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.
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Diane with Goddess Diana at the Diana's Courtyard
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The Diana (Tall White Old Hotel Left Centre)
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Two Views From Our Second Floor Window
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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”.
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Diane and North Beach
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Inside the Old Fort - First Inhabitants 14 Century
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Still Looking For The Perfect Gelato
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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.
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Ok Little Fishies - Do Your Work!
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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.
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Reunion On Diana's Deck
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Last Pilgrim Supper Abroad
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Pilgrim Beardos
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Pilgrim Princesses
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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.
