Saturday, August 22nd - Mataro, Spain

This morning I got to sleep in a bit and have a very long breakfast and did some blogging because it was raining.  By noon the rain had stopped but it was still very hot and humid.

Because it was Saturday, we went to the Saturday market, which just happened to be only about six blocks away from us.  There were lots of vendors with their tables set up and under awnings in case it rained again.  The market is on three streets, which are just closed down on Saturdays for the market.  The goods were mainly clothes and household items and there were a lot of people there buying a lot of stuff.  I bought some new insoles for my running shoes for 1 euro, a short-sleeved top for 4 euros, and three sports bras for 6 euros.  I figured I couldn't go too wrong at those prices.  And just to keep my suitcase somewhat balanced weight wise I did throw out some things as well.

From there we went back to the hotel to change and went down to the beach.  I took my time getting there and had lunch along the way in a small outdoor cafe.  Once at the beach I read for a couple o hours and did manage to get in the water once.  It felt cold at first but was actually very nice once you got in.  I checked the water temperature on line when I got back and one website said it was 25 degrees and another said 26 degrees Celsius so that's pretty nice.  The on-land temperature each day is between 25 and 28 degrees during the day and between 20 and 22 degrees at night so it's a pretty level temperature.  

The beach never seems very busy.  There are young and old people, singles and pairs, and even lots of families out enjoying the sand and sun.  I guess over the course of the day there are a lot of people around but the beach is so large (long and deep) that it just doesn't look crowded.  Topless seems to be quite acceptable but more women are covered than topless.  It seems okay to just change on the beach too so occasionally you see a bare bum - male and female.  Towels generally hide the frontal view.

I left the beach around 5 and went back to the hotel to shower and change.  At 6:45 we left for a 7 p.m. free guided tour of Torre Llauder, which is just down the street from our hotel.  Of course the tour was in Catalan so we just listened and picked out the occasional word and looked at the pictures and what she was pointing to on the ground.  Torre Llauder has ruins that go back to 1st century BC during Roman occupation.  Archeologist have been working on them for many years and there is still speculation on exactly what some of the ruins are.  They know it was once a villa of a very important person because of the mosaic tiles on the floors and the marble, stucco and paint.  There are private baths in the villa itself and public baths in the outer room.  When the guide started talking about frigidarium, tempidarium and calderium, even I understood we were talking about the three stages in a Roman bath.  

Somehow, through one of the inscriptions on something, the villa is tied to Gaius Marius (157-86 BC) a Roman statesman and general.  The villa existed right up to the middle ages.  We are not too sure what the Llauder connection is.  There was a General Llauder in the Spanish civil war n the 19th century and he was from Catalonia so we are guessing that perhaps he came back to build a tower or castle or home and did so on this property.  The ruins were not actually discovered until the 1960's so we also couldn't figure out what happened to his house - if he ever built one.

The tour was only an hour so at 8 p.m. we started looking for a place to have dinner.  We went to another outdoor restaurant and it was very busy.  We ended up both having pizzas.  They were a nice size but I really didn't need a whole one.  I ate it though so no dessert for me!  From there we walked back to the hotel and were in bed shortly thereafter.