Lloret de Mar Events

Last week-end there were activities for all the family in Lloret, the main one was an organised bike ride all round the town. All you had to do was to turn up with your own bicycle and then the riders had the freedom to ride the course with the police stopping traffic while the bikes passed by. Even little toddlers were riding along side their parents. At the end of the ride near the beach in Lloret drinks, butifarra and tomato bread was given out to all those who took part.

Other activities were abseiling down the cliffs, bouncy castles and the long slide (see above) which went from the cliff tops down to the beach.

English Bookshop in Lloret

I recently called into the English Book Cupboard in Lloret looking for some possible info about Lloret back in the days when tourism was just starting here, and was very surprised at the vast amount and variety of books for sale. Kevin the owner was very helpful but told me that the shop is sadly closing at the end of this month. The shop can currently be found in the small street directly behind the church, hopefully he will be relocating to new premises in the new year.

The Book Cupboard has its own website which gives all details of opening times etc,
and Kevin also explains how he hopes to continue making books available to readers by other means during the time the shop is closed, e.g. the monthly Sunday market in Lloret (held every 2nd Sunday of the month) To keep up to date of Kevins plans you can visit his site where you will find the latest news and also a link for his email address.

Lloret de Mar Events

Paintings from the 'Rapid Painting Contest' are now on show in the town. Here you can see four from the exhibition. The top painting won 1st prize of €1000. The 2nd prize of €800 went to the artist of the painting below.

Thanks to Angie for the photos.

Lloret Pathway Closed

The rocky pathway which leads to the bronze statue Dona Marina has now been closed for several days owing to a rock slide blocking the way. This occurred last week-end, and its not known how long the path will be closed. The rocks have been covered with wire mesh and work is now been carried out to repair the damage.

Thanks To All Readers!

Many thanks to all readers of this blog for making it reach into the top best 100 blogs in Spain. I was notified this morning, so I have placed the award in the side column. The same award has also be given to 2 of my other blogs...Makes it all worthwhile !

• Photos From Spain

• Lloret Holiday Guide
  

Cheapest Apartment in Cataluña.!

The owners of a duplex apartment in Terrassa (nr Barcelona) are sadly having to raffle off their apartment as they can no longer afford the mortgage, and have failed to find a buyer in these hard times. Fancy your chances ?

Tickets only cost €10 each ! Read more here.

Tourists Day in Lloret.

As it was a nice day in Lloret yesterday we decided to have a walk over to Santa Clotilde gardens, also it was free entrance owing to it been the annual Day of Tourists ! We expected it to be really busy, but were quite surprised how quiet it was. There were still free deckchairs where you can sit and read or just gaze out to the sea, unusual for a Sunday morning!

Lloret de Mar - Tourism Day

This coming week-end Lloret de Mar celebrates World Tourism Day, giving locals and visitors free entry to the Maritime Museum and Santa Clotilde Gardens. More details of this week-ends events can be found in the town hall, tourist centres and hotels. A fireworks display will also take place on Sunday evening.

Lloret de Mar Promenade

During the coming months work will be starting on the promenade in Lloret to improve the flow of traffic and to give more priority to pedestrians. The work will include more parking for motorbikes and bicycles. Also planned are bays for loading and unloading for the sea front businesses.

Lloret de Mar Weather

The rain has finally come to Lloret !

We were kept awake most of last night by the raging thunderstorm which started round about midnight. Then slowly but surely the clouds passed over, and the sun was again shining this morning so we had a walk down to Fenals beach at about 11am.
Quite a few people were there making the most of the sun, but the red flags were flying so that means going in the sea is not allowed owing to the massive waves. Looking down towards Blanes the clouds were starting to build up again and also out at sea there were flashes of lightening every few minutes, so the storm was heading back our way and time for us to head back home! We just made it as the rain came down again, it didnt last though its now 1.45pm and the sun is shining again, with a nice temperature of 23º !!

Photos from Fenals beach today.....

