Sant Carles de La Rapita

A Very different Place - Sant Carles de La Rapita

Time to leave Barcelona. Another 7:00 am  start to the day and finished working on getting materials ready to post on our blog. 1 hr of internet costs 3.5 E so I have a lot to put up there. After breakfast I get everything ready then upload to the web, and with a few mins to spare we are done.

We head out to load the bike and it is sprinkling a bit as the forecast had predicted. When we are ready to go we are surrounded by a large group of east Indian hotel guests who want to take pictures of us and them with us. We had heard about this from Trev and Chenty when they were in India, but what’s the connection in Spain?

It is showering a bit as we leave then stops then starts again. Nothing really develops. I wind up N 340 to Tarragona where a free bit of AP7 is available and I let the Strom swallow the miles up in a bite. The more I ride this bike the more I love it. As we get back on N340 the wind has picked up very strong but fortunately in our direction so it pushes us along. We get into San Carles de la Rapita a place I had thought we should go to  as it is adjacent to the National Park Reserve associated to the Ebro river one of the largest river basins in Europe.We wanted to get away from the city for a bit before going to Valencia. 

Checked at Hostal Agusti, a place I had researched, and a small room was available for 47 E. Here we also learn more about Booking.com. Our the Booking site it said they were full, however when we queried the hotel itself they had plenty of rooms. The owner said Booking only commits to filling a few rooms. She then recommended some good restaurants and we stopped at the first one we found, Roca del Coc. We had decided that we'd eat our big meal in the early afternoon and so we ordered wine, mussels, paella for 2, and it came with La Casa, which included salad with their olive oil and balsamic vinegar, bread, olives, and later 4 different kinds of desserts and a dessert wine. All for 42.12 E. It was one of the best meals we have ever had and rivalled the meal we had in Rome in '06.


The weather was still blowing and rainy a bit so we headed back to our room and grabbed a nap. Life is good in Spain and yes there is great food here.

Flamingos in the delta

The next day we decide after a quick walk that Sant Carles deserved more than an overnight stop so we asked to stay another night and headed for the Park reserve. It is the 2nd largest bird sanctuary in EU and has a resident flamingo flock.


One of the largest rivers in Spain contributes to this delta area which has allowed for a great natural bay area sheltered by an outer bank.

The dedicated Wife

It was here that we went to get our first beach tanning in. There is a lot of kite surfing done here as evidenced by this guy, and his pregnant, but dedicated wife, who would follow him after each run and carry the surf board back up the beach. Ah, true love... let's see him after the child is born. Ha Ha !The weather was perfect and we did our usual getting too much sun that day. 

The next morning as we were leaving we visited with the owners of Hostal Agusti and she presented Sandra with a small flower pot as a reminder of them. We will definitely have fond memories of Sant Carles. And the small flower pot survived our trip!