Jesse here, writing from the night bus to Carcassone. Verizon sent me a text welcoming me to France, so I guess we’ve crossed the border. Sean and I are already making plans to spend a summer in Barcelona once the kids grow up. We loved it immensely.
We all ran out to a bakery down the street for breakfast this morning (top notch pastries), bought a baguette for the beach, and packed all our bags. We then checked out of our place and took the Metro to the bus station where we stashed our luggage in a locker all day.
Then we headed to Bogatell Beach. It was the hottest day of our stay, so the water was extra appreciated. The cold, clear, salty water is really amazing, and sort of unbelievably clean for being next to a giant, densely-packed city.
In fact, the kids we’re having do much fun, they decided they didn’t need to return to scorching Montjuic for today’s stage.
I mean, the water was so beautiful! It felt like silk. You could be ten feet deep and see the bottom as clear as could be. And everyone at the crowded beach was just SO chill.
But of course, we eventually got hungry. We had a funny moment on the bus because I got off at the stop, not realizing Bo had dozed off (on a 11-minute ride). I confidently hopped off, only to turn around as the bus pulled away with my family still on it!
I caught them at a stoplight and River conveyed through the window that the driver wouldn’t let them off until the next stop.
We all had a good laugh since it all worked out, and actually ended up recognizing the hands of fate because at the stop where they DID get off we saw a cute restaurant and on a whim decided this was the place for our last meal in Spain.
It ended up being one of our favorite meals of the trip!
And we watched the last part of the stage live on my phone! It was a really sweet afternoon.
You want to know something funny? As a family, we made a fantasy bike team in the Tour de France app. Now unlike many people, we did NOT buy in (add our own money to get “better@ riders), we used the default “budget” anyone can do for free. So after two stages, where do you think our fantasy team stands in the rankings?
Well, salty, sun-logged, and full, we staggered to a park next to the bus station to wait in the shade for our 7:30pm FlixBus to France.
The bus is actually pretty great. No stressed out parent drivers, no need to navigate. Just chilling in the very back row listening to French lessons and taking pictures out the windows.
Then people’s phones started honking scary alert sounds as we passed by smoke evidence of the huge wildfires blazing in the Girona region!
Then folks started falling asleep, and now it’s completely dark, save for the glow of a few phones.
Our ticket says we’re 45 minutes from arriving at our destination, but I think we’re closer.
The plan is to taxi to our place since we don’t fancy a 25-minute walk in the dark with packs and the buses are done for the night. I might come back and add some photos of the medieval citadel lit up in the dark!
Leave a Reply