

While the vistas from the nearby ‘Palau de Maricel’ (the Maricel Palace) don’t quite match those of the church, they do afford some fine views over the Mediterranean; especially from the rooftop terrace and cloisters. The ‘Palace’, by the way, is the ‘must see’ place in Sitges. Built between 1910 and 1918 by artist and engineer Miguel Utrillo at the behest of US tycoon Charles Deering (of the Combined Harvester Family), it was part of a complex which would become home to Deering and serve to showcase his growing art collection. It didn’t quite happen. The two men fell out in 1921 over certain financial irregularities and Deering closed everything down and moved back to the United States. Much of the complex was subsequently dismantled and sold off piecemeal with the City of Sitges buying the current ‘Palace’ in 1954. Inside and outside it is quite spectacular…

After exploring La Punta, I started back along the Promenade but only as far as the ‘A Facundo Bacardi’ monument (Bacardi being someone born in Sitges who emigrated to Cuba and then created the well known white rum which bears his name) and then turned deeper into the old town of Sitges by way of Carrer Primer de Maig. Sitges’ old town isn’t as large as many others (especially having regard to the size of the city – it has a population of about 30,000) but it is equally charming.

The wholly pedestrianised Carrer Primer de Maig de 1838, also known as Carrer del Pecat (Sin Street in English) is one of a handful of streets at the heart of Sitges’ nightlife. The street is not as bad as the sobriquet suggests (well, not before midnight anyway) and during the day it really is a most unassuming street that you could safely take the most prudish grandmother down.

Having said that, I’m uncomfortable with those hotels which openly declare they are open only to gay couples. Sitges has long been a truly cosmopolitan city where everyone is welcome irrespective of their gender or sexual proclivity and I recognise that the LGBTQ community has lent the city a great deal of spirit and colour but if this isn’t discrimination, it is certainly boorish behaviour and should be censured.

Rant over. Back to the visit. I wandered much of Sitges old town for a while longer and then stopped for a quick beer in one of the backstreet bars before making my way back along the Passeig Maritim to collect Vanya and our dogs for the evening sortie into the city.

There are definitely two sides to Sitges. Day and night in Sitges are different as chalk and cheese and, well, as different as day and night. The days, at least in the closed season, are generally quiet, slow and relaxed. It’s as much about lazing on the beach or strolling the promenade as anything. Yes, there is the odd juvenile boozer who seems to have confused Sitges with Ayia Napa but, fortunately, such types rarely have the capacity to last.

Then there’s nighttime. We stayed only until midnight but saw enough to recognise that the city is transformed at night. There’s a wide variety of bars and restaurants (with cocktail bars presiding) and there are also numerous nightclubs, most of which stay open well into the early hours of the morning. Of course the nightclubs are dominated by the gay community but, so far as I am aware, they are generally open to all and they are great fun.

For our part, Vanya and I were happy enough sitting on a terrace outside a bar in the old part of the city; enjoying a bottle of wine, people watching and soaking up the atmosphere of what is clearly a very vibrant city. We had found a place to eat right in the centre where the Carrer Primer de Maig meets the Carrer del Marques Monttroig and is crossed by the Carrer de Joan Tarrida. I’d recognise it again by it’s colourful umbrellas and by the way the seats of all the chairs at the tables are pointed towards the centre of the crossroads This pedestrianised crossroads was a hive of activity all the time we were there and it was a fun place to be. We would have been quite happy sitting there eating our good (but somewhat expensive tapas) and watching the world go by but our evening was further enhanced by a young acrobatic troop and dancers who entertained us at the crossroads for over an hour.

It strikes me there’s an open, accepting and more relaxed atmosphere about Sitges at night. It’s comfortable. I think perhaps the good humour of so many people intent on enjoying themselves has a healthy, positive effect on others. It’s nice to think so.

Of course it may be different during the early hours of the morning, once the nightclubs are in full sway. We were not going to find out this trip. We had our dogs with us and so could not take advantage of the nightclub scene even if we wanted too but; there was time enough for one last leisurely stroll around the quieter parts of the city and that last half hour wandering the silent empty places, away from the busy cheerful bars and clubs, was as enchanting as anything we had experienced in Sitges. A couple of the following photos perhaps reflect that?

And there#s always time for Beanie pictures.

North in the morning but we’ll be back.