Centelles

At 500 m above the plain, the evening fog arrives early in Centelles. By seven the church bell of Sant Martí is ringing through a soft grey veil while swifts dive between TV aerials and 14th-century stone. Stand on the Plaça Major and you can watch the temperature drop three degrees in half an hour – a reminder that the Montseny massif is not merely backdrop but thermostat.

Most British travellers flash past on the C-17, ticking off kilometres to the Pyrenean ski resorts. Those who peel off at exit 11 find a working market town that has never bothered to polish itself for postcards. Concrete barns sit next to restored manor houses; the medieval centre is four short streets, easily walked in ten minutes, yet the surrounding lanes unravel for miles through oak and hazel. It is this scatter – village core, farmsteads, forest – that gives Centelles its breathing space and, increasingly, its appeal to families fleeing Barcelona’s coastal heat.

A town that never quite left the land

Agriculture still pays the bills here. Tractors park outside the Caixa bank at 08:00 while farmers deliver lettuces to the Friday market. The stalls occupy one side of the narrow high street: two cheese vans, a couple from Santa Eugènia with honey, and an elderly woman who sells broad beans by the mugful. Prices are scribbled on scraps of cardboard; nobody accepts cards and the nearest cash machine charges €2.50. Come early – by noon the produce is packed away and shutters go down for the long lunch.

That rhythm shapes the visitor’s day. Siesta runs from 14:00 to 17:00, longer in July when temperatures can still touch 34 °C despite the altitude. Museums, if you can call them that, do not exist. Instead you get the Pont Vell, a hump-backed river bridge rebuilt so many times that only the footings are genuinely medieval. Walk down at dusk when the Congost stream is running low and you may have the spot to yourself, apart from the village lads practising kick-ups on the grassy bank.

Upstream, a ten-minute footpath leads to the Fonts de Centelles, a string of natural springs where locals fill plastic carboys. The water is potable – bring a bottle. Beyond the last spring the track forks: left for a gentle 4 km loop through olive terraces, right for a stiff 600 m climb to the Ermita de la Mare de Déu de l’Erola. The chapel door is usually locked but the balcony of stone offers a straight-line view to the Pyrenees on clear winter days when the tramontana wind has scrubbed the sky clean.

Walking without the crowds

Centelles sits on the eastern flank of the Montseny Natural Park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. What that means in practice is signed trails but no ticket booths. The easiest starter is the GR-5, way-marked with red-and-white flashes, which passes through the northern suburb of Les Bateries. Follow it north for 90 minutes and you reach the Turó de Tagamanent (1,045 m), a grassy summit with the ruins of an 11th-century castle and a stone bench perfectly angled for a sandwich stop. Return the same way or drop down to the hamlet of El Brull where Bar Restaurant Josep can usually rustle up chorizo bocadillos if you arrive before 15:00.

Mountain bikers use the same web of paths. On spring Sundays the forest echoes with Catalan curses as riders push up 15 % gradients then rocket past hikers on the descents. The town tourist office – one desk inside the Ajuntament – hands out free topo maps showing bike-friendly routes. They also warn about summer fire risk: from June to September camping stoves are banned and smoking on trails draws an on-the-spot €300 fine.

Winter brings a different calculus. Snow falls perhaps twice a year, rarely lasting. The hazard is ice on the switch-backs above the 600 m contour. Chains are not obligatory but car hire companies at Barcelona airport will charge €60 for a set you may never unwrap. Daylight is short; by 17:30 the streets are lamplit and restaurants start filling with ski-booted Brits en route to La Molina, two hours farther north.

Food that tastes of the farm, not the freezer

Catalan visitors rate Centelles for three things: calçots (charred spring onions) between February and April, cargols a la llauna (grilled snails) at fiesta time, and roast kid shoulder that appears on winter menus when temperatures dip below 8 °C. None of these dishes makes concession to timid palates. Can Moreu, the only restaurant with English subtitles on its menu, offers a safe three-course menú del día: grilled chicken, chips and crème-caramel for €15. Locals skip that and head straight for the blackboard where Thursday might read “fesols del ganxet amb butifarra” – delicate white beans with pork sausage, €12. Order it; you will be brought a bowl big enough to share.

Vegetarians do better at lunchtime. Bakery Forn de Pa Paquita bakes spinach-and-pine-nut cocas (flatbreads) that sell out before 11:00. Buy one, add a wedge of local Garrotxa cheese from the Friday market and you have a picnic that costs under €6. Wine is harder: the town has no bottle shop, only a supermarket aisle of mass-produced cava. Drive 20 minutes to the Celler Masia Serra in Aiguafreda for free tasting of small-batch tempranillo that costs €8 a bottle and travels happily in a suitcase.

Out of season the choice shrinks. Sunday lunch is the only reliable slot – ring ahead. In August the Fiesta Major commandeers every table for five nights. Prices jump 20 % and even the chip van on the fairground posts a “reservat” sign.

Beds, bikes and basements

Accommodation is thin on the ground. Hotel La Masia occupies a converted 18th-century farmhouse at the southern roundabout. Its 18 rooms have terracotta floors, decent plumbing and parking directly outside – cyclist-friendly, with hoses for washing bikes. Doubles from €70 mid-week, breakfast €8 extra. The place falls quiet in November when owner Josep sometimes accepts single-night stays; otherwise the minimum is two.

Better value for families is the rental market. British-run Mas Vinyoles, three kilometres uphill on the BV-5301, offers a stone house with pool and fenced garden. The track is paved but narrow; meet the incoming bread van and someone has to reverse 200 m. Reviews on TripAdvisor praise the mountain view and the silence broken only by cowbells. A three-bedroom week in late May costs around £950, dropping to £650 outside school holidays. Bring supermarket supplies before you arrive – the nearest shop shuts at 20:00 and all day Sunday.

Getting there, getting out

Barcelona-El Prat is the obvious gateway: BA, Vueling and easyJet serve 20 UK airports; flight time from London is two hours ten minutes. Collect a hire car – the rank is a five-minute shuttle ride from the terminal – and head north on the C-17. The road is toll-free, motorway standard, and the turn-off at exit 11 is clearly signposted. Total driving time: 55 minutes in light traffic, add 30 if you leave after 16:00 on a Friday.

Public transport exists but feels like penance. Take the R3 Rodalies train from Barcelona Plaça Catalunya to Vic (one hour), then hop on the Sagalés bus line that meanders through the hills. The timetable is built for schoolchildren: one departure at 07:30, another at 14:15, nothing on weekends. Miss it and a taxi from Vic costs €25. Most Brits shrug and stick with the car.

Leave time for the return trip on Sunday evening – the C-17 bottlenecks at Montmeló where Formula-1 traffic exits towards the circuit. A 19:30 flight means checking in by 17:30; leave Centelles at 15:00 to breathe easy.

Worth the detour?

Centelles will not change your life. It offers no Michelin stars, no souvenir tat, no nightclub worth the name. What it does give is altitude without attitude: a place where you can walk from bakery to mountain beech forest in 45 minutes, eat food that was alive yesterday, and sleep with the window open to the smell of pine rather than diesel. If that sounds like faint praise, consider how few spots within an hour of a major European city still manage the trick. Come in late May when the fireflies rise from the river meadows, or in mid-October when the chestnut sellers appear on street corners. Bring walking boots and a phrasebook – and remember to fill your water bottle at the spring.