Having parked up at Camping Barcelona with intention of staying for at least 5 nights we swiftly realised we were too far out of town and having missed seeing some friends as we couldn’t get into town we knew we had to move. My dad, brother and his girlfriend were all staying in central Barcelona and we wanted to make the most of that: for their company as well as dad’s motoring skills off course! So we moved to the closest campsite to the city – Camping Masnou. While the facilities are a little ‘rustic’ It has a pool, a shop and a bar – and actually suits us more not being in such a commercial place as they always seem to be full of rules and people who wouldn’t dream of breaking them.

On Tuesday our visitors took the train to our campsite and we were treated to the lovely view of them smiling and waving as they were walking up the path to our plot. After many hugs and story telling we provided ‘lunch a la camping’ and the story telling continued with the aid of some wine. We then all got into the holiday spirit (ahem) and spent the rest of the day playing pool and sipping beer in the campsite bar with the view of the sea just behind us. Needless to say Wednesday was a little bit of a slower day but was spent tinkering with the van, swimming and more off the hoof cooking.

Cooking so far mainly consists of salad, delicious Spanish cured meats, cheese, bread and wine. Simple but endlessly entertaining. However, my brother had rabbits ribs with aioli in Barcelona last night – showing us it is time to get out of the campsite and let a professional show us how it should be done in Spain.

Dad is still working his magic fine tuning the camper and once he is happy we are thinking about parking the camper in an overnight car park in town and getting some good sleep in their apartment and a foray onto the tourist trail.

Then on Saturday night….the ferry to Rome!!!