During our "guys weekend" in Spain we mostly stayed in Barcelona. But one of the days we did take a road trip to the city of Tossa de Mar, a sea side resort town about an hour and a half from Barcelona and about the same distance from the border of France.
We took a bus to get there, which ended up being a mild nightmare for me due to car sickness brought on by a hangover.
We had drank a fair bit the night before (as one does on a guy's weekend) and though I felt relatively fine when I woke up, sitting upright in a moving vehicle proved to be hazardous in the end. It immediately made me feel sick.
It hit me within 10-15 minutes of our departure and I couldn't even open my eyes without feeling like I was going to throw up.
I tried putting my head back to avoid looking downwards and I tried squeezing my wrists on a pressure point (which can help sometimes) but overall I basically just had to force myself to hold everything in through prayer and sheer will. My backup plan was to puke at the bottom of the stairs by the door if it came to that, but thank God it didn't. Needless to say, the drive was at least an hour and 15 minutes of sheer hell for me.
When the bus parked I was the first to race off through the side door. I ran over to some bushes to throw up and actually felt pretty good afterwards (as one does after they throw up).
Anyway, back to the destination. Tossa de Mar is situated on the edge of a midsize bay and a large sandy beach.
The sand wasn't fine white sand or anything but on the slightly more pebbly side. I actually prefer that though since it's generally much cleaner. It's nice when you can give your towel a shake and and not have to worry about tracking sand back into your home or car or clothes.
I had to be a little careful when taking photos on the beach because there were a quite a few topless women on it. Many beaches in Europe are topless as a standard, I think.
It was May at the time so the water was quite cold. We didn't go in but instead just sat on the beach for a while, soaking up the sun.
A little later we went to check out the old town that could be seen in the distance.
As you can see I took a lot of pictures of the walled Forte on the hill from different angles and locations, trying to get the "perfect" shot.
The towers and walls of the Forte were built in the 12th century and are still very well preserved to this day.
The first houses in the area were built in the early 1500s. Source for above info.
The narrow cobble stone streets were lined with old stone homes and buildings converted into quaint little shops and restaurants.
Needless to say, the area was quite charming with its historical old world feel to it.
There were at least two different restaurants up there with nice terraces that looked out over the old town and/or beach below.
They looked like nice locations with great views.
The old town wasn't overly large but there were definitely some cool areas to explore.
If you walk to the very top of the hill you will see some incredible views of other parts of the city,
both the old town and the more modern portion.
Even more impressive though, were the views of the surrounding cliffs and the sea.
It looked like there would be some great hiking in the area.
If only we had more time that day.
There was also a nice little beach cove located directly off the old town. We saw it from way above, up on the old ramparts wall. It looked like a more peaceful location compared to the much busier main beach atea.
We saw this old boat filled with flowers up there also.
I found it particularly pretty in all of its colorful abundance.
I stumbled upon this statue of a sad little girl while waiting for one of the guys to buy some souvenirs.
I couldn't find any explanation or meaning behind the statue online, so if you know anything about it please let me know in the comments.
You can also walk the ramparts to get some pretty awesome views of the beach and the city.
Like I mentioned previously, Tossa de Mar is a resort town and it definitely has that vibe about it.
The buildings were painted white and appeared to have a ton of character all around.
I generally like to take photos of rooftops of old buildings.
They always look so cluttered in a very interesting sort of way.
You cant really tell from the photos but there were a lot of nice looking restaurants and ice cream parlors in the area below the old town also.
The restaurants a few streets in from the beach seemed nicer to me than the ones located closer to the water so I would recommend at least doing a short walk through before sitting down for a bite to eat.
In general, I find that places locates along beaches and by the water tend to have nice looking terraces, but they are often much more touristy with lesser quality food.
They often make for a decent spot to sit for afternoon drinks but not so much for food at dinner time.
Overall I really enjoyed the town of Tossa de Mar and was really glad that we went there. That is even despite my horrendous bus ride experience. Overall it's a nice city with great views and nice beaches, and as an added plus it has a quaint little old town with a historic Forte with a lot of character and charm.
