Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava

Leaving Perpignan for the next part of our trip nearly turned into a “you can’t get there from here” adventure France is famous for (in our books). We had rented this Air B&B apartment from Victoria and had paid in full for it so we had to get there. Wendy and a Tourist Info gal in Perpignan persisted for hours (or so it seemed to me since they were doing it all in French) and finally came up with a plan. The tourist info gal kept saying “trés compliqué”.

We left by train to Girona, just a 40 min ride on TGV, then bus to Girona, airport, then bus to Lloret de Mar, then last bus from Lloret de mar to Tossa de Mar. Its not that it is a secret place with no tourists, just that most folks probably come by car. In spite of the multiple changes the whole trip only took about 3 hours door to door.

We were amazed and a bit horrified by the number of police at the train station, bus station and airport in Girona. Wendy was able to find some English news that the political situation in Girona and Barcelona has escalated with Spain throwing all the Catalonia separation leaders in jail. There are independence protests in several cities. We are hoping things will have settled down before we head back to Barcelona after next weekend.

Tossa de Mar is a Mediterranean sea side village, very much a tourist place. Lots of little winding streets carving off from the beach. It’s on a bay with a castle at one end and big rocks at the other. A beautiful wide expanse of a coarse sand with big breakers crashing onto a fairly steep beach. I always wade right in and test the temperature when I get to the ocean. Felt lovely and warm. The waves pull back with a strong surge and the sand goes with it. Luckily for me there is no picture when this happened as I sat right down in the receding water. Only got one side of me wet though!!!

Seems like we are hearing lots of German and Eastern European languages. Some English, Irish but not much North American. It’s off season right now, noticing many hotels closed until January. Lots of restaurants everywhere. Lots of places for coffee along the beach. Servers all seem to have English and probably words of many of the other languages spoken here. We are very pleased with our air B&B apartment. It’s on the 4th floor of an condo building, small but has everything we need and super clean. The owners left a bottle of red wine on the table for us and have been very attentive to answering any queries we have had. Very comfortable and we are just ½ block from the beach.