Barcelona Day 1

This whole uploading photo thing is taking some serious time so it's going to be a bit till the photos can be added.

Anyway, I can't believe I'm finally almost caught up on my posts.

This morning Jean-Pierre & his wife, Lisette, were kind enough to let me tag along with them back to the Malaga airport.  We left the hotel at 7am & took a slight wrong turn but it worked out because we had a gorgeous drive up the coast just as the sun was rising & we still got to the airport in plenty of time.  I think it is truly one of those images I may never forget.

For anyone that's ever flown with me it shouldn't come to any surprise but I think I have successfully fallen asleep on every single flight (4 of them) thus far before take off.  Once I got my luggage I stopped at the TI to get my Barcelona Card.  The card is very similar to the Chicago Pass or whatever it's called but it has some sites with free admission & others with just a discount on admission but it also includes transit.  I was still trying to decide if I was going to take transit from the airport to my hotel as my stop was literally across the street from my hotel & besides living in Chicago I can handle transit even with my over 50 lb suitcase.  Keep in mind it had gained at least a lb due to Sophia's very thoughtful welcome bags.

So I thought I'll be smart about this & ask the TI representative if there are escalators/moving walkways/elevators at each stop.  She said yes & now I call her a liar!!  The escalators were all only going up not also going down so today I have built up my biceps but by the end of it I was pretty rough on my luggage.  I started on the shuttle bus that takes you to the train which is the gray line. From the gray line you have to transfer to the blue line & from there you transfer to the yellow/orange line.  Wouldn't have been near as bad with the promised escalators/moving walkways/elevators but as I mentioned I didn't really have those.  Nonetheless, I was determined & I made it eventually.  I got off the Metro & walked across the street to my hotel where I was greeted with a glass of Cava (champagne) & it did make the pain go away.  I took the itty bitty elevator up to the top floor - don't think I'm rolling in the penthouse because I could fit my room in my living room sans kitchen & hallway & possibly have some room left over.  See attached photos.  Another weird thing about elevators over here besides being very small is that when you press the buttons the light flashes instead of staying lit until it gets there.

I took photos of my room; photos are attached.  Mom, you'd be proud for both hotels I've made sure to do it before I put my stuff everywhere & mess up the room.  Due to the size of my room the photos didn't take long; it took longer trying to figure out where to put all my stuff.

Then it was time for lunch.  Due to the lateness of the day I had no plan other than to wander around & try to figure out the city.  I have a pretty good sense of direction but there were definitely times I got a bit confused.  Don't worry Mom I wasn't anywhere dangerous.  I started out by looking for a place for lunch & came across a place with a little outside patio called Picnic.  I had fried green tomatoes, with feta cheese & a corn & tomato salsa; prawns & some pancake/blini/crab thing that I just realized I forgot to take take a photo of but here's the tomato & prawns.

After that I wandered over to the Parc de La Ciutadella.  There I took random photos of buildings, flowers, an enormous fountain, statues & other things.  Today was National Catalan Day in Barcelona so people were out celebrating everywhere.  If the people weren't wearing shirts that were based on their flags then they were usually wearing flags like capes or literally carrying huge flags on sticks.  The police were out everywhere but I never saw anything even come close to getting out of control.

I saw a lot of dogs out & about with their owners making me miss little Ollie even more.  The majority of the dogs weren't even leashed & they stayed right with their owners.  I did get a very special treat today though.  Once a year the Parliament building opens it doors for tours & I happened to be in the right place at the right time so I was able to walk through it.  After that I saw the Santa Maria del Mar while Mass was going on & it was exquisite.  I also saw the Palau de la Musica Catalana which had a really pretty facade.

It was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  I went to a place called Taller de Tapas that had been recommended to me by a couple of people.  I started with octopus with smoked paprika & olive oil, roasted/fried hot peppers (Dad, they weren't spicy but had good flavor), bread with olive oil & tomato, ham & cheese croquettes & NCC girls for dessert I had a little bowl of mixed olives. Here's a photo & yes they were SO yummy.  Dad I attached a photo of the peppers too.  Here's the deal with the peppers they're considered Culinary Russian Roulette because some are sweet & some are spicy so you never know what you're going to get.  After that I came back to the hotel so I could finish these posts & plan my day for tomorrow.  It looks like it's going to be a Gaudi day...