Hello from Barcelona Spain (Part 1)
Friday evening – May 20, 2016 (Fourth post of this travelogue)
Well, Pat is batting a 100% on the Airbnbs. Our apartment in Barcelona is great (see photos). We even have a wonderful private patio with lots of plants. Both apartments, so far, have had washing machines and that is helpful.
As was the case with the last apartment we are in the middle of the older part of Barcelona, experiencing the lifestyle of folks in this area. Here is the link to the map of the location of apartment: link.
[[editorial note: 5/20/2016 Neither the map link above nor the map below are working correctly. I am too tired tonight to resolve the issue.]]
[[Editorial update: 5/21/2016 I have now corrected both the link and the map]]
{google_map}41.376963 2.162601{/google_map}
Today we bought two day pass on a “hop on hop off” bus that lets us tour the city. There are two of these systems in Barcelona. We used the “Barcelona Bus Turistic” link. As you can see from the picture they are modern double decker vehicles. They have ear phones with tour information in several languages. We stayed on the lower level (AKA handicapped level {grin}- but not really). One of the sites was the historic bull fighting stadium that has now been converted to a shopping mall (see photo).
The main event on this tour for us was the cable car ride to Montjuic Castle link. This is a majestic castle overlooking all of Barcelona. It was built in the mid 1600s. The cable car ride takes about 8 minutes and is spectacular. I have included a few pictures from taken from the castle.
Dining in Spain is strange. We are told that folks eat their main meal in the early afternoon and then they have lighter meal after 9:00 PM. That would explain why all the restaurants are closed when we try to eat at our normal time. In Barcelona we don’t have a great place to buy our breakfast sandwiches and get coffee. So, we went to the small grocery store (there are many within a block or two of where we have stayed) and got some cheese and ham. BTW, these stores are not much bigger that a two car garage. I then went to a great bakery (no coffee) and got a baguette (a roll that is about a foot and half long) and a big loaf of bread (they sliced it for me). The rolls and bread in Europe are absolutely out of this world. We were so tired from our trip today that we made sandwiches for dinner and will have them again for breakfast – can’t wait. I can go to a small bar for a cup of great coffee in the morning.
That is all for this blog.