Running around the small Costa Brava town of Begur in Spain was incredible. I could leave from our front door in town and run for hours without seeing a car or even another person.
The gigantic noticeable difference between running here and in Florida is elevation gains. I’m used to running on the completely flat terrain. I now found myself having to find the running groove while also changing pace to account for the ascents and descents.
But the scenery was so stunning that a lot of times I’d forget I was running because I was so captivated by the beauty around me. Here’s what one of my runs looked like:
The start of the trail
The white and red blazes found on rocks, trees, etc. keep me on the right trail.
These old walls were used in the terracing of the hillside. I’m assuming it is at least a couple of hundred years old. Still standing strong.
A good trail for tweaking an ankle.
The payoff view of the mighty Med.
This was a sort of hill on top of the hill. I climbed this and the view, which is shown in the next video, was 360 degrees of beauty.
Notice the structure just to the left of center. It’s a house that was abandoned before construction was completed. And it was begging to be explored. I went there next.
This is the old road leading down to the abandoned house.
I’m not a structural engineer but the integrity of this concrete looks a little suspect.
Here is a video I took standing on the bottom deck of the abandoned house. It would’ve been a pretty nice view from the couch. The drop off on the other side of the slab I’m standing on was about a hundred feet. That was as close I was getting to the edge.
This is a cork tree. It was fascinating learning with Cora how they turn this bark into corks for wine bottles. Cora can now tell Miles and Jack all about the cork production process.
The road leading back to the town of Begur.
This is the town with the 11th century castle ruins on top of the hill.
One more turn and I’ll be on our road.
Our road.
Home sweet home.
Unbelievable. Those views are ridiculous! I’m willing to bet your struggling with sensory overload, what with the views, and elevation, and the ol’ imagination going bananas.
Yeah, it was pretty unbelievable. I kept wanting to stop to sit and take it all in, but at the same time I kept wanting to push on to see what was around the next corner. If I took pics of everything that looked amazing I wouldn’t have got any running in.
The cork tree is a kind of oak; there was one in the CPC parking lot up until about when you were in 4th or fifth grade. It is also the tree under which “Ferdinand, the Bull” like to sit (a story from Spain about a bull who didn’t want to fight probably out of print in these politically correct times). The scenery looks very much like the Marin County coast where your sister was married…
Hi mom! You will be happy to know that Ferdinand the Bull is still very much in print, and we read it and studied all the topics in it while we were in Spain (how corks are made, bull fighting, Spanish words, nonviolence, etc.) It is one of my favorite books! Strangely, I do remember that cork tree at CPC…