Home Sweet Home

 After a smooth flight and connections traveling to Spain, I was less concerned about going home, although I wouldn't be totally comfortable until I took off from my connecting flight in Frankfurt.

The drive to the airport was quick at that hour of the morning. Since I was traveling within the Eurozone on my first leg, checking in was quick. I decided to check my bag but put all of my toiletries and souvenirs in my carry-on and only had dirty clothes in the suitcase. I also wore an N95 mask the entire time except when eating.

I had no issues into Frankfurt, managed to have decent connection time and even could grab a quick meal (a wurst and pretzel, okay not great) using up some of the Euros I had brought. On the flight to LAX, I watched a ton of movies, mostly animated, ate the meals. I was asked twice to move to accommodate a man who was sitting apart from his wife but refused because she was in the back of the plane.

Arriving at LAX, the luggage took forever to get off-loaded. At one point I wondered if they were still off-loading or if something had happened, apparently they were short staffed. Once they started up again, my bag was one of the first to appear. Customs was smooth with the MPC app that Joyce told us about, hop on the shuttle to the taxi parking and a short ride home. It was 24 hours total from getting up to arriving home. I did a bit of unpacking, reached out to Joyce and Kelly about meeting them with the ballet group for coffee and hit the sack at an early 8p.

I would say the trip was a great success, it was super hot, I loved my time in Barcelona with Edie's family. It was difficult traveling on my own especially at meal times. I'm glad I took advantage of the nice hotel rooms to take it easy and relax. I was very glad to be home with my own bed, my own food and my ballet classes and friends.

Old friends & quick afternoon in Madrid

 Today was my only full day in Madrid and I wasn't expecting to get any kind of deep exploration of the city. I figured for future trips to Spain, Madrid will likely be a hub.

However, the day started with a bit of old home week by meeting with Reggie's family. Tasha had found a park with a lake and most importantly both parking for them and a metro stop for me. Turned out the metro line had a stop literally at the street corner where my hotel was!

Once I got there, and after a bit of back and forth via text and phone, we found each other and sat at the outdoor cafe for some coffee, a bite and some catch up. They were there with Tasha's mom to visit her sister, who lives in Madrid with her partner. They were about to take a road trip to the partner's familial home, then southern France, then back to Spain. I hadn't seen them since their boys were probably in middle school and now they were young men. I so enjoyed the conversation, hearing from the boys particularly Nathan, and just having a nice catch up. We joked about it being easier to meet up in Madrid than across town in LA. 

After I got back to town and found a quick bite, I bought a ticket for the hop on hop off that had a stop by the Reina Sofia museum. I found Madrid to be a bit of culture shock after Barcelona and Granada, but smaller places but also less cosmopolitan. Madrid felt like any large metropolis, with Spanish. There were the typical global retail places that one would find in NYC, LA, London, etc. The bus audio guide described the many monuments we went by. At the Reina Sofia, I found the museum hard to navigate. It felt like a lot of giant corridors with rooms branching off and I couldn't figure out a rationale for the plan. Luckily, I stumbled on a sign for the Guernica otherwise I might have missed it! I had seen a really good exhibit at LACMA a few years ago with a nice explanation of a lot of the symbolism in the painting and had wished I'd done some research on it. It was displayed near other art with a political meaning. After my museum stop, I took the rest of the bus tour back to the hotel and again rested for the remainder of the day. I checked out the hotel roof top pool deck but it was a tiny pool with a bar and no food and was already crowded with people. I decided to order in my room (taking advantage of the nice room) and had spaghetti. Even the hotel food was reasonably priced. I had an early morning the next day to catch a flight. I arranged with the hotel for a taxi and again after my nightly shower, hit the sack.

Train to Madrid

 The following day I had a train to catch for Madrid. I had messed up the ticket purchase and ended up on a later train than usual. I decided to hang out at the hotel instead of spending a hot day wandering. 

The train station at Granada is very small so everyone waiting on the train milled about the same area waiting for them to start checking in passengers. There was a small cafe serving the usual sandwiches: cheese, jamon, cheese & jamon. 

As with my train ride to Granada, the service was smooth, clean, punctual and wonderful. I had a slower train to Cordoba where I changed to the fast train to Madrid. A short wait in the larger Cordoba station and it was a non-stop 2 hour ride to Madrid. 

After a toilet stop and wandering around trying to find the taxi stand, I was driven to my hotel which ended up being right in the very heart of the city by Plaza Espana. As I settled in, I reached out to Reggie, who I had learned a few days earlier would be overlapping me in Madrid by a morning. Tasha had figured out a way to meet so he sent me info for the next day. 

