Had to get up early to finish packing and head to the train station. Took a taxi to Madrid Atocha station through very busy traffic.  The taxi driver, a very talkative guy from Poland, explained where we had to go for departures. They have moving escalator like ramps made by ThyssenKrup — related to the Thyssen museum people.

You wait at gates rather like an airport.

Our tourist class seats, i.e. not first class.

One stop at Zaragona.

We got to Barcelona Sants train station and could not find the regional train area.  We went the expensive route and took a taxi. It took about 30 minutes.

The owner of the flat was out of town and had a woman named Ana meet us. She didn’t speak much English so our conversations were pretty interesting. But we got in and the flat looked great — it sits on a rocky area overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

kitchen

living room

 

view from the living room balcony

looking toward Sitges marina

another view of the living room

stairs to the bedroom

 

bedroom

stairs

view from the bed

view from the bedroom door

door to the flat

We then ventured into the town of Sitges by walking along the waterfront path.

looking back toward the apartment complex

We stopped for lunch. We ordered seafood paella which was preceded by fried baby eels (we think), mussels and a salad. The paella was not as good as what we had in Madrid, but we found it very filling.

view from the restaurant, La Concha

baby eels?

vino blanco

We then went looking for a wine shop and grocery store, preferably two in one. Soon discovered that most shops were closed because this area treats Easter Monday as a holiday. Added to that, we got lost because we were going to get a map from the tourist information but it was also closed.

interesting stuff on rooftops

Bacardi rum building

hilly streets

We ended up at the marina area near the flat called Aiguadolc (with a cedilla under the c) at a small convenience store where we found milk and wine.

Went back to the flat to sip some wine and sit on the balcony.

the building we are staying at from the marina

these look familiar but I don’t know the name of these plants

We were too tired and not hungry so we made an early night of our first night in Sitges.