Our flight on Tuesday wasn't until almost 10 pm, so we essentially had the whole day to play with. We started the day by checking out and leaving our bags at that steal of a hotel. Determined that we could do 'better' than the day before, we walked most of the way to the Sagrada Familia before popping into an adorable little bakery for some coffee and croissants. Both were excellent. We then hopped on the underground and whizzed to the end of the line, which was near the bottom of the massive park/hill to the west of town. We were intending to take a funicular up the hill and then have a look at some of the features within, such as the Olympic stadium and some ruins or the botanic garden. Alas, we couldn't find the funicular, despite having numerous maps that told us where it should be. So instead we ended up weaving and climbing up this steep hill.
From the edge of the park, way up on the hill, there is an amazing view of the city. You can basically see everything, including the sea. After briefly considering trying to find the stuff within the rest of the park, we instead decided to hop on the really, really big funicular that takes you from this park on the top of a great big hill to a tower near the aquarium and then to another tower near the beaches. After great confusion with the little ticket man, we determined that the final station was closed so we could only go to the aquarium tower. That was fine with us, and off we went.
Now, looking back on this, I'm not quite sure what drug I had taken that convinced me that this was a good idea. I'm using the word funicular as that was the technical term used on the maps and books, but really it was a pre-historic cousin of Portland's aerial tram. It appeared as if some person (likely on a dare) had strung up some wire really, really high up in the air and attached a slightly over-sized tin can to it to casually fling unsuspecting tourists to their death. While the view was breath-taking, I couldn't help but feel the end was near every second I was in that thing. Mark loved it. As demonstrated in the photo, the only time I got a genuine Mark smile in a photo was after we got off of that thing! I was just immensely relieved the second station was closed and that we had only gotten a one-way ticket.
Next on our list of all important things to do was to go to the food market off La Rambla. It was sort of like Pike Place Market, but you have to take out the fish counters and put in meat counters. And take out the flower stalls and put in meat counters. And take out everything else that isn't food and replace it with meat counters. Oh, and of course there were fruit and veggies and such, and olives. And maybe some candy? Anyways, my favorite was the long row of pig legs (hoof attached!) for you to take home and cut up for your own 'jamon'.
We planned on going to the concert hall next to hop on a tour to see the crazy moderniste interior, but all of the English tours were booked up until the next day. Alas, so instead we continued to the medieval quarter, stopping off at Starbucks on the way for lunch/restroom. We sat in the little mezzanine area, basically underneath a very low beam. In another sad moment, when Mark stood up for his turn to use the restroom, he did so quite quickly and ended up hitting his head quite forcefully on the beam. In a good/bad twist of fate, his sunglasses were on top of his head and took the brunt of the force. One of the frames broke and one of the lenses fell to the floor (but aside from a scratch was undamaged). Aside from the sadness of breaking his sunglasses and a small head wound (with minimal bleeding), Mark was okay. He was also somewhat cheered when we happened across a sunglass shop after leaving SB and he was able to explore new sunglass possibilities. For the rest of the day Mark just made do wearing sunglasses with a broken frame (I'm sure not that many people noticed, to be honest).
So off we went to do some shopping, hitting a couple of pottery stores along the way and getting a fabulous spoon rest that matched our olive dish purchase of a few days earlier. I have discovered that I have a weakness for Iberian pottery! Once it started to near 4 pm we decided we best have some dinner. Some places were closed for siesta but we did happen to come across a very nice looking place that had reasonable prices and other customers. The food was absolutely delicious! We were very pleased. We were saddened however, that by the time we finished it was time to start the long slow trek back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Mind you, we stopped in plenty of shops along the way so that lessened the blow a bit. Oh, and we stopped off for a last glass of wine at our favorite little wine bar.
Things have stretched on for long enough so I'll wrap things up! The journey home wasn't too bad save a train that didn't show up. We finally got home at 2am and were very sleepy the next day! We are now planning on making regular tapa/cava trips!
2 comments:
ill add to the journey home just because its so comical! first we decided to train it to the airport rather than take the same v.good bus we took the other way (mainly because it was what we deamed to be spanish rush hour!) anyways we ended up missing the airport train by about 30 seconds and had to wait another 30 minutes on what i deamed to be the brightest (in light) train station ever (maybe im used to the gloomy underground!) then our plane was slightly delayed although i left being v.impressed with easyjet. then after margo ran from customs after being held up by people who seemed to be there forever (i went straight though with no waiting actaully come to think about it i beat her through in san francisco in december although she beat all of us coming back from switzerland! sorry off track!!)anyways we ran from customs and made it to the platform with minutes to spare! we were like wow we have done it! Basically as you have two options from london gatwick - the gatwick express at a cost of 35 pounds or the southern service (owned by the same company) that takes 4.5 minutes longer but stops at other stations for 12 pounds - basically just getting unexpecting tourists! anyways the southern service just disappeared off the face of the world we werent impressed and although the trains were owned and operated by southern we couldnt use the express so all these people got on a first capital connect service to london brisge (we needed victoria) and we were to change at east croydon onto another southern service - this worked out fine but we missed the final tube which we would have made otherwise! what made me slightly frustrated bearing the time of the day was that all the express services were pretty much empty!
anyways we then walked to sloane square from victoria (which is possibly the best area in the world to walk though at 1.30am on safety grounds) i.e.ultra posh! to get the 22 bus which had a better frequency than the 11 that went in our direction from fulham. 5 hours later i was back at sloane square on my way to work!
Well, I can see how driving a car to the airport, parking it in a lot for a few days, and then driving it home when you return caught on!
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