After our day in the sun in Sant Pol yesterday, we needed a bit of a recovery day. Plans have been made for a daytrip to Sitges on Wednesday to meetup with the other Pep in my life, who lives in Edinburgh and has helped me so much with my Catalan over the last few years. He is in Catalonia visiting his family this week. So plenty of rest and recharging is the order of today to ensure we are ready for the big day tomorrow. Continue reading “2023-04-25 – a rainy recce in Malgrat”
Tag: Pineda de Mar
2023-04-21 – movable missions
There is great variation in how different ATMs here handle cash withdrawals in terms of fees and exchange rates. A useful guide has been compiled to the ranges of fees charged by Spanish banks on Triptipedia. From this list we can see that a number of banks charge no fees at their ATMs: Kutxabank, Banca March, Deutsche Bank, ING, Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK), Unicaja Banco, Eurocaja Rural and Banco Pichincha. Unfortunately these banks are not very common in this part of Spain. I’ve figured out we would have to go to the Marseme capital, Mataró, or Barcelona to make use of them. All the cash machines closest to us charge fees ranging from 4 to 7 euros and offer extremely poor exchange rates. Continue reading “2023-04-21 – movable missions”
2023-04-16 – Vermut time in Pineda de Mar
One conclusion of our Friday exploration of neighbouring town Pineda de Mar was that here we would find a great location to continue our Sunday vermut time tradition. There are plenty of cafes with seating in the big square of Plaça de les Mèlies and the smaller square, Plaça de Catalunya, home to the Ajuntament, Can Comas and one bar: Bar Barcelona. This bar was our first choice for a vermut time venue, but unfortunately although it seemed open we found it devoid of customers and therefore rather lacking in atmosphere. Every other cafe terrace in the bigger square was buzzing and there was a political rally ongoing at the furthest end of the square, along the dog-leg as it were. Continue reading “2023-04-16 – Vermut time in Pineda de Mar”
2023-04-14 – Pineda de Mar
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. Continue reading “2023-04-14 – Pineda de Mar”