Just 30 minutes driving from Barcelona, the Bages is an inland region full of history, landmarks like Montserrat and an old tradition of excellent food and wine. We decided to discover a small piece of this land visiting Artium cellar and Món Sant Benet monastery. It was a gastronomic, cultural and historical journey to the heart of Catalonia. In this post we explain all what we learnt, what we ate and what we drank in this one day trip from the well known capital of Catalonia. As always, we try to recommend unknown but valuable sites and experiences out of Barcelona. Hope this post is useful for your next trip to this mediterranean country.
Living in Barcelona, we are so lucky because we don’t need to travel far to discover amazing places. Catalonia is quite rich from a cultural and gastronomical standspoint and has become a landmark concerning wine tourism in Europe. Thus, last year we could finally enjoy the wine region called Priorat, which is located in the Tarragona province. The capital of Priorat, Falset, can be reached in just 1 hour and 45 minutes driving from Barcelona.
The Scala Dei monastery was built in a mountainous environment
The geography of the Priorat region is pretty mountainous and, therefore, cultivating vines is not easy. Consequently, large-scale production is not possible in this land. But apart from its renowned wine cultivated in the Montsant massif and the beautiful village of Siurana, in Priorat you can also find an old monastery that has survived until our days: La Cartoixa d’Escaladei (Scala Dei Chaterhouse).
As we explained in this post, last Easter we took profit of Dídac’s stay in Heidelberg to do a short road trip through the beautiful regions of Alsace (France) and the Black Forest (Germany). We had heard lots of good things about the Black Forest (or Schwarzwald in German) but we hadn’t imagined that we would visit it so soon. We though that the Black Forest was the perfect destination for nature lovers and families and the truth is that our brief visit to that region confirmed our expectations.
Boardwalk towards Blindensee. White and green
We know that the area is full of natural wonders and nice villages, but we needed to focus on one destination to make the most of our time there. Thus, Dídac proposed to spend a night out of his apartment in Heidelberg. The chosen destination was Triberg, one of the most remarkable villages in the Black Forest. We had not heard about Triberg before planning our trip, but as soon as we read the travel guide that Dídac’s cousin lent us we found four powerful reasons to go there.
We do not consider ourselves as purely low cost travelers, but we always try to make the most of our trips at the best price. Less money spent in a trip means more money for the next one, and we are two travel lovers, so this is enough reason to save as much as possible. We have already written a bit about our winter trip to Venice on January this year. Venice is not a cheap destination, quite the opposite, but there are still some ways to save a little money during your trip. Accommodation, transport, museums, so many churches, food… Here you have some tips to visit Venice on a budget.
In less than 2 hours driving from Barcelona, you can reach one of the most important wetlands in south of Europe: the Ebre delta. You don’t need to travel to Vietnam to see incredible rice fields under a sunset, or a fisherman throwing the net for fishing while thousands of flamingos start flying. You don’t need to go to Thailand to sleep in a wooden roof house surrounded by palm trees in front of a virgin beach. You have all of this in one single place in Europe. The Ebre Delta in Catalonia is still being discovered by travellers from all around the world and it is one of the best places to eat paella and seafood!