I had an upgraded hotel room which was quite high up in the narrow building with a decent view and a separate sitting room. I was meeting a guide that evening for tapas tour. As with every other appointment I had here, she was right on time and waiting for me (although I thought it was going to be a man). She is originally from NYC so I appreciated being able to speak to someone who had English as a first language. She explained about the neighbourhoods and the specific restaurants we were going to. I very much enjoyed the food at the places we went but as sometimes happens, I got full easily (my stomach gets jet lag) and we ended with a short stroll around some other areas before I called it an early night. This was another very expensive service although I enjoyed her company but I think a little research probably would've led to a cheaper tapas tour.

Granada Cathedral & Flamenco

 I had a free day today so I decided to walk to the Cathedral and check it out. 

It took awhile to find it, not because it was small, but because it was huge and took up a significant amount of space in the square but I couldn't figure out where the front entrance was. The entry fee included an audio tour. 

The main church was impressive with two organs on either side of the main aisle. The tour went into a lot of detail about all of the side altars and icons and artwork in each.

Attached to the church is a royal chapel where Ferdinand and Isabela (of Columbus fame) is buried. Again the audio tour is quite detailed about the art and architecture. A small stair leads down to the coffins underneath the impressively carved tomb figures on top.

On my way back to the hotel, I wandered in the area behind the church through the old Arab market street, Alcaiceria. It was crowded with tourists. For lunch today, I remembered an empanada place and thought I'd check it out for a quick bite. I bought one with a barbecued meat and another with eggplant (berenjena again!) and parmesan to eat back at my hotel.

In the evening I had the flamenco show. I had arranged to have the show pick me up and also go for dinner. It was fairly inexpensive for the package. The shuttle van showed up exactly on time and was full so I sat in the front. The driver took us up the narrow streets of the Albaicin to the Sacromonte, traditional area of the gypsies and where flamenco lives. The buildings here are built into the hills. There is a spectacular view of the Alhambra from the restaurant/tablao. 

The dining tables were in the back of the long narrow room. The meal was fine, nothing too special but a full 3 courses with wine. As the show time approached, more people started to come into the room and I realized that the new people would be sitting in the front. I asked to be able to move to the front for a better view and was glad I did. Before the show, I made a pit stop to the bathroom and saw the male dancer practicing. 

The show was amazing. I don't have any experience watching flamenco but there was a singer and guitarist on stage with 3 dancers, two women and the man I had seen earlier. While each dancer performed, the others would be clapping, calling out and providing encouragement. When the first female dancer came on, I thought she must be the best. She was wearing a long red dress and she looked exactly like the flamenco dancer emoji. She was able to flip her long skirt, twirl around it, flip it into her hand and had so much fire and energy.

Then the other female dancer came on and I realized, wow, she was special! She also looked very young. I learned later through some internet research that she is only around 16 or so. Her feet, hands, face were all very intense. The male dancer then performed and he was also amazing. Slightly different style with a masculine flair. The singer and guitarist were both very good. Finally the three dancers all performed together for a final bow. The show was about an hour but thoroughly entertaining. Afterwards, we found our way out to waiting vans. I ended up back at the front again. The roads were so narrow that at one point, the side mirror scraped the building wall on one side and I had to help the driver push it back into place. 

This was a great way to end my last day in Southern Spain.

Frigiliana

 The next day was my day trip to Frigiliana. I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. It was a package that included a 3 hour horseback ride, wine and tapas in the town and some time for shopping.

A driver picked me up in the morning at the hotel (right on time) and we started the hour long drive to the town on the coast. As we got closer and could see the Mediterranean Sea, we spotted another small town all painted white. He mentioned to me that the town is supposed to be much whiter but there was a 'strange rain' that stained the buildings. Not having seen them before, they still looked quite white and I wasn't sure what he meant about the rain.

When we got to Frigiliana, I met up with my guide who took me in her car down some winding very narrow streets to the horse stables. I realized as they set me up with my horse for the morning that the saddles were not Western style, with a pommel and the front ridge. This was going to be interesting. They did at least have a helmet for me. We took the horses back up the winding road and were followed the entire way by 3 dogs: a German shepherd, a greyhound and a mini dachshund who kept with all of the longer legged animals the entire way. The ride stayed on the narrow roads, which meant we occasionally had to dodge cars. And it was difficult to stay on the horse as the English saddle requires much more leg and lower body work. I was not expecting this! Whenever the horse wanted to go faster, I wanted to grab onto the saddle for stability and it would confuse the horse. The area was beautiful and we got some wonderful views of the ocean and the town. While I enjoyed the ride, it wasn't what I expected (which probably would've been closer to what I experienced in Vail with the horses off trail in the wilderness.