Lloret de Mar Events

A 'fast painting' competition is to be held next Sunday 20th September. The idea is that you must create a painting of a scene somewhere in Lloret starting at 8am on Sunday morning. You then have until 1.30pm to submit your artwork at the Passeig Verdaguer for judging later in the day. The prizes are €600 for the 3rd, €800 for the 2nd and a very nice €1000 for the 1st.

Lloret de Mar Shopping

This summer many stores in the El Reiral area have been doing special promotions in order to try attract more customers. These offers are being given on the last Wednesday of each month. During this time offers to be found are Menus of the day for €5, low energy light bulbs at half price, pairs of shoes which normally sell for €25 being sold for €10. Hairdressers have also been doing cheaper haircuts but are soon fully booked up well in advance. Other shops taking part are butchers, opticians, and many more small local shops.
These promotions started 5 months ago since which, traders have said they have seen increased sales. Originally 45 stores signed up to take part, this has now rose to 55 and its said by the organisers it will carry on for quite a while yet!

Lloret de Mar Fires

While forest fires are still raging in other parts of the world, Lloret de Mar on the other hand has not suffered any serious fires this summer. We did hear about a fire which started on the urbanisation Roca Grossa, but luckily this was quickly dealt with.
At this time Lloret is at a risk level of 1, which is classed as low to medium. However, people should still be on their guard especially as the ground is so dry after the extremely hot, dry summer.
Anyone seeing a fire should report it immediately by calling the emergency services on 112.

The photo above shows one of the planes refilling its tanks with sea water to deal with one of the serious forest fires back in the 90s here in Lloret.

Lloret de Mar Events

In front of the town hall this Friday evening a fashion show is taking place.
Now that the summer clothes are more or less no longer on sale in the local stores you can get a good preview here of the winter fashions and accessories.
Two large screens are to be erected to enable good views of the catwalk. The show will be in two parts, the first of which will be children's fashions commencing at 8.30pm and the adults show will be at 10pm. Should it happen to be raining the event will be postponed until Sunday.
All fashions shown will be available to buy locally as the designs shown are from 11 local stores, such as Stocks, Jeans Saloon, Celio and Xic & Xic. A thousand spectators are expected at this free event.

Fenals Fiesta

This coming weekend in Fenals is the annual fiesta. During this time are various events taking place, such as shows for the kids, Catalan sausage will be dished out for those willing to join the long queue!
But probably the favorite for most will be the fireworks display taking place at 10.30 on Saturday night on Fenals beach.

Lloret de Mar Tourism & Museum

On the sea front just opposite the beach in Lloret is the Maritime Museum and tourist office. Opening times for this time of the year are as follows -

June to September: Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 8 pm
Sunday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 4 pm to 7 pm
Prices for entry to the museum are €4 for adults, there is a reduced price of €2 which I should think will be for children and pensioners.

Ryanair, New Routes

Ryanair has announced four new routes starting from Girona airport in October. The new destinations are Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Malaga. Flights to the Canaries will begin at the end of October while the Malaga flight will commence on the 1st October.

Ryanair is now the 2nd largest airline to operate in Spain, and its hoped with the new routes 200,000 more passengers will pass through Girona airport.

Lloret de Mar - Tour Bus

Ever since the Touristic Train and the large open top bus ceased to be used in Lloret there has been nothing to show holiday makers the best views of Lloret de Mar. Just recently though a new service has solved the problem!
This is the more frequently run and very distinctive looking bright green open top bus.

With this new bus you have the choice of either 1, 2 or 3 day pass which allows you to 'hop on' and 'hop off' at the many places of interest the bus visits.
In Lloret the bus will take you to Santa Cristina, Pinya de Rosa gardens, Santa Clotilde Gardens and the Castle St Joan.

You can view the PUJOL website for full details of the bus timetables and prices.

Homes Under the Hammer!

