11-12 Oct 2019 - Nick and I started our trip to Spain by leaving the house on Friday morning, then returning a few minutes later because we forgot the I-pass. Oops. I had packed and double-checked, packed for the kids, gotten a haircut, dropped off the kids' stuff at Mom & Dad's, and given them details. Nick got the kids fed and on the bus for school, and got the house cleaned up. A brief delay to return, but we were back on the road before 11. Chilly, gray, windy, drizzly day. We drove to Rockford, where we stopped for lunch at an okay Indian lunch buffet. There was a Tesla supercharger nearby and we both rested while charging. After that, we headed towards Chicago. It was ~3:30 when we got to Ikea, where we killed an hour but, amazingly, didn't buy anything. We next went to the "Entertainment District" in Rosemont. There, we found a cute Irish pub, each had a beer and a light dinner. It got really busy before we left. There was another supercharger nearby, and we finished charging up to full. The, to the airport! It was ~7:15. Got a great spot in the economy parking lot, waited a while for the shuttle bus to the terminal, and finally got off at Terminal 3. Endured the security line, found our gate. Waited. When we checked it, we got assigned seats that we're together. They were able to get some together for us. Woo! Then we waited some more. A mechanical issue in the cargo hold delayed our departure from 10:05 to 10:45 pm. Oh well, no rush. On the plane, once at altitude, we were served dinner and I watched the movie Booksmart. Nick & I both tried to sleep. I mostly just rested. We got a bit of breakfast as we went over Portugal. I watched an episode of Fleabag, then wrote all of the above during the descent. Since we were sitting in the last row of the plane, it took a while to deplane. Then we joined the interminable line for customs & passport checks. Joined the line at 2:25. Got our passports stamped at 4:22. Apparently, interminable equals 2 hours or me.
{landing late + landing at lunchtime + several international flights landing at once + only 2 passport checkers when we finally got to the point where we could see what was causing the delay... there were 8 passport checkers by the time that we got through.} After that frustration and endless walking, it was a relief to make our way to the bus to take us into town. Less than 5 minutes and we were on our way. Basked in the sun and pleasure of no longer being in that line. Took in our first views of Barcelona on a nice, low 70s, partly sunny day. We walked from Plaça Espanya to our Airbnb at Carrer de Margarit 53. We were shown in by the host's friend and we were pleased with the accommodations. We enjoyed our first bit of privacy in a while and a warm shower each. Our dinner reservations weren't until 7:30, so we relaxed and killed some time trying to see how we can watch the Badger football game when we return after dinner. We left and walked the 10-15 minutes through the intriguing Poble Sec neighborhood on our way to Bodega 1900. We were seated at a small table adjacent to the cold tapas prep counter. We started with the tasty house vermouth. We took the waitstaff's option of a surprise menu - they'd keep bringing us different plates until we cried uncle. So many tasty things! My favorite was the grilled squid with onions cooked in ink. So good. Pricey night (~€150 + €15 tip), but worth it. Left ~9:15. Walked back to our apartment, stopping for some beer (Estrella) and snacks. Gave up trying to watch the game, but found we could stream the radio feed, ~10:30 pm local time. Trying to acclimate ourselves to the time zone. Time to wind down. Listened to the game until midnight.
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| Many of our courses at Bodega 1900 (and a few others) |
13 Oct - We slept in past 8 this morning, then took our time getting ready. We made our way to Plaça Reial on foot, stopping for tiny coffees and a chocolate croissant. We got to the Plaça early for our tour and walked around. We signed up for a Runner Bean Walking Tour of the Gothic Quarter with our tour leader Jessie (from Australia) and ~20 other English-speaking people. The tour look ~2.5 hours and we learned a lot about the Gothic Quarter and its history. The tour finished ~1:30. We popped into Santa Maria del Mar, then went looking for Jessie's recommended places for lunch. Meandered Born a bit, but found La Borna Sort. Food was good, but the service was bad. Took for.ev.er. to pay after we ate. Shook off our irritation and walked through the Parc de la Ciutadella. Another lovely, mid-70s day. We walked southeast along the waterfront. It was time for gelato and found some. I had hazelnut and Nick had tiramisu. We walked along the Passeig de Colom, then headed back to our apartment. We had a video chat with the kids, and heard about their day. We grabbed beers after and headed up to our terrace to relax. We decided to head up to Montjuïc. It was a pretty steep, off-route climb... Got up to the castle ~ 7:15, but it was too cloudy for a sunset. We went down quickly, trying to reach the streets below before it got dark. We ate dinner at a place along Carrer de Blai we saw earlier (Agusto). Had 20 pinxos and cava sangria between the two of us. We bought a few provisions, then headed back to the apartment. Did a load of laundry and watched some BoJack Horseman. The apartment's power went out at one point but, miraculously, I figured out how to reset the switch. Got to bed ~11.
