October 12 - Palamós, Spain

Well, we made it to Spain today.  This is mainly a fishing and beach town here on the Costa Brava between Barcelona and the border with France.  For the first morning in several days we didn’t have an early wake-up call because we had no tour booked. We’ve been to this area a number of times and have visited most of the nearby sights.

After breakfast we went ashore only to find it’s a holiday, the Fiesta del Pilar (Nuestra Señora del Pilar).  As a result most shops were closed and there wasn’t a great deal to see.  The town is on a broad bay with a long, wide and beautiful beach.  I’m certain in the summer it’s packed with tourists.

The beach in the distance beyond the little harbor

We did find a small Fishing Museum I had read about.  It’s not big but worth the visit to see the old fishing artifacts they have.  The centerpiece is an old gaffe-rigged wooden fishing boat.  It had no motor so it had to be rowed or sailed.  There was literally no shelter for any fishermen on board. They had to be a tough and hardy lot.

 

The old boat

A replica of the old vessel that goes out for tours

After our visit there we wandered around for a while.  We found a place to buy some stamps for our postcards from the last day or two.  We had a cappuccino at a café.  It was much too early for lunch.  Here in Spain lunch isn’t served until 1:30 or 2 PM.  We decided to head back to the ship and we’ve spent the afternoon checking e-mails, updating the blog and watching the little fishing boats working around us.  Late in the afternoon we could see two free divers (no tanks) diving along the jetty.  One had a speargun.  We watched as they eventually swam back to their boat and got out of the water but we couldn’t see that they had caught anything.  We wonder what they were after.

We found this lovely ham and sausage shop

We’ve been fortunate with our weather so far.  While it’s cool in the early morning and in the evening, the days have been very pleasant.  We have friends who passed through much of the same area just 10 days or so before us and apparently they weren’t as lucky.  They had lots of rain.  We’re hoping our luck holds out.

As I mentioned earlier, today is a holiday here.  In Spain there are so many saints’ days that are holidays that it defies the imagination.  I remember from my time living here as a teenager that there seemed to be a feast day or festival at least once a month. 

I forgot to mention that we as arrived back to the ship, there was a large group of ship’s staff next to the gangway.  A red carpet was rolled out and chefs, musicians, and a table with champagne were waiting to welcome passengers back.  This is a Seabourn tradition we’ve seen on previous cruises in at least one port.  It does make you feel special!

Welcome champagne

Welcoming committee