An Eventful Afternoon in Platja d’Aro

After a brief hiatus, we picked up our travels once again and visited our 2^nd favorite beach town along the Costa Brava: Platja d’Aro. Readers will remember our favorite is currently Tossa de Mar, which we have visited multiple times over the last year.

After driving around for quite a bit in search of parking, we found an open “spot” in an undeveloped construction site. It truly amazes me every time I think about it. The number of people driving around looking for parking at any given moment is ridiculous. I remember reading about a statistic that close to 20% of cars on the streets of Paris at any given time are not trying to get anywhere, but are simply looking for parking. I would imagine that number to be close to the same for Barcelona as well.

In any case, once we parked, we decided to do a short hike. Most beaches in these coastal towns tend to be connected by way of a rough path weaving along the coast. These paths tend to be unpaved and quite rudimentary, with a LOT of ups and downs to navigate the changing terrain. We had probably walked close to 30 minutes when I realized my wallet was missing. It was entirely possible that I had forgotten my wallet in the car. But, it was also equally possible that I had dropped it/had it stolen along the way. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember whether or not I had taken the wallet from the car. Not being one to take chances, I opened up my banking app and conveniently canceled my cards from my smartphone. Unfortunately, my wallet also contained my driving license and other government issued IDs that can be a headache to replace.

We retraced our steps, leaving my phone number with local restaurants along the way in case someone happened to turn in a lost wallet. By the time we reached the car, we were soaked in sweat, tanned from the scorching sun overhead and tired. We had maintained a brisk pace during the hike back hoping that if it had slipped out of my pocket, we might find my wallet before anyone else does.

Much to our relief, we found it sitting on the dashboard of the car. We grabbed my wallet and headed back to the trail, hiking 20 minutes till we reached a beach we liked. We bought ourselves some cold sangria from a chiringuito (beach shack) and were ready to relax when we found out they were out of rental umbrellas and loungers. As luck would have it we had a beach umbrella in the car, but were too exhausted to make the long and tiring journey back to the car. Eventually, we got lucky and found a shaded area right next to the water and laid out our beach towel.

I must confess that all these mishappenings had left me a little grumpy. The Honey Bee, being the beacon of positivity that she is, kept our spirits up. Not even my grumpiness could hold out against her bubbliness and soon we were both enjoying ourselves again. She brought out her sketch book and started painting the landscape. Meanwhile, I sipped my drink and decided to take a little siesta.

It was a beautiful afternoon in a veritable paradise, with the sun setting behind us, our feet buried in the soft sand and the soothing sound of the waves lapping gently against the beach.

Day Trip to Pals

Last weekend we visited Pals, a medieval village with a population of around 2,500. Situated along the beautiful Costa Brava, you can walk through this picturesque village in 10-15 minutes.

Very well-preserved and still an active town, most structures here are small and made of stone. The streets are narrow and cobbled and you can’t help but be taken in by the quaint homes. It’s exactly the kind of place that comes to mind when you think of a medieval town. Everywhere you turn, you see beautiful arches, bucolic windows and stone balconies. I don’t think we saw a single brick structure in the entire town. Walking through, we couldn’t help but feel like we were on the set of Game of Thrones.

In fact, we were lucky enough to even encounter a small troop performing in the rustic town center. We saw dueling knights fight in front of a king, queen and other members of a royal court. They fought with their heavy swords and shields in full armor until one was defeated and fell to the ground. The winner was felicitated by the royals and rewarded. You might notice that the pictures are not up to the mark. The thing is that we forgot to carry our camera and hence had to make do with lower quality pictures taken on our cell phones.

We had lunch at a well rated local Mediterranean restaurant we found on TripAdvisor. We enjoyed some pizza and fresh mozzarella salad, accompanied by a fruity sangria made of Cava, the local equivalent of champagne.

