Jenn's Doings: Barcelona

Day 1 – We made it. It was a close call, but we did it.

Our flights were with Air Canada and I’ve been worried since the day we got them about our layover time. We flew into Toronto and had to go through a security check there. We only had 1 hour 15 minutes to get off the plane, through customs and to the other side of the airport. Even if we left on time I thought we had a low percentage of actually making it.

Well, Air Canada confirmed their reputation of always being delayed and we left Seattle 45 minutes late. You can imagine I was anxious as all get out. Turns out though, these two ladies in the seats in front of me were also going to Barcelona and on our cruise. By the time we got off the plane we had to hit the ground running. And you all know me and I don’t run.

As we finally got off the gangway and were officially in run mode. One of the gals that we met stopped a guy in one of those carts you see in the airport and asked him if he could take us to the E gates. He said hop on.

Off we went. And I gotta tell ya, if we had not, we would not have made our plane. It was already boarding and we stood for like 5 minutes before they called our zone.

Phew. Safe and sound, and a little sweaty, the rest of the flight was uneventful.

We landed in Barcelona, found our driver and were off to Hotel Gaudi.

We stayed in Hotel Gaudi last time we were in Barcelona and loved it so much we figured we might as well stay again. Prices have gone up significantly. Plus, the room we got was a bit more expensive. We were on the top floor, and we had a terrace.

It was a great hotel. The view from our terrace looked down on the Palau Gaudi roof which has several “Gaudi” style statues.

We didn’t really have any plans for the day we arrived, so we dropped off our suitcases and went in search of lunch. Hotel Gaudi is on Las Ramblas which is a major (and touristy) walking street. Its tree lined walkways are covered with restaurants, flower shops, ice cream, and more. It’s great for people watching.

So, we found a restaurant and ordered our tapas and drinks. Janet had a sangria, and I had a beer. We asked for the small ones. Their smalls are almost 30 oz of liquid.

We stopped at this restaurant primarily because I saw on the menu Fried Olives. What? I had never thought to deep fry a green olive. It was delicious. We also ordered jamon with melon and croquettes.

The real entertainment, though, was Janet. She was taking a drink of her sangria, started to drop it then in the attempt to recover from starting to drop it, she spilled most of it on her. I looked over to see what the commotion was about and saw and piece of apple on her shoulder and her entire front side covered in Sangria. We haven’t stopped talking about it yet.

We sat there for quite a while. Partly because of all the alcohol we had to consume (“had to”) and partly because the sky opened up and it rained. Poured actually. But we were safe under a restaurant tent.

After that, our room wasn’t quite ready so we had to find something to fill our time. I was exhausted so wanted to sit for a bit, and truth be told I needed to find a bathroom. Thankfully there are two Starbucks on Las Ramblas. A teeny tiny on that had the dirtiest bathroom I’d ever seen and no toilet paper. And a huge on that was clean, tidy and had toilet paper. You can image which one I stopped in.

While I was doing that Janet walked up to the top of Las Ramblas and took photos and just checked things out.

Finally, we headed to our hotel since our room would be ready.

That’s when we discovered what a fantastic room we had.

We walked a long way to get dinner. We were on the hunt for paella. Which isn’t hard to find. But it is hard to find a good one. We think we found the restaurant we ate at in 2015 and sat down.

That night I dealt with some leg cramps. They seem to be part of my travel experience these days. I brought electrolytes to help with that but it sure didn’t help that night.

The next day we got up and had our breakfast in the hotel. My standard European breakfast of ham and cheese on a baguette. My god it’s so good.

Then we were off to Parque Güell. Parque Güell is a failed park up on the hill in Barcelona. I don’t remember the whole story but Mr. Güell bought the land and wanted Gaudi to do the design. Mr. Güell was a well off man in Barcelona and told the well off that only the best families would live in this park. Turned out only Mr. Güell, Gaudi and their lawyer lived there. That’s why it was a failed “park”. The rich didn’t come.

It’s a beautiful green space for the city now. Tourism keeps that place a float…and how. It was packed with people from all over the world. PACKED!

Once we were done there we tracked down the Hop On Hop Off bus and, well, hopped on. We had a tour scheduled for La Sagrada Familia and we needed to get lunch before.

We got off at the La Sagrada Familia stop and were FLOORED at the number of people there. It was busy when we were there in 2015, but My GOD. It was wall to wall people. And you all know how good I am around so many people.

We had time for lunch, so we walked down the street and found an open table. The waiter moved a table for us, so we figured this was turning out to be a good spot. We were wrong. We only wanted a ham and cheese sandwich and a Fanta. When we sat and ordered he was “ok” with giving us the ham and cheese, but we HAD to order an alcoholic drink. Fanta was only to go. What? So we said no thank you, got up and left. The guy was so rude and didn’t seem to care at all that he just lost money.

It worked out in our favor though. We walked around the corner and found this cute “very little” place where the woman was friendly and welcoming. We ordered and she said, “go on upstairs and I’ll bring it up.” A couple minutes later we had our sandwiches and a SUPER sized Fanta. I was in heaven.

We walked a little further to the meet up place for our tour and waited until it was time to go.

I don’t even know what to say about La Sagrada Familia. It’s the most unique basilica I’ve ever seen. It’s been under construction for a hundred years and still isn’t finished. It has followed Gaudi’s original plan, mostly, but each engineer on the job has put their own touches on it. The tour guide pointed out the façade that was constructed while a Japanese engineer was in charge all those people have a very definite Japanese face and eyes.

Inside the basilica is just amazing. The outside is fascinating, but the inside is just beautiful. It’s supposed to represent a forest and nature in general. The light that comes in just makes the place glow. It was beautiful in 2015 and even more gorgeous today.

Finishing there I was pooped. We hopped back on the bus and headed to Las Ramblas. We strolled down the avenue until we found a place for dinner. Janet and I both had Sangria, split a pizza and the weirdest Caesar salad I’d ever had. It had fried chicken nuggets on it and the lettuce was the spring mix that has what I call “weeds”.