If you never make a plan nothing can ever go wrong
Monday 23rd May 2022
We cycled into Peniscola for the very last time to check out market day and then farewelled Nicky and David, not knowing when, or where, we will get to see them again. Back at Reggie, we strapped the bikes on the back, pushed all his knobs in, and off we went. We had a plan to get a good way north, but we changed that plan on route. It was 29c outside and inside. The air conditioning doesn’t seem to understand what chilled air is, it’s just giving us a bit of air, so we had to drive with the windows down just to get some breeze through the van. When we got stuck in an accident hold-up for nearly an hour on the A7, which seemed to have involved the fast lanes of both sides of the autopista, a halt before our planned goal seemed like a much better idea. Out came the ACSI book and I started researching campsites again. Most of them on the Costa Daurada/Costa Maresme/Costa Brava looked like big holiday camps, Butlins style again. But, hey ho, it’s only for a couple of nights until we do push further north.
A quick pitstop was necessary for the driver and the navigator after 2.5 hours in our seats, and the only place we found had to be the noisiest lunch spot we can remember; right beside the motorway surrounded by enormous trucks that kept their engines running, perhaps to keep their air conditioning on. But, hey ho, it was a necessary break before tackling the motorways around Barcelona. And thankyou Mike and Sue for the paté, it was delicious. We drove the autopistas most of the afternoon, passing lots of tollbooths on the way, but all of them were now defunct and the whole of the journey was toll free. Nice. It was nearly 5pm by the time we arrived, hot, flustered and tired at Camping Enmer in Pineda de Mar, and yes, it’s a bit of a Butlins!!!
Tuesday 24th May 2022
When we finally woke up on Tuesday morning, something was broken. We checked the weather report, and it was a bit of a shock. The palm trees were frantically waving their fronds against a dull grey sky and the temperature had dropped to 17c. Perhaps the sun will come out and it will warm up again later today? Nope. The top forecast was for 18c and cloudy with rain !!! The weather had broken. The deeply suntanned tourists were having to cover up with jumpers and jeans. Although there were a few crazy souls who bravely continued to glow in shorts and sleeveless tops. You could see the goosebumps on their tans!
So here we are on the South Costa Brava eating hot mulligatawny soup and fresh bread from the bakery in town. We’ll do some research for our next week in Reggie and catch up on stuff this afternoon then pop over to the bar later today for our ‘incluido’ glass of sangria beside the now empty swimming pool.
And that turned out to be the highlight of our stay in Pineda de Mar! The bar turned out to be a very nice, stylish affair overlooking the pool. We ordered our glasses of sangria and by the time we ordered a pizza for dinner, the place was starting to fill up a bit. The live entertainer on an electric organ got going after 8pm and an elderly, tiny, Spanish granny, all of 4’ 6”, got up and strutted her stuff on the dance floor. Boy, she could shuffle, and she could also twist her way down low and back up again, no worries. She got the crowd cheering. Then the Dutch line-dancers hit the floor..…all very serious stuff, but they loved all the Elvis songs, the earworm of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ and the dreadful ‘Birdie Song’. I was waiting for ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree’ which, thankfully never came up while we were there. ‘Living Next Door To Alice’ didn’t appear in the entertainer’s repertoire, but the whole musical ensemble was rescued from the depths by one, fairly good cover version of Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’.
Whilst singing along and ‘enjoying’ ourselves indoors, we hadn’t noticed that the weather had now really broken. It was pouring down outside, and it wasn’t much fun dancing in puddles in the dark on our way back to our bed. When the globules of rain are pitter pattering on Reggie’s roof all night, it does increase the urgency for a pee for the inhabitants. And so it continued all night (the rain, not the peeing) and it was still raining in the morning when we left.