Blog 2.8 - Back to the Costa Brava

Monday 8th May 2023

I believe it's a Bank Holiday back in the UK. It's all right for some; I haven't had a day off for nearly fifteen years...

Time to head back to the Med for a few days before striking off back up north via the Pyrenees at Puigcerdà, narrowly avoiding Andorra this time.

Breda's been good. Maybe a bit raucous on Saturday with folk up until the early hours, but not too bad. Last night was very quiet, possibly partially due to the thundery downpour we'd had in the early evening, or, just as likely, the fact that it was 'back to school on Monday'.

It's a bit black over Juan's mother's house (I used that on Facebook already, but what the hell?).

I doubt it'll be particularly quiet wherever we end up tonight, but it'll probably be rain-free!

We made it to Blanes after a short detour to attempt to get fuel and LPG at a station that had been flagged up on my LPG finder app as having the latter. However, road works put paid to access to that so we had to negotiate the resulting traffic and fling a slightly dubious u-turn and carry on to Blanes. Luckily, on the outskirts of town there's a little self-service with the cheapest derv I've seen in many a month. Nice one. Sadly, there's no LPG there, but not much further on there was a Repsol selling it very cheaply. Two results in one morning!

Next stop was the local Aldi to stock up on 'other' consumable fluids, and then the next task was 'find the park-up'. Not always a particularly enjoyable one, but it has to be done.

And it's not the most scenic park-up we've ever landed in. No sir, it's just a car park to the south of town, but in its favour you can actually see the briney, just,

and it's only about a five minutes schlep to the main promenade.

Having shambled along there, we spied an eatery called Street Souvlaki, and being lunch time the temptation was too great. We both love Greek street food!

Pork and chicken kebabs, gyros, tsatziki, pittas and salad all washed down with Free Damm (one of my new favourite zeros, a Barcelona brew) set us up nicely and with zero cost for tonight's accomodation, it almost feels like free food.

We wandered slowly into town (quickly is not an option with food on board and sun beating down).

Blanes isn't the prettiest or oldest town we've visited, but it's pleasant enough, and has its interesting nooks and crannies if you seek them out.

We just pottered in a sort of arc

until we eventually re-emerged on the front near the harbour

before heading back along the prom to eventually settle back at the van for feet-up time with a cuppa accompanied by the chatter and clatter of the pétanque players next door.

Tuesday

It's slightly duller this morning; a bit misty out at sea, but pleasant enough. The lithium is charging well too following our morning cuppa. Yesterday the solar panel yielded its highest ever output, pushing just over 2kw into the battery. It really has proved itself during this trip when we've rarely been plugged-in, and never actually needed to be.

Today's total was a little over 1kw, but, then, it was starting from a pretty high charge level so went into absorption and then float (basically shutting the solar down) quite quickly.

Now, if we could only generate fresh water as well...

We wandered into town again, this time lunching at Gusto, a Spanish restaurant, on typical Spanish food - hamburgers and fries!

Pretty good they were, too.

We forwent the offer of coffee or postre favouring a further stroll so we could pick up a nice ice cream from one of the many ice cream parlours.

Well, that was the plan.

When we were, as Admin put it, "freezing our tits off" in Germany you couldn't walk three minutes without bumping into an Eis Café. Here? They're all shut. Or at least they are during the warmest, early afternoon, part of the day. WTF is that all about?

Even the supermarket near the park-up was closed until 5pm so we couldn't even get a fall-back Magnum or Cornetto!

So, it was back to the van and a raid on the freezer which yielded a couple of mini Magnum lookalikes. They kinda did the job though.

The Pétanquers (is that a word?) turned up again at 5pm, and gamely played on until around 7 even though by then it was raining pretty hard. It didn't seem to faze them one jot.

Keen, they are. Or nuts.

Thursday

Admin's next choice of a berth was north along the coast, at Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Somewhere else I'd never heard of, but we live and learn.

The coast road from Blanes to Sant Feliu, once you've cleared the unpleasantness of Lloret de Mar, just has to be one of the best roads I've driven.

Tossa de Mar from the coast road

It snakes rollercoaster fashion for about twenty miles (but it's so involved and involving it genuinely feels twice that) with almost constant breathtaking vistas over the Med far below.

