Traveling with the Grobmyers: Barcelona, Spain

 Thursday morning was our first full day in Barcelona.  We were moving a little slow that morning.  Still trying to adjust to the 7 hour time difference.  We went to the Lounge for breakfast. 

The croissant was so fresh and flaky.  The peach jam was delicious on it.  Their bacon was a little different from what we are use to. 

I had to take a picture of our "twin" beds.

We had tickets for the Barcelona Hop On Hop Off bus for the day.  The stop for the bus was just down the street from our hotel.

Here are some scenes from our bus ride.  Joe rode upstairs and I stayed down below out of the sun.

 

These purple trees were blooming all over the city and we saw them in Rome as well.  They are called Jacaranda trees.  They are originally from South America.  They bloom in May with peek blooms in June. 

One of Anthony Gaudi buildings in the Gothic district.  More about him in a little bit. 

We didn't realize we would see Denny Chimes in Spain.

The Columbus Statue in the center of town.  He's not pointing towards America though.

On Friday we went and toured the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia.  The Basilica was built by Gaudi.  It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world.  It has been a 150 year ongoing construction project.  The last tower was just started.  On June 11 the Pope came to bless the last tower.  They were also having a "celebration" in honor of the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.  Construction began March 19, 1882.  It has been funded by private donations.  We saw signs along what was to be the parade route for the Pope.  We also saw that people were renting out their tiny balconies for 750 Euros during the parade. 

We had tickets to go up in one of the towers.  If we had to do it all over again I would not have done it.  You ride the elevator up and then you have to climb down in a narrow spiral staircase from the very top.  I did not think I was going to make it.  About halfway down I thought I would just stay and live there forever.  My legs were like very well cooked noodles by the time I got to the ground floor.  Somehow climbing down after the elevator ride up was lost in translation. 

The Olympic torch in the background

The stairs

We enjoyed our time in Barcelona. The architecture there is really amazing.  It is a very old city.  But it seems that everyone lives on top of each other.  Tall buildings everywhere.  Another thing that was everywhere was motor cycles of one form or another.  They weaved in and out of traffic like crazy.  They drive between lanes, jockey to get ahead of cars every chance they get.  They are parked everywhere too.  That would take a little getting use to. 

Traveling with the Grobmyers: We are off!!!

 I am combining Tuesday and Wednesday because it's hard to tell where one day ended and the other began. 

It all started Tuesday morning with a suppose to be midday flight out of Huntsville International Airport.  Our flight was scheduled for 12.  We should have known something was up when our plane arrived and they let passengers off but then backed up from the terminal.  Never a good sign.  We were an hour and a half late leaving and it was creeping into our layover time.  I always get a little nervous when there's a delay.  As we were getting closer to that magic time of missing our Dallas flight we started searching for alternative flights if we ever get to Dallas.  One possibility we found was stopping for a 12 hour layover in Dublin, Ireland.  I've never been there before and we just so happen to have some friends there right now.  Hey would you like some company for the day?  This might not be so bad. As much as I would have liked to see Ireland we made our connection in Dallas by the skin of our teeth.  We got to the gate as they were beginning to board. 

Now this trip is Joe's retirement trip.  This is going to check off some big bucket list items for him.  That being said we splurged a little and we booked 2 Business Class seats.  This is what use to be called 1st class. 

Pretty nice digs.  Our seats will lay down so we can sleep on this 9 1/2 hour flight.  I don't care what you call it, it's nice.  And we are now spoiled. 

They fed us pretty well.  We preordered our meal so we wouldn't get stuck with whatever was leftover.  It wasn't bad for plane food.   

This was our breakfast before we landed. 

We landed in Barcelona at 9:30 AM local time.  We made it through customs pretty fast.  Our luggage was already out on the carousel.  It's always a relief when your luggage comes out.  We found a taxi to the hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar.  This is a Disney precruise hotel.  Our room was ready which was nice.  We were on a floor with the executive room.  We had access to that for breakfast and snacks.  The first order of business was a short nap.

Across the street from our hotel was a 90's style mall.  Joe forgot his power adaptor for foreign countries so was walked over so he could get one.  The mall had a grocery store so we walked around it as well. 

Lego store

Nice wide aisles in the store.  It was very clean. 

You don't see this every day at a grocery store in the states. 

Views from the balcony of the Executive room. 

The Lounge had these little Coke and Coke Zero bottles.  We went up every afternoon and had one.  These little bottles brought back a lot of memories for me.  My Uncle Ed kept a fridge outside full of these little bottle cokes.  I don't think I have had one in a long time.  

We freshened up because we had tickets to a Flamingo Night at Tablao de Carmen with tasting menu at 6:00.  We took Uber to the location.  

This is the area of the dinner.  There were lots of little artist shops in these buildings.  Some were still open.  

We had a nice view of the stage.

The menu for the evening.

After the dinner it was time for the show.  

The Flamingo dance, at least to us, seems like an angry dance.  It's loud and forceful.  The little girl in her Hello Kitty dress stole the show at the end of the evening. 

As we were leaving there was another couple trying to take their picture here at the umbrellas.  We stopped ask if they would like us to take their picture.  Turns out they are from Georgia.  Joe was expecting a Go Dawgs, instead we got a War Eagle.  We fly halfway around the world to run into Auburn fans.  We talked to them for a while waiting for our Ubers.  They were at the end of their trip and heading home in a day or two and we were just starting.  It was nice hearing someone talk southern on our first night.

Back to the hotel we went.  We were more than ready for bed.  

First observation: The hotel may say they have air conditioning but it's not the same as our AC.