Barthelona

March 14, 2006
Barcelona

Well, Barcelona is growing on me. It’s a cool city, but at the end of the week I think I will be done with it when the week is over.

Today we walked down to the beachfront and walked along it for a few miles to see how the city changes as it meets the sea. Some areas are excellent, and some are not.

All in all the day was good – it went from drizzly to sunny and we ended the day with farting about in a playground (yes, I went arse over teakettle while there) and then some well deserved beer. Yum.

Once we got back to town (we were so far out from the city center that we took the Metro back) we found a restaurant of astounding cheapness and excellence. I had one of the better meals of my life – white beans and Catalan sausage. Yum! It was simple and subtle and rich and bold and I’m crying inside at the thought that I might never have it again. We might go back tomorrow night – but the restaurant is the oldest one in the city (from 17hmmhmphhmph) and doesn’t open until 9pm in the dodgy bit of town.

March 15, 2006
Barcelona

Today was an easier day, and we took our aching legs down to wander in the Barrio Gotic (the dodgy bit isn’t dodgy during the day) and have a look at the old cathedral and wander around a bit. Work work work. ;)

Then we went to the market – full of all sorts of things you don’t see in supermarkets. Heads. Carcasses. Fresh seafood. Live seafood. Ostrich eggs. Massive cheeses. Mucky vegetables.

After that delightful and diverting experience, we metroed it up to the end of town that is remarkable for only two things. One is a rather nice little urban park that we roamed around for a bit. The other is a building. An amusing building. A building of such stunning anthropomorphic suggestion that I can’t look at it without giggling, and Sandra is just about helpless. Please excuse the crudeness, but as you all know me very well, you’ll know that I could be much cruder. Imagine a suppository. Now, make a building that shape. The lack of subtletly is astonishing and reminds me to remind *you* to run all building designs by a seven year old boy for the giggle-check before building them.

March 16, 2006
Barcelona
Thursday

Again we had a comparatively easy day. We set off from the hotel of plastic – ah, I haven’t told you about the hotel yet. This hotel is outstanding in many ways, excellently situated on La Rambla, free beer and soda and water, free breakfast and snacky items, free internet, lots of plugs. However, it is filthy, the shower curtain requires macgyvering to prevent midshower molestations, the shower itself required some macgyvering (by yours truly, of course) to help it function normally, and we’re pretty sure they haven’t vacuumed in a couple of months. To top it all off, the room is pink. The chairs are lawn chairs with slipcovers. The drawers are the plastic slide out ones that most people keep in garages. It is a perplexing mix of all the things we’ve been craving, and all the things that we’ve been dreading.

However, accommodations aside, we set off across the city this morning to go to one of Gaudi’s masterpieces, Parc Guell. It’s set on a pretty high hill on the outskirts, so the views are excellent, and the rest of it was Gaudi at his wacky whimsical best. This has been my favorite thing about Barcelona (except the wifi in the hotel room) and gets a big thumbs up.

Unfortunately we had a small crisis of spare change when the time came to get on the city bus back into town, so we had to buy ice creams to break down our larger bills. Unavoidable, you see.

Back across the city to an apartment building by the eminent Mr. Gaudi – again, it was excellent, but we were famished by the time we finished up there. Back to the restaurant in the Barri Gotic that we had eaten at a couple of days ago, and we ate an excellent and early dinner. I had the exact same thing again – catalan sausage and white beans. Yum yum yum.

Then, back to the hotel room for errands etc. and planning for our trip tomorrow.