Travel Journal: Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

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Yesterday, I shared about the first half of our day excursion out of Barcelona on a tour booked through Viator (more on why I highly recommend using this to book tours in yesterday’s post!), and today I’m back with the second half of that long, but fun day.

Leaving Girona, we headed east to Pals, a hilltop village on the Costa Brava that has preserved most of it historical features and is an official Site of Historical Interest. We didn’t have that much time on this stop, and I was getting a head cold, and this part of the day is probably when I felt my worst, which was a little disappointing because I could have wandered through this little town for hours. As you can see from the pictures, this little town is incredibly picturesque and adorable!

Next, we headed southeast to the coastal town of Calella de Palafrugell, which is still part of the Costa Brava region and was originally an ancient fishing village. First we ate at the Restaurante la Vela and then were given a few hours of free time to explore on our own. We chose to spend our time on the beach and eating gelato. Mom and I are mountain girls at heart, but Jodi grew up in Florida and is a true beach girl, so I know this part was one of her favorite parts of the whole trip. From what I read about the area both before and after our visit, many agree that among the various destinations on the Costa Brava, this is the one most frequented by Spaniards on vacation vs. tourists. Regardless, after a busy and heavy walking morning, it was nice to relax a bit in the sun, and the water was pretty warm and clear!