Whilst Barcelona has a fine stretch of beach, the town of Sitges a few miles down the coast has a really lovely beach. Barcelona's is a city beach and as such, slightly more hectic and messy than the beaches at Sitges. If the site of Barcelona's smack heads put your off your sand castles then it might be a good idea to grab a train to Sitges.
The trains are of course (being European) reliable, efficient and fast (double decker trains to boot). They run from Barcelona to Sitges every 30 minutes, or thereabouts, and as such you never have to wait long for the next one. With the journey taking around 30 minutes and for a reasonable price, Sitges is well worth a visit or two. We caught the Metro to Barcelona's main train station (Sants) – the underground is directly connected to the train station (which is pretty large and clean although not as good looking as Barcelona airport). This also serves as an airport check in, hence the large queues dotted around the place. Fortunately there are ticket machines situated within the station and if the English pages on the screen are not working (although they usually are) you can work out the destination and ticket type fairly easily.
A quick manoeuvre down the escalators and you're on the platform. What we noticed in this city is that people are genuinely very helpful and considerate (which becomes condensed on public transport). People of all ages will give over their seats to someone they would consider more needy of the seat (usually pensioners, women and kids) and it's quite heart warming to see. The difference between here and the aggression found on UK public transport is stark. I cannot recall the last time somebody would willingly give their precious seat up over here.
Sitges soon arrived at the train (as the relative theorists would say) and off we departed into this gorgeous looking party town. The winding little back streets reminded me a little of St Ives in Cornwall, although the town and beach front were definitely of a Mediterranean mindset.
Apparently Sitges has been a bit of an alternative party town for many decades (if not ealier) and is obvious on sight that this is popular with the gay scene.
The beach front is lovely, fronted by posh looking hotels and apartments and we might liked to have stayed longer into the evening. As it happens we spent most of the day on the beach, broken up by a trip to large, pleasant restaurant. Apparently it it nigh on impossible to book a room here this time of year and I suspect it's very pricey. But in contrast to the chaotic and large city of Barcelona this made a nice respite. There was a nudist beach a little further up the strip, but on this occasion I decided to keep my 'sporty, yet casual swimming keks' firmly slung around one's buttocks...one day I'll pick up the courage, although perhaps I'm not that 'European' in outlook after all?
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