# Tag 15 Viva Espana

Monday morning, the clouds are still there. I WANT SUN!

Again extensive study of the weather online. The cloud front will remain here for the next few days. The improvement is promised behind Barcelona. I have to go there anyway, so why not today. The plane from HH with Simone on board will land on Wednesday around 13.00. I should be able to make it by then....

I start at 11.30. Still determined not to pay the French toll, I drive through the foothills of the Pyrenees towards the border. The navigation system is set to avoid highways and behaves accordingly. According to that, it will take me 5 hours for the 200 km.

Well, my research has shown that Spain no longer charges tolls for highways since this year. The entire route from La Jonquera to Valencia is supposed to be toll-free. The contract with the private highway operators has expired after 30 years and has not been renewed. That's the first positive thing to come out of this. After crossing the border

Spain welcomes me with a certain sleazy image from the past, still on the country road. Huge shopping centers and truck stops have settled here behind the border. Spain has always been cheaper than France. That's what attracted people.

In La Jonquera, I trick the navigation system and get on the AP 7 highway. And behold - no toll booths anymore. They are even blocked off with markings and are located on the side of the highway. Great picture.

The route is replanned and with the use of the highway, the travel time shrinks considerably.

My destination is behind Barcelona, in Casteldefels. The reviews of the campsite already mention that the noise from the planes is quite noticeable here. The airport is right in this corner, which is an advantage for me on Wednesday.

Driving through Barcelona initially evokes some beads of sweat, you have respect for the traffic of the metropolises that you don't know.

But the navigation system and the road layout fit perfectly together. I don't need to leave the highway (unlike in Nice, Monaco, Cannes, etc.).

If I struggled with the countless trucks on the way from the border to just before Barcelona, they have now been replaced by city traffic and cars. Here, the Southerners drive as they please. Every gap in a lane is used to perhaps leave a competitor on the track behind. So I stick to the right lane (there are enough others) and let myself drift with the slow comrades.

Exit 44 in Casteldefels comes into view, get off here and then find the C 31. That's where the campsite is located.

Oh, sh.... The C 31 is a 4-lane city freeway towards the airport and runs along the entire coastline. I see the campsite on the other side, but I can't get over there right now. That's going to be fun, plane noise, highway, and city freeway.

Check-in works great, my ACSI camping card is accepted, 20,- € per night is acceptable.

By the way, the weather has kept its promise. No more rain, but still windy. That's why I have my e-bike, which I use to explore the area. And then it finally happens - the feeling of Spain.

Only 500 m from the campsite is the sea. And there is also a beach here, as you imagine it. The Platja de la Pineda welcomes me although it's empty

and very windy, but with a leap of joy across the promenade.

Here it stretches for kilometers in both directions - generously laid out, interrupted with a lot of beach accesses, and again and again a bar, cafe, or restaurant on the promenade. And also behind the promenade, there is one store next to another. Unlike southern France, most are open here.

The sun is supposed to shine tomorrow.

Guess where I'll be then.

Oh yeah, back in the motorhome, I study the flight schedule of Barcelona Airport and get a little scared. In the time from 6 pm - midnight, the planes come every 5 minutes. And that's true. I can hear them all. The reviews have underestimated quite a bit.