Someplace New

We stayed in Barcelona for almost an entire month and we knew we would be alternating our time off between beach days and city days!   This blog post gets away from the city and focuses on one of the best parts about BCN- THE BEACH!

We splurged for an apartment that was on the peninsula of Barceloneta so we had easy access to the beach. We could walk down before or after work, or go work out on the beach on a Saturday morning before heading into the city. It was a great location for us- a five minute walk to the beach and a 20 minute walk into the Gothic Quarter. We loved having access to such a nice beach within walking distance.

For those who don’t know, Brad is not the biggest fan of sand between his toes. He wasn’t too keen on the beach a few years ago but I think my beach-loving ways have rubbed off on him. He loves being in the water swimming, snorkeling, or paddleboarding, but he is enjoying the BEACH part a lot more these days too. He loved going down in the mornings and relaxing instead of running around like we do in some other cities. He made a comment once about how he would like to live this close to the beach and I knew the sand and the surf had officially won him over.

The beach goes on for quite a while and breaks into several sections. The section nearest to us was Barceloneta Beach, proper, but it broke into different names along the way. The next beach over was Port Olypmia where they held the beach events for the 1992 Olympics.

We were even in Barcelona for the Summer Solstice, which is a big deal to Spaniards! They hold the “Festival of San Joan” and set off fireworks for days and days leading up to the summer solstice. When the first night of summer actually arrived, there were costumes and bands and fireworks galore. We went down to the beach to celebrate with the locals and watched hundreds of different fireworks shows light up the sky. We sat on a towel on the beach and nearly got hit many times by all the people lighting their own small firecrackers off of their shoes, beer cans, or just piles of sand.

Barceloneta is a great beach that’s so close to the city center. There are tons of beachside restaurants (that can get slightly pricey), paddleboard rentals, showers and amenities, and an overwhelming amount of topless sunbathing. When you visit BCN, don’t forget about the beach!

As I always sign off with a food or funny story– I will leave you with two pictures from the morning when Brad and I attempted some beach AcroYoga. We aren’t very good, but these two images don’t look nearly as sad as the hundreds of others 😉