Gemma, one of my doggy friends, had made arrangements to
adopt a black kitten that had been rescued and was waiting for a home in a shelter in Palafolls. Gemma doesn’t have
a car, and she asked if someone could take her, and I
thought, why not? But because I had
never been to Palafolls, nor had Gemma, and neither of us had a sound idea of
how to get there, we invited Josep, who knows these things and is lively
company, to come with us.
Josep has lots of experience driving on- and off-road
throughout the area, both in autos and on motorcycles. As we drove along, he knew in advance that
there would be a gas station after the next curve or a restaurant that had
great breakfasts after another. But in
fact, he had never been to Palafolls either.
Not to worry. Palafolls is about
an hour away, on the way to Barcelona via the slow road, and is near to but not
on the coast. I had looked it up on a
map at home, Josep turned on his cellphone GPS, and off we went.
We took the deadly national highway II, which is a two-lane
road, distinguished by the singular use of Roman numerals (for the first few years I thought it was highway 11), where many fatal
accidents occur. Even so, it is not as
deadly as the national highway 340 in the area where I lived before in the
south of Catalunya. With that in mind,
it is relatively safe and I was relatively relaxed.
Winding along our way, conversation was continuously
interrupted by the repeated announcement of the GPS lady telling us that “The
GPS signal has been lost.” We heard
this fact at least twenty times, but not once did the lady provide us with
a single instruction.
Palafolls boasts some beautiful old masies (farmhouses) and
a castle. We didn’t see any of
those. We did see the façade of the 19th
century church of Santa Maria and had our coffee at a very large and lively
café that, on a weekday morning, was teaming with people.
The black kitty had to be chipped, and Gemma had lots of
papers to complete for the adoption.
Finally, cat in carrier, we set off for home with Batman.
Credits: Batman photo by Gemma
