Tossa de Mar

We have thoroughly enjoyed our five days in Tossa de Mar.  After the previous two weeks of feverish activity it was great to get up in the morning without an alarm and with nothing to do but walk around the village, sit by the Mediterranean, and plan our meal in which restaurant.  We are fully relaxed!

We discovered this little seaside village, a two-hour bus ride northeast of Barcelona, over 33 years ago on our first trip to Europe together.  There are some obvious changes centred on the growth of condos and hotels but the village, fort, and beach remain essentially unchanged.

We arrived in Tossa without part of our pilgrim contingent.  Linda, Phil, Sam and Cheryl chose to stay in Barcelona and explore the city while Nola, Glen, Diane, Warren, Deborah and I chose the beach to recover from the rigours of the long walk.  We stayed at the Gaudi inspired, Diana Hotel, situated on the beachfront.  We highly recommend the hotel and the folks who worked there.  It is old but clean and located in the centre of the beach walk.  The staff could not do enough for us and put up with our congregating in Warren and Diane’s room for evening appys, drinks and laughter before heading out on the town for dinner.

Diane with Goddess Diana at the Diana's Courtyard

The Diana (Tall White Old Hotel Left Centre)

Two Views From Our Second Floor Window

Our days evolved into a simple pattern.   Breakfast in the courtyard, a little exercise (a walk of the shops or fort for some – a rigorous hike into the hills for others), some beach/water/reading time in the afternoon, predinner drinks, dinner & drinks, and the search for the perfect gelato for “afters”.

Diane and North Beach

Inside the Old Fort - First Inhabitants 14 Century

Still Looking For The Perfect Gelato

We did have two out-of-the-ordinary events.  First was a thunder and lightening storm between 1 and 3 am.  The sky was more light with lightening than dark without.  The thunder was continuous - literally non-stop over our heads.  The water rushed down the hillsides and flooded a few of the roads leading to the old town.  Secondly, we experienced a different side of the concept of "cleaning fish".  The guys paid five euros each to dip our feet in fish tanks to allow the little guys to feed off our feet battered from the long trek.

Ok Little Fishies - Do Your Work!

The evening before we were set to leave, the missing pieces of our group arrived from Barcelona for a reunion before going our separate ways home.  We had a great night sharing stories of the Barcelona and Tossa experiences, as well as reliving parts of the Camino.  All had a great time and the drinks flowed.  There were many hugs to close the evening, as Nola, Glen, Diane and Warren were to be up early to return home.  Linda, Phil, Cheryl and Sam were set to stay in Tossa for two more nights and Deborah and I were set to continue our trip to other parts of Spain for another ten days.

Reunion On Diana's Deck

Last Pilgrim Supper Abroad

Pilgrim Beardos

Pilgrim Princesses

Most often we don’t book our travel and stays much ahead of time.  This leaves us open to other opportunities but can also cause some minor panic attacks.  When we got up in the morning our intention was to catch a bus to Barcelona and a train to Madrid. As we enjoyed our breakfast, Deborah perused the train schedule and discovered that we could not catch the train we hoped for.  Disappointed, we quickly switched our minds to flying.  Our planned fast train to Madrid would have cost 120 Euros each, Vueling Airlines offered seats at 86 Euros.  In the space of an hour, we bought plane tickets, checked in online, printed boarding passes, upgraded our bus passes to get us to the airport rather than the train station, and were on the bus to Barcelona.

We flew Vueling to Madrid and caught a taxi to the historic city centre.  We are staying at the Hostal Luz for three nights and are within walking distance of the major historical attractions.