Thursday, July 8th, 2010
After a late dinner and a couple of drinks with David upon our arrival at our hotel in Barcelona late last night and a good night’s rest, we woke up in a much better mood today. I spoke with the hotel staff and found out more detailed information on transportation to and from Barcelona center and we left the hotel after breakfast feeling that the hotel might not be so bad after all.
We didn’t make it far out the door however before we had yet another detour, however, this time it was a good one. As soon as we stepped out of the hotel door we could hear the high pitched sound of something racing around a track. So upon Tim and David’s request I went back to the hotel and inquired about how to get to the track and whether or not we could get in to watch the practice or test or whatever it was that was going on. Little did we know, perhaps because we arrived at nearly midnight, that our hotel was literally adjacent to the Catalunya Circuit, Barcelona’s F-1 racing track. Once inside we watched the motorcycles race around the track for some time. This was definitely an unexpected bonus for the boys, again, maybe our hotel isn’t so bad after all.
After our detour to the F-1 track, we walked to the bus stop where we had been informed a bus stopped every 30 minutes and would take us to within a 5 minute walk of the train station in Montmelo. We weren’t exactly sure to get off, and Tim and I surely didn’t recognize anything since we walked the town in darkness the previous night, so my minimal Spanish came in handy and I asked a lady on the bus which stop we needed to get off at for the train station and she said “Aqui, Aqui!” or “Here, here!” So we quickly disembarked. Thank goodness I had asked! From the bus station it was as the hotel staff had said less than a 5 minute walk to the train station. From the train station we boarded our train and headed for Barcelona Sants, Barcelona’s main train station, to inquire about tickets to Pamplona before starting our day site-seeing in Barcelona.
When Tim and I had arrived in Barcelona yesterday we had asked a lady at the Barcelona Franca station about tickets to Pamplona, and she said there were none, well there weren’t any that would work for us at least, it seemed she could either get us there or get us back, but not in subsequent days. We thought we would check again one more time at the main station however, since she really didn’t seem to know what she was talking about. But when we reached the main station I picked a number, 79, and looked up to see that they were now serving number 599, and the numbers were going down from there. Needless to say, we simply decided that Pamplona was not meant to be. I’m sure our parents, or at least my mom, will be pleased to hear that we DIDN’T run with the bulls. We were disappointed, but there is always next time.
From the main train station we took a metro line to Placa de Catalunya where we strolled down La Rambla, Spain’s most famous boulevard, which stretches from the Placa de Catalunya to the waterfront. The part-pedestrianised street is filled with street performers, artists, newsstands, restaurants, cafes, and all sorts of other vendors. The street’s highlight, in my opinion, is the Mercat de la Boqueria, a colorful fresh food market. This was by far the best market we have been to thus far on our trip and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the variety of fruits, sweets, meats, fish, and more that filled the colorful and abundant stalls of this busy market. After perusing the market we continued down La Rambla to the waterfront where we visited the Monument a Colon, a tall pedestal, atop which stands a statue of Columbus. We took the lift up the Monument for panoramic views of Barcelona and the waterfront. We then made our way to the waterfront and found a place to stop for lunch at Port Vell, one of Barcelona’s two ports, before making our way to the other, Port Olympic. The walk from one to the other was quite spectacular as we saw some yachts that could easily compete in size with those we had seen in Cannes.
After a short rest at Port Olympic, we made our way to the nearest metro station and headed in the direction of the Barri Gotic. Once there, we made our way to Barcelona’s Gothic Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on top of the ruins of an 11th century Romanesque church and its neo-Gothic façade was added later, in the 19th century. I almost didn’t get to tour the Cathedral, as I had forgotten my scarf and did not have anything to cover my shoulders. Luckily some elderly peddler woman had realized the potential for profit in persons just like myself and was selling small scarves just outside the Cathedral for 1 Euro a piece. After viewing the inside of the Cathedral, we made our way to La Ribera, a trendy district of Barcelona which is home to the Museu Picasso, which is home to over 3000 Picasso pieces, most from early in the artist’s career. I found it fascinating to see Picasso's earlier works to see how much his style changed and progressed over the years. From the Museu Picasso we continued down the picturesque narrow streets to Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, a beautiful example of Catalan Gothic architecture.
By this point we were all pretty tired having walked quite a bit in the blazing Spanish sun, so we found a metro station and made our way back to Montmelo where we were successfully able to catch the bus back out to the hotel (or very close to the hotel at least). We had a quick meal at a Sandwich place right by the bus stop before walking back to the hotel.
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