2023-04-23 – return to Arenys de Mar for Sant Jordi

La Diada de Sant Jordi / St George’s day has arrived and we’ve chosen Arenys de Mar as our venue to sample the celebration of Catalonia’s national saint. The main events take place in the evening from 5.30pm, which gives us a perfect excuse to have a lazy Sunday in the apartment and a much deserved rest from what has been a week full of long walks. This is the first time we’ve missed Vermut Time in many Sundays, but it means we set off for Arenys well fed and watered with both the laundry and my family zoom done and dusted. Continue reading “2023-04-23 – return to Arenys de Mar for Sant Jordi”

2023-04-22 – Sant Jordi’s eve spent in Malgrat

Having seen how lively Malgrat de Mar was yesterday evening, I suggested we go along again today (Saturday afternoon) to check out the Sant Jordi weekend atmosphere. It was another sunny / blustery day, so we brought our beach gear with us as an option. I showed Alison the back road to Malgrat that leads straight to the church square where the three florist shops are located, sporting their roses in many guises for Sant Jordi day. Continue reading “2023-04-22 – Sant Jordi’s eve spent in Malgrat”

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”

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