Barcelona Day #1

The time zone shift of 9 hours ahead of Santa Cruz time pays a toll on the body, especially after a flight from Miami to Barcelona in which it is nearly impossible to sleep in an upright position with your knees banged by the person in front of you reclining their seat. I was thankful for the effects of red wine that was copiously provided by the American Airlines crew.

 We arrived in Barcelona at about 10 am (their time) and after exiting the plane, we passed through Immigration rather easily. The airport was not very crowded. I was amazed that we did not have to go through Customs to declare any items, or to worry about plants or animals.

We were met at the luggage carousel by a Viking Cruise representative and after collecting our luggage, we were transported to the Renaissance Hotel on Pau Claris. There are four Renaissance Hotels in Barcelona so it is important to remember which one you are staying at to avoid later confusion. We were a bit early for room checkin so we placed our luggage with the bellhop and had a brief meeting with the Viking representatives who gave us a street map and told us when to place our luggage for ship's pick-up on Sunday morning. We found our travel partners, Bonnie and Earl, and after Earl found an ATM to extract some Euros, we set out to explore our locale.

 The hotel is centrally placed near the Las Ramblas district, a tourist trap for sure, and close to the main shopping area that is like Sax Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive. However, along this street, we found some great examples of Gaudi architecture.

We decided to get off the main street as we were not in the market for glitzy things and found ourselves on a pedestrian walkway called Rambla de Catalunya. This is a pleasant area and we stopped at a street side cafe to sample some Tapas and Sangria. Only later did we read some reviews that said avoid the offerings on the Rambla. However, it was not bad, and the dishes were interesting.

One was suspicious to me for body parts that I have seen during my General Surgical operations and I avoided ingesting it. It was called Callos a la madridenya, and I found out later it was tripe…yikes.

 However, Earl and Bonnie being from the South were in “pig heaven” so to speak and gobbled it up. Earline and I concentrated on a meatball dish and grilled provolone cheese.

 We decided we needed a brief nap before further exploration of the city and agreed to meet at 4 pm. Arising in a fog that cleared rapidly, we set off on a street walk of exploration. Going down Pau Claris, our goal was to strike out to see large pictures contained in the street map we were given.


We had already decided for our first walk that we were incapable of comprehending the subway and surface transportation system at this point in time.

 We did locate several points of interest on the map and were pleasantly surprised by our walking path that took us through quaint areas reminiscent of Venice streets. We found the old Palace of Musica, walked to the Arc de  Triomf, and found the Palacio de la Justice on a palisade that was readying itself for Earth Day the next day. The Arc was built as the main gateway entrance to the 1888 Barcelona World Fair.

Strange building with eyeballs

Palace of Music

Palacio de la Musica Catalonia

Palacio de la Musica Inside

Quaint alleys

Arc de Triumf

Interesting street lamps

Place of Justice

Puppeteers

 Walking through the arch, we saw two puppeteers putting on a great show.

With slaked throats, we decided to stop to try a Cava Sangria that is supposed to be popular in Barcelona. It appears to be Champagne based with perhaps Grenadine for sweetening. It went down easily.

Cava Sangria

 We started back to the hotel and purchased some wine for later use and were amazed at the number of appellations near Barcelona. The wine store owner took the time to educate us about some local wines that we wanted to try. Next door was a craft brew place and of course Earline had to try out a dark, breakfast stout.

We then ate some only passable paella at a place reminiscent of a fast food store and returned to the hotel to crash for the evening. Nine hours time difference continues to extract a toll. :)