A few kilometres South of Sitges is the lovely seaside town of Vilanova i la Geltru. It’s quite a complicated name but don’t let it put you off trying to get there.
The town is, without a doubt, a lovely beach resort where you may be able to escape from the crowds a little farther up the coast. Take a pleasant stroll along the promenade, sunbathe on its beautiful beaches, but whatever you do, don’t miss the statue of Pasifae at the southern end. If you are lucky, you’ll get there before every man and his dog decide to sit at its base to soak up the sun.
The statue by renowned sculptor Òscar Estruga was created from three tons of copper and is a visual representation of the intriguing story of Pasiphaë. In Greek mythology she was the daughter of Helios and the wife of King Minos of Crete. Poseidon sent Minos a bull as a gift to be sacrificed but he refused, and Poseidon cursed his wife, forcing her to fall in love with the bull. The story gets quite graphic as she had a wooden cow built which she could hide inside and mate with the bull! The resulting offspring was the Minotaur.
Just imagine how the behaviour of the Greek Gods would have been reported in the trashy newspapers of the day!
While you are in town, you really should visit the Catalonia Railway Museum too. Here you can find my blog about this piece of Spanish locomotive history.
