Tossa de Mar: when a place calls to you.
It was our first night in Tossa de Mar and we were having dinner in front of the tv when it happened. Lissette: “a piece of my tooth just broke off!”
Of course it was a Friday night. I wrote our Airbnb host (a Cuban lady) and asked her if she had a dentist that she could recommend. She said she’d check with her dentist but that it was unlikely that any appointment could be made before Monday.
The next morning I got an email. “My dentist will see you”. It so happened that the dentist office was 2 blocks away.
That’s how, 20 minutes later, we met Juan Carlos and his wife. Both came to Spain from Colombia and with Lissette being Latina (from New York with Puerto Rican parents), we all hit it off.
The split in the tooth was the result of decay in a tooth under an old bridge. The bridge had to be removed and the tooth cleaned up and repaired with porcelain. Ideally, Lissette would have needed a crown and the dentist warned her that it wasn’t a permanent fix but that “you should be good for about 10 years. Just don’t eat too much Spanish bread!”.
He was joking but being serious at the same time. Spanish baguettes are mostly hard and horrible and speaking the truth about Spanish bread is something you can only do in non-Spanish company. Another horrible thing in Spain that we agreed on: Coffee. We’ve never had as much bad coffee as we’ve had in Spain.
The coffee conversation led to Juan Carlos recommending going to “Tossa Cycling”. Owned by a Polish friend, he supposedly has the best coffee in Tossa de Mar.
*Cost of Lissette’s dental work: 80 Euros. Not bad at all, especially considering the dentist and his wife came to the office on a Saturday morning just for her. Excellent work and Juan Carlos and his wife are super nice people. Their office.
The Best coffee in Tossa de Mar
Happy again, we decided to go for a coffee at Tossa Cycling.
The Polish owner, a man in his mid-30’s laughed when we told him that Juan Carlos had sent us “for the best coffee in town”.
Tossa Cycling is a bike shop and has some heavy-duty dirt bikes as well as high end racing bikes. We were told people like to come to Tossa for cycling: there’s a coastal road to Sant Feliu de Guíxols with wonderful views. There are also lots of scenic trails for mountain biking.
But the man also has a coffee shop in his store and he made us a couple of coffees which we had with a chocolate croissant. It was indeed one of the best coffees we had had in a while.
We started talking and, hearing that Lissette doesn’t cycle, the friendly owner recommended a walking trail along the coast heading to Giverola. He even mapped it out for us on Google Maps, including giving us a scenic route back to Tossa through the hills (approx. 10 km total route). The route here.
The store started to fill up with customers coming in for coffee. There were Spanish, a few Polish people and a few people speaking in Catalan. It was apparent that the shop was a bit of a hub in the community, a place where different people of varying nationalities came to socialize.
The Tossa Cycling website. I see the owner also does bike tours.
When leaving the owner recommended the same restaurant that Juan Carlos the dentist had recommended: Bocata’s. Owned by a Venezuelan, it has excellent food including vegan options. It’s also one of the few restaurants that stays open in the off season (as we found out, the Costa Brava is really “off” in the off season. Nothing like the Costa del Sol or Costa Blanca).
When a Place calls to you
We’ve lived in Nerja, Antequera and Granada. All three are beautiful places but none ultimately felt right for us. We don’t feel that we’ve found “our community” in Spain.
We don’t know what our future in Spain is, but Tossa de Mar called to us. We were immediately attracted by the community which was a mix of people from all backgrounds and nationalities. Everyone was open and friendly, there were no cliques. The town itself is pretty, and the surrounding geography spectacular (See this post: Costa Brava: the most spectacular coast in Spain)
We had planned 5 days in Tossa de Mar but ended up extending it to 9…and when leaving asked ourselves “could this be the place we could see ourselves living in the future?”*
*After 5 years in Spain and having gotten our permanent residency, we’re taking time to travel around Spain and beyond. Part of that is because we love to travel, but it’s also to see discover places where we could see ourselves settling in the future.
A few more photos:
It’s funny how things happen, how a broken tooth sparked a series of interactions and experiences that warmed us up to a place. We don’t know at this point if it will lead anywhere but Tossa de Mar has definitely made it on our list of possible retirement spots.
Related: Where to live as a retiree in Spain? Places…and comparing Theory vs Reality
Related: Nerja Or Estepona (as places to base yourself in Spain)
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