Your week's walking holiday in Catalonia
To give you an idea of what to expect from your walking holiday in Catalonia, here's a day by day breakdown of our 2012 activities.
Friday - You will be personally met at Barcelona airport by one of us and taken to Masia El Prat, which is about a 60 minute drive from the airport. At the accommodation you will be welcomed by Jordi and Imma, the hotel owners, and taken to your room. Unless we have some late arrivals, supper will be taken at 8.30pm, where you'll be able to get acquainted with your fellow walkers. During supper John, your guide and host, will be able to answer any questions that you have re the holiday.
Saturday - Our first day's walking starts from the hotel and takes us around the small village of Rocafort into a small valley. For the first hour we walk alongside a small river on the right before arriving at the "Font Freda" (meaning 'cold spring' in English), where we will take tea break. After our rest, we enjoy an hour walking through the forest before starting an easy ascent towards the Monastery of Saint Benet, where we will finish our first day's walking. Here we will enjoy our packed lunch and have an informal stroll around the grounds, which includes a shop that sells fantastic local produce from the immediate area. The coach will pick us up from the monastery at around 3.00pm and take us back to the accommodation.
Sunday - Today's walk takes us into the Catalonian mountains for the first time. We start at the bottom of the region's highest point, La Mola, although you'll be pleased to know that we don't walk all the way to the top. At around half way, we start to descend on another track before finishing our walk in Els Obits, a bizarre natural stone formation, which was turned into caves to protect workers from the sun during the last century. Here we will take our packed lunch before returning by coach to Masia El Prat at around 3.00pm.
Monday - Today's walking takes us to the top of Montserrat, one of Catalonia's best known landmarks and heritage centres. We will leave a little earlier today and take a short coach journey to the bottom of the mountain. Here, a combination of small train and cable car will transport us to the top, where we will have a chance to look around the world famous monastery before enjoying a spectacular 5 mile walk with stunning views in all directions. We will be taking our picnic on route today and, at the end of our efforts, will return to the bottom of the mountain in the same way as before, only in reverse.
Tuesday - Today is a non walking day, although maybe one of the highlights of your Catalonia walking holiday. We will be spending our day in one of the world's great cities and jewel of Catalonia, Barcelona. After breakfast, you'll be taken by coach to the port area of Barcelona and given a short tour of the city centre, including the world famous "Rambla" with its market stalls and street entertainers. After this you'll have the rest of the day to yourselves to enjoy the general buzz of the city or even take an open top bus ride. There's lots to see, including the architect Gaudi's strange creations, along with the current home of world football, Barcelona's 'Camp Nou'. We will take the coach back to our accommodation at around 6.30pm, which will give you time to freshen up before supper.
Wednesday - Today we leave by coach an start our walk from La Mata, right in the centre of the national park. Here, we again head into the mountains for a day's comfortable and enjoyable walking. One of today's highlights is the view across to Montserrat on one side of the track and the snow capped Pyrenees on the other. We finish our walk and take lunch in the picture postcard village of Mura, where we will also have some free time to have a look around and enjoy its general unspoilt charm and friendliness. Our transport should get us back to the accommodation for around 4.00pm today.
Thursday - For our last day's walking we leave directly from the hotel, although in a different direction. The first 40 minutes walking is on a gradual incline and before too long the village of Rocafort starts to look very small indeed. At the top of the hill we turn into a forest track, where we enjoy a splendid morning's walking in the mountains. At this point Jordi, our guide, loves to tell stories of the smuggling and general skulduggery that took place in this area just after the Spanish civil war. Near to the finish of the walk, we stop at maybe the strangest bar that I've ever seen. In the middle of nowhere, it is a 12th century dwelling that has been cut directly into the rock. After lunch, we walk for a kilometer more before finishing our walk back at the accommodation.
Friday - On airport day, you'll be taken back to the airport in good time to catch your flight home and, as they say in Catalonia, "fins la proxima" (until the next time).