Side trip to Sant Cugat del Valles

Barcelona to Sant Cugat del Valles

Day 21 - Sunday - July 3
Starbucks is taking over the world! We are on our way to the Metro, which we took to the Placa Catalunya. This huge plaza had train stations below ground on all 4 quadrants so it took us awhile to find the right one, with the help of a nice lady from the Tourism Office. It was pretty easy from there and we arrived in Sant Cugat by 11:30. That gave us time to catch a snack, relax and people watch until Donna's cousin Ken and his family met us at noon.

Nicole with Gavin on her shoulders

Donna with Ken and Evan

It was festival time in Sant Cugat so the streets were full of activity. This is a traditional dance called a Bastonera. These little guys did a great job keeping their bastoners going in the right direction. There was music, the sound of the wooden sticks hitting each other in a very rhythmic pattern, and the crowd cheering them on....lots of energy filling the air.

Then it was the adult's turn.

There was a arts and crafts fair to mosey through.

Donna found her Spain earrings at this fellow's booth but Doug was more interested in his T-shirt.

Doug, Gavin, Nicole, Ken, and Evan enjoying an ice cream in a nice shady spot.

The tree was more than Evan could resist.

The local monastery

These are in the little museum attached to the monastery. The statues are used in parades. The black rectangle that you see even with Evan head is where they can see out.

There was also an exhibit of work where the artists painted a self-portrait which seemed to reflect how they felt about themselves. Some were heart-warming and some were heart-wrenching.

The interior courtyard of the monastery.

Time for the sunscreen which 4 year old Gavin applied quite enthusiastically.

Six year old Evan was a bit more systematic!

Checking out the local wasp, a particular fascination since he had been stung earlier that morning.

There was a track-like team game for the kids. This young woman was extremely patient and quite entertaining to watch as she explained each event to the kids.

There she goes again. She is a fearless climber.

There were about 60 women seated at these shady tables all making lace. It was fascinating to watch them work the intricate patterns.

These gentlemen were preparing to make that evening's paella.......now those are pots!

When we returned to the plaza, we found these groups of people preparing to do a Castellar like the statue that we had seen a few days earlier. It was a lot of work just to get themselves wrapped for back support.

Three different teams marched into the plaza, each in different color shirt but in this same formation. This is the local Sant Cugat team.

Here they are again about a half hour later successfully completing a seven high formation to great cheers. The top 2 are young girls, one of which is already climbing down. Cousin Ken reported later, "I wanted to give you some background on why the crowd and Castellers were so excited that evening in Sant Cugat.  It was the first time in the history of the Sant Cugat Castellers club (over 15 years) that they had done that formation (called an 8 x 4).  It was somewhat of an historic event in our little town.  There were quite a few write ups in the local newspaper and local magazine."

Alas, all good days must come to an end and this one had been so much fun. THANK YOU  Ken and Nicole for sharing your family, your day, and your town with us.

Beach to Barcelona

Miami Platja to Calafell Platja to Barcelona

Day 19 - Friday - July 1
We were up before most other campers. We took our breakfast food to the tables by the pool. This is only about half of  it. There was also a wading pool.

Tarragona left no doubt about where the bus station is located!

We found this statue of a casteller, a human castle, on our way through town. 

It was a great place to watch people and have an ice cream snack besides.

People really liked standing with these 3 musicians.

We saw approximately .004% of Andorra's cars here as well.

More Roman ruins on the way out of town.

This young lady was our entertainment during lunch .

Back at the beach. This sidewalk went on for miles. It is empty at this time of day but in Calafell Platja, where we spent the night, it was packed at dinner. We didn't take our cameras to dinner but should have since it was Friday night. A flamenco dance school from Barcelona was on the outdoor stage and people-watching was equally interesting. 

Day 20 - Saturday - July 2
We saw a couple sand castles last night but this fellow is working on a new one.

It was not quite a busy as last night but still a popular place to be.

This had to be the thickest cup of hot chocolate that Donna had ever had....almost like they just melted a dark chocolate bar and added a tablespoon of milk.

Still impressive but last night the dragon had candles in his nostrils.

We were in search of a bicycle store in Vilanova and asked this young man for directions since he was on a bike.  He and his wife didn't just give us directions, they insisted on guiding us all the way there, truly Angels of the Road!

Display inside the bike shop.

Doug did find some new gloves there so it's the trash can for the old ones.

We opted for the scenic route from Sitgres to Castelldefels.  It was narrow and cars were required to give bikes 1.5 meters of space when passing. We could almost go faster than the cars on the downhill sections. The train tracks are actually between us and the ocean.

It went up and it went down.......and up.....and down...and up...

....and down into Caladellfels.

It took us 2 hours to get from the edge of Barcelona to our hotel towards the center. It  is a  city of 2 million people and loves one way roads which kept us consulting the GPS on a regular basis.

Saturday night in Barcelona is a busy place too.