Christmas Break Part 4 - Barcelona

  Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands
Sunday, January 11, 2009

After another high speed train ride, we found ourselves in Barcelona around 5:00. We figured out the metro system and landed at our stop shortly after. It was getting dark and was pouring down rain (this was a theme during our travel days. Wet luggage = not good!). We had directions to our hostel, but when we started looking around, none of the streets said what we wanted. So, we went and asked some directions. A nice little lady in one of the shops pointed the way. After walking a while, we stopped and asked directions again ... yes, we had been walking in the completely wrong direction. So we set off again. After about half an hour of walking in the rain we finally found our hostel. We were very happy to find that the room did not look like someone had recently died there, like our last hostel.
We dropped our bags and headed back out into the rain for some food. Considering the 6th is the actual dia de los reyes, everything was pretty much closed. We found a little shop that sold sandwiches and little pizzas. The menu was in Catalan, so we just pointed to what we wanted. I pointed at a small pizza which I thought contained sausage and peppers ... much to my dismay, it was actually tuna and olives ... NASTY! We went back to the hostel and enjoyed the internet and poorly dubbed movies until bedtime.
Wednesday we got up early and headed into downtown Barcelona. Our guide books and several of our maps suggested to eat at "the bagel shop." Best suggestion ever! Bagels are hard to come by in Europe and these were some of the best! Afterward, we went on a bike tour of Barcelona w/ our favorite bike tour company, Fat Tire. They hadn't led us astray before, and this time was no exception. We biked all over town, seeing the Sagrada Familia, the beach, the bull fighting ring, the stairs where Columbus asked Queen Isabella for money to explore, the old Olympic area, the Arc de Triumph, and much more.

Arc de Triumph

The Girls and the Sagrada Familia

When the bike tour was over, we headed back to the Sagrada Familia to go inside and to go up to the top. This chuch is absolutely amazing. I think we took a couple hundred pictures of the church alone! It was started in 1882 and is expected to be completed in 2026. I'll definitely be back to see it when it's finished!!

Serious Scaffolding

Girls on the church

Afterwards, we decided to walk back into the heart of Barcelona ... bad idea! Of course we got lost and ended up walking REALLY far. We eventually found where we were going ... the Champagne bar! It was so fun. Glasses of champagne were 70 cents, and they had the best cheeseburger 'tapas'! We tried to use up the last of our euros, so we had our fair share of champagne.

Champaign Bar

We walked around Barcelona a bit more, before heading back to the hostel to clean up and pack up. One whole day in Barcelona was definitely not enough time!! I will be going back there sometime in the future ... who knows when, there are too many other places on the list right now!