Buses heading north leave Barcelona from the aptly named Barcelona Nord Estació d´Autobussos. The driver was remarkably happy and friendly and I later learned that he knows pretty much everybody on the entire route... let´s just say that we stopped in some pretty small pueblos.
Barcelona traffic was bad so it took almost 40 minutes out of what would be a 4 hour trip to simply leave the city. The immediate prize, though, was a close up view of Montserrat -- one of the most important mountains in Catalan culture.
It's a spectacular sight that comes out of nowhere and seems like it has just been plunk down like a giant alien landscape... a formation that is, by the way, supposed to be part of the inspiration of the Torre Agbar building's gherkin-like form...
Once past Montserrat, you're onto the plains (note to self: do not ride across here in the summer) before entering the mountains and winding your way to the Pallars Jussà.
I had the pleasure of staying in a distinctly non-cookie cutter hotel, the Segle XX, which is right in the middle of Tremp. Comfy, a little smoky (three ashtrays for a double room!) but nice. Check out the vintage furniture! And now-hip-again wallpaper!
I dumped my stuff at the hotel and the Júlia took me to meet her dad, Jordi, who was starting to prepare a huge meal for a bunch of his friends (and to which I was invited later that evening, as well). They have a sort of gastronomical society set up but really, it's just her dad who does the cooking every week... the others enjoy. After some small talk Júlia and I went to meet her uncle Enric and see his vineyards.
Cellers Vila Corona is located just outside of Tremp on a couple hundred acres that have magnificent views of the mountains. Enric was kind enough to show me around the vines and I got to snag a few of the chardonnay and riesling grapes, which are ripening nicely, and hence were very tasty... He's got a nice variety of red grapes as well: merlot, ull de llebre (tempranillo in Spanish) and cabernet. Given that we're so close to harvest time and that I didn't see any airguns or nets, I started to wonder what he did about birds when all of sudden we heard a goddawful racket of horrible screeching... I half expected Tippi Hedren to come running out of the vines (followed by Žižek, of course)...
What we were hearing was actually a recording of birds in distress (apparently the distress comes from the fact that the screeching ones are having the shit kicked out of them by other, meaner birds...). It does a remarkable job of keeping real ones away... Check it out... (note, the low tilt I employ here midway through is not an aesthetic caprice: I was plugging my left ear to stop from being deafened)
Watch this from 1:40 on or skip directly to 4:40 to hear Žižek channel Melanie...
Enric gave me a lot of information about the industry in this area, what the challenges are, etc. It will be interesting to compare with the Priorat...
Before heading back to the house for an aperitif and to try some of the wines, we did a quick detour to the hort (garden), where, among other things, there was a fig tree... Now, I had never eaten fresh figs off the tree before (simply bad timing everywhere I've gone that had them) and both he and Júlia could see I was excited... so we picked a bunch and hence, the following photo of me happily stuffing my face... : )
Now this would have been a full day in itself but there was still the gastronomic society dinner to attend back at the bar. Jordi´s meal was fantastic... we started with simple salads that were liberally aliñadas and then had the main event: cod that had been cooked in oil with orange essence and candied onions on the side... spectacular! Oh, and there was wine, and orujo, and coffee and lots of talking in Western Catalan... which kept me on my toes.
I slept very well in the Segle XX that night...
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