Great news! Spanish hookers are ignoring the strike! Sant Felie De Guixols

We’re here: N41.78028 E3.02286. It’s a free motorhome aire in Sant Felie De Guixols, a couple of (slow) hours north of Barcelona on the coast. We can’t quite figure out why it’s free; has fresh water and grey/black water points. It even has free WiFi. Seems too good to be true, but we’re not complaining!

The weather is: sun, sun, sun. No clouds, enough breeze to get the FC Barcelona flag to my left fluttering in the afternoon sunlight.

We made the most of our last night in Barcelona by heading out for a meal near the Sagrada Familia. Somehow we managed to drag ourselves past the food joints in the surrounding square, even though we had vouchers for most of them. KFC, Burger King, MacDonalds, Lactuca (an all you can eat buffet type place) all ignored (only just) and we nipped into a busy Spanish bar round the corner. The place was one of those which seems tiny, but disappears off into the depths of the block. The owner attempts to flog us the ‘all you can eat’ tapas option. For €15 each, you could help yourself to a range of plates sat inside lit glass cases on the bar, or on top of those. Looked great, but we weren’t that hungry so opted for the menu and got some great grub. The waitress appeared to be the owner’s daughter, was delightfully haughty, probably as she was rushed off her feet. She legged it about in a pair of what appeared to have been 1980 Puma trainers; I’d have killed for them as a nipper. Ju spotted the bill this morning she forgot to charge me for my 3rd beer, and only charged her for one of her two glasses of wine, although maybe she just sped things up by charging us for more expensive drinks, we don’t know. We watched some of the Barcelona-Milan Champions League Quarter Final, hoping to see Barca score, or more correctly hoping to see the locals go nuts. Ended nil-nil though so not to be.

We exited Barcelona this morning amidst the grip of a national general strike, with workers unhappy about relaxed employment law making it easier to lay off staff and the like. We only knew this as we’d seen posters up yesterday. There was no sign on the streets anything was happening as we drove out of the city, although we didn’t go anywhere near the centre. Barcelona’s streets were great to drive, loads of lanes, wide open roads, traffic fairly quiet and a big old motorway going pretty much straight through the place (the C31). We’ve since noticed there are no trains running and we can’t hear the incessant roar of planes overhead. Lidl was open, get in.

We got here via the N11, a pleasant drive through pine covered rolling hills, although it is a terribly dangerous road. Road surface good? Yep. Nice and wide? Sure. Barriers and good signs? All there. Scantily clad hookers wiggling backsides at you as you drive past. Check. If you’re in the area and in need of lady company, and have a van with a mattress in the back, the N11 is your road. Quality did vary significantly from ‘Barbie’ to ‘We’re not sure if that one was a man’, choose wisely. Any of you finding this sexist, never fear, karma granted me a full frontal of a well endowed young man on a nudist beach earlier on, not a sight I’d wanted, but there’s nature’s balance for you.

The coastline along this stretch is surprisingly good. In general there’s a road and railway line between towns and the beaches, as the hills come right down to the sea. However, we didn’t see a great deal of high rise development. We nipped down to a beach on the way here (there are loads of beaches) for a snorkel and to check whether Charlie can still swim; a lovely little spot and crystal clear water.

The evening has started; so time for me to stop playing with t’Interweb and go look at where we are. :) Happy Friday for tomorrow folks.

Cheers, Jay

P.S. We’re now 50p short of the £60 payout mark on Adsense. One or two more clicks will pay for about 100 litres of wine before we go back over the border to France. Don’t let me influence your ad clicking in any way.

P.P.S. With all this lovely WiFi, we uploaded a few videos of the Gaudi masterpieces we’ve been lucky to see in Barcelona:

Park Guell:

Interior of Sagrada Familia:

Sagrada Familia When Completed: