Last Updated on 29 April 2024 by gerry

My fifty-sixth birthday has arrived! After a lovely lazy morning, the plan is to explore La Musclera beach near Caldes d’Estrac and in the evening I fancy going to the pizzeria there to eat. It’s menu is reasonably veggie-friendly and I like how they name all their pizzas after towns in Maresme.

We catch the train for the one-stop trip to Caldes d’Estrac at around lunchtime, with a view to making a reservation for later. We discover that the Estrac Pizzeria limits its opening hours to the weekend, opening for Friday evening, Saturday lunchtime and evening and then just Sunday afternoon. It also operates a no reservations policy. Given that today is Friday, this is not really bad news at all. We now know that if we arrive at 8.30pm tonight when it opens we should be okay to get a first come, first served table, if the horari information is accurate.

We head back to the beach and find a pleasant spot, sheltered from the wind. The afternoon sun is plenty warm for us to sunbathe and have a wee swim. With an evening meal in mind, we’d brought a lovely little picnic of beer, crispy focaccia bread things and cold fidueà.

We took the “short cut” home, the steep road via Mercadona and up past the cementery, but oh man that steep climb was a killer today. After a couple of hours relaxing we turned around to catch the train once again to Caldes d’Estrac for our evening meal. We arrive just about 8.45pm to find the place is almost full, but luckily they have a lovely table for two for us. There is a great Friday night atmosphere in this place. Soon people are queueing for tables and they do a roaring take-away trade. Every time someone leaves a tip for their meal, they ring a bell! Catalans are not renowned for generous tipping, so you can sort of understand this wee playful game.

Our pizzas were great – I had the Òrrius, Al had the (spicy) Malgrat and we shared a lovely bottle of local vi negre with a stout for me and a coffee for Al to finish.