Last Updated on 29 April 2024 by gerry

Santa Susanna has Malgrat de Mar to the north and Pineda de Mar to the south. We haven’t yet really visited Pineda de Mar, apart from using its railway station to catch a train after walking from Malgrat a few weeks ago. So an exploration of Pineda de Mar was today’s objective. It was already afternoon by the time we walked to the train station, an illustration of how relaxed we are feeling in our new home from home, I guess.

A short hop on the train and we disembarked directly onto Pineda de Mar’s Friday market along the long seafront street. Like Santa Susanna, there are no ticket barriers at this station. Walking along the market stalls, I’m reminded of the market in Can Picafort, Mallorca. It is a mix of much the same goods: fresh fruit and veg, meat, fish and cheese and then lots of clothing stalls. I can really only tolerate a market like this for a short time unless I have something in mind I need. I’m not a browser.

Having said that there was a very positive overwhelming feeling that we were back among local people here on the whole, tourists like us were in a small minority. Since leaving Arenys de Mar, I have been missing that feeling – clearly I prefer these sort of surroundings to a location where holiday-makers like ourselves predominant. It makes me relieved that we are only this small distance from “civilisation”.

Some of the market stalls were already packing up and shutting down as we strolled along it around 1pm, so we headed into the town to see what Pineda de Mar has to offer. I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe something like Malgrat de Mar, which is a bit run-down in the places it meets the seafront, but I was immediately getting a much more vibrant atmosphere here.

We followed a pedestrianised street full of shops and cafes for its length where it opened up into a spacious square called Plaça de les Mèlies. Close by was Plaça de Catalunya where we found the Ajuntament and the tourist information office. I was looking for the Santa Maria church, which was just around the corner and is pictured above. Plaça de Catalunya is also the location of Can Comas a large agricultural house facade in the old catalan style, which is now the town’s cultural centre.

We returned to Plaça de les Mèlies for a lunch of coces i copes, i.e. a small catalan style pizza and a glass of wine each. The town’s streets are mostly in a natural grid with a Barcelona-esque Diagonal street running through the grid.