Well the weather is improving which is great, but it also means that every Sunday it seams that the entire population of Barcelona comes to the beach at Gava Mar – which is not so great.


Unless you are here by 10am latest on a Sunday there are no parking spaces left anywhere (thank god for our garage that’s all I can say), but it doesn’t stop people from trying to find one. Up and down they go and then everything turns to a stop as somewhere is blocked and the cues form and tempers fray just a little, then comes the weekly honking of horns.


I don’t get it if you are in a cue that you can’t see the end of what good does it do to sit with your hand on the horn (especially if it’s outside my house and I’m taking the sun on the patio) – it’s not going to help you move any quicker and the car in front of you is in exactly the same position as you are. Ahh well such is life I suppose and a bit of noise is a small price to pay for living so close to the beach.


Hmmm the beach, I had forgotten what Spanish beaches where like, after 3 years in the Caribbean where they are a little more reserved in their beach attire going down to the beach the other day was, I have to say, a bit of an eye-opener!!


It started off ok, go past the beach hut and onto the beach everyone is having fun and is happy, then I notice child 1 had a bit of a smirk on his face “those women haven’t got any tops on” says he (well he is just about a teenager so I suppose this will interest him). Suddenly he’s all for a longer walk on the beach than normal - I wonder why? We are down by the water when suddenly in front of me appears a vision (or is it a nightmare) there’s an older guy sitting at the edge of the water clipping his toenails – is this a normal Spanish beach pastime? What’s worse as child 2 points out he’s completely “nakie” and then she starts laughing.


I look about to see if I have a stumbled into a naked beach part - but no there are lots of clothed (just) people about so we carry on. A bit further down we meet another older guy who’s energetically building a wall out of sand and flashing everything he’s got to the world – let me tell you it wasn’t pretty – child 2 is in stitches by now (he looked a bit upset by that) hopefully she won’t be scarred for life.


We where nearly off the beach on the way back home when we come across a group of girls all sunbathing in the nude and looking gorgeous – and that’s really the point of this post why is it that only older guys or younger women sunbathe nude – where are the young, fit guys??? There certainly wasn’t any where we were walking, not that I was looking of course – we Brit’s you know are very reserved!!!!