What you can see on the Pineda de Mar webcams
The first camera looks down from above the promenade onto the Platja dels Pescadors. A row of small wooden fishing boats, painted white, blue and red, lies on the sand beside a boardwalk, with the beach and the sea stretching away along the coast; on a busy day the towels and sunshades start just beyond the boats. The second camera is closer to the ground at the Platja dels Pins and looks across a wide, empty spread of sand to the water's edge and the open sea, where the size of the waves and the colour of the water are easy to read.
Both are live video with a wide lens. The date and time printed on the pictures come from the cameras' own clocks, which are not set to the right day, so it is the light and the people on the beach that tell you it is live.
Pineda de Mar webcam: the fishermen's beach
From high above the promenade, this town council camera looks along the Platja dels Pescadors, the fishermen's beach of Pineda de Mar. In the foreground a line of small wooden boats is drawn up on the sand, white, blue and red, beside a boardwalk and the paved path of the seafront; beyond them the coarse golden sand runs down to the water, with sunbathers and parasols along the shore and the sea glittering away along the coast.
It is live video through a wide lens, so the edges of the picture curve. The date and time printed at the top come from the camera's own clock, which is not set to the right day; the light, the shadows and the people on the sand show what the beach is like now.
Pineda de Mar webcam: Platja dels Pins
Set low at the Platja dels Pins, this town council camera looks out over a wide sweep of coarse golden sand to the water's edge, where the small waves break along the shore, and to the open sea and the horizon beyond. Footprints and the lines left by the beach-cleaning machines cross the sand, and on a calm day the water close in is clear and green over the bottom.
It is live video with a wide lens and the best of the two cameras for judging the waves and the colour of the sea. The date and time printed on the picture come from the camera's clock, which is not set to the right day.
A town of two halves
Pineda grew up inland, around the parish church of Santa Maria, consecrated in 1079, and the old village of Poblenou lay between it and the shore. Today the town of about 28,000 people runs right down to the sea, where the Passeig Marítim, lined with hotels and apartment blocks, follows the beach for its whole length. The weekly market is held on Wednesdays in Poblenou and on Fridays on the seafront promenade.
When to watch Pineda de Mar
Pineda is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The coast faces south-east, so the morning sun shines straight onto the sand and the afternoon light comes from along the shore. The sea is warmest in August, and the easterly storms of autumn and winter can bring big waves onto this open beach and pile up the sand against the promenade.
Around Pineda de Mar
Calella, one of the busiest resorts on the coast, begins where Pineda's beach ends to the south-west, and Santa Susanna and Malgrat de Mar continue the same sandy shore to the north-east. Inland, the wooded hills of the Montnegre i el Corredor natural park rise behind the town.
Getting to Pineda de Mar
Rodalies line R1 runs along the coast from Barcelona and stops in Pineda de Mar, a little over an hour from the city centre. Girona–Costa Brava airport is about 20 miles (30 km) away and Barcelona airport about 40 miles (60 km).