After the ride, the guide took me to town and dropped me off at the wine bar. I was met by her husband who showed me into the back room where there were a couple of tall tables with stools. He started me off with a skewer of olives and peppers, which was I very suspicious of, and a glass of rose. He told me to eat the entire skewer and follow with the glass of wine. I have to say, while I didn't love the skewer, the saltiness against the rose was quite refreshing. There was a plate of the most amazing tomatoes I've ever seen with cheese and olive oil. Apparently the tomatoes are only available when they are at their freshest, for 5 weeks of the year, so I lucked out.

The final dish was the ubiquitous jamon. All in all, delicious meal with some tasty wines. I also had a chance to chat with an English couple who were visiting and stopped in for some wine. We talked about the weather, since there was a heat wave where they are from. I also learned from the shop owner that the 'strange rain' that the driver told me about was the sandstorm that blew over from the Sahara earlier this year. It apparently made it very difficult for awhile in this part of Spain, but afterwards, it was very difficult to wash off the sand. You couldn't just hose it off. Some some parts of town were back to the white white but other parts had the orange stain from the sand. A reminder that nature is a powerful thing.

By the time I was done with lunch and ready to check out the town, almost everything was shut down for the afternoon. I took a picture of a yucca plant that had been yarn-bombed, wandered in a small shop and then found myself at the same place I was dropped off where my driver was waiting. 

After arriving back at Granada and a short rest at the hotel, I decided to check out a falafel place for dinner. I had seen a bunch of them on the walk to the main plaza and I was tired of jamon. I found a nice quiet place for a falafel pita sandwich which was delicious and filling. 

Alhambra

 My main reason for wanting to travel to Granada-Alhambra. One of the great architectural marvels in the world and a prime example of Arabic architecture located in a stable location that is easy for a single woman to visit.

I had a guide, Maryla, who was meeting me at my hotel. She turned out to be a delight. She spoken English and Spanish (of course) but also Portuguese and Hebrew, and was learning Arabic. She was extremely well versed in the history of Alhambra. With her, I was able to skip all the lines and she knew exactly the right path to take to visit all the key locations on the site.

The property included a fort area where we could get amazing views of the city below.

There are also several palaces on the site, including Carlos V's western style building, not completed, and the Nasrid palaces which were stunning in their beauty and detail.

Many darker cooler rooms led to courtyards with pools. Every surface was decorated with Arabic text, repeating decorative patterns and inlaid tile or wood. Each room was more beautiful than the next.

From the main complex, we walked through a small street and garden to the Generalife, which was an adjoining summer palace. 

After a wonderful tour, Maryla walked me back down to the main Plaza where I could catch a cab to take me to the St Nicolas church area to a restaurant recommended by my travel agent and a great view of Alhambra.

Lunch was a delicious dish consisting of a 'roasted' (what we would call over easy) egg on a sauce of jamon, mushroom and truffle oil over a bed of very thinly sliced fried potatoes. The dish was delicious, although the pile of very thin fried potatoes was too much for me to eat the whole dish. After lunch, I found Los Italianos, which was recommended to me as the best gelato in town. A cone with two small scoops was only 2 euros.

After a rest back at my hotel room, I decided to walk to a tapas bar that was on my agent's list. I sat at the bar and ordered a couple of dishes, fried seafood and fried eggplant that looked like steak fries but served with something the Spanish call 'cane honey' but is essentially molasses. I came to a new appreciation for eggplant (berenjena) here. I also ordered a tinto verano (red wine with lemon soda, more popular apparently than sangria) and it came with fried cod. Now I had too much food! As I ate, two women sat next to me and from the sound of their conversation, I guessed they must be from Taiwan however I left them be. As I was almost done, one of the women turned to talk to me and we shared some basic info about each other. They were a pair of friends traveling together. One of them lived in Europe so they hadn't seen each other in awhile. They had a long vacation planned. When I was ready to leave, I left them the rest of the eggplant dish and the seafood. They seemed very pleased.

I ended the day with my usual shower and rest.

Granada

 Early the next morning Edie walked me to the train station for my trip to Granada. I was on the fast AVE train. I found the train to be super clean, right on time, very fast and a wonderful experience. The train stopped in a few cities and took about 6 hours to get to Granada. 

