Catalan Coastline

It was time to head for warmer climates. We drove from Ainsa and stayed overnight in Huesca on a small aire. It was only so Kev could watch football. The place itself had nothing to offer. Large town, rundown and as usual everything was closed for lunch between 1.30 and 5pm….even on a Saturday. The place was deserted.

The following day we drove to Lleida, again for a football match. The place was better than Huesca and much larger. We got lost exploring the city and trying to get back

Kev dis his normal trick of saying “I think it’s this way”, and I just followed. We ended up walking in the wrong direction, for a long time, before we decided to check on Google maps haha. We got plenty of steps in that day!

After the game we made our way to an overnight stop in Cervera. It was literally just to sleep over. The aire was great. Marked bays, picnic benches for each bay, free services. I filled up with water the following morning and my fingers were painful from the bitter cold wind. It was bloody freezing 😱. Kev was inside the van saying “there’s no point both of us staying out in the cold to fill up, you might as well do it”, as he’s climbing back in the cab after sorting the loo out 🤨. He knocks on the window to me, miming that it was “toasty” inside with the heating on, then locked the doors so I couldn’t get back in whilst sat grinning to himself 😮.

1 hour down the road we reached Sitges. It was 10 degrees warmer, but still only 14 degrees but it felt like a heatwave to us. I put my short sleeved top on and we headed to see the sea.

Sitges is in the Catalonia region and is Southwest of Barcelona. It has a long promenade to walk beside the sea and behind this lies alleyways of streets filled with cafes, bars, shops and restaurants. It is known for having quite a big gay community so a lot of the bars and clubs are for gay people.

The aire we stayed in was only small and there were 2 motorhomes parked there, which obviously belonged to people who actually lived on the aire. A couple of vans came in, saw them and drove back out. They were quite unsightly buy we didn’t have any problems with them. We had more problems with the bloody train tracks at the side of us! Thankfully I have good ear plugs.

We got talking to a British couple on the aire and they were telling us they’d been broken into whilst in Gerona. Apparently 3 motorhomes were vandalised and the thieves got lucky in one them by taking laptops and jewellery. Unfortunately none of the motorhomes had any security devices on. We have a door pole, an extra lock on the cab door and window locks. If theives want to get in they’ll find a way, but these visual signs act as a deterrent and they’ll go to another motorhome that’s an easy picking. We showed the couple our security devices and they’re now going to get some fitted..a bit late now, but will help in the future.

On the second day in Sitges we decided to walk the coastal path to Villanova I La Geltrú. It’s 8km from the aire. It was a lovely walk that afforded amazing views of the turquoise Mediterranean Sea.

Parts of the path runs directly at the side of the railway lines. The trains went past every 10 mins and were extremely close, so at some points we felt we had to walk quickly before one came. The photo below is of a train on the opposite side to us, so you can imagine how close they came when on our side!

After 2 days we moved down the coast.

It had forecast rain yet again, so it was a good day to do the shopping and washing. We found a Lidl and headed there. As we tried to get in the car park the wheels were spinning….again! It was only a very slight incline but “B” wasn’t having it! We reversed back and parked in the Dia supermarket car park next door. Bonus, they had a washer and dryer in the car park . We did the washing, and had lunch in the motorhome whilst we waited. Only trouble was, the dryer wasn’t working so we had to take 2 bags of wet clothes and bedding and find another launderette.

We were heading for a payable aire/site (€8) called Area 364 in Creixell. It did say it was hard to find, in the aires book, but bloody hell it was a nightmare! Tempers were frayed as the “b*stard in the box” (swapped it to a man’s voice 😂) took us to 2 bridges that we couldn’t get under, directed us off the main road and through a town centre, for no reason we know of and wouldn’t reroute us when we were lost! 😫

We tried Google maps and we finally got there. We just needed to get out and walk some of the frustraion off. The sun had finally got his hat on again, after raining for the morning, so we headed towards the beach. Today hadn’t been a good day, but as we say “A good day is a good day, a bad day is a good story” 🤣.

It was lovely to walk along the promenade with the sun in our faces , the waves rolling into the side of us, and the bloody black flies eating us alive 🐜🤨☹. Tomorrow will be a better day 🤞.

The following morning we waited for the rain to stop and walked to the next village along the promenade. It had forecast sun for midday, with no rain. Wahoo 😎.

