Barcelona Take 1

Tapas, Painted human statues, scenic views, Gaudi, Paella, ocean views, sunshine - all were highlights of our recent long weekend in Barcelona.  One thing that is obvious from the moment you set foot in Barcelona is the culture is much different than London.  I've been trying to think of an analogy to describe the differences, but can’t come up with anything good.  Someone in London told me once that if you were to go start a queue (line) for no apparent reason in the middle of nowhere, that people would go line up in the queue.  I’m pretty sure that if you tried the same little experiment in Barcelona you would not get the same results.  In general I got the sense that people are very laid back, create their own rules and are generally very friendly.

Thursday evening we decided to start things off right with a bottle of wine and some delicious tapas.  Most Spanish folk eat dinner very late (around 10pm) so we had no problems getting in when we showed up at 8pm.  Before we arrived I gave Cory clear instructions that given the fact he had more formal Spanish training than myself that he was to take charge of all Spanish speaking on behalf of the family.  Luckily most of the menu was in English and the only thing that wasn't fully translated was the drink menu.  Heck, even I could pick out the wine section with ease so all looked to be good when placing our order. I wanted Red wine so Cory ordered the Vino Rosa.  A few minutes later the waiter came walking out with pink wine.  I turned to Cory and said this isn't going to work you're going to have to reorder for us.  Cory, I quote, "We may just have to drink this."  Several of the waiters spoke very good English, but luck of the draw we got the guy who spoke very little.  I told Cory that he should at least try to get things fixed.  The waiter comes out and presents the wine, Cory broke out his best Spanish skills and says 'Rojo'.  Ahh, says the waiter, and comes back out with a bottle of red wine.  First Spanish lesson of the trip, Red wine is Vino Tinto, not Vino Roso.  The rest of dinner went extremely smooth.  Brady fell asleep before dinner so he napped in his stroller while we enjoyed our wine and tapas.  I wish I would have taken pictures of our food as everything was delicious and beautifully presented.  We had fried eggplant with honey, Ahi Tuna with guacamole, Artichokes wrapped in Prosciutto and 3 cheese garlic toast.  You will just have to imagine it. 

 After dinner we walked around Las Ramblas, which is the main touristy street in Barcelona.  Brady enjoyed the variety of 'entertainment' on the street.  I put entertainment in quotes as some of it was legit, but there were plenty of scam artists mixed in with the legit entertainment.  To give you an idea of the characters on the street there were at least 20 - 30 painted human statues some nice, but some naughty, random dudes selling bird whistles, other random dudes playing the marble and box game that you can never win, flower stands, hamster stands, bird stands and other random stands.  It is fun to walk through and very lively, but you definitely have to be aware of your surroundings.

After dinner and some walking it was time to hit the sack as we had a full agenda for Friday and Saturday.  More details of the weekend to come.