Barcelona!

Well, we brought summer (in Amsterdam) to a close with style...by going to BARCELONA!! Today it's below 60f / 15c degrees, the sky is a uniform middle gray, it's windy and wet - typical fall weather for Hamstercram. What's a little soothing is that it's not much better right now in Barcelona - 63f and rain. But for our visit just last week the average was 86f / 30c and sunshine every day! So now that you have the weather report, let's go into our 8 day experience en Espana!

Of course we would encounter extremely strong winds and some rain thrown in on our trip to the airport on Friday evening. We got to the bus stop at Leidseplein before the worst of it dropped from the sky. The KLM flight was fast (a little over 2 hours) and the service was fantastic considering how much flying really blows these days. We were seated in opposing aisle seats (still don't recall picking those). Radhika had her handbag under the seat in front of her with her hair clip on one of the straps. A dutch fellow and his female companion were seated next to her, and during the flight she had to stand in the aisle so he could pass to go to the bathroom. He stepped on her bag, and her clip "crunched" under his foot. He noticed the obvious feeling and sound of stepping on and breaking something, lifted his foot, and went on about his business with no acknowledgement of the incident. I expressed that I felt she should show him the broken pieces, but I was informed it was a cheap clip and not worth mentioning. So, I agreed to not say anything - and man was it hard!!!! And try as I might to remember to collect my tripod from the garment closet located at the door of the plane on the way off the plane in Barcelona, it was Radhika and a flight attendant who did! Right before touchdown I said to myself "Get your tripod on the way out." What a dufus!! And R just loves to point out these things to me! Damn!!

So, we're on the bus from the airport to the city, and we reach Catalonia Plaza where we'll take the metro to the stop near our hotel. As I rise from the seat my wallet stealthily falls to the floor. Radhika is behind me and alerts me to it. Now I am in serious trouble!! I'll save you the grizzly details. I was on a severe "dufus" streak and needed to be watched carefully so I didn't give away my passport and ATM card with a thankyou note consisting of my pin code to the first person who said "Hola!" to me. Luckily we made it to our hotel and I conducted no more giveaways!

A good nights sleep and out of the hotel at the crack of noon the next day! Well, almost...it was a little after 11am. I like to start early, but R prefers a "measured" approach to mornings on holiday. So I end up going out on my own sometimes and come back to the hotel or meet up with R later. But today, we stroll to the ramblas, passing the cathedral which is mostly caged in by scaffolding and a material cover. Can't tell you how many places we have been where major sights are unrecognizable due to surface maintenance (acid rain!) being undertaken. Down the ramblas past street performers and stores to the beach area past The Chris Columbus monument. Funny how they still credit him with "discovering" America! And there's a plaque where he stands before a kneeling native who is kissing his hand. Perhaps because 'ol Chris decided not to kill the guy or cut off his hands as he did to so many others? Pushing past and continuing east, we ended up at the large mall at the harbor. Nice, but hitting malls is not how I like to spend time on holidays. But we explored a little, as R was looking for a pair of Birkenstocks for her sensitive feeties. We walked along the waterfront north finally coming upon beaches. They looked really nice and I was looking forward to a little chill time on them in the coming days. And we did - officially 2 days were spent wholly or partly lazing in the sun and swimming in the cool water. Radhika got 2 massages from the asian ladies who ply the beach with the men selling "cerveza, agua, coke" like hotdog vendors at a ball game. I got one, myself. 30-40 minutes for 10 euros can't be beat! And I'm pretty used to topless beaches now, not like when I was 19 and stumbled across my first one in Ft. Lauderdale. I don't remember, but another "dufus" moment for me, I'm sure. I do recall my friend Tony and I "trying" to be cool as we walked through, then noticed the beach had been taken over by guys laying on towels together. Guess you can say it was a day of firsts for 2 "dufus's" from a small beach town up the coast!

Sightseeing - of course we saw Sagrada Familia, and stupidly paid 11 euros to go inside and witness a construction site. Unless you want to go up the tower for the view, and there are other vantage points to see the city, I would strongly suggest passing up the interior because there's nothing to see. We went to the Picasso Museum, which focuses on his early development. Pretty cool. Many of the parks and plazas were visited, not to mention the many wide streets and narrow passages that offered great buildings and cool little slices of Catalan life. For us, the coolest thing was our visit to La Pedrera. Such a great building way ahead of its time. The Olympic Village was pretty cool too. We took a day trip out to Montserrat, and must say we were disappointed. The monastery is really old, but it's been rebuilt over the centuries that it looks almost contemporary. The surrounding countryside was not all that impressive to us, therefore this is something we wouldn't recommend to others, either. But all-in-all, plenty to see and do for those that want to, or you can just relax and de-stress if that's what you're looking for. A place very high on our list of visiting again! Pictures coming soon!