A taxi took me to my hotel, which was located right on one end of one of the main streets of the city. I had a lovely room in the modern wing of the Hospes Palacio de los Patos, with a small sitting area, separate toilet room, sink and bath/shower, and free cookies.

After settling in the room, I decided to take a small stroll and hopefully end up at my restaurant reservation at El Trillo, located in the hills of the Albaicin, or the Arab quarter. It was super easy to walk up the main street which was lined with shops of all kinds to the main Plaza, leading to a very narrow shopping street on the banks of the river. This part of the street is barely wide enough for a car and pedestrians had to press themselves against the buildings when a car drove by. 

The Alhambra looms over this part of the city on one side of the river bank. On the other is the Albaicin, through narrow roads and twisty alleys and stairs. Luckily for me, Google Navigation worked really well for walking directions. I was able to follow it right up to the restaurant. However I got there early. I decided to just sit and wait. I didn't realize I was steps away from the St Nicolas church and could've gone there for a great view of Alhambra.

When the restaurant did open, there is a lower garden terrace but I was taken up to the deck with the view of Alhambra. 

This was not the view from my table, I was slightly farther back. Since it was so hot, I started with a cold soup called salmorejo. I loved it! It consisted of tomato and bread blended. The restaurant served it with edible flowers and avocado, although traditionally it's served with hard boiled egg and a drizzle of olive oil. My second course was steak with foie gras and poached pears. I got about halfway into the dish when I suddenly felt so full. The dreaded stomach jet lag had struck. It was easier to ignore when I was mostly eating tapas for dinner but with a full plated meal, it was hard and from then on out, I had a hard time eating a lot for dinner. 

After dinner, I took a nice stroll back through town, past the plaza which now had several older couples dancing to taped music, past the evening crowds to my hotel for a nice shower and relaxing evening.

Last day in Barcelona with Castellers

 On my last day in Barcelona, we were going to meet up with Andrew and Joanna. We went to a local bakery that is a fave of Edie and Bill, Praktik. They had a nice little patio to sit in.

We headed to the Miro museum together, via taxi. It was interesting to see so many Miros in one place! I particularly liked this tapestry.

It was a very hot day and I was super tired, so I didn't get into all of the info about this unique artist but I did appreciate the air conditioning. They also had a nice little sit-down restaurant as part of their cafe so we had a nice lunch.

After our 'siesta', Edie found a casteller, or human towers, show. This is a Catalan tradition that started in rural villages but apparently is quite popular in Barcelona. Based on my observation, several 'teams' meet up in a plaza. Each team is wearing a team coloured shirt. The teams rotate in building their castels. The bottom level is the big guys and lighter and lighter teammates climb onto the previous level's shoulders. The top level is a child (I'd guess 10-ish and from what I saw always a girl) who needs to raise an arm and flash 4 fingers (to represent the 4 stripes of the Catalan flag) before climbing down. While a team is building their castel, members of the other teams will provide side support (like flying buttresses on gothic cathedrals) at the base. It seems like there is a sense of competition, but not really. The teams started by building 4 sided castels, then 2 sided then single. The finally included all 4 teams building single castels together. The whole thing is accompanied by drum and fife type music. It's all quite festive and after they're done, everyone dances and celebrates. It was a lot of fun!

After watching the castellers, we headed to a nearby outdoor restaurant for tapas. It was so great that Edie and Bill knew exactly where to go. Since we had a pretty big group, we shared a large selection of dishes. What a great way to spend my last evening in Barcelona. Of course the evening ended with gelato, which seems to be super popular in Spain. 

Girona and unforgettable concert

Today we took a day trip to Girona. This was a trip that Edie and Bill planned and I was happy to tag along. We took the train from the main station, which also gave me a chance to see how I would need to get to the station in a couple of days to head to Granada.

When we got into the town, we left Edie at a place where she could do some work while we explored. Bill took the rest of us to meet with his friend who is a professor at the university.

The campus is set on a hill with towers and a wall with a view of the city.

We hung out for a bit at a cafe where we waited for Bill's friend as it was a very hot day. We then strolled around the campus as well as around the town. The church in town was used as the setting for the Sept of Baelor in Game of Thrones.

After a stop at a bookstore and a long lunch where Edie joined back with us we went to a well known ice cream place. They are known for their fancy concoctions with ice cream topped by various candies and then a blob of cotton candy. I chose a frozen fruit popsicle in the form of Jamie Lanister's golden hand.

