Hola from Barcelona!!!

I suppose I should actually say Hello in Catalan, since that's what everyone speaks here, but since I don't know that, we'll just have to settle for Spanish, since that's pretty much everyone's second language.

Once upon a time, many years ago, Jeff's friend Jon sent a postcard from Rome which read, "Michaelangelo is great. Da Vinci is great. Rome sucks, Italy sucks. Hope Meg's not Italian". I have to admit, after the first few hours in Barcelona I was very much afraid I was going to have the same opinion of this city; that the art and architecture were wonderful but I could do without the city itself. We got in on the train around 10 Tuesday morning, after a lovely train ride (brushing one's teeth as the Mediterranian is flashing by your window -- yeah, that's cool!). It was raining, which is always yucky and especially as a tourist. We caught a cab as close to our hotel as possible (it was on a pedestrian-only street), then walked the rest of the way. The hotel was, shall we say, less than what we expected. We'd been shooting for cheaper hotels all along, trying not to break our budget, and up until Barcelona had had wonderful luck. Well, our luck ran out. The hotel was clean, but it seemed damp and smelled musty (at least partially from the rain, I'm sure), and was very definitely aimed at a younger (i.e. doesn't care what their hotel is like 'cause they're never there!) crowd. I discovered, much to my chagrin, that I'm old enough to care deeply what my hotel is like! So, we did the mature, responsible, adult thing, and immediately went to the tourist information booth and found a new hotel! This one is quite nice, clean, non-damp and musty, and improved my opinion of Barcelona considerably!

Once we got checked in at the new place and bags moved and what not, we set out for the tourist bus. Yes, make fun if you will, but Jeff and I actually took a tourist bus. It was actually a really good idea, for a number of reasons. First, it gaave us a good look at the city to get ourselves oriented (Barcelona is a LARGE city). Second, it kept us out of the rain (it rained constantly Tuesday). And third, the passes we bought were good for Wednesday as well, so we were able to use them for transportation on Wednesday.

After riding the bus around and seeing various sights (from the bus, of course -- once we were out of the rain we STAYED out of the rain) we grabbed a bite of dinner. We ate at an odd place. It was obviously geared towards tourists (menus were in French and English, with not a word of Spanish), but there were definitely some traditional Spanish foods on the menu. We'd skipped lunch, so ate larger meals than is normal at a Spanish supper. Jeff had veal and I had chicken; no jamon or queso anywhere (not even any pan), but there was a fried egg on each plate, so I guess it's still a traditional Spanish meal! Then back to our clean, non-musty room, and our earliest bedtime since getting here.

Wednesday, luckily, wound up being a lovely day. It was cloudy in the morning, but not raining, and we wound up having a sunny afternoon. We slept in, had a breakfast of cafe con leche, croissant (Jeff), crepe de la frutas rojas (Meg), and zumo de naranaja. Yum. On our way up to the bus stop, we passed the Market, and wandered around there for a bit, taking pictures and eating some fabulous strawberries. Then off to the tourist bus! Our first stop was La Manazana de la Discordia, or "The Street of Discord", a block of Pg de Gracia near the Placa Catalunya where Antoni Gaudi and two other modern architects (Domenech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch) each built a house. Each house is interesting in it's own right, but the three together are a little much, as they're not really complementary. Hence the street name.

Gotta go for now, it's time for breakfast. More on Barcelona later.