Barcelona-6

20 Septiembre (Lunes) - We hailed a taxi and rode to the police station on Nou de la Rambla, which of course, confuses the hell out of the taxi drivers, most of them want to take us to La Rambla.  The guy we got this morning knew exactly where to go.  It was basically a wasted trip because Robb had forgotten his passport.  But the good news is that if he gets the police report, he'll have no problem getting a new drivers license, so it looks like we'll be going back tomorrow.

After our rather pleasant visit with the Policia, I wanted to walk at least part of the way back because there are a lot of interesting things to see along the route.  For instance the Portal de Santa Madrona.  We were so close to the Torre Jaume I, that we postulated walking over there but decided it would not be a good idea.  We rounded the corner where we were faced with the Aduanas Vieja, the old customs house, and a beautiful building.  Of course, we passed the Columbus columnagain and I took a shot of the bottom.  We left there and finally came to the lobster.

By this time, we had walked almost back to Passeig de Joan de Borbó.  Robb was getting hungry and wanted to make a pit-stop, so we checked out a few restaurants on the back side of the Palau de Mar.  Many of them were quite reasonable, but it seemed like the closer we got to the entrance of the museum, the higher the prices.  We decided to just walk back to the apartment.

We got there just as Susan was packing her bags to go to Mallorca.  We thought about going but decided it wasn't really worth the time and effort since there are still so many things to see here in Barcelona, and Mallorca is mostly just a beach and party place .

For dinner, we went back to Como.  We had a great Argentinian steak.  There was a decent-sized crowd tonight and of course, the beautiful jazz in the background.  

21 Septiembre (Martes) - Robb wanted to go back to the Policia to file his report and get the copy he needs to get his driver license.  We opened the door and it was pouring.  We waited awhile longer, it wasn't coming down quite so hard so we walked up and got the 57 bus to the Policia station. He was given a number and shown to the waiting area.  It was only a short wait and we were seated in front of a young guy who is only working with the police for the summer.  Normally, he is a ski instructor in the Pyrenées, to which he'll return in November.  By the time we left, the sun had decided to join us.

From in front of the Teatre Apolo, we caught the 36 bus back to the Barceloneta and the apartment.

We rested a bit and walked to the mercat to buy a couple of items (OJ, a snack and tea for Robb).  Then we stopped atFogons for a glass of wine and some olives and to enjoy sitting in the square.  We were approached twice by the same guy begging for money.  He was chased away by the manager, but not before getting in a few choice words of his own. 

Dinner at La Taverna.  I had a steak, Robb had a fish....a whole fish.  Then we had a great dessert of peach halves, flan and strawberry sorbet.  Of course, we drank cava. 

22 Septiembre (Miércoles) - After Robb did some laundry, we caught the 17 bus with the intent of finally seeing Casa Mila, or La Pedrera as it's now known.  We weren't exactly certain about where to get off, but as soon as I saw an obvious Gaudi building, we disembarked.  It was indeed, a Gaudi building, but it was Casa Batllò, not Casa Mila.  As I've already stated, I'm not a Gaudi fan.  I appreciate his talent and artistic ability, but his ideas are a little too far out for me.  I think I prefer the style of the building just next door to Casa Batllò.

We were going to catch the 17 back to Plaça Catalunya to go to Celio, but after walking only a block, I realized we were within walking distance, and as it turned out, the 17 doesn't come back that way anyway.  Along our walk, we passed another great looking building, another fountain, a Wallace fountain (you remember them from Paris) and the Teatre Comedia.

We made our way to Celio, passing many great shops.  When we got to Celio, Robb found his perfect light jacket almost immediately.  He made his purchase and we walked over to La Rambla where we got the 59 back to the Barceloneta. 

Toight we had dinner at l'arròs.  We both had the paella with chicken, artichokes ad mushrooms.  Very good.  For dessert, Robb had a tartelette and I had cheesecake with raspberry sauce. 

23 Septiembre (Jueves) - We've been without an internet connection since Wednesday night, and the owner's mother just died, so we don't know when we'll be back online. 

Last night, I asked our waiter if he knew which bus to take to get to Torre Agbar.  I already knew the 7 bus went past it, but in order to get the seven, we would have to take the 17 across town.  I washoping there was something a little closer.  He didn't have any idea, but asked his manager, who said we should take the 36, which we could catch locally.

Today, we walked up and got on the 36, but I could tell almost immediately, that it was going in the wrong direction.  That was confirmed when Robb asked the driver.  But not all was lost because the 36, once it turned, headed in the right direction, and in fact, passed within a few blocks of the torre.  But the driver told Robb he would drop us off at the best place to get the number 7 which would go right past the torre.  So, we got off the 36 and picked up the 7 just across the street.

