I have settled into a nice place for the weekend. I am only about 30 minutes outside of Barcelona, and the beach below my campsite filled up with an after-work crowd around 18:30/19:00.

My drive today was lovely. I started out along the same coastal road I had taken yesterday, but soon my route curved inland. It felt homey – farmland not far from mountain or sea.

Eventually, I came out at the coast again, and followed a winding cliff road beside the sea for quite a long while. My planned campsite was along this route, but I was so tired of difficult driving that when I saw it, I decided I couldn’t handle getting the bike into the camping plot. I continued on.

I planned then to take a campsite around the location of the botanical gardens. There were several near each other, along the beach. They were flat, but so uninvitingly beach/sun resorts that I couldn’t bear the thought of spending the weekend there. Lots of older Dutch people were drinking beer on their terraces. I continued on.

Finally, I reached some more gently curving cliff and sea roads much closer to Barcelona. I drove past a campsite. I drove past it again the other direction. I drove past it one more time. I looked it up. It sounded pretty nice. I drove in.

It was siesta for another hour, so I had decided I needed to give up on coast and head back inland, to the wooded hills beyond. The campsites there sounded much more my style anyway. But suddenly, a man came running down the campsite’s road, asking if I was looking for a camping. He put me into his golfcart and toured me around the place, showing me the pool at the very top (cute, but a very steep, badly paved road getting up to it), and the flatter sites nearer the road. I chose the latter. He was the maintenance man, so he lent me a hammer and said his boss would take care of my registration when he was back later.

I set up my tent and walked down to the restaurant for a delicious lunch of grilled squid, really good fries, a small salad, a pot of alioli, and some really fresh bread. And one of my favorite Spanish beers. It seems this was exactly the right place.

When the boss was back, I completed registration, and walked down to the beach. There are walking trails from here as well, so the weekend has many options.

Tomorrow I will get a massage from a friend of the bartender’s, who has a salon nearby, and then visit the botanical gardens. After that, well, we’ll see!

My evening was spent drinking beer on MY terrace, and reading terrible free vacation books. Now that this is done, I will continue the reading inside my tent, where I can be warm while I start to get sleepy. This place is so far TO BE RECOMMENDED. 😀