supershippy

Here is the third part of the summary of our trip to Spain and Italy. aquafemme is also keeping a separate log of our events and mine will probably plagiarize greatly from her summary, but add pretty pictures.

I'll always put these behind a cut because there are lots of pics. I'm not putting all of them here, though. At Flickr I have a set for Barcelona and Figueres and a collection for the entire trip that will be growing as we continue going through our pictures.

Day Eight: 10-May-2008

In Granada, we had the hotel's breakfast buffet. It wasn't great. Afterwards, we took a taxi to the airport and flew to Barcelona. It was totally raining when we arrived. We took a bus to Plaça Catalunya and, after being a bit turned around, walked to Hotel Silken Ramblas.

It was Saturday evening and we figured out pretty quick that there is no laundry service on Sunday (which was expected), but what wasn't expected is that there was a little known fiesta happening on Monday so we were out of luck for Monday as well! We were leaving for Venice on Wednesday so we couldn't drop off our laundry Tuesday for next day service. In short, we felt kind of screwed. Bonnie ended up washing our clothes in the sink. It worked great for her technical fabrics (traveling and running clothes) but my socks ended up smelling pretty rank and we sometimes had to resort to using a blowdryer to make it so I'd have an outfit that day.

I knew that the blowdryer wouldn't cut it for my pants so I took a couple pairs to the front desk to see what they could do. They didn't sound confident that they would be able to get them back to us until Tuesday evening. We walked down to El Corte Inglés and I bought a pair of pants that were kinda spendy, but at least I'd have something to wear. It was kind of a frustrating experience because in Spain even guy pants are a single-number size and it was some sort of metric measurement of some dimension of my body I couldn't figure out. We narrowed down what fit and managed to find a decent pair. I actually like the pants, but they could use some length adjustment. Then, to top it all off, the hotel was able to clean my pants that night and so I got a stack of pants back a couple hours later. D'oh!

After that, we cheered up by sharing a bismark and apple ring pastry. Then we went to a place called Elisabets and filled up on manchego with tomato and stuffed olives. Afterwards, we went to Taverna Basca Irata and had pintxos and sidra, which is an alcoholic apple cider. We really enjoyed the food here and were kicking ourselves over eating as much as we did at Elisabets. We ended up eating crab on a croissant, hot roasted pepper and gravy (perhaps?) popper, mini-hamburger and goat cheese. When I return to Barcelona someday, I will definitely be coming back to this place for more pintxos!

Next, we went to an Irish bar and had snake bite with red bitemarks in the foam. We decided that the Irish bars feel too much like almost any Irish bar you can find in the States so we wandered off and found a bar/restaurant called Rita Blue. The atmosphere was cool and we enjoyed the decor and drinks. There was a blue room with a mirror made from pieces that looked liked fish bones and adjacent to that room was a colorful orange room to contrast nicely. We actually got pretty lost after that because I... kinda sorta took a wrong turn. When we got to the end of the road, I realized it was no good so we told someone where we were trying to get to and they said that we need to turn around and go back the way we came. Impressive that we were able to communicate in Spanish even when we have a few beers in us! Poor Bonnie had to pee this entire time, but we made our way back to Rita Blue so she could use the restroom and then we got our bearings back and headed to the hotel.

We didn't take many pictures on this day because of the rain, but we made up for it on the later days.

Day Nine: 11-May-2008

We woke up to the sounds of music and Bonnie realized that Sunday morning is when they do the Sardana dance so, despite being hungry, she made me navigate us through the Barri Gòtic to the cathedral as quick as possible in order to see it. We weren't quite sure if it was going to happen or not since it turns out the music we were hearing was some other people playing. After a few minutes, though, people started forming circles and doing the dance. I managed to snag a small video of the dance in action:

Carrer del Bisbe Irurita.	Remains of the squared Roman Wall which can be seen in the Barri Gòtic.

Afterwards, we were starving and pretty much desperate to eat anything that was NOT a bocadillo. We were having a tough time finding a place that looked good and had tables/service. At some point, a chunk of mud fell from the building above us and splashed all over our shoes and pants. At first, we thought someone did it on purpose. We looked at the architecture of the building and concluded that it's probably common especially considering how hard it rained the day before. We finally found a pizza/pasta place and had some grub. I had spaghetti that I loved because it was finally something different, but Bonnie's pizza kind of sucked. Something about the cheese was weird. We definitely should've waited for the Italy part of our trip to start eating pizza! Anyway, we went back to the room and cleaned ourselves up from the mud splash and things started looking up. The sun was shining and we walked down Las Ramblas.

