¡ Feliz Cumpleaños, Tomás !

My good friend Tom, whom I know from my off-roading/camping days in California back in the ´80's, sent me an e-mail which read: Hey Eddie, I’m going to be in Sitges, Spain for the entire month of September, why don’t you and Jens come out for a visit.   Normally it’s not so easy to just get time off from work when we feel like it.  We have to deal with this calendar/point system with deadlines and such with crazy rules.  It makes for last minute scheduling nearly impossible.   But I did manage to ask for some time off in advance in connection with my already scheduled free week.  In my department at work, our scheduling is such that every 16 weeks, I am off for a full 7 days.  Some guys are off every 8th week.  So, I was lucky to have time off to see Tom.  However, Tom was in a situation where his plans were tentative and I was not about to book 2 flight tickets until I knew for sure that Tom had his flight ticket booked. 

from google

As September approached, I was anxiously awaiting to hear from Tom because the longer I waited to book my flight ticket, the more it was going to cost.  I might have the time off but I was not going to spend a million dollars on a last-minute ticket either.

Then the good news came in and Tom told me his plans are settled.  So, I quickly looked into one of our favorite and often used airlines, Norwegian.  Which by the way – for those of you in the states considering a tour to Europe, keep an eye out on Norwegian Air – they have some great deals.   And I got lucky as the Monday that I had off, was the day that was the cheapest in the month of September.   https://www.norwegian.com/  Click the link and choose your language. But do be sure to bring your own food.  It's the worst and there was even a time when we couldn't eat a sandwich we bought on board.  How can you mess up a sandwich? - they do.

                                

At least we could eat it.

I was not quite sure from the start on how long I should stay in Sitges because I was not sure if Jens wanted to go or not.  I was pretty sure he was going to pass but he decided to go with me.  I was veeeeery happy about that.    But because Jens was coming with, I decided to shorten the trip from a full week to just 4 days.  Actually, it was 2 travel days and 2 full days.  That also worked out to be the cheapest day to come back to Copenhagen – Thursday.  Each day after that was more expensive than the next.

Of course, the deal was a deal if you didn’t have any baggage.  Besides my husband, I just had carry-on luggage. Are you reading between the lines?  This time we ordered wheelchair service in the airport and it was a huge help.  I was totally surprised of the great service in Barcelona airport.  Jens said to the wheelchair guy, “Take us to the train station”.  I thought maybe the young man pushing Jens would not find that to be so funny.  But guess what?  That is exactly what the wheelchair guy did; he pushed us to the train station.  Not only that, but he went up to the ticket window at the train station and told the ticket lady that we needed 2 tickets to Sitges.  He did everything but pay for them.  Once we had the tickets in our hand, he pushed Jens through the turnstyle and sat us both down on the bench to wait for the next train to arrive.   Wow – Now that is what I call service!

Sitges is just a 50 to 55-minute train ride away from T2 in Barcelona airport.  It’s a bit of an ordeal from T1 but soon the new metro will be completed making the ride easier than the ride from T2.    When you depart from the airport, you have to get off at the first station called El Part de Llobregate (you’ll thank me for this info on your next visit to BCN) and then take the R2 sud train to Sitges.   There are roughly 8 stations to stop at before arriving at Sitges.

On our first trip to Barcelona, Jens got his wallet and passport picked from his pocket which was at the side of the knee with a thick, heavy-duty Velcro closing flap.  What a hassle and what a shock to make a police report and get everything back along with a temp passport so that we could get home again.   So, this time Jens said to me, "Be sure to keep an eye on your wallet and don’t get picked."  I have my wallet on a chain fastened to my belt.  I think the chain is a deterrent and everything else is was inside my carry-on.  When we got out of the plane in BCN, Jens said to me, "Watch out for pick pockets."   "I will", I said.

We get to the station where we had to change trains.  Last time I was there it was an open-air station.  Since then, they have put a cover over it.  So now it’s an in-door station.    You get out of the train, go upstairs, cross 3 tracks and then down to the platform for the train going in the opposite direction of which you just came from.  (you’ll thank me for this info too on your next travel to Sitges).  Jens was nervous about the whole thing.  And we didn’t have a wheelchair with us which would have been a big help.  There were 2 other guys with carry-ons nearby and they must have heard our conversation or seen that we “new” at this.  “Follow us!”, they chimed in.  “The train to Sitges is over there.”  They pointed the way.  They seemed kind of nice yet at the same time, they seemed kind of weird.  I thought I must be in my LA self-protect mode to think that some nice guys trying to help us were weird.  But then when we got to the next track, we became more nervous because they kept saying, "hurry! hurry!, the train is coming."  Looking back now I can see that there was no reason to hurry at all.  Plenty of time to get on a train like at any other station around the world.  The trains come, passengers step out and then you step in.  What's the rush? 

