Summary: Just another day in Barca, as locals say (pronounced "Barsa")...
Awesome moment: for Susan, riding the waves in the Mediterranean, day 2. It may never happen again.
Lara enjoyed actually getting an education on where Iberian ham comes from... The raising of the pigs, the treatment and curing of the meat, and delivery to the store. Interesting. Ramon, the man in the store who was giving he education, was wonderful at answering our questions.
Another nice part of the day was visiting the Picasso museum, and seeing all his works from both his early and later years. Fascinating.
Blooper: Three days in the same city=no bloopers. No missed buses or transport, no hotel issues, no restaurant dining issues. Lara even understands Catalan! We're veterans. Hah.
Whoops. We spoke too soon (we posted this at 9pm in the restaurant downtown, BEFORE riding the Metro back north to get back to our hotel for the night. So, update... in our (tipsy) ride back via the metro, we took the L4 yellow metro instead of the L3 blue line. Mistake #1. (Hey, we'd drank a whole pitcher of sangría between the two of us!)
Then (mistake #2), in trying to put the ticket through the machine to get through the entrance turnstiles, a kind lady helped us realize we were trying to get through a blocked turnstile! She redirected us. After Lara got through, Susan tried, but the turnstile had locked! So Susan crawled under the turnstile's bars. Hands and knees!
Mistake #3: we got on the train, and, having lost the metro map earlier in the day, took the yellow L4 Metro line to a stop where we guessed was closest to our hotel (near to a hospital). Upon coming out of the station, we didn't recognize anything, and Lara, map in hand, began looking for where to go. A friendly older couple behind us immediately came to our aid, without even having to petition their assitance! The lady made her husband get her glasses out, and then she took the map from Lara's hands and explicitly mapped out the route we had to walk in order to get back to our hotel. 10 minutes later, we're back. And with explicit directions from the hotel reception written out on how to get to the airport tomorrow morning in order to catch our flight to Portugal!
Now we're back in the hotel, watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London (we were there just a couple weeks ago!!)
Cheapest pleasure: during our €20 tour of the Gothic district this evening (the tour we missed last night, we got to take as a private tour, 2:1 with a guide!), we got a thorough historical education from a Russian girl, Olga, who has lived in Barcelona for a couple years and is studying to be a tour guide with a small tour association. Her boss, Sergio, a native of Barcelona, accompanied us on a €12 tour of La Sagrada Familia this morning, and two other colleagues accompanied us this evening on our tour of el barrio gótico. Very enjoyable and, as tours come, very cheap!
*Bonus topic--Guilty pleasure: sangría, tapas, y postres (in English: wine drink, yummy finger food appetizers, and a strawberry and creme dessert) at Txapela, a renown Catalan tapas restaurant, referred to us by one of Susan's friends (Vivian).
Sorry, no pictures. Again, prehistoric computer. Maybe tomorrow from Portugal.
Awesome moment: for Susan, riding the waves in the Mediterranean, day 2. It may never happen again.
Lara enjoyed actually getting an education on where Iberian ham comes from... The raising of the pigs, the treatment and curing of the meat, and delivery to the store. Interesting. Ramon, the man in the store who was giving he education, was wonderful at answering our questions.
Another nice part of the day was visiting the Picasso museum, and seeing all his works from both his early and later years. Fascinating.
Blooper: Three days in the same city=no bloopers. No missed buses or transport, no hotel issues, no restaurant dining issues. Lara even understands Catalan! We're veterans. Hah.
Whoops. We spoke too soon (we posted this at 9pm in the restaurant downtown, BEFORE riding the Metro back north to get back to our hotel for the night. So, update... in our (tipsy) ride back via the metro, we took the L4 yellow metro instead of the L3 blue line. Mistake #1. (Hey, we'd drank a whole pitcher of sangría between the two of us!)
Then (mistake #2), in trying to put the ticket through the machine to get through the entrance turnstiles, a kind lady helped us realize we were trying to get through a blocked turnstile! She redirected us. After Lara got through, Susan tried, but the turnstile had locked! So Susan crawled under the turnstile's bars. Hands and knees!
Mistake #3: we got on the train, and, having lost the metro map earlier in the day, took the yellow L4 Metro line to a stop where we guessed was closest to our hotel (near to a hospital). Upon coming out of the station, we didn't recognize anything, and Lara, map in hand, began looking for where to go. A friendly older couple behind us immediately came to our aid, without even having to petition their assitance! The lady made her husband get her glasses out, and then she took the map from Lara's hands and explicitly mapped out the route we had to walk in order to get back to our hotel. 10 minutes later, we're back. And with explicit directions from the hotel reception written out on how to get to the airport tomorrow morning in order to catch our flight to Portugal!
Now we're back in the hotel, watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London (we were there just a couple weeks ago!!)
Cheapest pleasure: during our €20 tour of the Gothic district this evening (the tour we missed last night, we got to take as a private tour, 2:1 with a guide!), we got a thorough historical education from a Russian girl, Olga, who has lived in Barcelona for a couple years and is studying to be a tour guide with a small tour association. Her boss, Sergio, a native of Barcelona, accompanied us on a €12 tour of La Sagrada Familia this morning, and two other colleagues accompanied us this evening on our tour of el barrio gótico. Very enjoyable and, as tours come, very cheap!
*Bonus topic--Guilty pleasure: sangría, tapas, y postres (in English: wine drink, yummy finger food appetizers, and a strawberry and creme dessert) at Txapela, a renown Catalan tapas restaurant, referred to us by one of Susan's friends (Vivian).
Sorry, no pictures. Again, prehistoric computer. Maybe tomorrow from Portugal.
I enjoyed the Picasso museum too. I still have a poster from his early works in my dining room. I carted that poster for ~2 weeks before getting it home. It sounds like you're enjoying all the food & drink that each country offers. I'm looking forward to the pictures of Portugal as that is one country I've never been to.
ReplyDeleteYou commented before we could even update the post! We just got back and had a few bloopers to add!
DeleteWe are enjoying the food and drink, yes (maybe a bit too much haha)
DeleteWOW, what a trip! I loved the additions of your "bloopers" and other interesting notes. I could have spent DAYS in the Louvre, and wish for Abby and Nate to get there one day. Keep writing and posting!
DeleteNoelle