After taking the train home, we had to get ready for an evening at the concert hall. Bill, Edie, Maia and I were going to hear Mozart's Requiem. We chose the evening that worked best for everyone's schedule. And the primary reason to attend is to be able to see the inside of this beautiful hall.

The concert turned out to be one of the most remarkable choral concerts I've ever experienced. The Orfeo Catala were a small orchestra with strings, some winds and brass and one percussion player. They entered the stage dressed like they were going to their neighbour's backyard party, but all in warm colours. The conductor was wearing powder blue pants with a wide white stripe and a matching vest with a sequined lotus on the back. The choir were dressed similarly to the orchestra and the soloists were wearing long robes with ruffled shirts, where each robe had a different image on it (lotus, fish, ivy and something I couldn't tell). 

The choir started with some members in the aisles singing with the rest of the choir on the stage. Throughout the concert, the choir moved either with small movements of their arms or heads, or moving around the stage or up on the balcony, or dancing on the stage. It really felt like the choir's movements helped to illuminate the meaning of the part of the piece they were singing (which was in latin). The soloists also moved around the stage and balcony. At one point, the soprano walked in and sang holding a lit up globe in her hand. 

At the end of the piece, the choir was back on the stage, on the balcony and in the aisles and the space completely filled with beautiful sound. At the end of the performance we all looked at each other stunned. The audience agreed with us with a loud roar of applause. 

We later learned that this performance is part of a Greek festival, which makes sense in having the chorus telling the story. It was an unforgettable moment in an unforgettable hall.

After the show we were joined by Bill's friends Andrew and Joanna who had been at their wedding and was spending part of their summer in France. We all walked to Santagustina tapas bar for a delicious and perfect end to the day.

The Excessive Beauty of Barcelona

Today is a day of extremes. 

In the morning, I went with Edie, Bill and Lucy to Parc Guell, which was the final Gaudi location of my trip. The Parc is set in the hills above the city. It was a hot day, but Bill went for a run to meet us there while Edie, Lucy and I took the bus.

There are locations in the park for a beautiful view over the city.

Several grotto areas are covered with the iconic tile mosaic that this park is known for.

And of course the famous gecko.

There were also some fun street artists including this guy.

After the park, we went home for a bit before taking the subway to Disfrutar, a Michelin 2 star restaurant that Edie had booked for us back in February. I was really looking forward to this lunch as I'd seen Edie's photos from when they were here during Bill's sabbatical a few years ago.

Everything about the meal was choreographed, from the moment we were walked through the restaurant to our table, introduced to our serving team and presented with each dish. We had about 20 savoury dishes and 4 sweet dishes, followed by coffee or tea in the garden room and some sweet surprises. Each dish was presented on a specially designed serving item. The servings were small but the flavours of each were intense. The servers often had to finish compiling the dishes at the table and not only describe to us the dish but also explain how we should be consuming it. 

One of my favourite dishes was this crunch mushroom leaf. The nest and nesting material were the presentation object. We were instructed to eat the leaf. 

The leaf was so light but the flavour was intense, it tasted like an entire forest full of mushrooms were distilled into the leaf.

Even though the quantity of food was not huge, we all hit a wall at about the 15th dish. It almost seemed like our taste buds were fooling our stomach into thinking we had eaten more than we did.

Towards the end of the meal, as we sat in the garden room with our tea and the extra sweets, it felt like a nice denouement to the 4 hour meal.

After that, we certainly didn't feel like eating dinner but we did enjoy some time on their roof deck watching as the sun set and the Sagrada was lit up.

Sagrada Familia

 I ended up waking up a little later than hoped for on my first full day in Barcelona. I had planned to have breakfast with Edie before she had to run to some appointments. Luckily, she woke me up and after rushing to get ready, we walked a short distance to Billy Brunch, which is a local place that apparently has become really popular after they discovered it a few years ago.

I had a yummy spinach kale omelet (good thing I chose the veggie version because they became few and far between in following days). After Edie took off, I went back to the apartment and relaxed until it was time to walk over to the Sagrada Familia for the tour I had purchased from home.

I had opted for the guided tour as well as tower access. It was already very hot so we waited in the shade for our guide at the Gaudi facade. She ended up being a terrific guide, providing a lot of detail about the architecture as well as the religious iconography. We started on the Gaudi facade which represents the birth of Chist. then we walked inside and as we did so, the organist was playing (apparently to dust out the pipes) and the music completely filled the beautiful space with such beautiful sound that I got choked up and almost cried in awe. 

