Last Updated on 29 April 2024 by gerry

We were out the door at 8.45am this morning – a (not so impressive) record for us on this trip. We were catching the 9am train into Barcelona Sants to change onto an R2 train to Sitges. A couple more firsts for us there: our first experience of the big railway station of Barcelona Sants and our first journey on a double decker train, which is what took us to the seaside resort of Sitges located to the south of Barcelona.

Sants railway station wasn’t as daunting or confusing as I’d anticipated. The Rodalies platforms are arranged in pairs under the station and you can identify which pair to go to from the big screen with green writing on the ground floor. There are so many trains coming through here that it was a little confusing at first as we arrived on the R1 trains, because each pair of platforms have their own departure boards, which only list the trains relevant to those 2 platforms.

Once we got our bearings up on the ground floor, we had no bother finding our train and the journey to Sitges was over in a flash – it only took 20-25 minutes and stopped at just 3 other places on the way. The R2 railway line is built a little further back from the coast compared to the R1 and this part of coast has a different, perhaps wealthier, look to Maresme. Outside Sitges we were greeted by my friend Pep who lives in Edinburgh and is visiting his family who live in and around Vilafranca de Penedès, which is just 25 minutes drive from Sitges.

This seaside town is undoubtedly the most picturesque place we have visited yet. Between stopping for coffee, snacks, drinks and lunch, we managed to walk all along the very long promenade in both directions. There are 17 beaches along the Sitges seafront and the central beaches were much busier that the beaches we know in the towns of Maresme.

With all this leisurely rambling we were very lucky at 3.45pm to find a lovely restaurant, happy to show us to a table and serve us their menú del dia. La Oca was a great place, very generous with the vi negre (red wine) included in the 3 course menu. We got a little decanter for 2 as opposed to two small glasses of wine which is what we have experienced elsewhere.

After our late lunch we completed our walk along the promenade to explore the beaches and harbour at the eastern end of town and discovered a delightful little bar in the marina called La Tasca del Navegante to enjoy a final drink before heading our separate ways.