Pineda de Mar on the Costa Brava
In the afternoon of an exhausting pick-pocket experience in Barcelona’s train station, our eyes lit up seeing the Aqua Promenade and Spa Hotel Resort in Pineda de Mar – our hotel for the next seven nights. TJ made a great choice there. The radiant lady at check in told us in perfect English that we had been upgraded to a suite-room at the front with balconies overlooking the beach promenade.
Our arrangement was room and breakfast and the spread was amazing and fresh. Our friends however had a complete room and board arrangement that also included lunch and dinner; reason why we had dinner several times at the hotel as well. In the weekend it got real busy with family packages, presumably from guests escaping the big city of Barcelona. The Costa Brava is lined with old fishing villages that since the 1960 have become attractive vacation destinations for Northern European beach seekers. 
At the end of March, the weather was still a little too chilly to swim in the Mediterranean. So for the next 4 days we decided to stroll the town, check out some shops and were presently surprised by the Open Market that lined the Beach Promenade the next morning.
Many stores and restaurant were still closed or in preparation for opening for the summer season coming up, but the ones that were open, were fully committed to the tourists in town.
It was 50 years ago that Han had last vacationed in this area of the Costa Brava and had visited town and villages like Girona (where Salvador Dali was born and lived) Blanes, Llorett de Mar, Calella and Sitges. Needless to say that the expansion now called Pineda de Mar, was at best a little fishing village in those days, but the availability of a beautiful long stretch of sandy beach, has now turned it into an attractive vacation destination.
In the next couple of days we walked the neighborhoods, did little shopping and took some pictures. It was as if the laziness of a two week cruise had settled in our bones. It was Eat – Stroll a bit – Sleep – Repeat. One obvious observation was the quite a few people from England, Holland and Germany had started restaurants, bar and other businesses in this vacation city. Almost every taste and flavor in the world is available.
After four nights we hugged our friends goodbye as they were heading home and we started to make travel plans to get our butts to family in the Netherlands. Checking on hotel and AirBNB rates in hotel made us quickly realize that our monthly budget would be tested severely, so we ended up in the German city of Mønchengladbach, close to the Dutch border, where a Holiday Inn (we’re members of their club) offered a great deal that included breakfast. The next 10 days would allow us to see family, drop off two big suitcases with clothes and stuff we did not need on a daily basis, arrange for some medications and catch up in general.
We orchestrated at van pick from Pinar de Mar to the new airport in Girona for about $70, which was quite acceptable considering the amount of luggage. Ryan Air offered direct flights fro Girona to Dusseldorf-Weeze, a new airport that was formerly used by the British Royal Air Force.
We landed perfectly on time and took a taxi (Uber is not yet established in this new destination) to our B&B for the night The Weezer Spargel Hof & Apartments, where TJ enjoyed her best sleep (11 hours) in weeks.
From there we took the train via Düsseldorf to Monchengladbach where we checked into the Niu – Holiday Inn for a 10 day visit to slowly getting things going for our move to Europe.
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