Barcelona, Day 1

The hotel I am at here in Barcelona has free wireless internet on the first floor, so that's where I am now. The cool thing is that the lounge I am in has a piano bar, so I'm listening to the piano player right now as I type this. He's really good!

Anyway, I forgot to mention something in yesterday's blog post (I'm sure I've missed mentioning a lot of things since the trip began). Laura and I treated Doug and Audrey to the dinner last night in Quinten. It was the least we could do after all of the hospitality they showed us with allowing us to stay at their place and making food for us. We cannot thank them enough. We had such a great time staying with them and catching up. And Abe is an awesome little kid that was a lot of fun to be around. So we'll definitely remember that part of the trip.

One other thing. Switzerland is EXPENSIVE. Everything from food to even riding the tram was more expensive than any other city we've been in. I don't even want to know how much I spent. Good thing the exchange rate between the dollar and the Swiss Franc is close to 1:1.

Anyway, on to the new stuff.

We got up very early this morning so we gave ourselves enough time to ride the tram to the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare. It seemed like the Zurich airport had a different layout than other airports I've been in. You actually go to the individual terminal first (after going through passport control and what not), then go through security. Everywhere else I've been it's the other way around. But we made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare.

Side note: The train we rode to get to our terminal kind of reminded me of the boat ride in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Everything from weird moving pictures of a Swiss girl blowing you a kiss to random sound effects (like a cow mooing).

Our flight to London (London City Airport) for the transfer was uneventful, save for the rather bumpy landing. Once we landed, we found out that we had 35 minutes to get to our connecting flight. But first, we had to exit the plane onto the tarmac, then catch a bus to the terminal, then go through security AGAIN (seriously?) complete with a time-consuming pat down, then wait in the lobby until the updating sign said that our plane was boarding (there were no PA announcements, so you had to watch the sign), then get to the gate and show them our ticket, then wait until we were given permission to walk back down to the tarmac and load the plane. Frankly, I don't like how that airport worked, but that's my opinion.

Thankfully, we got through all of that with a few minutes to spare, and it was off to Barcelona. Again, an uneventful flight. So we land in Barcelona and, guess what? It was raining! I know I keep bringing this up, and I guess I'm disappointed with the weather here. I know it's rainy season, but seriously, can it not stop raining for one whole day? Is that too much to ask for?

The Barcelona airport where we landed did the same thing as London City Airport. You walk out onto the tarmac (again, it's raining) and hop on a bus to the terminal. After that, it was just through passport control and off to get our luggage. No luggage was lost. With that done, we figured out (with the help of some information people) how to get to our hotel.

This brings me to another point. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm complaining about a few things, but I'm just pointing out my observations. Barcelona's mass transit system sucks. Who thought it was a good idea to have one tram come to the airport every 30 minutes when there's 800,000 people that need to use it? Are they just trying to see how many people they can fit onto a train at once? It was completely crowded, and someone near me had very bad body odor. Just not fun.

Thankfully, the subway we caught after we got off the tram wasn't as bad, it was just more chaotic that the other cities we've been in. Even though the map looks complex, it's not too hard to follow. We managed to get on the right train to the station we needed, and got off. We had to walk the rest of the way to the hotel.

But again, it's raining. So the walk to the hotel was miserable. I was soaked by the time we got there. But we checked in quickly, and I was able to change into dry clothes.

Thankfully, things got better from there. It stopped raining. We left the hotel about 4:15 PM (we rested for a little while after checking in) thinking about going to get an early dinner since we hadn't had lunch. Instead, we noticed on our way in to the hotel that the road just in front of the hotel area was blocked off. It was blocked off because it was part of the Tour de France course that ended today in Barcelona. So instead of finding a place to eat, we decided to wait with the crowd (we found an empty spot right at the barrier so we could see the road) and watch the racers go by. It took about another hour, but they started coming by. I got a ton of pictures. I think Lance Armstrong is in there somewhere, and I'm hoping I got the leader (yellow jersey wearer) as well. But it was just something great to experience since it's not every day you have the opportunity to see a part of a major sporting event.

After that, we walked down La Rambla to find a place to eat. We were starving, so we pretty much stopped at the first restaurant that looked good to us. It happened to be an Italian-ish restaurant. I had mini beef ravioli. The sauce was a little sweeter there than I'm used to, but it was good.

After that, we continued walking around the La Rambla area, stopping at a church we found (have no idea which one) and just going down side streets to see the sights. We also walked around the marina area since that's where our hotel was. I got quite a few pictures of buildings here since the architecture is amazing. And palm trees!

After that, we decided to call it a day since there really wasn't any time to do anything else. Plus we wanted to see if we could finalize our plans to go see the Tour de France racers again tomorrow as they go up a climb. Unfortunately, the concierge at the hotel, after it took a while to get across what we were trying to do, said that he didn't think we'd be able to get there because the course follows a highway and there's no way to get there except by car. We could walk from the nearest train station, but he doubted they'd let walkers on the highway. So Laura and I decided to just see the racers as they leave the starting point in the morning. It's the best we could do.

That is it for today. Tomorrow is the last day in Barcelona and the last day in Europe. Even though I'll be sad to leave, I'm ready to come back, as well. But I've really enjoyed this whole trip and I am so thankful that I was able to experience everything that I have.

So tomorrow will be the last post from Europe. I will post again once I get home in Nashville so you know I'm back safely. I'll also post once I get the pictures uploaded to Flickr. It might take a while, but I'll get it done as soon as I can.

That's all for today. Goodnight!

(This post was actually posted at 10:22 Barcelona time.)