This is the sky ramp from T2.

At the end of the ramp and downstairs is the train station

photo from google.

We were lined up for the door of the slowing down train and they kind of demanded, “Not that door! Come over here!”   So we did.  Big deal.  This door, that door - what's the difference?  Um.... the entire train is going to the same place – hello!   But ok, we followed them as they lead.  So one of the 2 guys steps up and in completely into the train.  The other guy had his one foot on the first stair of the train and one foot on the main floor of the train.  Jens was standing with both feet on the step waiting for the 2 guys to move forward.  It seemed odd to me right then and there that they kind of stood still for a moment and didn’t move further in so that Jens and I could come in.   I had one foot on the first step and my other foot was still on the platform.  Then this total bitch just came out of nowhere and pushed Jens into the train with her whole body.  My god lady! Take it easy.  We’ll get there. We'll get there.  It’s what I was thinking but kept my mouth shut.

At the end of the sky ramp and downstairs is this airport station

Then we all moved in and suddenly the woman went around Jens and around the 2 men with carry-ons and then in front of me to stand by the door like – this is MY spot.  That very instant I saw that Jens’ back pocket was stretched out and I could look into it and see no wallet.  “Jens !”, I panicked “Where’s your wallet!!??”   And it hit me like a flash and I blamed and pointed to the woman, “You took the wallet!  You took the wallet!”  She shook her head – no, and pointed out of the train to the platform.  "You dropped out there", she said.  And of course Jens and I looked ‘out there’ where she pointed towards the platform but there was no wallet.  And when our heads were turned, the one man said to us, “You dropped it there” and he pointed to the floor in front of Jens’ shoe and there it was.  I picked it up instantly and handed it back to Jens.  He opened it when I gave it to him and we could see that his €200 and credit cards were still in the wallet. Sanks godt ! - as many Europeans say. Then before the doors to the train shut, the 3 of them jumped out of the train in a flash of a hurry.  

I realized a few moments later that they were on their way to the next arrival of the next train to scheme on the next unsuspecting vacationers.  We were frazzled by all of this and it was all we could think of for the rest of the day and following morning.  I think it is only because of all the different things I have seen on tv about what pick pocketer do and how they do it that I figured it out.  But had that idiot woman just moved further onto the train, she could have gotten away with Jens’ cash and cards and just drop the wallet anywhere in the train.  The thing is, they will eventually be even better the next time and the time after that.  

to go to Sitges you have to change trains at the first stop.

to go to Barcelona, you just have to stay put.

I wanted to get a hotel near-by Tom’s rental.  In an early e-mail, he said it was just across the street from the train station. I thought that would be a good idea as Jens would have to cover less distance. Tom must have been surprised to learn that it was actually a 15 to 20 minute walk away from the station and I told him so after he gave me the address of which I Googled to see where we could get a nearby hotel.  Sitges is on a mountain side – not so steep but it’s something to consider when wheeling around a wheel chair.  So I ended up booking a hotel down by the water because the 2 mile-long beach promenade is flat and that's a good place to be for a wheelchair pusher.  Plus, it would be easier for Tom to come and meet us than for us to wheel around some up and down streets to meet him.  Tom used a website called Home Away.  It’s just like AirBnB.  You get soooooo much more for your money but we just took the easy way out and booked on Booking.com  You have to be careful using that site as they often make mistakes or the info can be somewhere between confusing to misleading.  AND! I learned the hard way on a previous trip, you should always – ALWAYS – confirm via telephone with the hotel.  Yes, even if you have a mail that says you are confirmed.  Now, that being said, Booking.com always offers their cheapest room first because it sounds like a deal - often it is.  The cheap advertised room in our hotel was in the back facing an alley with one small window.  It’s cheap.  But it’s more if you want the possibility to cancel.  And it’s more if you want breakfast.  And it’s more if you want a balcony.  And it’s more if you want a garden view.  And more if you want a partial sea view and more if you want a full sea view.  Get the picture?  By the time you find what you want, you are a long way off from the cheap advertised price.  Jens always asks, “for goodness sakes, Eddie - just book a room ! What are you gonna do – go through the entire list of hotels!?”  To which I always answer – “Yes”. 

So from 2 previous  visits to Sitges, I was aware of this one hotel called Subur.  I knew there was a pretty good chance that every room was going to have at least a side view of the sea.  The hotel didn’t really advertise the rooms that way on the Booking website.  They did have front facing sea-view rooms and rooms with balconies and rooms with city views.  Doing a through search and cross referenceing on other sites and my memory of the waking past the place on other visits, I was able to figure out that the balcony room did in fact have a partial side sea view even though there was no mention of it.  It is a long building with only 3 or 4 rooms facing the beach.  Everything else was along a side street.  But those are the rooms with the balconies.  It was the back rooms which nobody wants that had the deal.  And like Theresa May says: No deal is better than a bad deal. 