Situated close to the town is the Playa de Pals. This picturesque beach, though fairly crowded, has been fortunate to escape the onslaught of commercial tourism. We enjoyed relaxing on the beach under our umbrella and reading. When it got too hot, every so often we took a quick dip in the water to cool off. Unfortunately, unlike some of the other beaches we have visited along the Costa Brava, the water here was not transparent. Not to say it wasn’t clean, but I am more comfortable being able to see through the water I am entering.

All said and done, we spent around 8 hours in this paradise and had a great time. We were also extremely fortunate to not have encountered any heavy traffic along the way and back.

Next, we’re planning on visiting another gem along the Costa Brava. More about that in next week’s post.

Revisiting Tossa de Mar (Pictures)

Recently, we had more family visiting and that gave us an excuse to revisit the beautiful Tossa de Mar, that I talked about earlier.

We had such a great time the last time we went, we repeated everything, including the restaurant, our spot on the beach, etc.

Only this time, we ensured we took a lot of pictures to share here. So, here’s Tossa in all its splendor and glory for you to enjoy.

View from the restaurant

Goat’s Cheese Salad

Mozzarella Caprese Salad

White Wine Sangria

Garlic Ball

Overlooking Tossa

Tranquility at Tossa de Mar

Since we have some family visiting, we decided to show them some of Spain’s beautiful beaches. We thought it would be nice to visit Tossa de Mar, a small beach town on the Costa Brava and spend the day there. We chose it because the Honey Bee and I have visited there before and really liked the place. Upon arrival, we sat down for a late lunch at a wonderfully reviewed Italian restaurant overlooking the beachfront. Just so you don’t underestimate how beautiful the view was, above is a picture I took sitting at our table.

This view was accompanied by a mouth-watering and extremely satisfying juicy mozzarella cheese salad accompanied with ripe bright red tomatoes and a fresh tangy pesto sauce. According to TripAdvisor, the restaurant is also very famous for their garlic bread ball, which we tried. It is essentially an inflated ball of thin garlic bread, larger than a football, topped with loads of olive oil and Mediterranean spices. I really wanted to take a picture to be able to share here, but I was too overcome by its delicious goodness. 😉

After some walking around, we decided to spend some time on the beach. Even though the water was nippy, there were quite a few people in it. As we sat there taking in the sun, perched on some rocks at the end of the beach, we couldn’t help but notice how clear and colorless the water was, offering an unobstructed view of the fish swimming around and the sand at the bottom.

Since we hadn’t really planned on entering the water, we didn’t bring along swimsuits. We waded around in the shallow water, with our shorts rolled up as high as they would go. But the Honey Bee saw how much I was enjoying it and shot off, only to come back a few minutes later with a big grin and a pair of really short swim shorts from one of the many beachfront stores.

The feeling of taking a dip in the cool Mediterranean is truly indescribable. As I stood there neck-deep, soaking in the cool waters I felt the sand move around my toes and saw schools of fish swim around my body. I swam around close to the shore, moving with the waves breaking in the shallows. When I got tired of swimming, I let my body float. The cool water on my back, the warm sun on my front, with views of the clear sky, I couldn’t help but feel like I was in the ultimate paradise. As I floated, I bobbed up and down with the tide and felt cradled, like a child being lulled into a relaxed slumber.

After spending probably an hour in the water, we got out and sun-dried on the rocks. By this time, it was evening and it had started to get cooler. We walked to a shower on the beach. As the chilled water from the shower hit my head, cool breezes of wind suddenly lashed my body. Initially, the combination knocked the breath out of me. I felt every pore on my body react and had goosebumps.

But as I stood there showering in the cold water, with views of the beach, the Mediterranean sea beyond and the sun setting on the horizon, I couldn’t believe how much I was enjoying just being there in that moment. I was overcome with a sensation of complete calm and tranquility. I took a mental picture of that moment and what I was feeling, all the while hoping that moment could last forever.

 

 

Edit:

We had a chance to revisit Tossa de Mar, and we ensured we took a lot of pictures to share. Click here to see the pictures from the revisit.