Visitors - Margaret & Charles, and Santa Clotilde

Margaret and Charles left yesterday after a week in Barcelona, to continue their vacation with an Italian tour - Venice, Florence, Assisi, Rome.

We began their visit to Barcelona with the usual rite of initiation. Ladies in sunglasses: Margaret and Pat at Can Robert.

Margaret and Charles taking pictures of nearby Casa de les Punxes - the house of points (although in this picture the points are behind the trees)... Puig i Caldafalch's moderniste, Flamboyant Gothic-inspired apartment building.
Margaret and Charles put together a full schedule of sightseeing in Barcelona, but a highlight of the visit was a trip outside of town.

Ana Maria and Pedro, who had driven us to the party for Ruth Davis at Tamariu on the Costa Brava, stayed with Margaret and Charles when they visited Washinton, D.C., earlier this year for Ruth's retirement ceremony and Obama's inauguration. They invited all of us to visit them at Santa Clotilde, the house Ana Maria's father built in the 1920's near Lloret de Mar on a large plot of abandoned vineyards on the coast that he had purchased. Ana Maria said people thought he was crazy to buy all that worthless land. Proof that one person's craziness is another's foresight.

The entrance to the house is grand.
An image in ceramic tile of Santa Clothilde's feats is on the tower flanking the entrance.
The house sits on a bluff that juts into the Mediterranean, overlooking rocks below and beaches to either side.
Ana Maria and Pat enjoying the view from the terrace.
We could see boys below jumping off the rocks into the sea.












This gull also seemed to enjoy the view, and the convenient perch provided.
Group portrait on the patio.

Pedro and Ana Maria added to our enjoyment and appreciation by telling us about the building of the house, and of the history they have lived through, including Pedro's memories as a boy of 7 when the Spanish Civil war began.

We had lunch at a small restaurant on one of the beaches below the house.
And then went for a swim in the Mediterranean.

Afterwards we toured the beautiful Italian-style gardens that Ana Maria's father built on the hillside below the house.
Today the the nearby town of Lloret del Mar owns the Santa Clotilde Gardens and they are open to the public.