Up Next, Barcelona!

Many of us slept poorly. Alarms were set for 6am to catch an early train to Barcelona. Many of us were already up. You hear people talk about the amazing rail system in Europe. We’ve experienced it a few times and we wholeheartedly agree with its speed and convenience. What some might not know is that the trains all cost different amounts of money depending on the time of day (much like flights I suppose). And it’s very convenient to only need to get to the station 15 minutes early instead of 2 hours like planes. 

We arrived and tried to get an Uber but those Mercedes vans aren’t as popular here and our group of 5 doesn’t fit in a normal taxi, so we opted for the metro, which took a little figuring out, but eventually we took the L3 to our hotel. And our hotel, was amazingly gracious and allowed us to check in at 11am. Say what?

We are so pleased with this hotel choice. It’s a lovely place with two bathrooms and a cute courtyard and it’s right in the Gothic Quarter of the city. Staying in the heart of a big city can be pricey so this Petit Palace Boqueria Garden was a find! Great location! 

We walked around a bit after unpacking, found a lovely square, and after reading over half a dozen menus, decided on a place that seemed like they had pasta and pizza. We were not impressed by their five cheese pizza and the pomodoro pasta sauce literally tasted like spaghetti-o sauce. We might need to stick with tapas for our meals. 

After a walk to the wharf, through the maritime museum,  we saw a statue of the famous Italian guy Christopher Columbus…you know, since he sailed for Spain and discovered America blah blah blah. And there’s a darling Ferris wheel and a whole vibe going on down there that reminded me of San Francisco’s embarcadero waterfront. 

We saw a $200 million dollar yacht in the harbor. We also saw a pirate ship and realized that this is the harbor where the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailed from. Dang! Oh, and we stopped for coffee and cookies 😉 

And then the naps. Oh the nap was good. We trekked back to the hotel and quickly got quiet for a siesta. Our bodies needed that. We have very tired legs and it’s only day two…

After the much needed rest, our 5:45pm reservation for free tickets to the Picasso Museum were up, and we needed to walk over and get our art inspiration. 

An hour or so later, we were ready to move on to a fancy church St. Mary’s Cathedral…every church here is breathtaking. 

Afterwards we got gelato. And coffee. More coffee!

Then walked to meet up with my brother Ben who is in the Navy and stationed over in Germany. They made the drive over to visit us for a few days on this trip and they are enjoying the warmer weather. We tried out a dumpling place and came up with mixed reviews. It was very fresh and handmade right under your eyes, but some of the flavors were hit and miss for people. 

The company is what made the dinner though! It’s always nice to catch up with family when you live on different continents. 

15,380 steps and 6.5 miles.