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| 13 October sights |
14 Oct - Woke up at 8:15 and got ready. We ate some granola with thick milk and coffee before leaving ~9:25. We had our first Metro adventure, taking it to Sagrada Familia. Our ticket time was 10 am, and we arrived just before. No issues going through security or getting our audio guides. The tour started outside and were so many people, either on audio guides like us or part of a tour group. Way too crowded for me, and I got impatient with Nick staring at details while I waited. But I recognized this was likely the only time we are here, so I tried to temper my impatience with marginal success. It was better when we got inside and I could marvel at the light coming through the myriad stained glass windows. Don't get me wrong - the intricate details of the Nativity facade were amazing, but glass gets me every time. We spent about an hour inside. I got lots of pictures. I've been inside many cathedrals in Europe, but this one stands out in its complete uniqueness and the contradiction of fluidity and angularity. We finished up our tour on the Passion facade, then made a circuit of the building as we decided what to do next
{mocking the people taking ridiculous selfies}. We decided just to walk and headed down Carrer Arago. It was about noon and we were hungry, so we stopped at a small restaurant for small ham sandwiches and tiny coffees. Feeling refreshed, we kept walking until we got to Passeig de Cracia. Police had closed several streets around Plaça Catalunya. Lot of Catalunyans and bystanders like up were making their way toward the Square. The atmosphere seemed tense, but not dangerous.
[Nick was very uncomfortable, so we stuck to the edges and watched. I didn't see much that would flag this as a bad situation - few police among the protestors, no people throwing this, just a lot of whistles, clapping, bullhorns, and signs.} They were gathering because the leaders of the Catalan independence movement were being sentenced today. While we watched, thousands of people starting making their way to the airport and elsewhere. We decided it was time to leave, too. We walked down Ronda de Universitat and popped into "Alt Heidelburg" for refreshments. Nick found three German/Belgian beers to try. I got the hefeweissen. We walked about languages and dialects. Once sated, we pressed on and got to Mercat Sant Antoni. About half the shops were closed, but among the open ones, I found my souvenir for this trip - a necklace with a pendant shaped like so many paving stones in the city for €12. We also got a loaf of bread, some thinly-sliced ham, and some goat's cheese to eat for dinner at our apartment. We finished our walk back . It was ~3:30 and we were very hungry. I had a craving for ramen, so we walked back to Paral-lel and a nearby ramen restaurant. That really hit the spot. We got gelato nearby for dessert, then walked back up Carrer de Margarit. And, with that, we relaxed after another long day of walking. It's currently 5:30 pm and rain is moving in. We stayed in tonight, having our mega ham pinxos and drinking vermouth on the rocks with an orange slice. Classy. To bed ~ 11.