We rode the 7 to within a couple blocks of the torre and got off, which was a happy accident, because we discovered a huge shopping center, Glories.  The first thing we saw was PC City.  Then we noticed a Pull and Bear, as well as another Springfield.  There was a huge Burger King in one of the other buildings (each having at least three levels) that comprised the shopping complex.

We left there and resumed walking towards Torre Agbar.  We came to a bus stop ad thought we might ride the 7 to Casa Mila, but even when we were the first to reach the stop, by the time the bus arrived, there were a dozen or more people waiting.  We decided to bite the bullet and get a taxi.

After returning to the apartment, Robb decided he needed some Pepcid and I figured as long as we were going to a farmacia, I might as well get some codeine tablets which you can easily purchase over-the-counter with no prescription, 

We were lucky enough to have dinner on the Borbó, at Toc de Mar, during the Fiesta de Barcelona, which will last from Thursday (Jueves) through Sunday (Domingo).  Sadly, we were a little late to experience all the festivities, but fortunately, we have three more days in which to enjoy it.  

24 Septiembre (Viernes) - We were determined to see La Pedrera, so we took the long way around by getting the 36 bus across town to pick up the tram.  We rode the tram to the end and back, where we picked up the 7 bus to the Casa Mila.  The funny thing was, there was a neat building just across the street and I was totally distracted by that and we missed our stop.  We had to walk back several blocks.  Unfortunately, I had my camera set on video and instead of getting pictures of all the cool stuff I saw, I got tiny little videos.  So I guess we're going to have to make the trip again, which is okay because I wanted to go to Tibidabo anyway.

After checking out Casa Mila, we caught the 17 bus and rode to the end of the line, where we saw what we think is the funicular to Tibidabo.  Both the tram ride and the bus ride, showed us sections of the city we had not seen before in our travels.

We were gettig ready to go to dinner when Susan called.  She had returned from Mallorca.  We waited for her and then went to dinner again at l'arros.  

25 Septiembre (Sabado) - A very strange day.  The owner finally called to say that someone from the internet company would be out today, but they didn't give her a time, so we began our wait.  In the meantime, Susan (who will be going back to Frankfurt on Sunday) was out all day doing things she needed to get done.  One of those was to get more money, but when she put her card into the ATM, it ate it.  She left to find an internet cafe around five-ish.

The internet guy showed up around 18h30, as we had just about given up hope of him showing up at all today.  He spent quite a while checking it out and then informed us that it would be Monday morning around 09h00 before we would be back online.  Robb said from his conversation with his office, that it sounded like the owner had not paid her bill.  We shall see how that works out.

We were both hungry from having sat around the place all day without eating, and went to dinner a little earlier than usual.  We went to Ca La Montse where we had patates bravas and mejilleines mariere. 

We were barely finished our café, when we heard the fireworks....again.  We saw several hundred people literally running to get to the beach in time to watch.  Within a few minutes, we were among the throng.  We didn't go all the way to the beach, but we got close enough to get some nice video of the  show.     

26 Septiembre (Domingo) - Susan and Robb were up long before me.  They were supposed to be going to the New Orleans Coffee Shop, but when I got there, it was closed.  On a hunch, I walked around to the other side of the Mercat and found them at one of the cafés there.  Susan went back to the apartment to pack, Robb and I sat at the café a while longer, then we also returned. 

We had decided to catch the 17 bus back to Casa Mila so I could redo the pictures I had screwed up the other day.  We did.  The thing about the 17 is that it doesn't come back down Passeig de Gràcia, it goes a different route.  If you want to return on the 17, you have to either walk down to Plaça Catalunya, or catch the 17 and ride it to the end, which is not such a bad option because you get to see a lot of the city that most tourists will never experience.  

I got a few pictures of the houses and apartments on the hills at the edge of the city, as well as a quick shot of the Rotonda, a sculpture that looks deer-like and a not-so-great shot of a small gas station.  

On the way back to the Barceloneta, we got off to check on whether or not Dunne's Irish Pub will be open on Monday.  It will, and we will have dinner there tomorrow night.  We actually got off a couple stops too early, but walking to the pub, we discovered the Roman ruins of Barcelona. We will try to go there tomorrow, also.  Just outside the ruins (though they don't look that ruined to me) was a statue of Ramon Berengyer.  

We got back to the apartment around five.  Susan had finished her packing and had prepared a little appreciation snack for us which included a bottle of cava....of course.

After the snack, we walked her up to Passeig de Joan de Borbó where she caught a taxi to the airport.   

We returned to the apartment and hung out till dinner time, which was a little earlier because I wanted to video the fireworks.  It was quite cool and very windy.  After sitting on the beach until after 22h00, we determined that there probably weren't going to be any fireworks because of the wind, and started back to the apartment.  Suddenly, we heard the boom and saw the fireworks.  They had faked us out and the fireworks were happening at the marina.  We said the hell with it and went home. 

You can see all the Barcelona pictures here: Barcelona

Hasta la próxima, amigos.