After a nice morning of relaxing after two long days of walking, we had breakfast and then checked out of the hotel. We had decided to walk down to the Mediterranean and check out the beach scene.

It was about an hour walk from the hotel to the beach so we decided to opt for public transportation and use the Metro to get to the beach. We entered the station and bought tickets at the nearest machine. It was a little complicated to figure out but we did it. Then we had to walk about another 1/4 mile underground to get to the line we needed. We tried our tickets and they would not work. We were totally confused but a nice guy said maybe we had the wrong tickets. Unbeknownst to me there are two metro companies in Barcelona and we had bought tickets for the wrong company for where we wanted to go. After getting the right tickets, we were able to hop on the Metro and get to the beach.

At the end of the La Ramba is a large monument to Christopher Columbus and I took a picture of it as I thought it was appropriate that we saw the Columbus Day on Columbus Day Observed in the United States. Columbus is pointing west towards the Americas.

We walked around the marinas and the harbor area. There were lots of yachts and at least one super yacht moored in the marinas. It amazing the wealth in the world.

From the harbor and marina we walked over to the actual playa (beach). There were a few of the traditional beach bars make out of cargo containers. We have a pseudo beach bar in Alexandria on the Potomac but it is a little more upscale than the ones on the beach. Stupidly, I did not take a picture of the beach bars.

We found what I would call a typical old Spanish restaurant with beach views but not directly on the beach. We had a great meal there. They had the typical cover where they put bread, olive and salami on the table and you pay for it whether you eat it or not.

The grilled sea bass was recommended and so ordered that. It was fantastic. You get half of the whole fish. It was a very large portion.

Latifa, our server, was very fun and super nice. She was very cheerful and checked in on us regularly. At the end, they serve an digestif (similar to lemoncello) which Latifa assured us was good for digestion. Jen had ordered a coffee and Latifa then brought us each a shot of coffee liqueur. It was very good. Amazingly, we did not get charged for the liqueur. A lovely lunch.

After lunch we headed to the train station for the return trip to Toulouse. I was surprised and not surprised but we had a passport/document inspection on the train when we arrived in France. We did not have one when we entered Spain. I had experienced this when we were traveling in the Baltic states last summer. I read that many more countries were instituting document inspections because the immigrant situation in Europe and the whole open borders policy of Schengen was going away. You do not get stamped but they are looking for undocumented immigrants. They did take someone off the off the train.

Now back in Toulouse for the rest of Jen and Jesse’s stay.