Easter Saturday morning was an early start, we had to get a villa cleaned before we could depart on our weekend trip. By early lunchtime we were done, we picked up or friends and headed for our Santa Susanna hotel. Arriving luckily before lunch was over we threw the bags into our rooms and shot down for some grub to make the most of the all inclusive package. At this stage all was well and good, little did we know what was to follow – Nicky has updated our review forum about the hotel and anyone else can review hotels, restaurants etc there if you wish to warn others of impending doom or of great places to go. I will say no more here about H.Top Royal Sun. After lunch we all hopped on the fantastic train link to Calella to take our friends to Jordi’s bar where I have spent many a happy hour over roughly the last 10 years. It was cerrado until 8pm, well we would be back in the hotel by then stuffing our faces again so no hanging about, off to Groucho’s for a pint – Closed!! Sold up to become a local produce shop. All is not going well. A quick trip to Luna (luckily still there) the ethnic shop where I got my didgeridoo, to buy another bird feeder and a couple of other wooden bits. At last someone who remembers who we are and is glad to see us. So we ended up watering ourselves down at Corleone’s, round the corner, friendly staff and not expensive. After that it was back to the hotel (4 star!! What a joke) for dinner and then down to the bar for a fight.. Er I mean drink, sorry. Next day it was absolutely persisting it down so the best we could do was amble around locally and sit outside La Maduixa watching the world go by over a jug of Sangria, boy was it cold!! After lunch the best we could do was retire to our rooms for a siesta and to get ready for dinner followed by another altercation in the bar. Monday on the Costa can only mean one thing... Blanes market!! One of the best in the area and one of only two I have ever been to on my own - Pineda being the other. It always takes a long time to get from one end of the market to the other, especially with all the punctuation stops at various watering holes. One idea was to visit one of our favourite Chinese restaurants for lunch but, guess what? It had closed down. All our old haunts from back living in Lloret when all these places were local are now closed, how things change in just a few years. Most of the damage caused by the winter storms in Blanes has now been repaired just as it has here in Tamariu and also in Tossa de Mar as an afternoon drive over confirmed. We jumped onto the local tourist train there for a trip through the narrow streets to see some places never visited before. No more cafes full of sand or bars with boats through the windows, all was well and looking good. The driver of the "Bimble Train" as Nicky calls it for reasons known only to herself was obviously a dog lover - Every time we drove past one of our four legged friends he dipped into a bag of doggy biscuits and fed one or two to the aforementioned beast, must be to break the boredom of "Bimbling around" all day. Next morning saw us checking out of the hotel, jumping on the train to Barcelona, ambling up and down La Rambla, menu del dia in our favourite Italian (Marzano's - There's one in Sitges too if you can't get to Barcelona) followed by C&A and a train back to the car and an hours drive home. Home about 8:30pm, was that the end of it? Oh no... At around midnight we had friends arriving for a couple of days... The story is far from over yet.