The waves were rolling in and the sky had a blue moody tinge to it. The wind was blowing in our faces and it felt good to be alive 😀.

This was until it started raining again!! We headed towards a small cafe/bar that was advertising a Menu del dia (Menu of the day) for €10.50. It promised paella, gnocchi or Iberian ham,.cheese and olives for starters, steak, chicken or salmon for main, a dessert, coffee and wine. WOW! It was 12.20pm so we couldn’t miss this, or could we? They didn’t start serving until 1pm so told us to look around the (deserted) town and come back. Dreaming of a nice steak, we walked back to the motorhome and ate our pre prepared lunch of ham salad, cheetos and a healthy cereal bar 🤣. We were starving and couldn’t wait another 40 mins haha.

The weather wasn’t on our side and there wasn’t much to see so we decided to drive to Torredembarra. One of our followers on Facebook had told us about a place to stay overnight, which was near the beach and free. When we arrived, there were 2 signs saying ‘no overnight parking’!?! I know some people take risks, but if it says you can’t, then we don’t. Some people may get away it, others get knocked up by the police in the middle of the night and get asked to move. We’d rather stay somewhere we’re allowed.

Torredembarra was quite a nice surprise. We explored the town, it had some great buildings, but as like all the places we’re seeing, it was quiet and mostly deserted. There was a lot of history here and some of the apartment buildings had their doors open showing the beautiful carpentry and entrance lobbies.

As we couldn’t stay the night here we drove on to a place called Selva del Camp. This was near the mountains in a small village. We could get the train from here to Tarragona. The aire was €5 a night including electricity. Wow! We decided to stay for 2 nights. On arrival you had to phone the local police and they would come out and take your money and give you and entry code to get through the barrier. Apparently, depending on which officer came to take payment, depended on whether you were allowed in, if you weren’t in an actual motorhome. Someone in a converted van had been turned away!

Turns out the first train to Tarragona was at 2.27pm the following day. We wanted to see Reus as well so we needed to get the bus to Reus then the train to Tarragona.

We were told that Tarragona was “fantastic”. It was nice but I wouldn’t go that far. Lol. It had some amazing boats in the port and some of the streets were quaint. There was an old amphitheatre near the sea but that was about it. We didn’t see anything that would make us recommend it to anyone.

We stopped in at Reus on the way back, had a quick nosey around, and it was quiet nice.

The sun was out the next morning but we could tell we were near the mountains. It was freezing. We headed towards Calafat. We’d seen a huge parking area near the sea that had our name on it 😁. The views of the sun shining on the sea from our window was fab. There was 4 of us parked there for the night but you could have fit another 100 in. The video below is a 360° of the car park. Details are on the Search For Sites app

We enjoy walking the coastal paths. You see so much more of the coastline and it’s a good walk. Keeps us healthy and fit.

We walked 10 miles, round trip, to Castel Sant Jordin. This used to be another motorhome parking area but now they’re not allowed overnight.

The views along the way were beautiful. We hugged the coastline, with the sun on our faces. It was windy and only 15 degrees but it was better than the weather in the UK haha 😎.

We settled in for the night, and the sky was gorgeous. We love the cloud formations.

I was trying to think of something that Kev had said to me that was his usual sarcasm, that I could put in here, without it being crude or really offensive. I can’t think of anything suitable. He thinks I just paint him in a bad light. No he’s just an ass! 😂

The wind was REALLY strong through the night. It said it was 21km an hour. It felt worse than that when it’s hitting the motorhome side on. I thought the skylight was going to blow off, or we were going to tip 😮. Kev got up at 7am and turned the motorhome to face the wind head on. Phew! So much better. We’ve had a spoiler fit onto the roof to divert the wind from the sky light when driving so it makes it warmer inside. This helped to shield most of the gusts. As we were up so early we got to see sunrise.

We were on the road by 9am and off to L’Ampolla which was a 20 minute drive away. The sun came out around 12pm and this little fishing village came into its own. We headed for the coastal path. The hues and blues of the water. Wow.

We’ve decided to have a couple of “down days”. We’re heading to Peñiscola, which featured as Meereen in Game of Thrones. We plan to take in the sights, get the chairs out and read our books. Let’s hope the weather stays nice.