Swim Around the Clock

We took a little trip to the Mediterranean coast this weekend. The hotel and adjoining private beach area were really nice, quiet places to get away from everything. Right next to our beach, however, was a public-beach scene that will need some help from the pictures for me to accurately describe. We were just there for the weekend, so we got to see it at its most crowded. What we saw was just unbelievable. When the locals go to the beach, they don’t just spread a blanket or towel out for the family to relax—they want tables, chairs and umbrellas. So the umbrellas were lined up in something like four rows—all crammed together, edge to edge—for the better part of a mile. There were thousands of umbrellas, each covering a family or group of people getting away from the city for the weekend. Well, actually, the umbrellas were protecting the grandmothers and the food, for most of the people were out playing in the shallow water. Swimming isn’t widely taught here, so only the waist-deep water had people in it.

I was out walking with Beth’s brother and another guy Friday night ‘til midnight, and there were still hundreds of people in the water. At Midnight!! Saturday morning, I went out at 6 to see what was going on at sunrise, and yep, there were lots of people in the water then, too. Not as many as in the afternoon, but still a ton of people. Andy and I decided that the thinking is something like: “We came up here to go to the beach and swim in the ocean. We can sleep in the city.”

Check out the pictures below, and tune in tomorrow for our adventures in public transportation.

Here's the beach scene at primetime, noon on Friday. The empty section
on the left is our hotel's private beach. They had two men posted at the
end of that green wall whose job was to blow their whistle if anyone
crossed over into our area. Judging from the amount of whistle-
blowing they were doing, it happened a lot.

Here's Lee Anna standing on a beach with no one within 10 feet of her.
I don't think that could be said for anyone on the other beach.
Here's the midnight crowd.

And here's your early morning crowd, although in all likelihood, these people did not get up early to come out and swim, but were still up and going from the night before. All those tables and chairs are for the beachgoers to sit in.