Spain trip Begins...

Well I'm striking out with the work I brought home presently so I guess I'll start the Spain monologue. :-)

 

We left Saturday the 30th to head to Europe and flew overnight to Frankfurt. I got quite a bit of sleep on the plane ride actually, more than I would have expected. I had hoped to stay awake for the movie as it was one I wanted to see, but I was zonked out. We had a short layover in Frankfurt and made it to Spain on Sunday, early afternoon I think it was.

 

Got our luggage and found a cab driver to take us to our hotel. Apparently Mr. Driver does not like big suitcases because he was sure complaining about mine! (It was only half full, but it WAS big. I did that intentionally so I'd have plenty of room for souvenirs on the way home.) I couldn't understand most of what he said but it was definitely some griping about the suitcase!

 

We arrived at our hotel and got settled in. We were staying off the beaten path (free hotel nights make you do that on occasion. LOL) but still in a pretty decently busy area. WE checked in, dropped off our luggage and L was tired so she took a nap. I was wide awake so decided to peruse the maps of the city, metro, and tourist bus to figure out what we needed to know and where everything was.

 

After L woke up, we headed downstairs to go out and see Barcelona. Turns out our plans to rely on the metro were not going to help us AT ALL. ALL five or six stations closest to our hotel were closed down! They were doing some work on them so we found that would not work. We started to get upset until the front desk folks told us the Barcelona Tourist Bus had a stop right outside out hotel and went all over the city. Not the fastest way to get around (it's on a set path and stops at every single place on the schedule along the way and it runs in a big circle, so only goes one way.) but we decided that would work. So we headed out, found the stop (just across the street and maybe 50 feet down the sidewalk) and waited for the bus.

 

Shortly thereafter when it stopped we bought our tickets and hopped on. Away we go!!!

 

We rode most of the green route (closest to the hotel) until we came to a connection for the blue route (the one that was best for where all we wanted to go) and hopped on that one. We had our handy dandy earphones they provided so we got the scoop about everything we saw as we rode along. Rode all the way over to Olympic Stadium which was where we thought all the restaurants were located to get dinner. Turns out the Olympic Stadium stop is just that, the stadium, and there was ANOTHER section called Olympic Village (or similar) and that's where all the good stuff was. So we jumped back on the bus and rode to the correct place.

 

This is great too because its a double decker and the top level is all open. So we were snapping away with the cameras. Taking pictures of anything and everything that caught our eye. Until it started to rain and we had to take cover in the lower level of the bus. But that was the only rain we had the whole trip so none of our sightseeing was interrupted after this.

 

By now we were quite hungry so we started searching for a place to get paella. We found many places, but they only make paella for groups of two or more (Lots of work I guess) and we couldn't agree on a flavor to try. So no paella for us that night. I ordered a fish fillet which was quite yummy and cooked perfectly. And those waiters are PROS at de-boning the fillet in a few quick motions. I'd have never managed it that cleanly or quickly myself. After dinner, the tourist bus had already shut down for the night so we hopped a cab back to the hotel. We were both tired by now, trying to adjust to the time difference so we we both in bed by 9:00. Normal time for L, WAY early for me, the night owl.

 

next post... Monday.