Lloret de Mar - Santa Cristina

Just 3.5km down the coast from Lloret lies the hermitage of Santa Cristina. The small church dates back to the 18th century, but the hermitage itself dates back even further to the 14th century.

The easiest way to visit is by boat, either from Lloret or Fenals beach, unless you are feeling VERY energetic then you can walk either along the main road or over the cliff tops along the coast. The cost of the return trip by boat is approx 8.50 euro.

The beach is a much finer sand than Lloret, and it's a much gentler slope into the sea, so it may be better for children. There is a bar, if you get thirsty and also toilets. You can also hire a pedalo. 

From behind the church you can see excellent views both up and down the coast. During the busy months of July and August it's usually much quieter than the packed beaches of Lloret.

Lloret Season 2006

No queues at WaterWorld

The season in Lloret is hopefully soon about to start.
For the past four weeks Lloret has been inundated with Portuguese students and football teams from all over Europe. This gives some Lloret business owners a good start to an otherwise very quiet perod.

They are now hoping for a strong start to the Summer Season. As Easter fell quite late this year there will not be such a noticable gap between the Spring and Summer tourism.

St George's Day. 23rd April

The official patron saint of England - St George, is also the patron saint of Catalonia.
The usual custom on this day is for men to give their wife's or girlfriend's a rose (or a bunch of roses if your lucky!) quite similar to our Valentines Day in the UK.

Then in return the ladies will give a book to whoever they receive their rose from.

The shops are now full of books on every subject you can think of, and the price of roses is sure to be more expensive this weekend than any other time of year.

Easter Weekend in Lloret de Mar.

The holiday season is now here once again. After a very quiet winter on the Costa Brava, Lloret is coming to life again. This Easter seems to be busier than ever, the town has really filled up over the last few days...

The beach bars are now back in place after spending the winter in storage. They are taken away at the end of the summer season, then brought back for the new summer season all nicely cleaned up and decorated with lots of flowers and plants - making the beach look very colourful!

Also back in business are the boats taking visitors up and down the coast to other resorts.

Spanish News - Water Shortage.

Last summer was the driest Spain has had for the last 60yrs. With Catalunya being one of the worst hit areas.
It's not just a matter of solving everything with a hose-pipe ban or some other similar action as sometimes imposed in the UK, as some areas in Spain are under serious threat of eventualy becoming desert!

Some inland regions have had to rely on water being delivered by tanker, because many of the wells have actully dried up. Other areas mainly in Valencia, have had running water limited to just 8mins a day, with more of the same to come.
Tourist resorts and city's have had no real change, other than being advised to use less.
Meanwhile the hardest hit places inland have barely had enough water to water crops, which in turn means that farm animals have virtually starved through lack of grazing areas.

The government has promised about 80 million euro to ease the situation, but as yet no definate plans have been made which would provide some sort of solution.
So for now the only available solution is for everyone to be aware of the shortage and in turn do as much as possible to limit their use.

For visitors to Spain its not always apparent how drastically short of water we are, it seems there is water everywhere, swimming pools, fountains, showers every few metres on the beach's and not forgetting large gardens and the golf courses all still have their sprinklers on daily.