Surprising Sitges
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- Cream puffs, turnovers, sweets and all kinds of bread for breakfast
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- Nine different types of meat and more at the breakfast buffet
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- Squid ink paella – flavored rice and seafood for lunch – main entree
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- First course for lunch – all you can eat (see little pot) seafood soup
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- View of town from the southern beach promenade
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- Is rollerblading back?
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- There’s a rainbow! (not a double one)
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- Narrow streets in the old town
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- View of the church from the town
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- Northern beach promenade – imagine outdoor cafes in the summer
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- Can you see the guy without pants?
Rather than stay in Barcelona proper for our chill time before the cruise, we head 30 minutes south to the beach town of Sitges. With small pedestrian-only old town, no high rises and some great views, it’s the perfect place to just rest, relax, and try to overcome the jet lag of the first day or so we find when we travel to Europe.
The hotel, as mentioned, has an amazing rooftop bar with great views of the old church, beaches, and the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was in the 60’s to low 70’s, and if you sat in the sun behind the glass windbreak, it was the perfect place to read a good book.
Morgan was still recuperating, so he stayed in the room while George and I got a chance to get out and walk north over the hill through the old town to the boat harbor and south down the beach. It’s low season, so we pretty much have the town to ourselves and a few other hearty souls in the 65 degree weather.
Many of those hearty souls were guy couples strolling and holding hands. I read that Sitges was the gay beach capital of Spain, but it didn’t really sink in until we ventured out. South of town, the beaches are broad and flat, but north of town the beaches are in little coves surrounded by cliffs. There are guys sitting on blankets together on the beach tucked in close to the rocks. A little disconcerting are the guys walking around with only a shirt on, no pants. Eeeek, must have stumbled on the nude beach. There are no families on these beaches, yet these guys are in plain view, if only from a ways away. And it’s cold out! Yet I can’t look away… does that make me perverted?
The walk south is much more family friendly, with people rollerblading, kids running in the sand, and dogs chasing each other through the surf. It’s a pretty place, with street signs on hand painted tiles and lots of palm trees.
One of the other tremendous treats at our hotel was the amazing breakfast. You could go British with eggs, beans, broiled tomatoes and blood pudding, you could go French with croissants, cheeses, and pastries, or go American with bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, and cereal. Top it off with cava (local Spanish champagne) mimosas, little cups of bloody marys, and a huge dessert bar with pudding, cake, pie, and chocolate mousse. Believe me, when we at late (cause it lasted til 11am), we weren’t hungry til dinner.
However, the hotel had a lunch special (and you can have lunch until 4pm), so I collected Morgan and we had delicious fish soup and squid ink paella, local delicacies all. We hung out outside for as long as we could before we retreated to hotel lounge to watch the lights come up.
Tomorrow is our cruise!
Practicing Travel 
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