The driver who will be calling any of the party members by the family name will pick you up at 10:00 a.m. We will go with our guide to discover the entire wonderful zone.
La Garrotxa is in the north of Catalonia, at the high basin of Fluvià River, the Muga estuary and the Amer and Llémena riverbeds.
In this county, you can see two very different types of countryside. In a large part of the southern half, there are more than 40 volcanoes and various lava flows, forming a gentle countryside without dramatic gradients, which is protected by La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park.
From Fluvià River valley to the county's northern limits, the landscape changes dramatically, becoming more dramatic and steeper with an abundance of cliffs and gorges. This is the Alta Garrotxa, which is a declared area of natural interest. This whole area, along with others such as Fluvià River, forms part of the Natural Network 2000, a European initiative to protect the unique, diverse, rare, well-conserved, representative, fragile or vulnerable natural spaces and which share with each other similar characteristics.
The Garrotxa's Volcanic Zone is the best example of volcanic terrain on the Iberian Peninsula. It has 40 volcanic cones and more than 20 lava flows.
The mountain landscape, the sun and climate provide a variety of vegetation, often exuberant, with Holm oaks, common oaks and beech trees of exceptional value to the landscape.
The Alta Garrotxa is without doubt the most important area in the eastern pre-Pyrenees because of its diversity and exceptional surroundings. Its extremely abrupt relief has shaped the landscape, vegetation, fauna and human settlements throughout history and has allowed the continuation of a relatively isolated natural space that preserves an important biological richness.
So much so, that it has been declared a Space of Natural Interest and has been designated as a Zone of Special Protection for Birds in the Nature Network 2000.
At present, the Alta Garrotxa Consortium manages this space. Artistic expression shows itself in every corner of La Garrotxa. Various archaeological sites have revealed human presence in the area for thousands of years. Since then art has developed through all its forms, from Romanesque to present day contemporary passing through Renaissance, Baroque and modernist on the way.
In La Garrotxa, there are restaurants for all tastes, for lovers of fine cuisine and local products, indigenous and traditional. After a free time for eating, we will go to Besalu, declared a National Historical-Artistic site for its architectural value.
This town has, in the mediaeval narrow streets that make up its urban layout, diverse examples of the co-existence between the Jewish community that had settled in the area at the beginning of the middle Ages and the Christian population. Samples of this are the churches of Sant Pere, Sant Vicenç, Santa Maria and Sant Martí, which are set in harmony with remains of Jewish culture, such as the miqwé, or Jewish baths, and the traditional structure of the streets of the call or Jewry.
Return to the Port or Hotel.