Lloret de Mar part 2

Well I said I’d finish my post on Lloret de Mar but there really isn’t much to say.  I may be doing it an injustice but it really wasn’t anything to write home about.  Just a load of apartments with some hotels and some unfinished, abandoned ones.  We did find a small bar down the road with free wifi which we frequented every evening to pick up mail.  On the second day we were obviously considered regulars as we were upgraded to some crisps with our drinks, by the third night it was free tapas.

The campsite however more than made up for the grotty town.  It was lovely.  Great services, a bar and restaurant with good service and although I don’t often eat pizza, I had the best pizza ever there.  It was not over-priced and the service was very good.  We avoided the discos and the karaoke but we did go down on the Saturday night when there was a magician act which was very good, except that stupidly I’d forgotten to take my glasses so I didn’t get to see much detail. 

 

I do try to add some pictures to make my blog a bit more interesting so here’s a very rare picture of us both, having dinner at the campsite restaurant

There was a lovely swimming pool with a jacuzzi and childrens pool and slide.  In the afternoon there was aquarobics and although I didn’t take part, I did go down for a swim while it was going on and I was amazed that the aerobic instructors were 6 smurfs.  All painted up in bright blue, wearing white smurf hats.  I went down the following afternoon to get some photos, only to find that they had changed the act.  Most disappointed.

The supermarket was a short walk away and we went down one day to be accosted by a German girl and her boyfriend who were begging for money to buy food.  They told us that they had gone to Lloret for work as they had done the previous year but the season had been slow and the boss laid them off at the end of August.  Now I don’t like to type-cast people but I would not have thought it was a German characteristic to choose to beg (sorry Olly and Danina) and I said that I wouldn’t give them any money but I would buy them some food.  She did seem genuine and was very polite and had a lovely smile. They must have needed it because they hung around for over an hour for us to come back from our shopping just on a promise that we would come back.  I gave them a bag of bread, cheese, ham, tomatoes, apples, milk and a beer each and she had such a beaming smile and thanked us profusely.  I hope they were genuine, but if they were not then that’s on their conscience, not mine.  We saw them again as we were leaving in the van and they gave us a big wave and another lovely smile. 

A token picture of a cove-beach not far from the campsite

 

On the Sunday morning it was time to leave and just for once we didn’t need to get any shopping or any LPG – hoorrayyyy.  At least we wouldn’t be going on any wild-goose chase this time.

When we left, we thought we’d drive along the coast road to a bit north of Barcelona and then head inland to pick up the Barcelona ring road.  However the drive was so boring and uninteresting that we picked up the motorway almost immediately.  We won’t be returning in any hurry to Lloret de Mar and it’s surrounding areas. Sorry if there is anyone out there who loves the place we must have missed that bit.

Driving the Barcelona ring road was quite interesting.  We got a glimpse of the huge cruise ships in port, you know the ones that look top-heavy with about 7 decks – I really don’t think that would be my idea of a holiday in the med.  We also got to see a very unusual cemetery.  It was built into the hills and all the graves seemed to be stacked one on top of the other.  It was weird and I suppose a bit macabre, but worth a mention, I would have got Iain to take a shot but we were past it in no time.

We had planned our route and were happy with the sat nag’s choice but we saw a big blue motorway sign with Tarragona on it and that was good enough for us.  However this did take us quite a long way out of our way.

Never mind, approximately 100 miles after leaving Lloret de Mar, we arrived in Tarragona.