Ever since we bought our apartment in Lloret, this building has always been derelict and home to the odd squatter now and again! The garden was over run with shrubs and weeds, so much so that we could only ever see part of the building.
Maybe 3-4 months ago now we noticed that someone has begun to clear all the garden and empty the place of all the rubbish in there. All the window frames have been taken out and it sounds as though they are knocking down walls or something inside. Even with the way it looks now is a vast improvment to how it used to be!
It will be interesting to see how the villa will look if, and when it's completed. We have the 'before' picture lets see how long it is before we get the 'after' one!

(I'm sure this will be of interest to Julie and Ray in Holmfirth!!)

Lloret de Mar - Beatles Tribute

Last nights Clon Festival was a massive success, this was the second time we had seen 'Abbey Road' the Beatles tribute band. They had to abandon their show in August last year owing to a very bad storm which started not long after they had come onto the open air stage.
So everyone was there to see them perform and finally complete their show.

What a show it was!
The area where they played was packed with 'Beatles' fans, they did a very good selection of songs from just about every stage of the Beatles career, and went on for much longer than the usual 2hrs.

Lloret de Mar - Fenals Beach Today.

Here's a short clip of photos we took today down on the beach in Fenals and from above in the woods.
As you can see its quite packed, but still the bars and hotels in town are not very busy, some businesses are having their worst year yet.
So its highly likely that a large percentage of the people on the beach today are locals who have their own property in and around Lloret and like to spend their week- ends on the beach.

Lloret de Mar - Boat Trip

On August 13th at 8pm there will be a special boat trip leaving Lloret de Mar, the cost of this trip will be €20 and this will give you a return trip to the beach of Santa Cristina. Where on arrival you can dine in the restaurant on the beach, the cost of the meal will be a set price of €24.
Places for this event will be limited, I understand that tickets will go on sale at the beach kiosks next Monday.

Happy Birthday to Colin!

Colin from Gerry's Bar had his 60th Birthday this week, celebrated by 2 parties.
His birthday was 7th July and the celebration started during the day with a variety of sandwiches and chicken pieces etc all set out on the pool table.
Then yesterday (Saturday) was a massive BBQ out in the garden. All the meat was cooked by the local Argentinean lads who did a great job, and made sure that everyone was kept well supplied with food and drinks!
We all had a fantastic day out... thanks to everyone who helped out!

Lloret de Mar Events - Clon Festival

The annual Clon Festival starts tonight in Lloret de Mar, this is the 6th one of its kind. Taking part this year is the Kiss tribute band - 'Dressed to Kill' They are a British band, you can read more about them on their website HERE.

The next nights entertainment will be 25th July with the Beatles tribute, Abbey Road. Hopefully they will be able to finish their show this year. Quite a few of us went to watch them last year but they had to abandon the show owing to a raging storm. We all had to walk back over the hill to Fenals and got absolutely soaked to the skin, so good luck to them for this year! Here is a link to last years piece about 'Abbey Road'

The 3rd and final act to take part in the Clon Festival is Galetes Franklin she will be appearing 7th August, and is an Aretha Franlin tribute act. I cant find any info about her so I have no idea where she is from.

All acts will be on stage from 10.30pm onwards at the usual place down near the beach in Lloret

I have just received a message from Joan (see comment below) She has kindly taken the time to send a link for 'Galetes Franklin' My Space site...Click Here!

Lloret de Mar - Tour de France

Here we have another set of photos from today's Tour de France in Lloret.
After seeing the highlights on TV tonight it looks as though Lloret de Mar was the driest part of the race, they had to cycle in very bad and sometimes dangerous conditions owing to the rain for most of the way between Girona and Barcelona...weren't we lucky the lucky one's!

Lloret de Mar - Tour de France

Lloret de Mar had a huge honour today as being one of the towns to host part of the Tour de France race for the first time. The bikes had set off from Girona to Lloret which was a 64km stretch of the race and they were then making their way down the coast to Barcelona.

