Geoff writes: a day of sun, sea, sand and snow – unfortunately, all in the same place.

As promised the day was very sunny after the blizzards of yesterday, and the snow is already melting here. We decided to go to fly, and got to Santa Brigida, where the wind, and sky, was perfect. The only problem was that the slowly melting snow was gradually turning both the bottom landing and the bottom parking into a lake, rather than a field. We started to drive up, but even the paved bit was extremely slippy, even with the 4×4; also, we were a bit dubious about laying out gliders – especially the demo Artik 2 – in melting snow, with mud underneath. We decided not to bother, and went on a couple of km to the Niviuk HQ, to ask if we could keep the Artik 2 for another week, since we’re off skiing and flying tomorrow, and Judith wants to fly it. Fortunately, they said yes.

There wasn’t much snow at La Cellera, so we decided to go to the beach, at Blanes, a place we have never been to. But it quickly became apparent that we had wildly underestimated the chaos the snow had caused. As soon as we left La Cellera, there was a lot more snow on the ground, and as we got closer to the coast, we passed literally dozens of cars that had just been abandoned, and lost count of those that had skidded completely off the road, into ditches, etc. The trip was slow because we were stopped every now and again whilst cars and lorries were being dragged out of the way, and the snow ploughs were cursing drivers who had abandoned their cars, and not come back the next day to pick them up, making it really difficult to clear the roads.

Blanes was sunny, there was sea, and sand – and also snow, and big waves on the Mediterranean. It has a nice beach, but the rest of the place is a typically over-developed coastal resort, and a bit of a dump. We walked for an hour or so, and dodged the waves, so it was fun, but we’ll never go again – likewise for Lloret de Mar, a few km up the coast – nice beach, awful town.

By this time the cloud had come in, and it was getting a bit chilly, so we decided to drive home. Going back via Girona, we noticed there weren’t many lights on – and then heard on the radio that the entire city was without electricity. We then saw why – a number of collapsed electricity pylons had pulled down the cables.

As we reached home, the sun came out again – it had been out all day here – and the snow is almost gone, so here at least it is back to normal, i.e. the snow is where it should be, in the mountains. Which is where we will be tomorrow.

See photos of today.

3 Comments »