Platja D' Aro

At eight o' clock, two coaches appeared in the coach park. So much for us needing to leave at nine o' clock.

We were up anyway, so moved Marge down into the main parking area, and found a space that wasn't sloping very much, difficult as we were on the side of a mountain.

The view out of Marge's side door was interesting. A skirt of cloud wound around the mountain. Thankfully, it softened the fear of looking down. Marge was parked right on the edge by a very low wall, as spectacular as it sounds, looking out was enough to put you off your cornflakes. We don't know what it is about height, mountains and spectacular views, but last night we saw youngsters stood on walls, with their backs to the view, a sheer drop of hundreds of feet below, having their photograph taken, probably all in the name of social media. We were a little worried someone might say, "step back a bit" to one of them!

Even though we left earlier than we had ever done before, by the time we'd stopped to stock up on some wine to bring home, as it is much cheaper here than France, and then called in at a service point to fill Marge's water tank, time had passed by quickly. We could not load Marge up with too much wine just yet, as she still has many miles to travel, and we know there will be hills. Our original overnight stop was to be inland, as we keep reading on the internet about vans being broken into on the coast in this area. But we weren't happy where we were at lunchtime, and after talking to a Dutch couple who had cycled out, we decided to head to where we thought they were staying at Platja D' Aro, on the coast, just north of Barcelona. Upon arriving, we could see the aire was very busy, and a Dutch man waved us towards the two larger empty spaces. We are near the beach, but not close enough to hear the waves. As soon as we arrived, we walked out, as it was late afternoon.

The beach area deserted, not surprisingly, as we hadn't seen the sun all day. Everywhere were notices stating what you couldn't do, but thankfully you could 'stretch' in a designated area on the edge of the beach.

We walked around the marina, viewed some lovely boats, most in storage until next year.

As we knew we would, we have seen the weather change in the last couple of days. Underfoot, the dry crunch of leaves reminded us it was now autumn. We know last night at home, the temperature dropped down to zero. Oh dear, our central heating isn't on!

After taking in the beach and the marina, we visited a few shops in the shopping area nearby, including Decathlon, where we bought our young grandson Elliot a ball to replace one that he loved, but had been misplaced at his first birthday party.

Also took a jokey photo of John on an exercise bike for Jack another grandson whose dad has just bought something similar.

At six o' clock, when we left the shops we were greeted by a pale October evening sky. We weren't long back at Marge, when a video call came in from Angela's son Chris. What a coincidence, After we'd just purchased a new ball for Elliot. As always, we were pleased to hear from them. Elliot, as normal, was not so interested in his grandparents, more into all things household! Those lights you have Chris are great, how do they turn themselves on and off like that?

Tomorrow, we must plan our days carefully, not wanting to leave the better weather, despite it only being 21c, which we know is as good as it's likely to get now, and turn west towards France. We will hold out as long as possible, but at the same time, must not leave ourselves short of time to return to the north coast of France. One thing is for sure, we're not leaving the sun, until we have to!