Grateful for all the Glimmers!

Our day has been filled with glimmers instead of mountains! ✨We had another wonderful sleep. The blackout drapes are extra nice because I have no sense of the time or if the sun is already up until I open the drapes. And, we are grateful we get to sleep in one more time here tomorrow. We will board the train to Barcelona ... but checkout here isn't until noon, so we are in no rush to vacate.

We enjoyed the buffet again this morning. We both had omelets (with the works!) and several delicious cups of coffee. After that, we only had two things to do today.
1) Find the tourist train that takes people around the town.
2) Find the best paella in Sitges.

So, we retraced our steps from yesterday ... starting at the marina and following the beach. It was so much quieter today. I realized it is Monday ... we have completely lost track of which day is what!! So, maybe it was extra busy on the beach in the cafes because it was the weekend?

It was so nice to stroll along the quiet promenade ... taking it all in with all of our senses ... for our last time. It took a while until we found the train stop despite knowing that there are "very visible signs" marking the stops. We arrived at Stop #2 and the schedule said the next train would arrive in about 5 minutes. Perfect.

Only ... no train came. We thought it might be running late. So, we opted to wait for 10 more minutes and if it didn't arrive, we would sit down for a drink at the Sports Bar that the stop was positioned in front of.

Well, no train, but we enjoyed a glass of wine and a beer. While we were sitting there, a woman pushed a wheelchair up to the table next to us. Within it was an older man (I'd guess in his 80s). She got him comfortable and then left. He ordered a glass of white wine, a BIG bowl of olives and the bill.

We were thinking how brilliant it was that he ordered the olives and earmarked it to do the same at our next happy hour. We chatted briefly with him. His English was better than our Spanish.

He reminded me of Opa in that he didn't seem to be enjoying his day ... despite the wine and the olives. I sensed this was a man who knew his best days were behind him. I saw some longing in his eyes as he was trapped in that wheelchair.

The staff all knew him by name. A friend of his stopped by and said hello and asked him how he was. He responded despondently "mal". I know in French that means bad. I suspect it means something similar in Spanish. My heart went out to him. I wish I knew Spanish. I would have loved to have chatted with him more and heard the stories he carries in his heart.

I have found myself wondering, so many times along our travels through Spain ... about the stories of the people we have seen in cafes about what brings them joy? Or, those strolling arm and arm ... where did they meet ... what is their love story? And, those rolling luggage bumpily along the cobblestones ... where are they headed and where is "home"?

I know from my work that the glimpse we get of people tells us nothing about who they really are. I would have loved to have deeper conversations with so many of them. At any rate, we wished this man a great day and he returned the well wishes. I sure do hope that the day brought him some unexpected gifts or glimmers.

It was over an hour and no train came by so we surmised that it must not be running today. We continued our walk down the beach to find a lovely market of tents with all kinds of things for sale. It was fun to look and see what everyone was marketing. We never spent a dime, but had great fun looking.

And then, the hunt was on for paella. I thought we had a reservation at 3:00 pm today at a place we scoped out on Trip Advisor. However, since it is so hard to keep track of what day it is ... I accidently made it for yesterday. So, we missed it. Gahhhhhhh. We decided to simply stroll past a number of options ... and ... check the rating on Trip Advisor before we went in. We were glad we adopted this strategy, or we would have ended up in a couple of 2 Star places.

Eventually, we landed on a really nice place which was rated a 4 star! They declared that they had the best paella in Sitges. They had several different ones, but I was drawn to the meat and veggie one. The fellows at the table next to us appeared to have ordered one and it looked wonderful and smelled heavenly.

They indicated that in Valencia (where paella orginated) it was always with meat and veggies. So, we ordered one of these traditional paellas and it did not disappoint. We also ordered tomato bread ... which was surprisingly delicious. And, we got some olives to start ... well ... you know why ... because paella takes at least 30 minutes to prepare! We finished up the meal with a couple of desserts because I was craving chocolate and the old boy wanted the puffed pastry thingy.

All in all it was a great meal! We were delighted to waddle our way home. So, we took the same route ... the one with 127 stairs UP at the end of it. After we got home, the sun was shining brightly ... still ... and even though the forecast was for cloud and rain this afternoon. So we dawned our swim wear and went down to rest by the pool.

It was much quieter here today too ... I think all the wedding goers headed home. And, now, the old boy is enjoying time on the balcony along with our laundry. We don't have a washer so we washed up a few things in the sink.

I'm headed out to join him and hopefully beat him at a game of Clever. I was anything but clever yesterday!! I need to redeem myself. And, we have leftover pizza in our fridge from last night if we get hungry before bedtime!

All in all ... as I said earlier ... no travel mountains today. Just glimmers of light that filled our souls with gratitude. And, tomorrow we are back to the train station and headed to Barcelona to enjoy our last three days in Spain.

With deep appreciation for our experiences today, k&j ❤️ Czytaj więcej