WIESBADEN,
Germany — “No comprende,” the driver said as he
looked back into the stretched section of his white limousine.
The tourist
asked again how much longer until they made it to Playa de Santa Cristina. But
her voice was muffled by the loud Spanish music blaring from the front of the
vehicle. The music flooded the limo with a vibrant and colorful experience
every tourist would expect from a trip to Spain’s Costa Brava.
The driver
lowered the volume and asked her to repeat the question.
“Top Gun”
played on a flat-screen TV by the driver’s head as he strained to hear a
familiar word from the English-speaking woman in the back.
A
mess of sounds. A frowning face. Then “traffic.”
He heard
the word.
“Five
minutes,” he said. “Five minutes.”
But the
woman was unconvinced. She watched as mopeds, scooters and motorcycles whizzed
past the sea of cars on Barcelona’s Autopista del Maresme — the highway heading
to Costa Brava.
Distracting
volumes of music, the occasional confused interaction between Spaniard and
tourist and of course the aggressive driving tactics of cabbies gives even the
smallest coastal town in the Costa Brava region a big-city feel.
The Costa
Brava stretches from 60 kilometers north of Barcelona to the French border
along the Mediterranean Coast. The
region with its white-sand beaches and warm climate is the destination of
choice for tourists heading to Spain.
The transformation
of Spain’s northeastern coastal towns from fishing villages to fast-paced
tourist destinations for people from every corner of the European Union has
created a new blend of culture and tradition.
A stoic
female figure stands erect at the end of Lloret de
Mar’s 1,630-meter beach. The monument to the Fisherman’s Wife — built in 1966 —
is a prominent reminder of what the small town once relied on for its
livelihood.
Today Lloret de Mar is considered the most popular resort beach
on the Costa Brava. And the town depends on tourism.
“I’ll give
you €2 off,” the Indian shop owner said as he patrolled his store’s aisles
offering deals on coastal knickknacks such as a light-up snow globe of
Barcelona or an apron displaying the cartoonish busty chest of a Spanish
senorita.
In the
central streets and alleys of Lloret de Mar
(pronounced “yu ret de ma”), tourists walk around in
flip flops and beach towels showing off their sun-kissed skin as they stroll
from the beach to the restaurants, stores, clubs, bars and little souvenir
shops.
At the
downtown Restaurant Pizzeria Garden a waiter hesitated to place the order for
paella for two American tourists (cost of about €12 a person). The flowing
crowd just outside the restaurant’s gelato stand was an instant reminder that
in Lloret de Mar everything new comes fast. The
traditional is a bit slower.
The
tourists brushed off the waiter’s concerns about the 20-minute wait for the
authentic paella de marisco — a traditional Spanish
rice dish served with a variety of seafood including oysters, clams, shrimp,
squid and Norway lobsters.
The
couple’s reward was a heaping meal served in a paellera
— a specialized shallow pan from which the dish’s name is derived.
Traditional
food isn’t the only hidden gem on the Costa Brava. Ten kilometers south of the
city is Playa de Santa Cristina. The Hotel Santa Marta has created a quiet,
family-friendly resort in the cove. Room rates are a bit on the pricey side.
But the hotel offers tennis courts and a private pool juxtaposed with a private
beach. The hotel’s amenities are growing with plans for a spa.
The hotel
caters to a different kind of tourist — the ones interested in relaxing by a
beach and spending time with the family — and the cost is more than one would
pay at a small hotel in the city.
In Lloret de Mar the beach scene explodes with fresh twenty-somethings all looking for the next thrill — a ride on a
banana-shaped inter-tube, a boat cruise, a jet ski
rental and more.
For €5
tourists can soak in the sun on a rented lounge chair or sprawl out under a
rented umbrella.
A favored
picture for tourists is the Fisherman’s Wife statue in the foreground with the
beach in the background with sunbathers appearing as colorful dots in the
distance.
The scene
is a nod to the past and an overview of the present. But it’s the stories of
the multi-lingual waiters, the pushy cab drivers, the traditional food and
gorgeous clean beaches that reveal the hidden gems of Lloret
de Mar.