Beach day

The sun came back out today and we went to the beach. A couple of times.

We started off this morning by buying a train ticket for a day trip to the nearby beach resort town of Sitges. We weren't really planning on swimming or sunbathing, but just wanted to get out of the city a bit and see some of the coastline.

The town of Sitges is one of those Mediterranean towns that is part medieval fishing village and part beach resort.  For years the City of Barcelona's shoreline was polluted and industrialized.  During that time, when you wanted to go to the beach, you caught the train to Sitges. (Barcelona has since cleaned up it's beaches--but more about that later.) Later, Sitges gained popularity among the gay community as the place to vacation on the Spanish coast. That would explain all the pairs of well groomed men we saw there today.

The town and its beaches are very nice, complete with tangled old streets and a church on the hill overlooking the beach promenade. We waded and later chilled out in the shade of a palm tree while Hal sketched the beach scene.

After lunch at an Indian place and a stroll of the town we decided to head back to Barcelona.  Getting around here is so easy. The trains run all day, several to the hour. It is so cool to be able to hop on a train and in 40 minutes be from rural village Catalonia back to the center of the city.

Because it was so nice when we got back we decided to check out Barcelona's beach scene. Barceloneta was the city's run down waterfront quarter prior to the 1992 Olympics.  In preparation for the games, the city cleaned up all its abandoned factories and dilapidated waterfront. They built--yes literately built--new beaches along the waterfront by hauling in huge amounts of sand. They created the Olympic Village to house the athletes and new transportation infrastructure to reconnect the area with the city and the sites for the games.

As a result, Barcelona's beaches are now a source of pride for the city and are very well used. We walked the whole length of the waterfront area, probably a couple miles and it was jammed packed with sun worshipers, bikers, strollers, and joggers all on a Monday afternoon.

On a completely unrelated topic, they really like their jamon (ham)  here. Today we say this advertisement (photo below).  If you're a ham lover and just need a fix while strolling down Las Ramblas, this is the place for you. Mmmmmm--a great big cone of ham. Think I'll stick with the ice cream.