Going to try to do a log for each day that we were away. I’ve written several up in advance, so I should hopefully be able to crank out one or two a day for the next week or so. Some are longer than others, so for the long ones like today’s, I’ll only post one. Here goes!
Friday – May 7th – Barcelona
We reach Barcelona at about eight-thirty in the morning (so: two AM for us). After collecting our luggage, we grab a cab to the AC Som Hotel, which is located in a mixed commercial/residential neighborhood about fifteen minutes west of the city center. The employee at the desk checks us in and tells us she has open rooms if we want one. We respond with enthusiasm and proceed to crash for about three hours.
Once awake, we head across the street to a local cafe / cerveceria (bar). It’s between typical meal times for Barcelona, something like 2 PM, and our waiter speaks exactly zero English or French, but between us we manage to ask if they’re serving food, and he says yes. We look over the menu, which is entirely in Spanish and Catalan, and eventually find a few things we think we understand. I end up with a cut of beef, home-fried potatoes, and some kind of delicious butter sauce. Charlotte, who thought she was getting squid, ends up with langoustines instead. Fortunately, she loves langoustines, so we proceed to chow down.
Full of food and what passes for energy when you’re jet-lagged, we decide to walk along the main east/west road into Barcelona. The area’s not initially particularly appealing, visually, but as we get further into the city the architecture and overall aesthetics improve dramatically. Soon we reach the Plaça d’Espanya, a central area containing about half a dozen metro stations, an in-construction stadium, some giant pillars, a huge museum, and more. We discuss our plans and decide that we want to hit Barcelona’s old city district, so we hop on a metro that will take us south-east to where we want to be.
Our destination turns out to be another large plaza, this one a park that features a circular stone patio, polished almost to a glass-like shine, where people and pigeons interact in great hordes. Afraid of getting pooped on, we make our way rapidly through the birds and head south on Avinguda del Portal de l’Àngel, which heads directly into the heart of Old City. There are a zillion stores selling everything from luxury clothing to cheap tourist crap. We spot a bookstore
