Beach Day

We slept in today, and it felt good.  I think we all needed a lazy morning.  

We had been considering an excursion for today to the seaside town of Sitges, where there is an oceanfront golf course that looks beautiful.  However, partly because of our late start and partly because the boys weren't sure they were up for golf, we eventually decided to skip it.  So instead we walked down the Ramblas (which is the broad, shady walking avenue, filled with open air restaurants, street performers and souvenir sellers)  toward the  port and the beach.  We stopped to inspect the Columbus monument on our way.  

Laura took us to a place where we got GREAT sandwiches.  Sort of like Subway in that you can designate which veggies and other additions you want on your sandwich, but that's where the similarity ends.  These sandwiches are on crusty fresh rolls, the meat is grilled fresh for each order and the veggies include all sorts of delicious things.  There are also these terrific sauces that they squirt on your sandwich.  We all got our sandwiches pretty fully loaded.  We then took them across the street and sat in the sun on the steps of a very imposing post office and ate them as neatly as we could, which was difficult.

After lunch we continued on our way toward the beach.  The beach, too, was filled with vendors hawking their wares and services to all the sunbathers on the beach - everything from fresh mojitos to massages.  It was windy today but if you lay on the sand in the sun it was plenty warm enough to relax.  We spent a couple hours hanging out.  Some of us got our feet wet in the Mediterranean, but none of us went swimming.

After our beach outing, we went in search of gelato.  Our Rome habit may be hard to shake.  Fortunately there are lots of good ice cream places in Barcelona, so we had no trouble finding one.  From there, we wandered around in the old quarter (the "Barri Gothic"), saw some ancient Roman ruins from the first century, visited the cathedral, and finally made our way home.  In the evening, we went out to a nearby restaurant for a delicious meal of paella and other foods and sangria.

Columbus Monument at the end of Las Ramblas

Columbus Monument

Street where we got our sandwiches

Trying to eat neatly

Port of Barcelona

Beach scene

Sunbathers

St. Jordi (St. George, the patron saint of Barcelona)

Roman ruins

Wishing bridge

Inside the cathedral

Outside the cathedral

Paella