Surprise!

Last year july 2016, my love decided to surprise me with a trip to Spain! The plan was to only visit Barcelona, which is the biggest city of Catalonia in Spain. Catalonia (Catalunya) is an autonomous community of Spain (Comunitat Autònoma). We only had a few days to discover beautiful places over there. It was a short trip of 5 days in total, from 4 July until 8 July. We departed early in the morning from Dusseldörf Airport in Germany (50 minutes from where the parents of my boyfriend live) and it only took approximately 2 hours by airplane to Girona (nearby Barcelona), a city in the Northeast of Catalonia and the capital of the province of the same name Girona. 

When we arrived at the airport, we had to change our clothes as the weather was warm in Spain because when we left the Netherlands, it was cold as usual..

So, we walked outside and had to find our way to a company that rents cars. Luckily, my boyfriend printed out the route to walk as we didn't have internet connection. (I'm so lucky to have him as he prepares everything before we leave anywhere abroad :P) It took some time before we were able to drive away with our 'temporarily' Peogeot 307 (?). In the mean time, we discussed which route we could drive to our hotel in Barcelona. A woman from the tourist information centre told us that we could take a route where we can drive near the Costa Brava (coastal region in the province of Girona). The Costa Brava is 200km long and starts at Portbou which lays at the border of France. But the route had windy roads, so we decided to skip that road and go from Girona to S'agaró and Platja d'Aro, and from that place to our hotel in Barcelona. 

In this blogpost I will only share my experiences I've had in S'agaró (1st day), Platja d'Aro (1st and 3rd day) and Tossa de Mar (3rd day). 

S'AGARÓ

Our first stop was S'agaró, a seaside resort on the Costa Brava. It's a pretty small place where people can enjoy at the beach and chill at the restaurants near the beach. There were many hills and we were driving somewhere up in the hills between houses. At one point I told my bf to stop the car because I really wanted to get out and enjoy the view. When he stopped the car, I immediately opened the door, took my camera, ran to a place where I could watch the ocean (see pictures below). The sun was shining bright, the sky was clear and everything around me was 'ALIVE'. I love seeing bright things, like colored houses, green trees etcetera. Later, I stepped back in the car and we drove back to find a restaurant and have lunch. We decided to have lunch at La Palmera, a small restaurant which was okay to have lunch.

After lunch, we were walking around, made some pictures, enjoyed the view but it wasn't that awesome. We only stayed there for not even 2 hours. I guess when you have more time to spend @ Costa Brava, it would be nice to go to S'agaró to swim or getting a tan. As we only stayed for a short time, I can't tell you exactly what more activities you can do over there except spending time at the beach!

TOSSA DE MAR

On the third day, we meeted with a friend of my boyfriend who coincidentally was staying in Platja d'Aro with his girlfriend. On our way from Barcelona to Platja d'Aro, we decided to make a stop at Tossa de Mar. It was a very hot day but the view .. wauw.. it was incredible. From where we parked our car, we could see the beach, sea, castle, houses, small restaurants and shops.. All in one was picture perfect to me! I loved to see the architecture of the old buildings, the colors and people who were speaking Spanish. It really made me feel like I was living in another world. I can't even compare the Netherlands with Spain, if you see the pictures, they say it all. 

We climbed on the hill at the castle and had to make pauses as it was too hot. Luckily we had 2 bottles of cold water to drink. My boyfriend has sun allergies so it was important for us to take these pauses but also to walk fast to places where we could hide from the sun.

When we were up, there was a small store surrounded with plants and flowers (see first picture on the left below). There we could buy some ice-cream to cool down ourselves. Later, we walked further and there were beautiful houses and the structure of the stones were amazing to see. Guess it is a beautiful place to make fashion pictures! We've made many more pictures, but I decided to just upload a few of them.

Even though we stayed there only for approx 2 hours, I really enjoyed myself. I think it's even more beautiful than S'agaró and to be honest, I want to go back there and see what else this small city has to offer! 

PLATJA D'ARO

So, right after Tossa de Mar, we had to drive to Platja D'Aro. We decided to drive the windy road the woman from the tourist information centre recommended us. Trust me, the road was windy, we went up and down and I almost got sick of it. Though I really enjoyed the view on the bright blue ocean. I've made a lot of pictures but when looking back, it is actually boring to see pictures of the ocean :p so I didn't want to post them.

Okay, Platja D'Aro for the second time. Platja D'Aro is a small city or village where you can chill at the beach but also where you can shop and just relax. Our friend and his girlfriend gave us a guide through Platja d'Aro. First we went shopping and to be honest, I had the most relaxing shopping time ever! It was peaceful, not crowded, chill and the atmosphere was really like 'I CAN FINALLY RELAX DURING MY VACAY'. Maybe it was because it wasn't holiday yet for most people and tourists. What I've heard is that a lot of Dutch people are traveling to Platja d'Aro during holidays. 

The road was straight with shops so you can easily cross over the street to another shop. Some shops sell cheap products, though I've been to a candy shop where the candy was VERY expensive! (Second picture from right column) Though I had to taste some candies I've never ate before, so yup.. Had to buy them..

Later, we had dinner at De Fàbula, where I ordered delicious steak with mushroom sauce and fries. The rest ordered spareribs and steak with different sauce. It was a very nice restaurant and the owner was Dutch, though he lives in Spain for a long time. When he spoke to us, he had an accent which was funny to hear! After our dinner, we went to have some ice-cream at Dino. This place sells very delicious ice-cream and you get a lot for a small amount ;)!! 

So, these were my experiences in short. Unfortunately, I can't give more advice as I haven't seen or done a lot in these three places! As I said before, we didn't had much time to spend in Spain so the fact that I could see many different places within a short time, was fine to me :-)! My pictures are just a few spots of these places, but when you ever decide to go to Spain, I advice you to go to the Costa Brava and make a road trip! It's very beautiful, relaxing, breathtaking and fun!

I hope you enjoyed my story and my pictures. My next blogpost will be about Barcelona, also with beautiful pictures :P!