We then walked along the beach for about an hour into the city. There's a more direct route to the city center from the hotel, but, as per my earlier post, it's depressing and the beach walk was much more tempting. While the beach around the hotel is very laid back, as we got closer to the city, the ambiance became decidedly more elegant. The overly ornate building pictured here was the old Customs House.

The beach walk came to the end at the monument to Christopher Columbus, pictured here at the end of a palm tree lined boulevard. Columbus landed in Barcelona on his return from the New World in 1493.