Barcelona Here We Come

We are sitting on the deck of the Carnival Magic, waiting for our family to join us. It has been a few days since I touched base so I thought I would take a few minutes and report in.

I believe the last time was when I made fun of Rexie squealing as the landing gear came down at Charlotte.

Well, we made it on our flight to Philadelphia and landed without any squeals at all. Actually, Rexie fell asleep during the takeoff. It was really quite amazing and she had not taken any pills yet.

We get on our flight to Barcelona. The plane is not too full and we have plenty of empty seats around us. The next thing that happens is that the air crew starts moving people from the back (the crowded seated) to empty seats near us. Not a problem, as we still have plenty of room. However, the next thing we know they move a woman and her baby to the seats in front of us. She (the baby) was about six or seven months old. I will not pretend that I was a little put off. I had planned on sleeping all night and be ready for Barcelona when we landed. That was not to be. Just as son as the woman got settled, the baby started in crying. A good night’s sleep was not to be.  I must admit, that the baby did not cry all night, just every time I finally got to sleep.

We get to Barcelona and we are NOT ready for it. The baby kicked my butt. So instead of sightseeing while until we can check into the room, we spent most of the time in the hotel lobby dozing. When we finally get into our room, a two hour nap is called for.

We walk down to a restaurant that the concierge recommended. It is about six blocks away. It is an amazing walk as we get to see a variety of stores and people. I love to watch people. Many of the streets do not intersect like a cross as they do in the US.

 Instead, they put a box down diagonally in the middle of the street intersection. 

 

To cross the street, you have to walk left or right about 30 feet. Another thing we discovered was that when the green walk sign flashes, you better be on the other side because the light turns almost immediately and traffic starts whether you are ready or not. There are many, many motorbikes being used. Not mopeds, but big motorbikes. It is interesting to see a man in a suit riding his bike next to someone in casual clothes. These motorbikes are being used by males and females alike.

We are handed the menu and can you imagine that English is not the first language in Spain. Go figure. Actually, the menu was written in six languages. English was at least fourth. Surprisingly, we had more people speaking English than I was expecting. We try a variety of different dishes. Some were amazingly good. While we love prawns (shrimp), we were not prepared to have the prawn served with the head on.  I can attest to the fact that prawns taste better when someone takes the head off for you. Thanks Rexie. We had a nice apple, pineapple, chicken salad that had an amazing sauce to it. We actually ordered a second one since Rexie wanted a bite and I ate most of it. We then ordered what we thought was a slice of mushroom, Iberian sweet ham, and olive oil. Apparently, Iberian ham is sort of a special ham like Canadian bacon.

What about Pictures? Since we were still dog tired, I forgot to take the camera the first day in Barcelona. Don’t say a word to me! Rexie has already said plenty when we were on the streets of Barcelona.

I promise plenty of pictures when I report on our second day in Barcelona.

Finally able to get on the Internet - here it is.