After a good night’s sleep, hot showers, and breakfast we took one of those double decker bus tours that offer a scan at the different parts of the city. It took about three hours, but was worth it especially since we sat on the upper level and had unobstructed views. Since the plan was to only be in Barcelona for the day and we were jet lagged, we didn’t do much of the usual sight seeing stuff, like hopping off the bus to visit various churches and monuments. At some point, we’ll go back to Barcelona and be tourists.
It was enough to just to sit at a cafe in the Gothic Quarter and people watch and try to guess the nationalities of the people around us. At one table a trio of Russian women compared purchases and nursed their coffees and nibbled on the sandwiches they’d brought with them. The waiters were a bit exasperated with them, but the ladies didn’t give a jot.
After refueling with some tapas we walked through what seemed to be more of an Arab neighborhood and in the direction of the zoo. Rufus got a little time off leash in one of the parks so that he could romp around with some other dogs. Later that evening, we dropped Rufus off at the hotel and went back out for dinner — more tapas but this time at one of the bars where you just grab what you want off the plates on the counter and you’re charged not by what you ate but by how many toothpicks on your plate. Good system! As with all of the meals we’d had so far, everything was lick-the-plate delicious, but particularly the ham/cheese croquettes — manna from heaven!
It was an early night for us. The Spanish, of course, we’re just getting started as we walked back to the hotel around 11 PM. But, we had to be up early to catch the train to France in the morning, so like fuddy-duds we called it quits for the day.
A few more photos are available on Flickr. We were a bit slow taking out the camera, so there aren’t nearly as many snaps as they’re ought to be.
