That’s where we spent the day – at Malvarosa Beach.  I have been to many beaches in my life but never one quite like this one.  After a two subway ride, we arrived on the sun soaked beach which went on for as far as the eye could see.  High priced hotels lined a wide brick and stone walkway on one side while beautiful white sand ran about two city blocks down to the Mediterranean water. Walking in the deep sand was a challenge for our old calf muscles, so we chose the thin slatted boardwalk to make the trek to the water. Loungers and umbrellas were available for a price, so we rented them and chose our spot.  Soon people were everywhere around us.  Every shape, size, color and nationality of people come here for the warm water and abundance of sand and sun.  Two enormous cruise ships sat in the harbour not far away,  bringing even more people to the area.

The Europeans are not shy about their bodies as was apparent in all the topless women we saw and some we wished we hadn’t seen.  One thin elderly lady strutted her “stuff” down the beach, her boobs almost dangling past her hips.  Many large ladies did much the same, showing every roll they had.  The men were not much more modest with their Speedos leaving nothing to the imagination.  I did see some gorgeous male specimens, however, with their tanned, muscled bodies, glistening in the sun after oiling up……..oh, sorry, I went somewhere there for a moment…I’m back now.  Where was I?  Oh yes, every kind of body was at the beach and there was Joey and me in our capris, t-shirts,and sandals.  Probably more people were talking about US than we were about THEM!

We took a walk around some of the gorgeous hotels before stopping for lunch and then heading back to the subway and home.  It was truly a relaxing day at the beach.

While we were on the subway, a little boy of about 5 or so, was jumping around, squirming wildly and his mother was trying to keep him still.  The subway car stopped and two very tall, serious policemen boarded and the little boy immediately sat still in his chair, hardly moving and looking scared until the officers got off 2 stops later.  The squirming commenced again.

The subway is still confusing to us.  We get on at one station, head to our destination, get on again to come back and get off at what we think is the same station.  When we come up to street level, we are not where we think we should be and it takes us a while to get oriented again.  I’ve looked at maps and can’t quite figure it out.  We need to pay more attention I guess. We certainly have been all over the city, though, and haven’t yet had to call a taxi to get us home.  We are quite proud of that fact!

The humidity today was 55%, the highest since we’ve been here.  We decided this morning to walk to a market we had been told about but we couldn’t stay out in the heat and humidity for long so we bought a few things and headed home.  Our strength was zapped, my shirt soaked through and I dripped sweat from my chin and probably my ears, certainly from every other pore.  And then, the deadly stairs which we have come to hate after a day on our feet, and, with the added humidity,was almost too much for us.  We had to take many rests on the way up.  We are staying indoors the rest of the afternoon with our very much appreciated air conditioning and maybe will head out after dinner as we haven’t explored our neighbourhood at night.  But then we have to do the dreaded stairs again!