Ken and Elise's trip

Day 26: Getting organized again

  I told Ken I didn’t want to get up early, and he apparently took me very seriously as he was quiet as a mouse. I awoke thinking it was probably at least 8 a.m. To my horror upon checking my watch, I discovered that it was 11 a.m.!

  I leaped out of bed and dressed as rapidly as possible. We headed out to the little grocery store to get some supplies. It wasn’t far away, We had a great time checking out the differences between our grocery stores and the store here. I thought the prices were MUCH cheaper here in Barcelona overall even with the difference in the dollar/euro figured in.

   We came back to the apartment which to be honest was disappointing me a bit. For some reason, I had thought it was on the ocean---from the pictures on Airbnb I had thought you walked out Silvina’s patio right to the beach. Not so. In fact the ocean was nowhere to be seen from the apartment. However, it really was only a 2-3 minute walk. But the beach disappointed me too. Yes, it was a great beach for swimming and sunbathing which is what most people want. But not me--I want rocks and wild waves. This beach was miles and miles of sand and gentle ocean waves.

  I decided to do some laundry, so Ken and I picked up soap at the store. Here I ran into another snag. Silvina;s machine was a front-loader which I have never used. It was a Smeg (I think) brand which I had never heard of. And of course, all the controls were in Spanish. I have heard wild tales of soap overflowing on front loaders if you put too much in. I was so worried I would damage her machine, but she had left not one instruction on how to use it. I pondered and pondered--attempted to use my translate app to figure out what the controls were saying. I went online to try to find directions on using the model--apparently it was a discontinued model as it wasn’t listed anywhere. Finally I figured I’d just have to “go for it”. So I put a load in, put a small amount of soap in and hit one of the controls to start it. it said it was going to take 2.5 hours to do the wash. That couldn’t be right, could it?? I didn’t know what else to do but let it go. Nearly 3 hours later, it said “done”.

   Now I had another problem. There was no dryer which I understood. Most Spanish people apparently don’t use driers. Why should they when they have that great sun to dry their clothes! And right next to the room with the washer was a strange sort of square area that ran the entire height of the apartment. Everyone had a clothesline in this square--you could look up and see lines all the way up and down. I didn't mind hanging the clothes, but I couldn’t find a clothespin to save my life. I finally called Silvina’s mom to ask about it. She sounded puzzled, but said she would have Silvina call me. We never heard one word from Silvina’--there’s a shocker! Finally, good old Ken headed out to explore. My foot was hurting pretty badly at this point and all I wanted to do was rest it. So I stayed home and did more laundry. When Ken came back he had found clothespins! What a guy! So we hung the clothes. I did discover a setting later that washed the clothes in under an hour. However as it turned out I had to do the first batch all over again as they did not get clean. I had misjudged the amount of soap.

  Later that evening Ken and I walked out to the center of the town. Although it was supposed to be a small town, there were thousands of apartments in massive apartment buildings. We went out after 7 p.m. and everyone was walking their dogs. Almost everyone had small, yappy kind of dogs. It seemed that the rule was--either have a yappy dog or if you must have a larger breed, it has to be a Golden Retriever. We must have seen at least 13 Goldens being walked.

  Ken had found an absolutely wonderful promenade. It was as wide as a football field with gorgeous palm trees all the way down. Traffic on either side was only one lane-one-way--the walkway was the centerpiece of the street. It was simply gorgeous to walk down. We got some gelato and sat for awhile watching the people. It was probably the only place we have been that was not at all frequented by tourists. I think Ken and I were the only ones there that night that didn’t belong in the town, and it sort of felt good to be a part of the locals.

  We ate our gelato and strolled home by the promenade. Ken picked up a sandwich for himself at one of the bakeries. I contented myself with making a sandwich of tomatoes, onions, mayo and some of the great crusty bread we had bought at the grocery store that day.

  It was a beautiful evening. It had been a restful day, but we were off to Barcelona tomorrow for our HOHO tour.

  End of Day 26 NOTE: No photos with this post