Morning came way to early. I woke at 930. Fuck the free breakfast, I went back to sleep. I am sure it will improve my disposition. But, I don’t care. Sleep is nice. The bed is comfy. If not downstairs by 11 I miss petit dejeuner gratis. So what. I slept till 1102. At which point I realize I need to do a few things. Like check out. And call the assholes (Travelocity and other hotel).
Call other hotel. No answer. Call Travelocity, no real answer though I did get to talk to an unfriendly man in their Filipino call center. He was a jerk. Told me it was all my fault I did not reconfirm my confirmation. They had sent me a confirm email, he claimed. All my fault. As a favor he contacted the hotel. They did not answer Filipino man. He became more helpful. He said he would pass the case to the back office. They would determine whether I get a refund. Within 72 hours he says. But I imagine he was lying. I hate call centers. And, yes, I do keep a list of all the things I despise.
We got up too late to have free breakfast. With the above problems with the first hotel we decided to extend our stay at the hotel we are in. Well, they moved us next door to a sister hotel. Which turned out to be just as nice. And they are available at all hours. Which can be important at times when guests arrive very late. It happens.
So we grabbed our socks and dropped our r’s and headed next door and moved in. Yay. Then off to a lunch/breakfast of Tapas. With wine. Nice to be fed. Unfortunately, we met the worlds rudest waitress. Good news, she was our server. And what did she do? Ignored us completely. All tables in the room served. Not us. I actually flagged down someone else to get us things. She still did not care. Food was very good, once she took our order. No tipping here so difficult to burn her. The lunch came with a bottle of wine so our mood improved. But not much.
After our semi-mid day repay, we decided to see the sites. We are in the old city neighborhood which is city center for Barcelona. We went to the central market, reminded me of the central market in Florence, lots of food and bev available. We had bev, sangria. After all, we just had lunch. The food places don’t want to serve just drinks. And often refuse to serve u unless you eat. Too. No problem, there are bars.
We sat for awhile. Turns out the gal sitting next to us was from Sacrmento. We chatted with her for quite awhile. Fun to get a point of view from someone like yourself. Geographically at least. We compared notes on all the places we had been or were going.
The kids went to find a drink at same time we sat down. There were only seats for Em and I. They went to three different places for drinks only.
After our thirst was quenched, Em and I went to find our two. Emily had another sangria, she is thirstier than I am. We sat there for awhile.
One of the large streets, La Ramblas, travels through the old city and gothic quarter. We walked that a couple miles. The street has wide sidewalks on each side and a street sized median for pedestrians. There were thousands of people out. Fun to shop and look around. We ended up deep in the gothic quarter with its medieval architecture and streets. We just wandered thru. Our sojourn ended at the Gaudi designed Muséo nacional. Seems Gaudi designed everything. His name is all over the place.
The Gaudi designed Magic Fountain was our next destination. See, more Gaudi. We walked about 1.5 miles and…the fountain was off. No water show for us. The fountain, really a series of fountains, is inpressive even when dry. Massive in scale and built into the side of a hill. It seems designed to resemble water running downhill, with a flourish. The fountain is lit by multi color LED, when it’s running. Oh well. I climbed the zillion stairs to the museum for a look. We arrived to late to get inside. Again, oh well.
Once we were satisfied with our look, we Taxi’d back to the hotel. We had a quick break to freshen up and then we were off to a tapas place called Colom. Recommended by many.
We decided to taxi to dinner. We get tired of walking. Can u believe it? We planned on having paella and Colom has the best accdg to many.
I am so pleased we took a taxi. Was a 1.6 mile walk. Replaced that with a €6 cab ride. Bargain. Win win. Arrived feeling good, not tired and sweaty.
The restaurant was quite busy, line out the door. Well, I guess we weren’t the only ones to ask around to find a good place. We got to the front of the line within 15 minutes. Our host says hi, how many? It’s cash only. Ok? So Em and I went to get cash and the kids sat and ordered Sangria.
There was a bank ATM up the street in a nice out of the way dark corner. You always fear you might get robbed in these situations. I did get robbed. By the ATM fees. And currency conversion fees. And I willingly let the bank do it. And I am supposed to worry about pickpockets in Barcelona. Right.
Back to Colom. We rejoined our party. The place was clean and nice with friendly staff. Not at all like the place we had lunch. Emily said the bathroom was one of those types. A 1 out of 3, maybe a 0. I didn’t go.
The tapas were very good. We ordered off the fixed price menu which got us a large table size paella and six tapas. Which were very good. The Gambas was as good as back home. We have a tapas place near us. The others were new and different but still great. The Sangria was not as good as what we make. I drank it anyway. Someone has to.
Last but not least, a very large pan of paella. Seafood paella. We figure since cBarcelona is on the ocean we should go fish. All recommendations were accurate and true. We all really enjoyed it. Usual stuff, saffron rice, large shrimp, clams and mussels, squid, langoustines. Not the same as home which I suppose is the point.
We did not save room for dessert or even ice cream on the walk home. We had to walk back, or maybe roll, after such a large meal. Evening was warm and the streets still crowded at midnight. It is Spain after all. Took twenty minutes to get to the hotel. I am going to sleep well tonight.
Hemingway would be jealous. ☺️👍🏻