At the top of Las Ramblas. You can see the Canaletes Fountain on the right-hand side with the street lamps on top.	Plaça Catalunya.
We decided to get a couple cafés con leche at Café Zurich, which sits at the top of Las Ramblas.	Us at Café Zurich. This is about as artistic as I get with my pictures. ;)
Bonnie drinking from the Canaletes Fountain. Legend says that a drink from this fountain ensures that you'll return to Barcelona one day. Sounds good to me!	Me drinking from the fountain. It actually took me three tries because I kept having my hand in the way of the picture. So, I have to come back three times.
A Roman necropolis that was discovered during construction of a building. These tombs used to line the road leading into Barcino (the Latin name for Barcelona when it was controlled by the Romans).	We stopped in Café de l'Opera, directly across from the Liceu Opera House to have some of that delicious orange juice already mentioned.
The Liceu Opera House.	Plaça Reial, which sits between Las Ramblas and Plaça de Sant Jaume.
Palau Güell, designed by Antoni Gaudí. Unfortunately, it's closed through 2008 so we couldn't go inside.	Bonnie standing in front of one of the large lions that adorn the monument to Columbus.
Mirador de Colom (Columbus' Lookout), a large monument dedicated to Columbus.	Mirador de Colom from the front. This is the side that looks out over the Mediterranean Sea.
Rambla de Mar. This is a walkway that goes out into the harbor and onto the waterfront.	A neat sculpture we saw while walking on Rambla de Mar.

Once we reached the bottom of The Ramblas, we took a taxi to the Picasso Museum. By the time that was done, our feet hurt. We soothed ourselves with some gelato (Ferroro Rocher for Bonnie, trusty Mint Chocolate Chip for me). We ate it sitting underneath a piece of modern art and then had sangria at Taller Tapas which was a fairly swanky little bar where we sat on stools and watched the bartenders serve up tapas and beverages. After a taxi back to our hotel, we re-found Rita Blue for dinner. We shared some ceviche and Bonnie ate lambs kabobs while I had a tasty steak with fries. To drink, Bonnie enjoyed a pina colada and I had jager in OJ (which was interesting but not exactly good). We walked back to the room and wanted to try out the pool but it was on the roof looking dark, cold and very uninviting. We gave up on that and just hung out in the lobby surfing the net a bit and sipping ron y cokes.

Day Ten: 12-May-2008

We started out the day by walking to Plaça de Sant Jaume because we wanted to do a bike tour of Barcelona.

Plaça de Sant Jaume.	Casa de la Ciutat (city hall).
Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya (presidential palace).	Cool sculptures like this were throughout the plaza.

When we arrived, there were several bike companies to choose from. We gravitated toward Fat Tire Bike Tours and we think that was the best choice. The guides were really laid back and funny and we got to ride these cute and goofy bikes around for about four hours. It was a great way to see the city.

Bonnie and I getting ready for our bike tour!	The Barcelona Museum of Archaeology. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what the building used to be, but I think it looks cool.
These gargoyle statues on the side of the museum were used to pour burning pitch on the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.	Palau de la Música Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music). It is quite an amazing-looking building and there was not enough space to back up to get a picture of the whole thing. The inside of it is supposed to be quite elaborate, but we didn't have a chance to go in.
A large archway at the entrace of the Parc de la Ciutadella (Citadel Park).	A view of the park once you go through the archway.
The moat surrounding La Cascada.	La Cascada, currently under restoration. It consists of an arch with waterfall and fountain. Antoni Gaudí, still a student at the time, assisted the architect with the project.
Torre Agbar, a skyscraper that has 4,500 LEDs that allow for the building to create colorful, flowing images at night. The guy running the bike tour joked that it's the largest dildo factory in Spain.	Plaza de Toros Monumental de Barcelona, the bullfighting ring in Barcelona.
The front (and oldest) facade of Sagrada Familia, also known as the Nativity facade. The church has been under construction since 1882 and is expected to continue for another 30 years at a minimum.	The passion facade of Sagrada Famila.
The northern facade. Notice the numerous lizards in the middle band just above the windows. The whole church outside had many details like this (frogs, snails, etc).	The front portal sculpture on the Nativity facade. Notice the immense detail put into it. This side is much more detailed than any other side and this has caused controversy over whether Gaudí's vision is being truly realized in the other facades.
Me standing in front of the Mediterranean.	aquafemme standing in front of the Mediterranean.
The beach in Barcelona. We ended up going down to a small restaurant on the beach and enjoying a sandwich (with mustard!) and sangria (without mustard).	A fancy scultpure thing at Hotel Arts, the Ritz Carlton property inside the Olympic Village in Barcelona. The cheapest room runs about $1,000/night.

