Another One in the Books

It's been a 24 hour day officially and I'm thankful yet again to have been able to go on another trip overseas.

CLT was lit up beautifully tonight in my opinion.

Now, it's time for some sleep

High Steppin'

Not exorbitant numbers by any means, but 98,510 total and 16,418 average steps per day for 6 days is pretty solid if I must say so myself. It appears I just did.

Also, I had no idea how to spell exorbitant. Thanks for the assist Apple.

Not So Fast

For the second time in about a week I have arrived at the Barcelona Airport. This time I didn't even have to fly. We pushed back from the "stand" as British Airways calls it to take off for London. However, there is a passenger on board not feeling well apparently so we had to return to the stand so said passenger can deplane. However, curiously I have been typing this post for a few minutes now and no one has left the plane. It may be just some more airline smoke and mirrors. Smoke probably isn't the best word to use on a plane. I just got some funny looks when I typed that. That's not true at all.

Good thing I had a five hour layover in London.

I Wanna Go Fast

There are two customary ways to help yourself wake up in Spain.  The first is pretty universal:  a nice, warm cup of coffee in some form.  In Spain there are lots of choices from cappuccinos to cafe cortados to espressos and more.  These usually do a great job of waking a human up. 

The other is to take a cab with the driver I had this morning from the hotel to the airport.  Listen, I do enjoy going fast, and maybe this guy knew that because it seemed that he couldn't hit the gas hard enough in the city streets to get us down the road.  I've been in the back of a BMW 3 series as a former race car driver took us around the test track before at high speeds, and this experience this morning did slightly approach the BMW test track experience.  Don't get me wrong, I had fun. I just didn't expect to be pick up by Mario Andretti. 

I know, I know.  Mario is Italian. And yes.  Yes I had to google that.  

Arcano

Not that the other meals we had in Barcelona weren't real, but the meal we had last night in Arcano was real.  The service was great, the food was fresh and extremely high quality, and the experience we had there from entrance to exit was a 10.  And not that waiters and waitresses were cold (but they kinda were most places we went), the wait staff at Arcano treated us like extraordinarily well from right when we entered the restaurant.  In my opinion, they could have mailed it in because we were the only group in the restaurant for quite a while.  However, they were very warm and kind, and they created a wonderful atmosphere for us to enjoy a fine meal on my last night in Barcelona. 

I highly recommend Arcano if you are ever in Barcelona.  

And yes.  That is tiramisu in a white "bucket" made to look like a plant.  That's the kind of attention to detail these guys have at Arcano.   

Montserrat

Montserrat is a monastery about 75 minutes outside of Barcelona, and it is totally worth the trip out there. There are several ways to get there. We chose to go with Julia Travel which was a very professional tour and guide. However we found that we wanted more time to explore all that Montserrat has to offer however with the tour, we had less time to explore. The inside of the Basilica is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. I fought the urge to disobey the "no photo" signs but was able to keep my phone in my pocket and enjoy the beauty and aura of Montserrat. I highly recommend getting here.

I'm Ready Hank

Hank, you supply the paddles and I'll supply the ping pong balls. See you and Sally on la playa en Barcelona!

Perros

I'm blown away at how well behaved the dogs are here. Dog owners here routinely have their dogs off leash and leave their perros(dogs) outside of businesses while they go inside to either pick something up or, as I saw yesterday, sit down and enjoy a meal. These dogs are more well behaved than most human kids I've seen

Dionisos

Great Greek food in Barcelona? Yep. Check out Dionisos. This lamb was absolutely incredible.

With a good tip you'll receive a little something special at the end of the meal. Go for the Menu of the Day options here and at other Barcelona restaurants. Contrary to popular belief, tapas and paella did not originate in Barcelona even though there are more signs advertising both than Starbucks locations in the US. Oh. And yes. There are tons of Starbucks here too.

Bearded Baby

I was told that this baby on the side of the bus here in Barcelona would be my baby should I ever have a baby. I'll let you be the judge.