The last time I was here (1997, shortly after Princess Diana had died), there was no roof and the building was a mere shell, it was hard to visualize how the two facades were going to come together. Now it's a beautiful light filled space with soaring ceilings and the most beautiful stained glass I've ever seen.

After the tour, I headed for the Gaudi towers. They now have elevators to go up, although you still need to take the stairs down. I don't recall there being elevators back in '97.

The view is remarkable, but you can also see the scaffolding on the parts of the cathedral that are still under construction. The original plan was for the church to be completed in 2026, 100 years after the death of Gaudi, but the pandemic has messed with that plan. they had just topped off one of the spires.

The large central spire is still to be completed and the front facade still needs to be completed (in fact there is a building in the way of the front facade that needs to be demo'd).

After the Sagrada, I stopped at a small cafe for a quick sandwich (bocadillo) for lunch before continuing to Casa Batllo. This house is the other Gaudi masterpiece (more so that Casa Mila). The tour is an audio guide with some 'woo woo' music and I would've enjoyed a bit less of that and a sprightlier pace, but the house itself is spectacular.

There are so many beautiful details in the house, the back deck and roof. Every surface was covered in some decorative detail from the walls, ceiling, floors, light fixtures and tile work. The roof has the prominent dragon spine and sword hilt easily visible.

At the end of the tour there is a room lined with video screens and a small film with some interesting visual motion and graphic effects, slightly dizzying but short. It was an interesting way to end the tour. The gift shop was quite extensive and had a lot of great stuff, but I stuck to picking up a new fan for myself, which would end up being well used throughout the rest of my trip, and a small stained glass candle holder.

After the house, I found the hop-on hop-off bus stop and took the route that went by the water front. It passed the Columbus column, the Olympic torch and several interesting art works.

Later in the evening, Edie & the girls and I went to a local place that served Turkish food with seating on the sidewalk. My kofte was basically meatballs (they did call it albondigas so I shouldn't have been surprised), but we also followed up the meal with helados at Obrador DelaCream, which had a decent line and custom flavours that were already running out.

Spain

 At the end of July, I took my first international trip since going to Chile in 2019. I'll be documenting my remembrances after the fact since I didn't keep notes during the trip. 

Before the trip I had a lot of unexpected anxiety around it-would COVID rear its ugly head, would I need to get tested before the trip, what special forms would I need to fill out, would I catch COVID in Spain, would I remember how to travel like this? I decided to stick with carry-ons going there to avoid any baggage issues (which was much in the news). There wasn't much I could do about timeliness of my flights but at least my stuff could stay with me.

Turned out I had no issues at all with flights. TSA pre-check was a breeze again, I had a decent amount of time to hang out in the Club, the flight to Newark took off on time, and while we were delayed getting into the gate, I had enough of a layover to be able to make use of the Club for a snack and bathroom break before catching my next flight. After a short nap, we landed in Barcelona the next morning. 

Before I left, I had found and arranged for a shuttle service that drops off at hotels. If you are going to a private address, they will find the nearest hotel to drop you off. A short stroll from drop off took me to Edie's families' apartment for the month. Everyone was out except Lucy. After I settled in a bit, Lucy and I went to explore some place to get food. We ended up at Burger & Music downstairs from the apartment where I had a breakfast bowl with fruit, grain, etc. which was perfect to give me a little energy.

In the afternoon, I looked up the bus stop for the hop-on hop-off bus that I'd bought tickets for previously. There was a stop at La Pedredra/Casa Mila so I walked over there (thank goodness for Google maps) and toured the house first. It was a great introduction to Antoni Gaudi, great architect of this city because in the attic of the house were several displays that discuss his design, engineering and architecture, including the catenary arch that will be prominently featured in the Sagrada Familia. I then found the bus stop, but accidentally ended up on the other route that I originally planned to take, oh well. Still was a nice way to get introduced to the city.

In the evening, Edie and Bill were going to an art gallery where a friend of theirs was showing a piece. Maia was home by then so I walked with the girls to the gallery. It was a small place with some interesting pieces but super hot inside after awhile. I hung out outside the gallery and had a nice chit cha with Lucy while waiting on Bill, Edie and their friends.

Once everyone was done at the gallery, we all walked to a local tapas place, Betlem for drinks and dinner.

It was nice to be able to leave the ordering to the 'locals' while I got myself a sangria. the food was terrific and the company enjoyable. After, we walked to a local gelato place. I found gelato to be very popular in all the places I went to in Spain. They often called in 'helados Italiano'.

I managed to stay awake until proper bed time and crashed hard.