After that, we walked to the Block of Discord and saw Casa Milà (better known as La Pedrera) and Casa Batlló.

Casa Batlló. Locally it is called Casa dels ossos (House of bones) because of its skeletal look.	Casa Milà. The roof of the building is supposed to make you think of ice cream. You can see that a bit in the picture. We thought about going up, but the line was insanely long (at least over an hour).

Then we dined on mini-hamburgers (these are sooo yummy), pork flautas and cava. The food in this area of Barcelona was wonderful. That evening, I bought a Cuban cigar (just because I could) and we visited the Museum of Erotica (this was really cheesy, save your money!). Then we ate ice cream (yes, again). I had lemon and aquafemme had caramel. We also bought some coke bottle gummy candy and ended up having rum and cokes with our candy. Bonnie started getting the urge to have a real dinner so she made me take her to a restaurant late that night. I just had a salad (wasn't very hungry, it was good) and Bonnie had (regrettably runny) scrambled eggs. There's a bread fee that is common in Spain and Bonnie joked that they would charge us €4 for the one tiny piece of bread they gave us. It turned out to be true -- suddenly her joke didn't seem very funny. :( I tried out my Cuban cigar and then we konked out.

Cava, a sparkling wine that comes from Catalonia.	Mini-hamburgers. These were super delicious.

Day Eleven: 13-May-2008

We got up and walked to the train station to head off to Figueres to see the Salvador Dalí museum. Unfortunately, we weren't real sure how things worked. We expected to see a conductor to confirm that we were on the right train but there wasn't one. Bonnie asked someone on the train if the train was going to Figueres. He said it wasn't so I asked the guy where the next stop was and how close it was. A few minutes later we hopped off the train somewhere on the outskirts of Barcelona and nobody spoke any English.

We pretty much pieced together that the next train would be coming in 2 long hours and there was nothing to do but wait. There was a brief moment of entertainment though. We saw many many trains go by but this one must have been a bullet train. It screamed through the station blowing us sideways and making papers swirl. Bonnie really got a kick out of it and exclaimed, "Whoa! That was sooo fast! Did you see that train?! It was soo fast!!" It was also amusing seeing the locals give us funny looks because we were getting so excited over something they probably see a lot. During that time, we also figured out that there was some miscommunication between Bonnie and the guy on the train. She asked "a Figueres?" and evidently he took that to mean "are you going to Figueres?" so he said he wasn't. Weird interpretation, but just goes to show that translation can be interesting. Well, turns out even though he wasn't going to Figueres, the train was and we were sitting around for no reason. We learned our lesson.

Once we got to Figueres, we were hungry and getting pretty homesick for American food (it's weird to say that) and were delighted to see a restaurant that had hamburgers and fries. It was everything we wanted it to be and tasted so good! We then headed over to the museum.

Statue of Dalí outside the museum.	An... interesting piece of art also outside the museum. Yes, those are baby doll heads inside the eye sockets.
The crypt of Salvador Dalí.	The boat enjoyed by Dalí and his soulmate, Gala. When she died, the boat was made into this which has blue tears (made of condoms) dripping below the boat.
This is an amazing painting that was on the ceiling of one of the rooms. It was difficult to capture it all with the camera, but I thought it did a pretty decent job.	The Face of Mae West, which is constructed of various living room items.
The Face of Mae West viewed from the side.	This is a piece of jewelry in a separate exhibit not in the main museum. Jewelers created this based on designs drawn by Dalí. I especially liked this one. It reminds me of the mouth from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

When we got back to Barcelona, we ended up returning to the place where we had flautas and cava the day before. We were pretty nutzed up about the mini-hamburgers. It was starting to get pretty late by this point and we still had to get ready to fly out the next morning so we headed back to the hotel, packed up and went to sleep.

That ends our time in Barcelona and the Spanish portion of our trip. The next morning we are leaving for Venice!