Yesterday we arrived in Barcelona around 8am, and took a bus to the Plaza Cataluña and La Rambla, the most famous/touristy street in the city. Our hotel, the Barceló Raval (www.barceloraval.com), is about a 10 minute walk down La Rambla. We left our luggage at the hotel and took a hop on/off tourist bus around the city to get acquainted with our surroundings. We saw the Barcelona Cathedral (built in 1298!), a seriously tall pillar with a statue of Columbus, the “World Trade Center” at the port of Barcelona, beautiful gardens on top the Montjuic hill overlooking the city, the Olympic Stadium from 1992, the MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya – Cataluña National Art Museum), and Camp Nou – the home of FC Barcelona (Barcelona’s soccer team). When we arrived back at our hotel at 3:30p, we checked in, opened a bottle of wine… and fell asleep! With the time difference, we had both been up for over 24 hours. Needless to say, we both woke up around 5a Barcalona time this morning.
After watching some TV, watching the sun rise, and dozing on/off for a few more hours, we left the hotel around 8:30a this morning to find some breakfast. We found a tiny little bakery that sold donuts and croissants for very cheap not too far from our hotel. We decided to try out the local Starbucks (there’s one on every corner – and its better than home!) and walk around the city with our coffee for a few hours. We checked out a few souveniour stores to compare prices on a soccer jersey that I want to buy, walked down by Port Vell (Barcelona’s main port), through a mall, down by a park, and to the Barcelona Cathedral. The Barcelona Cathedral was supposed to have dancers performing the national Catalan dance at noon, but the dancers never showed up. LAME. ( This reminded Joe of the commercial for a cell phone carrier where one guy starts a dance in the middle of a mall by himself because he didn’t get a text that the flashmob was moved to a later time; pretty funny.) Since the dancers never danced, we decided to check out the inside of the Cathedral. Security denied me entrance, however, because I was wearing a tube top! Apparently all women have to have their shoulders covered to enter, so Joe loaned me his polo shirt and he wore his undershirt. The small setback was worth it though, because inside was gorgeous! The whole place is being renovated, but this still did not take away from the amazing detail carved into every surface. The Cathedral was built in 1298, and it’s incredible how the people of Barcelona managed to create such a gorgeous monument without the technology of today. After leaving the Cathedral, we checked out a small bazaar that was taking place on the plaza outside and then ambled back to our hotel.
So far we’ve noticed that people do not seem to be overly concerned with cleanliness here in Barcelona. Not to say that the city is dirty by any means, but there’s no hand sanitizer in every store (like major stores in the US), some streets smell funky, we’ve seen people walking around with their shoes in their hands, and domestic dogs (none homeless) are everywhere. Speaking of dogs, this has to be one of the most dog-friendly places ever! Bunches of people have dogs, on or off leash, and the dogs are allowed in most of the local shops. We’ve noticed however, that a majority of the dogs are less than 25lbs. Not very many Daisy-size dogs here – she would definitely be an alpha dog in Barcelona. Also, the weather has been beautiful so far! Low 80s and not a drop of rain or clouds. Even though it is slightly humid, we would love for the weather to continue just the way it is so we can keep enjoying the city.
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog! We are currently taking a siesta and planning where to go this afternoon/evening. We will try to post our pictures as we go and provide a link for them on this site… hopefully we’ll get that accomplished today. Adios!
🙂