1 For 2

So, I'm 1 for 2 in riding the subway in Barcelona and actually ending up where I'm supposed to.  We took the subway today from Estacion Saints back to the Rambla and we made it!  

If you remember, and I'm absolutely positive you don't, I took the train to the airport back in 2009 and missed my stop in a major way.  Read about it on this blog somewhere in the 2009 posts near the end of my first European extravaganza.  Or by going here:  http://roseoverexposed.blogspot.com.es/2009/07/trip-of-firsts.html?m=0

For those of you keeping score at home, I typed the penultimate sentence to the previous paragraph and felt guilty about sending you a wild goose chase.   There I went on The aforementioned goose chase which turned out to be more on the tame side than wild and the pasted the link in this entry. 

Also for those of you keeping score at home, I email this little nifty updates in to my blog.  Just another reason I love Google.  

I Know

I know I get fascinated by, potentially, the most mundane things. However, Barcelona is a very clean city and I see these plastic bins everywhere. They really don't stick out like sore thumbs, but they do seem to contribute to the overall cleanliness of the city. Pictured lastly is a guy blowing leaves. Just out of frame to the right is his street sweeper. We've seen those all day and guys/gals like this just hop out, blow leaves, pick up trash, etc.

The third picture is a picture of the sidewalk on one of the streets we took yesterday. This was a non-touristy(it's a word, just don't look it up) street. These are individual tiles and extremely heavy-duty in nature. That's something else I've noticed this time around in Barcelona: They use really high-quality materials to make everything here. For a design like this in the states, I can't help but think that we would pour the concrete and then press that bad boy into this shape.

Jamon

I now think twice before eating ham.

Nothing More Glorious

There's nothing more glorious than watching The Simpsons in Spanish

Cleanest Parking Garage Ever

For a city that has a seemingly low number of trash cans, Barcelona is incredibly clean. It's very common to see street sweepers around the city and a Disney amount of city workers cleaning up trash. Yes. I just used Disney as an adjective. Pictured below is the nicest and cleanest parking garage I've ever seen.

This is the first time I've been inside of Sagrada Familia and wow. It's incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it. It is stated in the museum that it will be completed by 2026 but look for it around 2040 to be completed.

Off and Walking

19,000 steps on Day 1. Probably a little less today since we took the hop on, hop off tour bus. Es frio en Barcelona!

It's nice to be back here. Have seen a lot that i didn't get to see last time.

A couple of interesting things below:

As we walked to the water front, there was a beautiful bridge/walkway with no rails. Can't help but wonder how many rails and warnings this would have in the US

The comma in place of the decimal point is still taking some getting used to!

Beautiful buildings abound. A "regular" building here is so gorgeous.

Taking a rickshaw when it's 50 degrees is still cold....even with a blanket.

Dot Matrix

I fully realize businesses still use these printers, but it still took me by surprise to see this in Lost Luggage office of Iberia Airlines. Yep. Still no bags.

The official total of travel time from leaving Columbia to checking in at the hotel? 24 hours and 20 minutes. That's a new record.

But I feel great. I went on an 8 mike run, went to a Spanish class, had dinner, sold Paella at La Rambla and not I'm about to shower.

Ok nothing but the last part of the above paragraph is true.

At the Mall

London Heathrow is such a cool airport to me. It feels like high end mall to me. Some people agree. Most don't. But you know what? No one is reading this anyway so it's all good. I can say whatever I want. Geese. See? I just said geese randomly.

Anyway, we have been traveling for about 18 hours total as of now and not yet to Barcelona. Our next flight is delayed as well so we are just hanging out in the food court at the mall/airport. I just bought me some Walker's Shortbreads which are my favorite. I was able to give these to my Dad near the end of his life, and that gave me a lot of joy.

The flight from Miami to here was a long and uncomfortable one. I just couldn't get comfortable. Geese.

Oh yeah and my bag is still in Miami. I guess everyone needs a vacation, even my Samsonite.

And I was glad to see Nick Jones coming out of the toilet too.