Cycling and Birdwatching in the Ebro Delta

Delta Natural Park

The Ebro Delta, covering an area of 320 km2, is the largest aquatic habitat in Catalonia and a wetland internationaly recognized for its importance and for the sustainable tourism that has developed. It's been Natural Park since 1983. 

The protection of nature coexists with traditional agriculture and fishing activities, mainly rice and mussels.

Typical villages in the area are Deltebre, Sant Jaume d'Enveja, Els Muntells, Poble nou del Delta, L'Aldea and Camarles.

A good option to visit the Delta is to go to the information center named La Casa de Fusta,  in the Encanyissada lagoon, the bigger one in the Delta.

From La Casa de Fusta you can go around the lagoon by a 12-18 km route.

Cycling and Birdwatching

As a delta is plain terrain, cycling is available for everybody. Traffic is low and calm, and there are paths adapted for bikes. Neither you don't have to take your bike, because you will find rentals near your lodgement. It is a real pleasure ride in the middle of nature!

Birdwatching is also easy (it is a special protected area for birds), although depending on the time of year there are more or fewer birds; there are some places where you will not miss them, like the observatories in La Tancada i L'Encanyissada.

Summer wildlife:
Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Little Bittern, Black-winged Stilt, Pratincole, Mallard, Common Tern, Whiskered Tern, Bearded Tit, Reed Warbler

Winter wildlife: 
Cormorant, Grey Heron, Great Creste Grebe, Marsh Harrier, Cernícalo Vulgar, Lapwing, Snipe, Red-crested Pochard, Reed Bunting, Kingfisher

Accomodation and gastronomy

Fortunately, the building of big hotels and appartment buildings is not allowed, as the Delta is a protected area. The amazing landscape invites tourists to lodge in little hotels, campings or country houses. The latter is the option I prefer, here or here you can find entire houses or individual rooms to rent.

Since it is a rice area, it is highly recommended to stop at one of the many restaurants in the little villages inside the park and order one of their rice specialities: paella, arrossejat, rice with duck, rice with lobster, black rice or caldereta. Remember to book in advance!

Special dates 

The extensive rice fields change the landscape with the seasons: earthy in winter, water flooded in spring and green in summer. 

Summertime is a great time to enjoy dunes and wild beaches, gastronomy and birdwatching (you should take mosquito repellent). 

Every year there is a popular fiesta to celebrate the beginning of the harvest rice, where you can see the traditional work of mowing. This year is scheduled on 13th September (2015). 

How to get there

 By car: Main N-340 road through Amposta and Sant Carles de la Ràpita along the Ebro Delta.

By train: Amposta, Camarles and l´Ampolla stations on the Barcelona-Valencia line.

GPS coordinates X: 0.7230895243530724, Y: 40.72263451312286

The surroundings

Delta Ebro area can be a destiny of a several week vacation:

- Besides Delta Natural Park there is Els Ports Natural Park, a limestone massif located between Catalonia, Valencia and Aragon. 

- Tortosa, Amposta and Miravet Castle

- River ebro activities: boat travel or canoeing. 

- Cycling in the Greenway Terres de l'Ebre

Dinopolis and the land of the dinosaurs (Teruel)

Land of Dinosaurs

More than 128 Millions of years ago the region of Teruel was the mouth of a large tropical river, where lived large dinosaurs, who fed on the vegetation that grew in the swamps. 

This is known because of the fossilized dinosaur tracks found in the area (thanks to a tsunami,  that fortunately buried them until today). 

Dinópolis

Dinópolis is a theme park that combines education with fun. A full visit will take you almost all the day, it's opened from 10h to 19h or 20h depending on the date. Here is the calendar with the opening times.

Dinopolis is part of a net of six parks called Territorio Dinopolis and it is possible to buy single or combined tickets.

Main activities  

• Time travel: mounted on a wagon train we'll learn about the period from the Big Bang to the extinction of the dinosaurs. 
• T-Rex: recreation theatrical with a robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Terra colossus: live the adventure to escape the attack of dinosaurs in a 4D simulator (3D movie + moving armchairs).
• White Tyron: a 3D movie about a dinosaur baby.
• Theater: different educational shows are played along the day, check schedules not to miss them. 
• Paleosenda and Sauriopark: playing areas of different ages.

• Last  minute: a boat tip through the last 65 million years.    

• Paleontological museum: where you can see real size reconstructions of dinosaurs and other original bones of Riodevensis Turiasaurus, the largest dinosaur in Europe and one of the world.

What to visit in Teruel 

Teruel is a nice city to visit with kids, it's the smallest province capital in Spain, with only 36.000 inhabitants, so it's easy to walk around. 

Children will enjoy the legend of Teruel Lovers,  they can play to see who finds the Torico before (it is a very small statue of a bull on the top of a tall column above the fountain in the main Square), and they will sure be  happy to climb the mudéjar bell tower of San Pedro.

Where is Dinópolis - Teruel?

Olot, learning about volcanoes

The capital of the region named La Garrotxa is Olot, a city with almost 35.000 inhabitants located at 50km from Girona.

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It is recommended to visit first the Museum of Volcanoes, in the middle of Parc Nou, where you can spend a good time in the botanical gardens.

The tour takes less than two hours and it allows visitors to locate every point of interest in the surroundings, besides remembering or deepen in the geological concepts involved in the formation of volcanoes.

The volcanic region of La Garrotxa was declared Natural Park in 1982, as a political response to public and scientific demands to safeguard the quarantine of volcanic cones and more than twenty basaltic lava flows. 

In the surroundings there are many paths, cycling and walking trails, for example the volcanoes' circuit, a round trip walk that takes 3 hours and begins just on the Museum location or La Ruta del Carrilet, a cyclist path on an old railway.

For more info, volcanoes have their own facebook page (in catalan), or contact us.

Another unforgettable visit in the area is La Fageda d'en Jordà, a beech forest born above a lava flow of Croscat Volcano, always spectacular, especially in autumn,where you can have a fun time walking through the cracks opened on the floor.

Naturlandia (Andorra)

In the middle of the Pyrenees, between France and Spain, three hours from Barcelona by car, there is Andorra, a small country where you can go hiking, skiing or shopping.  

Near the Spanish border you will find Naturlandia, a fun park with adventures for children and parents.

The youngest ones have ponies rides, driving electric cars, skating and jumping in trampolines or inflatables.

Kids up 120 cm high can also drive buggies, practice archery, sky trail 13 meters high in the Airtrek or go down to the tobotronc, a mountain coaster 5 km long. 

And everything in a fantastic natural surrounding, at 2.050 meters high, where you can find so big mushrooms in a short walk.

The Bus #1 takes you to the park from Andorra la Vella. By car, there are two parking areas, the one at the low park (the arrival of Tobotronk) is often full and it is usual to find cars parked on the road. The higher park (quads, nature expo, trekking and beginning of Tobotronc) is more quiet, but you have to get there with your ticket.

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A rainy day in Donostia

When we arrived at San Sebastián (Donostia in basque language), the first place we visited was La Playa de la Concha, the most known beach of the city, 

But Cantabrian Coast weather in april is often rainy and we had to find indoor alternatives for our tour, so we walked to the eastern edge of the bay to the Aquarium, beside to the fishing port.

The visit to the Aquarium took us about two hours, we could learn about whales hunting and see how little sharks move in their eggs.

After having lunch in a tapa's bar in the Juan de Bilbao street, we spent the afternoon in the science museum, named  Eureka!.

How to get there

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