1980 Costa del Sol/Spanish Riviera (7/20/1980)

Sunday, July 20, 1980

Awoke about 08:00 and went to the original hotel for a breakfast of tea with melba toast and butter cookies. Went down to the beach following crowds of kids apparently coming from the train station. But the beach wasn't too crowded and we were able to settle near the water, which was shallow pretty far out. The water seemed the same as came from our shower – salt water which was really hard, and our soap was useless in it.

Spanish Riviera scene in Sitges

At 12:00 we had to check out of our room, but we could leave our bags near the reception desk. For the hour before lunch, we shopped for some provisions and sat in the sun. We were continually surprised by the lunch we received as part of our pension. We started off with antipasto: a few slices of various salamis, and a salad. Then came the paella and we were happy to have that served to us since it is supposed to be a local specialty. It wasn't full of shrimp and squid, but it did have mussels and clams, and chicken and lamb in the rice. We finished off our Cokes thinking that lunch was over, when they brought out a plate with a quarter chicken in a delicious tomato sauce. We picked our way through that. Then we had melon slices for dessert, fortunately thirst-quenching, then finished off with tea. We marched back to the beach after the nearly 1-1/2 hour lunch! We stayed on the beach for a couple hours, people-watching -- or rather, watching people who were people-watching, like the cameraman sneaking behind century plants to take photos of the few topless girls. Most folks didn't have much skill in throwing a frisbee. At about 17:00 we collected our bags and went to the train station. We boarded the first train to Barcelona and it turned out we actually needed supplementary tickets. So we had to pay the extra fee then and there on the train. I had to pay the hotel bill the night before half in pesetas and half in dollars due to a lack of supply of pesetas. After paying the cuchette fees and the supplemental fee, I only had about $3 worth left. So upon arriving in Barcelona, the first thing I did was to change more money. Then we went to drink some lemonade. Waited in the track area, and saw lots of interesting things, and got seen. One fellow gestured to railroad officials how he had lost his backpack, and apparently it was found in the lost and found. Another backpacker changed his pants right in front of us, and I didn't hear clearly if Kathy thought this guy was cute in his "bathing suit" or "beret." His companions were all barefooted and had black feet. Terry and Kathy sketched in their notebooks while Spanish soldiers wandered closely by to peek. We got some ice cream cones for a dessert following a ham sandwich and Fanta soda dinner. Finally it was time to board our train and a porter showed us to our “room.” We were the only ones in our compartment (“room”) when the train left on time at 22:30. But at later Barcelona stations we were joined by a girl and guy. The guy only stayed a couple hours and then got off the train. We were very comfortable in our cuchette bunks.

Cuchette ticket

Next: Madrid.