Spanish Holiday - Salou

Tanya and I decided to go to Spain for our spring holiday this year - just because we wanted to see some of the country.  We got a good package price from our travel agent, Marina, in Dnipro.  She is the best! Travel from our village is no small thing.  Taxi, train, bus, airplane and then bus again to our hotel.  At least we didn't have to go part way by mule.  23 hours door to door going and 21 hours returning. Plane from Kyiv to Barcelona was 3.5 hours.

Costa Dorada

We stayed at the four star Hotel Olympus Palace in Salou, about 2 hours by bus SW of Barcelona.  Ours was one of 70 hotels in Salou and of 1315 along the Costa Dorada.  Our room was two star but had the basics, lacking only one more chair and a bit of room as well as a couple extra plug-ins.  The lobby, bar, restaurant, pool, etc were what one expects from a good hotel.  The food (breakfast and supper buffets inclusive in our package) was fantastic.

Catalan seemed to be the main language spoken, though there was certainly Spanish (and every other European language it seemed, just in our hotel). Signs and such were at least bi-lingual in Catalan and Spanish.  Catalonia is in the middle of a  movement to separate from Spain.  Centuries ago it was independent and has been at least semi autonomous for most of its history, including since the 1970's constitution and return to democracy.

Our hotel was about 400 meters from the beach, with the main walkway right beside us.  400 meters doesn't seem like much but the day we got there we started for the beach and in two hours got only half way.  We tried it again the next day and after three hours and little headway, I grabbed Tanya and we went to the beach.  Spain is noted for quality leather goods - shoes and purses.  The walk was lined with shops and we had orders from everyone for purses and shoes.  Masha is growing up - she asked for a real leather clutch purse like the ones her mother has which she won't let Masha use.

The beach is incredible.  Soft clean sand, no pebbles and shallow water until you are a long way out. You could rent an electric car-boat with a slide to go out into deep water.  Wonderful place for families, and families there were by the hundreds the May long weekend (May 1-3). Weather was NOT hot but reasonably warm.  We could have gone swimming but didn't think the sea would have been warm enough.  We were wrong - it was warm enough to swim if you were brave. Tanya said it was as warm as the Siberian rivers she swam in as a kid.  That would make it like a Saskatchewan lake in July-August.

A long way out to deep water

May 2 beach crowd

Kids playground near our hotel

So many lovely trees in Salou

Bottle Brush tree

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Tanya sent pictures of purses home for Masha to chose from

Mornings were foggy