Hola from Barcelona

Friday we awakened early and had breakfast about 8 AM.  We walked to the Metro (subway) station for our first ride on the Barcelona Metro.  The doorman at the hotel told us where to find the station so that we would be on a direct line to where we wanted to go.  We bought a ticket good for 10 rides, which we could share.  We managed to figure out which way we wanted to go and boarded the train and headed down towards the waterfront to a lovely park to find a geocache that Lori wanted to find. 

To find this particular geocache one had to locate certain items in the part and enter the number into an equation to figure out the coordinates.  Luckily we had Danielle, who is an accountant.  You do NOT want to count on ME for anything mathematical.

We managed to find all of the necessary features in the park, but figuring out their equation was hard.  We searched and searched and searched and did NOT find the geocache.  L  We think that we were very close, but we just could not find it.

I tried to get a photo of the police who were riding, what looked to me to be Andalusia horses.  I was sure that Kelley would love to see them, but they were too fast for me and I never saw them again.  Sorry Kelley.   

As we were fairly close to the Chocolate Museum, we decided to head there.  After a bit of searching (why didn’t we look for the street address to begin with?) we finally found it.  The history of chocolate was featured along with a variety of items carved from chocolate.  Of course, they also have a gift shop so purchases were made.

We decided to eat before searching for the Metro, so we stopped at a burger place.  Lori had a salad with avocado and sun dried tomato; I had a turkey sandwich & fries; Kristina had a veggie wrap and Danielle had a chicken wrap.  Thus fortified, we b began our search for the Metro.

We found ourselves in a very “touristic” area.  There were lots of little shops selling all manner of junk.  We managed to find the Metro.  We wanted to go to where the aerial tram was located.  After consulting the Metro map, we figured that we could get to where we wanted to be in 3 or 4 transfers.  So, off we went to begin our journey. 

We managed to get to the funicular that led to the aerial tram location.  I don’t know how a funicular differs from a subway, but it seems to be one train that runs only to a given destination and back to the beginning w/o any stops.  We boarded the aerial tram for a lovely view of the city and harbor. 

The tram ends at a castle high above the harbor.  Danielle decided to wait for us by the castle and Lori, Kristina and I went off to take photos of the view.  We took a different path back and discovered that we were actually walking all the way around the castle.  It was marked off in meters, for those who wanted to jog it, and there were people doing that.  We finally got back to Danielle and decided to enter the castle.  It seemed pretty much empty, except for the concession stand and the gift shop. 

Back to the tram for the reverse journey down the hill.  Back to the Metro station where we discovered that we could get back to the hotel without having to transfer at all.  When we exited the Metro station, it took Lori and Kristina some time to figure out where the heck we were and where we needed to go.  Finally Kristina told me that she was 65% sure that we needed to go down one street for a block to get to the street where we ate the night before and from there we could find the hotel.

I am usually VERY good with maps, but these maps totally confuse me.  When we all look at the map I think we should go one direction, Kristina and Lori say the other and they are right.  ???  That is soooo NOT like me.  I conceded to let them deal with directions.

We stopped at a restaurant on the way home to have pizza for dinner.  Hey ADAM, you could visit Spain and eat PIZZA the whole time that you are here!  Lori with olives, basil and sun dried tomatoes; Kristina had one with ham; I had one with ham, mushrooms and tuna.  Yep, tuna.  Don’t ask me but tuna seems to be a popular item on the menus.  Danielle had tortellini.   

After a leisurely dinner, (that is the only kind they have in Spain; absolutely NO rushing to get you out the door around here!!) we walked back to the hotel.  The hot tub was calling Kristina, Lori and me, so we changed into our suits and headed for the roof.  Lori stuck her toe in one of the hot tubs (the other was occupied by a couple) and said something like, “Yikes!  That is COLD!”  ???   The man in the other one called for us to come in that one, so we did. 

The couple got out after a few minutes and went into the sauna.  We lazed about in the very warm tub (It was not really HOT) and enjoyed the evening.  After a bit we got out to give a new couple the hot tub and went to warm up in the sauna.  The heat in the sauna seems to help Lori’s nose, which is still dripping a bit.  Once we were good and hot, we headed back to the room and to bed. 

I am guessing that we walked no less than ten miles, above and below the ground.  There were a lot of walkways underground for the Metro.  Maybe we walked farther, as we walked around and around the park, in addition to all of the other walking.   Suffice  it to say, we got our exercise in today!!