Soccer and the beach...two Spanish traditions in one day

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Having had our meals at traditional times for the Spanish culture yesterday, 2 or 3 in the afternoon for lunch and 9:30 or 10:00 in the evening for dinner, we did not go to bed too early last night, so we slept in until nearly 10:00 before quickly grabbing breakfast and setting out. Today’s plan was to go to Camp Nou in the morning, FC Barcelona’s Soccer Stadium, and to the beach in the afternoon.

We again had no troubles with the bus or train into the city and just had to switch trains in Barcelona in order to reach Camp Nou. Once we got off at the station near Camp Nou, we basically just followed the crowds to the entrance and purchased our tickets for the Camp Now Experience. The tour of the facilities was pretty good. In addition to the museum we got to see the pitch from various different levels (including the press boxes and the player’s seats), walk through the different press rooms, tour the visiting team’s changing room, and more. I am certain that the boys enjoyed this much more than I did, but it definitely helped me to better understand/appreciate the importance of soccer to the Spanish, which was even more important than usual given the upcoming World Cup Final game between Spain and the Netherlands.

After our tour of Camp Nou we made our way back to the metro station and after a switch of trains we arrived at the Barceloneta metro station. From here we found a place along the Port to grab a kebab before making our way to the beach. Here we spent the next several hours soaking up the Spanish sun amongst the mobs of other sun thirsty beach goers. Before we knew it, it was nearly 8:00. We packed up our stuff and made our way back to the metro to make our somewhat long journey back to the hotel. Once we arrived back at the hotel and got cleaned up we head back out for dinner. We had been told a previous night by a hotel employee about a restaurant just down the road, but the individual working at the hotel tonight advised against eating there, so we went back to our little sandwich place for another late dinner, with plans to try and eat in the city the next couple of nights, to hopefully get some Spanish cuisine since I have been craving it so.