Barcelona Take 2

We woke up Friday morning well rested and ready to see the city.  First stop was Starbucks and McDonalds for breakfast.  We were really looking forward to an Egg McMuffin since our hotel breakfast cost €18 a person.  We got to the McDonalds counter to order breakfast and crazy thing was they do not serve hot breakfast items.  Our only choices were donuts, croissants or pancakes with chocolate syrup.  WHAT, no McDonalds breakfast?  Surely this was a one off at this location only.  Nope, no egg sandwiches at Burger King, Starbucks, KFC or any other fast food location within walking distance.  Lesson learned, apparently breakfast is not an universal necessity.  Everyone who knows me well, will understand what a travesty this was for me.  I am a breakfast person.  I cannot think of a day that I have skipped breakfast and a donut just doesn’t quite cut it.  However, we would not let this spoil our day.  We shared some pancakes and were on our way.

Plans for the day included a market, churches, plazas, a park and dinner at Christian and Missy’s house.  

First stop was La Boqueria, which is the large market just off of Las Ramblas.  La Boqueria had an amazing selection of fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood and any other kind of fresh food you can think of.  We were not hungry when we walked through the market so didn’t have the urge to buy anything.  I was intrigued by the big hanging pieces of meat.  You could get yourself a nice pork leg for €50.  I found it interesting that they were all the same price.  If I were to buy one of those nice pork legs I would probably want to weigh each of them to ensure I was getting the most value for my purchase.  We did stop back by the market on Saturday and had an excellent fruit smoothie so we can say that we experienced the market.

After the market we visited Santa Maria del Mar which is a Catalan Gothic style church built in the 1300s .  We were able to go inside and take in the amazing architecture.  No trip is complete without multiple church stops, so after Santa Maria we hit up the Cathedral with is also Gothic style and is the seat of the Archbishop.  As we visited the churches we walked through numerous plazas which many had interesting fountains.

As we were walking we spotted a Hard Rock Café and decided to indulge in some Nachos.  I’m not necessarily into collecting Hard Rock café items, but do remember always getting a t-shirt as a kid when my mom visited various places.  Cory and I are more into Hard Rock for their predictable nachos and burgers. 

We were in serious needs of a walk after our burger and nachos so set out to find the cable car from the beach to Montjuïc park.  We could see the cable car, but couldn’t figure out exactly where to catch it at.  It looked like you could catch it from the Port so we headed that direction.  When we arrived at the port we couldn’t figure out where to get on and didn’t see any cars actually moving.  Rather than spend all day trying to figure out the cable car thing, we decided we might as well just start heading the direction of Montjuïc.  I love walking so how far or hard of a walk could it be.  Silly us, the walk to Montjuïc was a steep incline and one of those walks where you get to the next level and then find out there is one more climb.  This happened probably 5-6 times.  We thought we were too the top, but then one more climb.  I also think we took the unconventional route as we got to a point where there were about 100 rock stairs and no pavement.  There is nothing like hoisting a stroller up 100 stairs.  In the end we made it up to the top (or at least we’re going to call it the top, I think we could have climbed up a little further) and took in some beautiful views.  Also, funny enough, we got to the cable car drop location and it was not running.  Later that day we saw the cable cars running again so it may have just been bad timing on our part.

Friday evening, Christian and Missy, previous co-workers, invited us over for Tapas.  They have been living in Barcelona for the past 1.5 years teaching English.  They did it up with some tapas, bread, cheese, wine and even had entertainment for Brady.

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.

Hampton Court Palace

Another weekend, another castle.  Destination was Henry XIII's castle, Hampton Court Palace.  Both Cory and I broke into song, "Henry the XIIIth I am I am, Henry the XIIIth I am I am."  We couldn't remember the rest nor could Cory or I remember why Henry the XIII was famous.  Turns out Henry XIII was famous for being married six times and for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.  In case you're dying to now the lyrics as well, here you go:

I'm Henry the Eighth, I am, Henry the Eighth I am, I am!  I got married to the widow next door, She'd been married seven times before.  And every one was an Henry (Henry) She wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam (no Sam) I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry, Henry the Eighth, I am!

 Cory and I are no castle novices at this point so we were quite impressed that in addition to the typical 'apartment' tour, Hampton Court offered up tours of the castle kitchen & cellar.  Cory was mesmerized by the pieces of meat the actors were cooking.  He asked if it was available for testing by the public and unfortunately it was not.  However, they did assure us the meat does not go to waste as they eat it.

Within the apartments you had your typical rugs, paintings, thrones, beds, etc.  There was also a pretty cool collection of guns on the wall.  Certainly would make you think twice about misbehaving in the castle.  I got a kick out of the audio tour at one point when it said that a particular room was open to public women as long as they were dressed appropriately and were attractive.  Perhaps, a bit discriminative, but the King makes the rules.  (Our at least at this point in time they did)

The gardens were amazing.  Brady particularly enjoyed the abundance of rocks and the HUGE swans.  The swans I kid you not were almost four feet tall.  At one point one was getting a bit protective and started walking at a lady making hissing like noises.  I immediately took about 10 big steps back.  Kari versus Swan was not the battle I had in mind.

Last stop at the Palace, Britain's oldest hedge maze.  After a few dead ends and a couple of wrong turns, we made it to the middle!  On the way to the maze we saw a cool looking bird, can you see it below?  It blended perfectly with the tree trunk.