After 2 nights on the pitch in Moncófar, we drove a relaxed 200 km to a small village called El Masroig. A Catalan municipality in the province of Tarragona in north-eastern Spain with 479 inhabitants.
The view is magnificent. It lies in the middle of a wine-growing area.
There is a winery directly opposite the parking space. You should check in and check out there. They are open until 2pm on Sundays, but as we arrived exactly 4 minutes after closing time, we didn’t check in until the next morning. Everything went smoothly. By registering, you get a discounted tour and are allowed to taste 3 wines. We didn’t do the tour and tasting. But we thought a box of wine with 6 bottles for €20 was a great offer. We are not wine connoisseurs at all, but we still had to try whether it was worth buying these 6 bottles. After all, tastes are quite different.
The night was very quiet, dark and cold.
We’ve had single-digit temperatures at night recently. During the day it is sometimes cloudy and sometimes sunny between 16 and 20 degrees. These are really pleasant temperatures.
After registering at the winery the next morning and getting the wine, we took a walk through the small village. There is a public school and a small sports field, a restaurant and bars, a doctor and a pharmacy. In the small bakery we bought a loaf of bread and a large napolitana, a chocolate-filled pastry, for 2.50. There isn’t much else. There is not much more. We didn’t even find a small grocery store.
Nevertheless, it is a very beautiful and authentic village. We liked it very much. The people are very nice, cheerful and helpful.
The church of Sant Bartomeu is the main building in the village and is dedicated to its patron saint, Sant Bartomeu. This is a relatively modern temple that was built thanks to the courage and enthusiasm of the local residents, who contributed to its construction with their labor and generous donations, overcoming great and serious difficulties in its completion.
One of the reasons why construction began in 1829 was the increasing population and thus the number of worshippers. However, various political and military events led to an interruption in the work and it was not until 30 years later that construction could be resumed. It was not until 1886 that the first bells were rung on the bell gable, which is still in use today.
Later, we walked to the Emirate de la Mare de deu de le pinyeres.
The current hermitage was originally a larger building, namely the medieval church of the vanished town of Las Pinyeres, of which only the façade and walls remain.
The building was rebuilt in the 18th century in neoclassical style. At Easter, the entire village of El Masroig still celebrates the annual festival in honor of the Verge de les Pinyeres.
We took a break in the Emirata’s garden and enjoyed the view of the Sierra de Montsant, which can be seen in the background.
We had a lovely day here in Masroig.
After a night out, we continued through the Catalan region.
Once we arrived in the province of Barcelona, we could see the impressive Montserrat mountain range again and again in the hinterland.
We then spent the next 2 nights in a small town near Girona.
This area is already part of the Pyrenees. On the first day, we walked around 5 km in Decathlon. We had already seen a camping table in the south of Spain that we liked. Unfortunately, it was sold out everywhere. This time we were lucky. We also got a new motorcycle tarpaulin at a motorcycle store for a good price. The next day, right after breakfast, we walked the 5 km in the opposite direction to a shopping center for a stroll.
The way to this shopping center was not nice. We found Girona itself quite good. But in the area today there were mainly people of Arabic descent. There are a lot of signs in Arabic on the stores and people speak in their language. You see a lot of poverty, so the small alleyways are not pleasant to walk through. You don’t feel like you’re in Spain.
The shopping center was quite good and we were successful. A few items of clothing were urgently needed.
We made our last stop in Spain just before the border in La Jonquera.
For us, the motto has always been: we don’t fill up when we have to, but where it’s cheap. That’s why we filled the tank to the brim once again before finally heading to France.
It will probably be the last time we get such cheap diesel for a long time.
Our MOT on WENNE has already expired in August 2024. This means we have to go for the first MOT as soon as we drive into Germany. We have made an appointment for Tuesday next week. This means that we won’t be in France for long. Nevertheless, we’ve only planned to cover just under 300 km per day, so we can relax, look for a place to sleep and enjoy cooking.
Even if France and we will probably never be friends, the scenery here is really beautiful.
Today we changed drivers after about 4 hours. We don’t like driving on highways, although there are some expressways here and there. But we still only drive an average of 70/80 h/km, so we generally need a bit longer for a day trip. After a total drive of 7 hours, we arrived at our campsite in Saint-Paul-le Jeune in the Anvergine-Rhöne-Alpes region of France.