Anyone familiar with trains between Barcelona and Girona? I keep reading about how easy a day trip is, and when I searched for schedules I get plenty of options for trains TO Girona on the day I want to go (March 23) but NONE returning. If I change the date by one week, still nothing. But if I change the date by two weeks (in this case 3/9) I get lots of options.

I was just checking another schedule and they didn't have schedules loaded past 3/3. I think sometimes in the past, they have only listed some schedules farther in advance than others. And you found some things for 3/9. BUt it doesn't make too much sense to me that on the same date, you can find trains going but not returning.

I see only one train going on 3/23 around 7 am, and AVE. The others aren't listed. So I suspect the issue is it just isn't loaded yet and/or it may not be a direct train. I'm sure there is more than one train a day which is why going isn't really populated well either.

www.bahn.de/en shows for now several high-speed trains taking 38 minutes to Girona and lots of regional trains that take 80 minutes - but bahn.de/en does not show only three trains for Mar 29 - like Christina says no doubt trains not loaded yet but don't worry there will be trains similar to now. www.seat61.com has loads on booking own tickets - general info also at BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Checking seat61.com is always a good option. Here's what it says:

• "When do reservations open? In theory, bookings should open 60 days ahead for all trains other than AVE trains which should open 90 days ahead. However, this isn't exact - Renfe loads dates in large blocks as and when it feels like it, often significantly less than 60 days and often loading some trains before others. If you go online and don't see the complete train service which you're expecting to see, and it's more than a month to go before departure, the chances are that all trains are not yet loaded. Renfe is particularly lax in opening bookings for dates after the timetable changes at midnight on the 2nd Saturday in June and 2nd Saturday in December when the booking horizon can shrink to as little as 30 days."

Actually, only the fast trains are loaded.
There are actually running 55 trains in each direction (AVE, AVANT, MD and Regional). I don't think that anything will change in the next 2 months.