We were on the 3rd floor, second room from the back end of the hotel which made it possible to see over the city as well.  Had our room been more toward the middle of the hotel, we would look directly into the apartments on the other side of the street. (the above photo is from the net) The following pix are from my camera.

 Looking from balcony towards the Mediterranean. 

 Zoomed in.

View over the city from our Balcony.

I booked the room with balcony, no breakfast, and paid extra to have the option to cancel.  I received my confirmation and then keep an eye on the price.  The price of the room went down 2 weeks later.  So I booked a another room at the cheaper price and waited for my confirmation e-mail.  When it came in, I cancelled the original booking.  I saved enough money to pay for our first breakfast.  And guess what?  The price went down again so I made a 3rd booking.  When I got the confirmation for the 3rd booking, I deleted the 2nd booking.  Now I have saved enough money to pay for the breakfast for both of us for 2 days.  I could have saved even more if I made the 3rd booking without the possibility to cancel but we still needed this option just in case Jens could not make the trip for some reason or another.

Sitges train station - from google

Sitges train station  - from google

from google

The day we arrived, it was hot and sticky.  We got out of the train and walked across the street to a local restaurant called Vilalta Cafeteria to get a café con leche for Jens and I got a cerveza to help calm my nerves from that pick-pocket ordeal.   The shade from the awning of the restaurant was cool.  The beer refreshing.   I whatsapp’ed Tom to say we have arrived.  He came on his bike and met us.  It was so wonderful to see him again.  It’s been a long time.  He eventually moved from Los Angeles to Texas several years ago.  We have not seen him in Texas but we have meet him a few times here in Denmark and once in Germany.   

After a little chat at Vilalta, we hopped into a cab and 4 minutes later we were at our hotel checking in.  Once we check-in and unpacked, we went to get some lunch and more nerve calming medication at the café attached to the front side of the hotel.  Very nice view but horrible food.

Shortly thereafter, Tom popped by our place. Sitting on our balcony enjoying the view I went on and on again about the scene at the train station.   Tom felt so bad for us, he wanted to buy us dinner.  I said, “No way, we are buying you dinner!”  He said, “No way, I’m buying you dinner!”   I said, “OK.”

But seriously, is that not sweet of him to do that to try and help us feel better?  – wow.  You are a real doll, Tom. 

In the rented wheelchair, which cost a small fortune, Tom wheeled Jens to the restaurant that was right next door to our hotel.  It is called Hotel and Restaurant La Santa Maria.  I hope the link works so that you can get a really good feel of the place and the area.  You should be able to pan the photo left and right and up and down.   It's very nice. This is also the place Jens and I had dinner at for our 17th wedding anniversary 11 years ago.  Really good food and really good wine.  The waiter came with a long list of wines.  But I wanted the wine that the couple next to us was drinking.   “How’s the wine?”, I so rudely and typical-Americanly asked the old woman sitting there with her husband.  She turned to us and in her uppity British, said with a ick squint on her face as if to warn us, “It tis a bit sweet.”   “Perfect!", I chirped back at her, "I love sweet wine.”  She turned her face away in disgust.

“Do you want wine, Tom?”, I asked him.  He replied, “I’ll just have a glass.”   Well that’s no fun, I thought.  So, I asked my hubby who has pretty much given up on alcohol if he would have any wine if I ordered a bottle.  “Ill have a sip”, he said.  Oh brother.  “Well”, I said to Tom, “You insist on paying for the meal. I insist on paying for the wine.”

Then the waiter came back and asked, “Have you decided on a wine?”   “Yes”, I said and pointed to the bottle on the table in front of the ol' British snob sitting next to us.  “I want that one over there.”  ”¡Muy Bueno!”, exclaimed the waiter.  He zipped off in a hurry and he was back in just seconds with a bottle of wine.  He began to flip our glasses into place and I stopped him with,  “No, no!, “I want that wine!”  The bottle label was white but the waiter brought out one that was blue.  “Oh, I am sorry”, he said.  Then he went to the british table, pick up the woman's bottle, poured a few drops into her glass (her glass was full because she didn’t really like it) and took the bottle away from her table which was almost still half full.   But, uh...., I think that goes against the rules of Hospitality and Restaurant Service, as well as International Schools of Culinary Education.  Take away my bottle of wine and you had better be wearing a helmet.

Turns out that Tom is a lush and that we both enjoy a nice ice-col bottle of sweet rosé.  And it really helped to wash down some very delicious food.

