and away we go...

The kids had a long weekend for the La Merce Festival in Barcelona. It's a holiday only in the city of Barcelona so we decided to take advantage of the good weather and lack of crowds to explore the Costa Brava. We stayed in a town called L'Escala. L'Escala is a coastal town that grows from a population of 5,000 to 50,000 every August.
We spent our first night walking near the beach and port. There was a promenade on our end of town with several restaurants. We of course, being the adventurous sort, chose Burger King for our first meal.
The next morning we set off to find the coastal path from L'Escala to Empuries. Empuries is an beach town with ruins from the Roman and Greek civilizations who colonized the land. Empuries was the Roman and Greek port for the entire Iberian Peninsula. The path leads along rocky cliffs, coves and beaches. We hadn't made it to the path when Rascal lost his ball in the rocks. Joseph decided to try his hand at spelunking...to no avail. We couldn't find the ball anywhere. We did retrieve a large kickball though, that we decided was a satisfactory replacement.

Along the way we saw a lot of fishing beaches, coves and cliffs that over look the sea.

We found the wall that was built to protect the port.

And the Greek Pier.

We enjoyed a nice lunch in the medieval section of the town. The cobblestone streets and small alleyways between the houses really made it seem as if we were stepping back in time. We found a restaurant that didn't mind that we brought the dogs with us. They even brought them water dishes and extra plates for us to put our scraps on.

Walking back we found this lovely cove...and the kids climbed down to get a closer look. Joe found that inside the cave was purple-ish rocks with the light reflecting on it. He wanted the camera to take a picture but it was too slippery and wet to chance it. Jess told him it was "just going to have to be a memory".

Nick and his pups.

Andrea on the edge...

The next day, Nick took the three youngest to try their hands at go-karting. Andrea had a head cold and wanted to relax. She opted out of our trip to Empuries also, staying home with the puppies. Nick took Joe and Jessica to the beach and Alexa and I went off to explore the ruins.

This is the most important archeological site in all of Spain. It was founded in 6th century BC by the Greeks and known as "Emporion" which means the market. In the 2nd century BC the Romans arrived to fight the Carthaginians and built on the existing town. The Roman ruins were built up on a hill from the Greek ruins.

Alexa and I were particularly impressed with the amount of intact flooring that these Roman ruins possessed.

The Greek ruins were very deep, almost like the houses were built below street level.

The statue outside is a replica of the one that sits in the museum. You can get much closer in the museum...it's very impressive. It is thought to be a god of healing but they are not certain.

We spent another relaxing hour on the beach before getting lunch and returning to Andrea. Then we all went out to get dinner on the promenade overlooking the beach.

Saturday morning we had a cruise up the coast. It was cool and foggy when we started out.

The kids really enjoyed standing on the front of the nearly empty ship as the waves sent water spraying up on to the sides of the deck.

On the bottom of the boat was two small rooms that had glass sides for us to see the bottom of the coves when the boat slowed down.

But it was hard to stay below when the sights you got to see on deck were these...

The Lighthouse at the End of the World is a book that was made into a movie. This is the lighthouse the book features.

We stopped for a few moments to swim in one of the coves.

The afternoon we went and collected the puppies and drove the short distance to Figueres. We went to the Museo-teatro Dali....Salvadore Dali's museum. I'm not a big fan of Surealistic art but the kids found it very interesteing... Here was some of our favorites.

The Bay of Cadeques

part of the ceiling...

What I think of as typical modernista art in Catlunya....the picture doesn't do it justice.

Because we had the dogs with us we split up into two groups. While Nick had the J's in the museum, Andrea, Alexa and I walked around the town. There was an old cathedral, St. Pietro de Figueres. A choir was singing...there is something so magical about these old cathedrals when they are filled with music.

Our last morning Nick took all 4 of the kids to the go-karts while I finished packing up. We headed home a happy kind of tired. We're looking into getting back up again soon.

Love you all

Bren