The roads were closed from 12 noon and the crowds started gathering well before in order to find the best viewing point. The hotel balconies on route were full of spectators, and everyone started cheering and waving as the riders came through....a very good atmosphere!

The first bike to come through was David Millar one of the British racers, this pleased all the local Brits and the many British visitors here for a short stay in Lloret especially to watch them go through the town. Some of which include Peter, Liam and Alex from Barnsley, as seen above!

Lloret de Mar News

Just three snippets of news from Lloret de Mar today.

The beach bars are to be given a complete facelift and renovation as they are said to be in poor condition after they have been used for the past few years. No date has been given just yet, but work such as this is normally done at the end of the summer season.

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A documentary is to be made by the Lloret council about the early years of tourism as seen from the viewpoint of women. They are looking for women over the age of 75 to take part, any volunteers! ?

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Finally, a reminder about the Tour de France. The Tossa to Blanes road will be closed from 12 noon until 4pm on Thurs 9th July, it will be virtually impossible to come into Lloret or leave the town until the road is reopened. Some airport transfers have told their clients that they will have to be at the airport well before this time no matter what time their flight departs - so it sounds like a chaotic day at Girona airport!

Lloret de Mar - Tour de France

Another new event for Lloret de Mar is the Tour de France which is to pass through the town on Thursday 9th July. The bikes will follow the route as above, coming from Girona and heading towards Sant Feliu on the coast. From there it follows the coast down towards Tossa de Mar and is said to be passing through Lloret on the main road towards Blanes at approx 12.45pm. More details can be found on the Tour de France site.

To any one who has no interest in the Tour de France will probably find this a huge inconvenience as the roads on the route will be closed, how this will affect people travelling either to or from the airport I have no idea. The Tossa to Lloret road will be closed from 12 noon onwards.

Tips For Staying Safe on Holiday.

A nice relaxing holiday not always turns out the way you intended. Pick pockets can easily pick out a tourist and know that they will always be carrying a nice sum of cash and one or two credit cards. Unfortunately too many holiday makers let down their guard too much and forget to keep an eye on their personal belongings. As a consequence this can sometimes lead to being the target of a pickpocket while out and about.

Your hotel should have safety deposit boxes for you to hire, these may seem expensive but you do get the majority of the cost back when you return the key at the end of your break. Well worth the cost for peace of mind and it can save you hundreds of pounds and a lot of hassle in the long run.

Obviously you have to carry cash around but try to keep this to a minimum, by leaving your passports, bank cards and cash in your safe. If you need to carry a large amount of cash then try to split it into different pockets, preferably inside pockets so your cash is not all in the same place.

For the ladies who carry a hand-bag, don't carry a flashy designer one that just makes you stand out in a crowd...this gets you noticed but not for the reason you want! Its best to carry a small bag which will just hold essentials you need, and make sure its always fastened. Don't hang it on the back of a chair if you are out in a restaurant or bar, never let your bag out of your sight.
If its a shoulder bag try to wear it across your body. Always carry your bag on the side of you which is farthest away from the road, or if you are walking along side your husband or partner then carry your bag in between you. This makes it more difficult for the bag snatchers.

While waiting for public transport always be aware of the people around you. If you have travelled abroad before you'll know that not everyone forms a queue as we do! As the bus approaches the bus stop, everyone crowds around, this is when the pick pocket strikes with everyone pushing to get on, their hands could be in your pocket or bag and before you know it you are on the bus minus your cash and the thief is still back at the bus stop waiting for their next victim!

Tobacco Price Rise in Spain.

This post has been updated to show the latest tobacco prices 25th July 2012.

 

Primark Comes to Barcelona!

At last Primark has found its way to the Catalan capital Barcelona!

The new store which opens today 9th June will be a massive success I'm sure. Primark has 187 stores in Europe including Ireland, Holland and many cities in the UK. This is the 11th store in Spain but the 1st in Catalunya.
You can find the new store in the Diagonal Mar shopping centre.

Click here for How to get there.

Happy Shopping!