Day 01 - Barcelona

Departure day! We looked forward to our cruise with Rob’s family. However none of us really looked forward to the overnight 7 hour flight. We stocked up our ipads with movies and TV shows for entertainment. Marcia took us to the airport since her crew were leaving tomorrow. Despite the outside chaos that is Dulles International departures, once inside we got our bags checked and through security smoothly with 90 minutes to spare. Our flight to Barcelona was on a 767-300. We jealously eyed the business class pods and their folding seats as we shuffled by. We settled in and left on time with five planes ahead on the runway. An hour in the air, Michele knocked over her water cup that was full. It splashed the entire left side of her pants, front, back and up the thigh. Not a few splotches, but full on embarrassing wet. She desperately tried to soak it up with the United-provided blanket, but whatever it was made from repelled water instead of being absorbent. The stewardess brought paper towels and, nearly two hours later, they were dry. Roy and Gwyn were seated behind us and were none the wiser, but had a good laugh once Michele told them. Gwyn told Michele to be thankful it wasn’t wine. For sure! 

Our flight was bumpy at times causing the pilot to tell the stewards to take their jump seats. Michele was in one of the few bathrooms inspecting the drying pants situation during an especially bumpy part. The lavs were so small that she had no where to bump in to. 

We arrived 45 minutes early and had a great view of sunrise and the Pyrenees.

The taxi situation was fun. Most of the taxis were Priuses. When I told the guy “quatro” indicating four of us, one driver looked at us and our bags and said “No! Es muy grande, muy grande!” So we waited for a minivan taxi. 

Getting to our hotel was comedic. Our driver was friendly and tried English, and I tried to resurrect my Spanish from high school. We ended up on the wrong street 30 minutes later. Both the driver and I blamed the GPS. The lesson here is that Carrer de Pallars and Pallars are not the same place in town. 

Roy and Gwyn’s room was ready early so we dumped our gear in their room until later. We were famished even after a yogurt and croissant on the plane, so we found the Spoon Factory a few blocks away.  They had ham and cheese breakfast sandwiches (the ham here is cured and more like prosciutto), a banana and very good OJ. 

We got two-day tickets for the hop on hop off bus, so after spending 30 minutes trying to find where to go to get one, we walked about a half mile to a central location and caught the bus. Ours had two 2-hour routes, east and west. We took the East route on Friday. It was a double decker and we sat up top to see the views. 

Immediately we noticed that most of the city gets around by scooters of varying sizes. Rob said some get 90 mpg so we can see the appeal. 

Our route took us to several Gaudi sights including in front of Sagrada Familia which was the one thing in all of Barcelona I wanted to see. Apparently one can also purchase underpants on the street if necessary!

We did not get off any of the stops and enjoyed touring the city with no effort, given we got no real sleep on the plane. The architecture here, Gaudi and otherwise, is so ornate and unique. 

Around 2pm we finished the East loop and returned to the same bus stop. There are restaurants on the main road so we found lunch at Tapas Tapas. This was the place for us, a large menu of small plates that are meant to be shared. No leftovers to waste, no huge portions. We ordered ham croquettes, meatballs with asparagas and a tomato salad. We also had Sangria and found it to be an excellent tonic to lack of sleep. The vanilla and chocolate gelato for dessert was even better. 

We walked back to our hotel and took a 90-minute nap before meeting Rob’s parents for dinner. Our dinner location was excellent at Colom and then we called it a night.