Falling in love (twice) in Spain – the first time

Our planned itinerary was as follows: Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday in Costa Brava. Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday morning in Barcelona.

View from our room

We arrived in BCN late Thursday night and drove the 1 hour and 20 minute drive to Costa Brava arriving at about 1:30 AM. Fortunately, we were able to sleep in because we were exhausted. We had a room with a most beautiful view! It was breathtaking. After filling our bellies at the breakfast buffet, we drove the 30 minutes to PGA at Catalunya. It was a sunny, somewhat warm day and the course was AMAZING. It had the most beautiful views of the Pyrenees, full of hilly lies, and very tight and tough fairways and greens. It was amazing. 

The 13th hole at PGA at Catalunya

Friday night, our friend Ned arrived with one of his friends, Brian. We had a nice dinner and went to bed early(ish) to get a good rest before our round at Emporda Links. The sun was up when we woke up, but by the time we finished breakfast, it was raining BUCKETS. We figured bu the time we got to the course, it would pass. And it did. We teed off at 11:30 and it was a GORGEOUS course. Beautiful views, difficult holes, and great company. We had a blast, until about the 8th hole. The 8th hole was a fairly long par 5 made more difficult bu the HAIL and wind that accompanied us.

It stopped by 9 and then started again on 12. And by the time we teed off on 12, we realized we had a HUGE problem. The hail nor the rain was a problem. The MASSIVE streaks of lightning (and the INSANELY LOUD thunder) made us feel a bit unsafe. Unfortunately, there was no shelter anywhere nearby. We managed to get off the course and walk towards a field where there was a little hut that we all cuddled up against for a good 30 minutes. 

The thunder was so loud I literally thought Spain, and more specifically Emporda Links, was getting bombed (likely by North Korea). When we eventually got back out, we finished #12, teed off on 13, saw the impeding storm coming so tried to rush, finished 13, teed off on 14 and the hail/rain/wind began again. We opted to go in. It was too bad and we didn’t want to get caught out in the open again with no shelter. So we made the 10 minute trek back inside. Cold and soaking wet.

As we were looking outside, we noticed the sun was coming back out and we made the decision  to go back out and play (admittedly, I was frustrated. I don’t like revisiting decisions.) So we got a ride back out to 15. It was a par 3 surrounded by sand and all four of us went in the sand. Wait, let me clarify..........all four of us ended up in water in the sand. We all took relief and then realized we had to carry the water in the sand, get out of the sand, and then carry a good 10 foot wide/long pool of water on the GREEN. This game just got a whole lot harder. My frustration did not subside. Holes 16-18 were three of the best holes on the course. It was at this time that I was happy that we came back out. I also played these holes well and evened out the match that my partner and I were significantly behind in, making these holes all the prettier :-) On 16 green, the thunder started again. By 17 tee, it was raining buckets. By 17 green it stopped raining, the sun came out and there was a most beautiful full rainbow. We made a pit stop at the 19th hole and had the most delicious Patatas Bravas – our new favorite of the tapas.

Saturday night we had a great night out at a seafood restaurant (I got steak). Sunday we were off to play Plata d’Aro. The views and beauty of this course were unprecedented. The course left a bit to be desired – a bit quirky, some blind shots, VERY, VERY tight, and lots of places to lose balls. I played HORRIBLY, but I blame the beauty of the course. I was so distracted. You’ll have to take a look at the pictures, but the pictures just don’t do it justice.

On the 7th-ish hole, we saw a great little community with gorgeous homes, a supermarket, this tiny little town with signs indicating it was called Hapimag. More on that in a minute. We had a wonderful time followed by less delicious Patatas Bravas at the 19th, but still our favorite of the tapas. At this time, we left Ned and Brian and headed back to Barcelona. On the way back to BCN, James asked to borrow my phone. He spent as much of the ride back to BCN as he could researching Hapimag. Turns out it is kind of like an ownership/timeshare type deal. You buy into it, you get a certain number of points that you can use towards weeks of vacations, etc. Over the course of the next day (until he got wind of how wonderful BCN is), he researched, diligently, places to live in and around Costa Brava.  When we arrived in BCN, we hit the executive lounge for tapas and drinks (where the Hapimag research continued). We decided to take a walk (it was very late). Got a bit lost and crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

Pictures from part 1 posted here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151545786939653.1073741826.755859652&type=1&l=6f1067480b

Up the next day and you’ll have to read the next post for that. Barcelona is where we fell in love all over again. Twice in 5 days.