This was a “get to know Barcelona” day. The original goal was to visit a couple of sites of interest, ending at the Sagrada Familia, the famous not-yet-finished cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. However, that plan had to be modified and we never got to the church.
We started the morning with some much-needed nourishment as we had skipped supper the night before. We found a local cafe that served up some very acceptable eggs with bacon or sausage. Then we headed to the nearest Metro station to get our transportation bearings. We acquired a Metro map and some information about the fare structure from a very helpful attendant at the station. But rather than hop on the subway immediately we decided to walk down to the Castle of the Three Dragons, a museum. It was closed for renovations, which was disappointing. But only a little as we had enjoyed the walk there. Marlene is enthralled by the pervasive – and very artistic – graffiti that adorns many buildings and fences throughout Barcelona. The city doesn’t seem to mind as a very funny public notice was posted conspicuously on the wooden fence surrounding a construction site: “Graffity [sic] sucks like Deepthroat”. If you don’t get the reference, look it up. I took it to be a compliment. The fence was covered with graffiti.
We walked past the Arc de Triomf and boarded the Metro there. I was surprised to hear that this was Marlene’s first subway ride EVER. Our destination was the Sants railway station because the Metro attendant had warned us that we would be traveling on a holiday weekend and tickets might be scarce. So our original plan had to be revised to include this new destination.
At the station we learned that all bookings were done online or at the kiosks in the terminal. But we also learned that there was no problem getting tickets. So we left without booking passage to Madrid. On the way out of the station we stopped at the money exchange and were disappointed in the rate offered to buy euros: $1.26 per euro. We had gotten euros for just $1.18 the day before. But not getting the euros then turned out to have been a mistake.
We then walked to the Passeig de Gracia which is Barcelona’s version of Fifth Avenue in New York. Or Rodeo Drive in LA. LOTS of designer-label shops. We even ventured into a Jimmy Choo shop, whichwas the first one the Marlene had ever seen. I guess the first that I had seen, too. We felt very unwanted there.
We walked by, somewhat unexpectedly, Casa Mila, one of Gaudi’s more famous creations, but didn’t go in. We continued walking home, passing close by the Sagrada Familia, but not close enough to get a view. We stopped for dinner at a little cafe that served paella. Dining on paella was one of my goals in visiting Spain. The version we got was quite tasty. The sangria was good, too. A fine Spanish meal.
The walk to the hotel included a number of other interesting buildings. Barcelona certainly has more than its share of interesting architecture.
According to my step counter, we walked over 6 miles on this day.