A Weekend Trip to Spain
We took four days and went to the beach
Something I never expected to seriously say is, “we’re going to Spain for the weekend.” Ok, so it was technically a Friday to Monday trip, but that’s what I found myself saying to my girlfriends at coffee last Thursday. How weird to be able to take a quick trip to the beach in Spain, but that’s exactly what my family and I just did.
My husband’s family booked a week-long trip to Spain with plans to spend a few days in Barcelona and the weekend in Blanes, a beach town about an hour and a half train ride away from Barcelona. We couldn’t let an opportunity to see family pass us by, so we booked roundtrip tickets to Barcelona for the weekend, Friday to Monday. Our weekend was spent soaking up the sun on the beach in Spain.
While it was a quick trip, we packed in as much as we could. It was hot, so we didn’t spend all day at the beach, which meant we explored the local sites and restaurants. Our routine was to get up and head to a local restaurant for breakfast, explore the town a little while, possibly take a nap, hit the beach, and then get ready to go out to eat for dinner.
What you’ve heard about Spain is true, they eat dinner late. The earliest dinner reservations we could get were at 8:00pm. It’s also a culture of taking it slow and enjoying meal time. I don’t think we were back to the hotel before 10:00pm any night. The meals were delicious and eating a little more slowly meant we could make sure we didn’t get too full and always had room for dessert.
My personal goal was to enjoy as much of Spain’s traditional foods as possible in one weekend. I started the weekend off with a seafood paella for dinner, my husband had grilled octopus, and my son had spaghetti bolognese. His meal wasn’t so authentically Spanish but he enjoyed it. He also thoroughly enjoyed the octopus which was surprising to me. The highlight or surprise of the meal was a whiskey cake for dessert, which ended up being a slice of cake that the server poured a hefty shot of whiskey over tableside. My husband loved it. I ordered what ended up being basically ice cream cake.
Both weekend mornings were spent at the same coffee shop, Cacao Cafe, because it was delicious. Our first trip was filled with too many chocolate treats. I had a mocaccino and a waffle topped with Nutella and chocolate. I had ordered toast but was given the waffle. It was a happy accident. My son had a very decadent hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and a croissant to eat. My husband had a flat white and a ham sandwich, and we also shared an acai bowl. Day two was filled with less chocolate. Only my son had a hot chocolate and everything else veered toward the savory side.
After breakfast on Saturday morning, we decided to do a “short” walk up to a church in town with a beautiful view of the surrounding area. You may have noticed short was in quotations. While the hike up to the top was only around a mile long, we experienced a gain of 600 feet in elevation, most of which included climbing old stone stairs. It was around 95 degrees while we were doing this hike and there was little to no shade. Needless to say, we were tired and ready for a rest and snack afterwards. The views were beautiful though.
After the hike we went back to the hotel to cool off a bit, and then headed back out for some tapas. Somehow I kept ordering meals with one main ingredient. It was chocolate at breakfast and at lunch it was Iberian ham (a cured meat). We started with olives, followed by chips topped with Iberian ham shavings, then we had artichoke hearts topped with Iberian ham, a grilled shellfish similar to a scallop was next, and finally a flatbread topped with, you guessed it, more Iberian ham slices and arugula. While it was a lot of ham, it was a delicious meal, and we learned our 2-year-old is a major fan of Iberian ham.
With our bellies full, we headed to the beach for the afternoon. After some fun in the sun, we got ready for our 8:00 dinner reservation. This was our least favorite meal of the weekend, but it was followed by some delicious ice cream and a walk around town before bed.
Right outside our hotel each morning was a beautiful market filled with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, and other Spanish treats to buy. We didn’t purchase anything, but it was fun to walk through and look at the variety of offerings. It made us a little jealous because we don’t have similar options in Norway. It feels pretty bare minimum when it comes to fresh produce at the grocery stores in our area. We definitely don’t have outdoor markets either. We miss a good farmers market.
Sunday morning was spent walking around town doing some exploring just my husband, our son, and me. The others in my husband’s family visited a botanical garden. It was another steep climb in the heat, so we opted to sit that adventure out. Carrying a 2-year-old up a steep mountain in over 90℉ heat is a bit of a challenge. We found an outdoor restaurant by the beach for another tapas lunch. This time we had more olives, patatas bravas, ham croquettes, smoked tuna belly on a baguette topped with crushed tomatoes and flaky salt, cod fritters, and a small skewer of artichoke hearts with roasted red peppers, olives, and an anchovy. This may have been the best meal of the trip. The smoked tuna belly was so delicious. We followed the meal with a nap and then some more ice cream after a swim at the beach.
Our last dinner in Spain was at another outdoor restaurant by the beach. My husband and I and his brother and wife opted for a multi-course meal. It was reasonably priced and delicious. The meal started with melon topped with cured ham for the entire table. The melon was soaked in alcohol so the children were given cured meat only. Our first course was mussels. I’m not exactly sure how they were prepared but they were in a savory broth and also had a slight charred taste. Next up was a light salad topped with cooked tuna and a plateful of fried whole sardines. We had our choice of main entree. My brother-in-law and I split another seafood paella, which was better than my first paella of the trip, and my husband and sister-in-law had two different types of pork, one savory and one sweet; however, both were delicious. The meal was served with bread and finished with dessert. I had panna cotta topped with mango coulis. The children’s meals also included three courses. Our son’s started with a melon and ham salad, followed by chicken nuggets and fries, and finished with a popsicle. He mostly ate the melon and ham which was just fine with me. He also enjoyed some of our mussels. It turns out he is a big fan of seafood.
As mentioned above, the Spanish culture enjoys a late night. Dinners ran from around 8:00pm until 9:30 or 10:00pm. After dinner the last night, we went to a park that was filled with children of all ages. I was shocked to see the amount of children still playing hard that late at night. It’s quite the contrast to the culture we’ve gotten used to in Norway. Dinner is eaten early, sometimes as early as 4:30pm, and you rarely see children out after 8:00pm. It was fun to have a change in our routine for a weekend.
We had an eventful trip back home to Norway on Monday with cancelled trains on our way to the airport and delayed flights that made us almost miss our connecting flight, but we did make it back home. It was a quick trip but totally worth it to see family and get some cousin time in for our son.