After a full day of stressful events, we were exhausted.  Sunday night I had to work.  I got to bed just before midnight and then Monday we were up at 6 in the morning.  Taxi, airport, takeoff, landing, airport, train, change station, pick pocket, hotel check-in, horrible horrible lunch, unpack, bla bla bla and we were dead.

Later that night it poured down with rain with thunder so loud that the thin single plate glass windows of the balcony doors shuttered with the rumble of Thor’s hammer.  The following day – our first full day, was warm, but not as pretty as when we arrived.  There came a few drops in the midafternoon but not even enough to bother opening my umbrella.

In the morning we had what I can now consider “free” breakfast.  Then we met Tom for afternoon coffee at a gay café.  After coffee we took a little stroll around town.  Eventually it was nap time for both Tom and Jens and while they ZZZzzz….  I went into town to play tourist.  

Later that evening we went back to the same area but at the next bar and had a soda.  We chatted a bit and tried to figure out where we should go for dinner tonight. 

Just behind the table where we were sitting was a French restaurant.  The menu seemed affordable so we took a chance.  I wasn’t really sure about it.  I had a few doubts.  But for wheelchair convenience, it was right there.  I think we moved about 10 feet / 3 meters.

Before the menus even came out, 3 cold glasses of cava were set on the table, then the bread along with herb butter.  3 menus were placed on the table along with a hand-written menu of the day with options.  It sounded kind of interesting so we each ordered the set menu with options.  It was so amazing; they kept on bringing out more food than we could have imagined and it was soooooooo delicious and such good service with very friendly waiters.  Grat wine, appetizers, soup, main meal, side dish, dessert, coffee. It was all too amazing and all for only €26 / $30 per person.

 

 For dessert,  Tom ordered something chocolatey and  gooey.....  

I ordered something caramel and gooey ...…..

Jens got something fluffy and gooey.

 

The next day, our last full day, was a scorcher.  Full sun and wonderful.  After another “free” breakfast, I rolled Jens along the 2 mile beach promenade and we got a slight burn.  At the end of the promenade we sat and had a cola before our walk back to the hotel.  Tom came on his bike and met us.  Then it was nap time again and I had about 2 hours for myself to paly tourist again.   It’s a great place; nice town and nice beach.

 Behind us is where we are headed - to the end of the promenade. 

 Behind us is the city from where we started.

 Battel of 1642.  I googled it.  Too confusing to tell you about it, but a boat sank.  Such is war.

 Sitges is behind us.

 Zoomed in on Sitges.

Now we have reached the end - or so I thought it was the end.  It turns out that there is one more hotel after the one we were sitting at.  I whatsapp'ed Tom to tell him, "Come and meet us - were are sitting at the end of the promenade."  So naturally he biked to the end, but we weren't there.  We thought we were at the end but there was still more promenade to go.  Luckily it was just one more hotel and Tom was able to figure out that dizzy Eddie was not where he said he was.  Well...…. it was the end for me.

 A couple of homes along the promenade.

On our way back to the city, Tom biked back to do his thing,  When we got to the hotel, Jens took his nap and I went out to town to play tourist and snap a few pix.

I had just left the hotel after wishing Jens sweet dreams and this is what I saw.  I quickly snapped these pix.  I wanted to see what was going to happen when suddenly one of the gurls said something to me in who knows what language and stuck her camera-phone in my hand.  Uh...……. ok, I guess.

Then,  later this evening, the last of our 3 evenings that we were there, we met Tom at the same busy square at one of the other cafés/bar for a drink.  To get there from our hotel, Jens and I rolled up and down a few streets to look into a few shops before our meeting time with Tom.  Just casually snapping some photos, Tom showed up in one of them riding his bike on his way to meet us.  I didn't even notice but he did.  There he is in the middle of the pix at the bottom on his bike.

Having a drink at the café we talked about where to go and eat.  We told Tom we are taking him out for his birthday dinner and that we can go anywhere he wants.  We offered the same place as the night before but going to the same place twice was not Tom's idea of a birthday dinner.   He really wanted to give this chicken place a try. We passed by it earlier and it smelled and looked very tasty.  On-line it says to get there early because it fills up fast and it’s noisy.  True to Google’s description, it was what is said.  I think we had the friendliest waiter in all of Sitges.  He kept reminding us too, that we were his friends.  And he sure was friendly.  Dinner was not a big event but Jens and I managed to sing Happy Birthday in Danish to Tom.  “Stop that right now!”, Tom demanded.  “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to leave.”   When we finished singing, I said to Jens, “Hey Jens, Tom is still here, we better sing the song one more time.”    Tom’s birthday was actually the following day.  We told him that for his birthday, we would leave and give him his peace.  

Tillykke med Fødselsdagen, Tom !     

Happy Birthday, Tom !  

¡ Feliz Cumpleaños, Tomás !