2nd September 2009

After spending a couple of days travelling up the coast we arrived in Barcelona on Friday night. We decided to stay in the only camperstop in our book as it was convenient to see the sights of the city. We arrived to find that it was a large secure parking area, part of which was set aside for campers, the rest for trucks and semi-trailers. It was the most expensive place we have stayed at so far and the worst in terms of looks and facilities. We found that there was a lot of rubbish around the area and the noise of construction close by and the traffic going past was unpleasant. Still we were only here to do the sightseeing and as we had discovered when we arrived that our door lock to the camper was broken, felt that it was the most secure place to leave it when we were away all day.

We bought a 2 day ticket for the hop on /hop off tourist bus service that gave us 3 routes to choose from and after a bit of orientation we set out exploring Barcelona. We found it was a very pleasant and easy city to get around. A lot of area has been set aside as open space and the waterfront area has been developed into a nice promenade with shopping and areas for recreation. We enjoyed seeing Gaudi’s architecture and visiting the Park Guell with the beautiful mosaic works that decorated so much of his designs, also an open air museum with examples of architecture from all over Spain. We had a hectic 2 days and we left Barcelona on the Sunday night and headed north along the coast to find a spot to spend the night. We had met a Welsh couple as we were getting ready to leave and they gave us some suggestions, so with a bit of a plan we made our way up the coast where we found a quiet carpark by the beach to sleep for the night. The next morning we tried to find a camper agent or camping shop to get a replacement door lock, but the only one we could find was closed on a Monday and we didn’t want to hang around. After a couple of dud camper stop areas we finally decided to check out a campground in the area which was finally in the low season price. It turned out to be a very nice choice, well maintained, each shower cubicle was like an en-suite, 2 pool areas and as it was the end of the season, very quiet. We spent 2 days at Camping Europa, got a bit of house-keeping and clothes washing done, cleaned up our bikes, did some maintenance on the van and then spent some time at the pool and beach. I finally got to have some paella in a beach front café, where we had a very pleasant meal overlooking the beach and seeing the banners flying with the “Costa Brava” on them, a reminder that we were in Spain.

So today we have left Spain and are now in France again. Found a McDonalds just over the border and as it was lunch time decided to stop and catch up with our emails etc. We don’t usually eat anything from them, occasionally have a coffee, but it is easy just to drive into the carpark and log on the net. France is great with the wifi, we didn’t have so much luck with Spain, Macca’s in Spain has limited time and a voucher system which we found a bit of a pain, especially when we were talking to our family as we would be logged off and have to log on again. Still it’s been a wonderful way of keeping in touch at home and a bit of a lifeline with our family.