¡Bienvenidos a Barcelona!

August 18th.

We checked out of our hotel in Madrid and walked to the metro station around the corner.  The hotel had told us one direction to take to go to the airport, but we asked another metro rider who gave us much easier directions.  Checking in and security was a breeze at the airport and the flight to Barcelona was less than an hour.

The signs in Barcelona were all in Catalan, with Spanish and English as secondary languages.  We made a wrong turn in the airport as we went to collect our luggage and ended up walking out of the airport.  We had to reenter security in order to go to the proper luggage terminal.  Luckily, our luggage was still there.

One of Alex Esteve's students, Manuel, was waiting for us in the airport.  He recognized us immediately, (I guess we stand out) and we followed him to the parking lot.

As we drove through Barcelona, we gazed at the myriad of famous locations throughout the vibrant city.  I really enjoyed the "Plaza de Colón," a statue of Christopher of Columbus in the center of the city.

We drove up a huge hill and turned into the driveway of a private sports club that Manuel belonged to.  Outside on the patio, we looked out on a beautiful panoramic view of the Barcelona skyline.  I could see "La Sagrada Familia," Gaudís unfinished, architectural wonder, rising above the other buildings, along with the port of Barcelona stretching into the Mediterranean.

We told Manuel that he should take us to his favorite places in the city.  For lunch, we went to the Barciloneta, a chain of restaurants, stores, and museums next to the Mediterranean Sea.  We sat down at a seafood restaurant right on the water.  Manuel made it clear that we were not to pay (under orders from Alex).  We started with fresh bread with olive oil, tomato paste, Iberian Ham and Chorizo along with a bottle of white wine.  After eating what would have been a good-sized meal, we began the real dish: a huge steaming platter of marisco (seafood) paella.  Filled with rice, whole cooked shrimp, calamari, mussels, etc. it was as good to eat as it was to look at.  

Our whole conversation was in Spanish, which was great practice for me.  Although its difficult for me to articulate in Spanish exactly what I want to say, I felt that I could understand everything Manuel was saying.

We finished our meal with dessert and two shots of a very strong liquor.  As if we hadn't just eaten enough, we immediately walked over to a sea side cafe and ordered drinks and tapas.  In the next 8 hours, we got an in depth tour of Barcelona as we walked through "La Rambla," and stopped in the central plazas.

Originally we were supposed to be staying with Alex and Vanessa at Vanessa's family beach house.  During lunch, Manuel received a phone call saying that Vanessa's grandmother had died that day and that we wouldn't be able to stay with them as they would have to do funeral arrangements.  They had made us reservations at a hotel in downtown Barcelona.  After we had finished our mini-tour, Manuel drove us to the hotel.