An hour’s drive from Villa CP is the town of Olot in the centre of the volcanic region called Garrotxa. It’s a spectacular mountain landscape in the Pyrenees with several very interesting and fun places to visit.

You can stand in a volcanic crater (don’t worry, they’re “inactive”) … admire some pretty spectacular cliff-top villages like Castellfolit de la Roca … picnic by a pretty stream in San Joan las Fonts … and in the summer there are tons of places to hire bikes.

We visited the parc de pedra tosca (“pummice stone park”) recently. This is a former agricultural zone where, in the mid-19th century, the local farmers started to cultivate the area. They literally picked up all the thousands of volcanic rocks that were littered all over the land, creating little fertile pastures and fields surrounded by dry stone walls.

In the photo is a field of buckwheat in the summer. Teenagers would find it excruciatingly boring, I suspect, but adults will find it fascinating! The park has a basic cafe or go to Olot town centre which is a pretty market town with nice shops.

A nice way to visit Olot and the surrounding area would be on a bicycle. You can rent them at several places, see below. There’s a disused railway track that ran from Olot to the coast, passing Girona and Cassà de la Selva. More information on this route is at viesverdes.org.

Bike rental in Olot: http://bicicletes.atma.cat/en/