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squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3072
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16th February 2018
Hiking - Walking: Tossa del Mar Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Mainly cloudy Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Friday 16th February – sightsee travel and walk * Tossa del Mar –
mainly cloudy.
The day started so well with nature providing a most amazing sunrise over
Les Illes Medes only for man to completely F**K it up by breaking into our
lovely van making us want to head for home:(
Good night at our beachside spot at L’Estartit and woke with just enough
time to get the camera and tripod to the water’s edge to try and capture
the most wondering sky, all purple and red:) No great plan today just head
towards Barcelona but including the wiggly road between Sant Feliu to
Lloret de Mar. Stopped at one of the many thousand Lidl’s here in Spain
and topped up with diesel for the fantastic price of 1.04 Euro per litre
that’s about 94p! The coast road started off disappointingly crap all
high-rise squalor but soon turned into the most wonderful bendy route high
above the blue sea with the only company lots of cyclist’s winter
training and the odd motorbike going way too fast! There was a couple of
deep gorges down to tiny beaches where man had done his best to bugger it
up building collections of tired looking villas and boarded up shops which
didn’t look like they had been open since the 60’s!!!! most unwelcoming
places with barriers across the road, little parking and lots of rules of
thing you could not do, like enjoy yourself, best avoided. We did find a
lay-by designed for photo taking for our lunch and watched the cyclists,
bikers and even a jogger come past! We then came across the aptly named
Tossa de Mar which appeared to have an old part so we thought it was time
for a walk. Signs warned that the streets in the Centre Historic were only
2m wide so found a free spot to park behind the tourist train by a childs
playground. There were a couple of rough looking campervans parked nearby
but the area didn’t look too bad. We walked past some Roman ruins before
entering the narrow streets of the old town and as with the rest of North
Spain it is completely shut! Then things bucked up when we reached the
really old walled town with its watch towers climbing up a hillside
overlooking the town and beach. It looked like you had to pay but you just
walked in and could climb up onto the battlements and walk around taking in
the views, beach, boats and coves one side and old stone building with
lovely tiled roofs the other. Back at street level we followed the path to
the Far (lighthouse) at the top passing a ruined chapel. Then it was down
to the beach to check out the overnight parking situation. We found a
carpark near the beach with good views of the fortifications that was free
in the winter that looked OK so we headed back to the van as we had had
enough of driving for one day.
It was then the day just fell apart when we realised some Spanish low life
had prised the driver’s side sliding window out which lucky for us was
laying in the van and reached in and stolen Mags bum bag which we had
stupidly left hanging on the arm rest. We are far too trusting and after
well over 800 nights in the van this is the first time we have been broken
into while away and it just made you want to head straight for home as we
have had so many things go wrong so far this trip! We have been very
naïve and will have to re-think our security. Apparently, the sliding
window is a real minus point with VW vans and is an easy and popular way to
break in – an accident waiting to happen! We have been lucky in the past
obviously! I suppose the good news is it could have been a lot lot worse
- the Tossa, from Tossa Del Mer, didn’t get away with much. Although he
did get two of our credit cards they are useless to him as Mag stopped them
straight away, so he got about 4 Euro’s, and I hope the bastard chokes on
the coffee he treated himself too with our loose change! He could easily
have got the lap top etc and also caused a lot more damage. The real
problem for us now is we only have one credit card left which should we
lose that will well and truly leave us in the crap and trying to get the
window back in! As it is the driver’s side we have cupboards running
above the window which makes access difficult:( Mag found, on her phone, a
couple of VW garages within 10 miles but as it was late on a Friday they
could not help until Monday!
Then we just wanted somewhere safe for the night to calm down and take
stock of what to do next and you just know that sods law would intervene
and it was a nightmare to find somewhere! We tried up in the hills and down
on the coast which was particularly hampered by a train track running
parallel to the beach making access a nightmare. Wound up like a spring by
then!! We did manage to park right by the beach at a place you only have
to pay in the summer. The Catalans are welcome to this section of Spain and
we can’t wait to leave it far behind! We have asked for advice from
friends on WhatsApp and Facebook to see if we can fix the window, failing
that we can try Barcelona which has a big VW centre which won’t be much
use on a Saturday, failing that just get on the motorway and leave this
shit hole behind!
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