Do it. You won't regret it - but maybe in or on a nimble two-seater (or single-seater should that be your preferred bolide) rather than a three-and-a-half tonne motorhome.

The Aire at Sant Feliu is small, but close to the centre. It's a pay one, €5 per night, and you pay at the Tourist Information office in town. We decided to pay for two nights, so we'll be spending Admin's birthday here - and sadly the weather forecast isn't great, at least for the morning. Hopefully things will clear by midday-ish though so we can venture into town again for a birthday lunch, brollies at the ready!

The town and seafront areas are very attractive,

far more so than Blanes, although that in itself is well worth a look.

St Feliu just feels a little more cosy and laid-back. It was a great choice for a park-up.

Thursday

Admin's birthday. I won't share which one here, but suffice to say she still hasn't joined me in paid pensioner world. Thank you HM Government. Grrr.

I managed to get a couple of cards. There's not much choice to be honest. One is a pretty-pretty UK/Chinese(!) one, and the other a Spanish/Chinese confection that lights up and (sort of) plays Happy Birthday. I knew none of that at the time of purchase as it was fully sealed in cellophane. Talk about tat though! Del Boy would be proud.

As for a cake, well, that was a challenge, but we did find something that will suffice in a Viennese Patisserie - there's posh - in town yesterday, and she found some summery trousers she quite fancied. Those, and the usual donation (as requested) to the Personal Training Fund is an easy get-out I guess. I'm lucky that she's easily pleased...

No doubt there'll be other stuff today!

It started very grey (the weather, not Admin) and rather wet (ditto), but we're assured that it will brighten later (not so sure about Admin; she's been feeling a bit poorly just of late).

Well, she didn't improve any, which meant a day hunkered down in the van. We'll cancel our plans to move on in the morning, stay another night, and maybe head north on Saturday instead.

Hopefully she'll be a little better tomorrow and we can have today's scheduled birthday lunch then. Here's hoping anyway.

Friday

Well, Admin seems to have improved just a (very) little. Without wishing to elaborate, her 'visits' are a little less, ahem, frequent, and she's had a spot of breakfast.

Who knows if it's still too early for that belated birthday lunch?

We did take a walk into town, and ate at one of the many cafés.

I should say that I ate. Admin just picked at hers, and much of it was carried back to the van in a plastic box, possibly to be consumed at a later juncture.

We'll see.

Not the best (late) birthday lunch, sadly.

Saturday

Moving on - a day late - and the goal is just a few kilometres north in Palamós.

However, we took a walk into town first. Admin's minor issue is still being an issue, and so a visit to a pharmacy was really in order. After consulting with a really helpful and pleasant assistant (in our experience so far, all pharmacy assistants on this side of the Channel seem to be pleasant and helpful) we came away with medications that should help, fingers crossed.

This, Palamós, could well be our final stopover in Spain/Catalunya before we head for the Pyrenees and our two week (ish) drift back up through France.

Must remember to fill up before the border though. The diesel price differential is considerable at the mo!

We booked in at a Motorhome Park just for a change from the usual car parks and aires. It's similar, I suppose, to the last one we used, south of Valencia last autumn, although this one doesn't have a pool or restaurant. However, it has hook-ups, showers, loos, and a big washing machine. It feels like a proper campsite really, which is almost a luxury!

After hooking-up etc, we walked into town, initially following Uncle Google's advice.

Mistake.

Anyway, we eventually reached the place following some indescribable arc (moderated somewhat by our own modifications based on visible evidence) and then very quickly found a bar where food was consumed - I was rather peckish having eaten little for a couple of days.

I'll call it solidarity. The less charitable will probably describe it as laziness. It was probably somewhere in between as it seems a little unfair to prepare and eat grub in the confines of a motorhome when one of the occupants is unwell.

Anyway, my spaghetti marinara went down extremely well, and even M managed to put away most of her portion of I know not what (but it was fishy too).

The cannon of Palamós (18th C)

A tour of parts of Palamós followed, and it proved to be rather attractive in the way that most locations we've stayed at in Catalunya are.

We both agreed that it's another town we'd certainly return to.

And, M says she's beginning to feel somewhat better!

Mileage so far: 2077