Ken and Elise's trip

Day 27: Barcelona Tour 1

Having rested a bit the day before, we got up this morning and headed for the train station just a few minutes walk away. Before long we were in Barcelona where we soon found the HOHO and purchased tickets for two days. Once again it was hot as Hades and there was a huge line to the bus. We purchased bottled water (Ken wonders how many bottles of water we have gone through on this trip--we both know it is many!) We had to wait for three buses before we finally got on. To our disappointment we discovered we had climbed aboard the “orange” line instead of the “green” which takes you to the major sites. The green line was around the corner but we hadn’t seen it.

Actually it worked out well. If we hadn’t gotten on the orange, we might not have taken it as it toured the outside perimeters of Barcelona and we may not have thought that was interesting.

Blake who spent a summer in Spain had said there were three things we could not miss in Barcelona. Sagrada Familia (the famed Gaudi church that is still being completed), Parc Guell and the harbor. We caught glimpses of the harbor as we whipped around on the bus, and thought we could chalk that one off our list. It was lovely, but we didn’t think it was that much nicer than other harbors we had seen. Soon the bus started climbing a mountain and things got much more interesting and beautiful. We saw the magnificent stadium where the Olympics were held and the massive Olympic torch. We caught glimpses of the city below and it looked absolutely lovely. I was frantically trying to get photos of the various beautiful things (mainly the torch which fascinated me), but it is very hard to do in the bus-at least get good photos. It moves too fast.

We got off that tour and found the green line. It was sooooo boring. Here’s a sample of the commentary: “Here in Barcelona we have 7 major beaches. They are all beautiful. Our next stop is Beach 1.” We would stop and then the narration would pick up. “Now we will stop at Beach 2.” I’m not sure that we stopped at all seven beaches, but it seemed like it. The two huge sites were saved for almost the end--the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell. Since the tour took about 90 minutes I decided we probably better get off now at Sagrada and Guell as it was getting later in the day and I didn’t want to have to do the entire tour again just to get to those two places. Yes, we had the next day, but I had made up my mind that I wanted to go back up the mountain and get off at that gorgeous city overlook.

So we leaped off the bus at the Sagrada Familia. All I can say is “WOW!” This cathedral is absolutely astonishing. Gaudi designed and started building it in 1882 and worked on it constantly until he was run over by a street car. Since then work has continued constantly with donations coming in from all over the world and money also being raised by entrance fees. We chose not to go through it--just seeing the outside was jaw-dropping enough. You either love it or hate it according to the literature I read. I would say I did neither. I thought it was mind blowing, but I prefer the more traditional cathedrals. But I didn’t hate it either. I just considered it a major work of art and feel privileged to have been able to actually see it with my own eyes. I told Ken I could look at it for a full day and still see something new I hadn’t noticed before. We tried to get photos,, but as with a number of the things we saw, it was simply too large and magnificent to be captured from close up. It was worth the price of the HOHO ticket alone.

It was here that I was struck with a sudden and immediate need for a restroom. This has been a constant problem as we are novices at finding water closets (as they are called in Europe) in foreign countries--at home you know you can always count on McDonald’s, and there is almost always a McDonald’s close by. But here we have almost reached the point of desperation more than once. I was at that point. We looked frantically but saw nothing. Finally Ken just went into a souvenir shop and asked. The guy looked at him strangely and said “Any bar.” Well yes, I sort of knew that but we didn’t want to buy drinks. But I finally reached the point where there was no choice and I just picked a bar, ran in, found the restroom, used it, heaved a massive sigh of relief, and ran out. I think this is common, but I always feel uncomfortable using a restroom without purchasing anything--even at McDonald’s. But I have to admit that I got quite good at simply running into a cafe or bar and using the facilities

We left the Sagrada, found our bus and headed for Parc Guell also designed by Gaudi. Blake said it was a DO NOT MISS. We got off at the stop and oh boy! It was another climb up a hill which we dutifully did. Not a horrible hill, but taxing anyway. When you get to the top there are a series of escalators that take you most of the rest of the way. Then there is another brief climb and you are at the entrance. Whoops! No one told us there was a fee. Well, Blake said we couldn’t miss it so we got in line to pay. When we got to the front we were informed that we couldn’t go in just yet--the park was “full”. In order to preserve it’s features, they only allow 400 people in it at a time. We couldn’t enter until 6 p.m. which was almost an hour away. We didn’t know what to do as we still had to find a place to eat and we didn’t want to be that late going home.We stepped out of line to discuss it, decided we didn’t want to miss something Blake so strongly recommended, got back in line. Only now we were told we had missed that opportunity. We couldn’t go in until 6:30. That decided us. We were not going to do it today--we’d come back tomorrow and try again. Even the thought of that daunted me. My foot (not sure I’ve mentioned it but my left foot started hurting a little in Switzerland and has gotten worse and worse until every step hurts--by the end of the day it hurts a LOT!! I’m not at all sure what has happened--I’ve never had anything like it before but it is becoming a real problem. I’ve not let it stop me from keeping on, but I”ve done a lot of quiet whimpering to myself). Anyway, the climb up had not been fun on my foot and I really wasn’t looking forward to doing it again.

We got back on the bus and headed to the center of town and tried to find something to eat. I had read about tapas which are part of the national food scene in Spain and Portugal. I wasn’t exactly sure what they were but I had read you can have them made vegetarian. Ken wanted to try them too so we started scouting cafes. Finally we found one (actually we had passed dozens but just didn’t know what we were doing) that looked like it had them. We went inside and asked. The waiter looked at us very strangely like maybe we were idiots and pointed to a huge sign that showed probably 20 different dishes--apparently each restaurant as it’s own list of the tapas they offer and you can choose your restaurant by the photos of the tapas. I asked about vegetarian and he showed me several.

We decided to go for it and found a nice place outside. The waiter came to take our order and I chose potato tapas and chips and guacamole tapas. The waiter sort of sneered at my potato choice and said “that is just cooked potatoes” and tried to steer me to some with brie cheese. But I don’t like cheese so I stuck with the potato ones. I don’t remember what Ken chose, but he really, really liked his. The waiter talked us into a “starter” too which was a platter of grilled vegetables with a spicy tomato sauce dip. It was delicious!

My potato tapas was actually quite good. The chips and guacamole was a joke. Basically a bowl of chips with a bit of cheese melted and way down in the bottom there was some shredded lettuce, a little chopped tomato and about a quarter teaspoon of guacamole.

But overall it was good and we were happy we had chosen the place we did.. We now know what tapas are--a large choice of what are basically hor'dourves which you can order and share. If you get enough of them, they constitute a full meal.

Our appetite sated, we headed home on the train to bed.

End of Day 27