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| Sagrada Familia (14 Oct) |
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| Passeig de Grassia (14 Oct) |
15 Oct - There were thunderstorms overnight. I didn't sleep very well. We got up and got ready to go around 10. We wandered our way through El Ravel to Mercat le Boqueria. Such a cool, busy market. We took the Metro up to Lesseps and began our uphill walk to Park Guëll. Up, up, up. We got there ~ 1, which was our scheduled time slot. It was a beautiful, mid-70s clear day. We spent a couple of hours wandering all around the park. Some things were being refurbished, so not all was open. The views were great and so clear! Saw enough and walked a ton. Super hungry when we left the Park. Wandered around until we found just the right place called Stuzzicini, where we got beers and a flatbread. We walked back down Passeig de Gracia, then made our way to the Arc de Triomf, getting gelato on the way. Mmm. We walked back to the Gothic Quarter, stopping for pints of Stongbow at an Irish pub (Dunne's). We walked and walked to our dinner spot - L'Amfora. Had delicious seafood paella and a bottle of Catalunyan white wine and Creme Catalan. So good and so full! We walked back home in the dark past the Magic Fountain, which, sadly, wasn't running. We got home and I checked in with Mom & Dad. We watched a couple episodes of BoJack Horseman before bed. Also today - we saw a gigantic cat sculpture, ate breakfast (split a sandwich) with americanos at a 365 cafe, walked past more Gaudi stuff (I'm good now - no more, thanks), the Arc de Triomf has sculptures of bats on it!, and we've smelled a good amount of weed here.
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| 15 October sights |
16 Oct - Today was our first day walking up with the sunrise - 7:45 am. It rises "late" and sets "late," compared to where we are in our time zone in WI. We got ready and ate our now-typical breakfast of granola with creamy milk and Nespresso coffees, americano-style (with lots of water to dilute it). We left the apartment and headed to the Metro ~8:45. I was a little testy, not knowing where we had to go. It was also chillier (mid-50s), so I'm glad I had a light jacket along. We made our way to our tour meeting spot at Plaça Catalunya with plenty of time to spare. We had booked a "Castlexperience Wine Tour" for ~$75/each. We familiarized ourselves with our tour guide Agnes (who called us "my family") and our other 12 tour-mates from all over (US, Canada, Australia, Denmark). Another group was doing the same tour with a different guide (Pol). As we left the city via coach bus, Pol gave us the history of Barcelona and Catalunya until now. Interesting stuff. We relaxed as we headed to our first stop, Montserrat. It was ~11 am when we got there, already getting crowded with tourists. Agnes stopped at several places to give us history and facts about the monastery. Then we got ~ 1.5 hr of free time. We first peeked in the church to see the Black Madonna (too far away to see clearly and too long a line to touch it (ew)), some art and glass. Then we went to the snack shop where we bought a set of mini-bottles of the spirits they make on-site. We also picked up a pair of souvenir tins for the kids. Since it was a nice, sunny day and we had time, we hiked our way up and along the mountain to the Cross of St. Michael across from the monastery. Along the way, we shared the little bottle of "Aromes," of which we got two in our bag. Tasty, warming stuff. We had to meet our group at 1:20, so after taking in the gorgeous, albeit hazy, view, we walked back and made use of the bathrooms. Once all of us were back together, we got on a different bus and headed to the winery. It because clear that we weren't going to the winery listed in the tour description, but it did say they work with other local wineries. We ended up at the winery Can Bonastre around 2:30. Agnes took us straight to the cellar for our tapas (2 pieces of bread with tomato sauce, charcuterie and cheese) and 3 small glasses of wine. They were tasty and conversation flowed more as people drank and ate. We learned from Liv and Henrik from Denmark that an unmarried person who turns 25 can be tied up by friends and doused in cinnamon (it was Henrik's 25th birthday today). We talked/joked about the drinking culture in Wisconsin. After finishing our meal and our wine, we got a tour of the facilities and courtyard/wine garden. We also tried a glass of the winery's cava, while talking about giant spiders with one of the Aussie women. Too soon, it was time to go. Back to Barcelona, where we were dropped off at Plaça Catalunya ~5:30. We decided to walk back. Along La Rambla, we popped into La Boqueria for European drunk food, fried tiny fish and fried baby squid. We munched these until full as we walked back to our apartment. It wasn't long after 6 pm. We relaxed, had a cup of nespresso, did laundry, just generally relaxed... until I received an email from our airline saying there's going to be a strike on Friday {
and they wanted to preemptively reschedule our flight out of Barcelona. We had tickets initially going from Barcelona to Madrid to Chicago}. We called the airline and the earliest they could give to depart was Sunday {
with a direct flight from Barcelona to Chicago}. Too late... Argh! We searched and found we could take an overnight bus
{to Madrid}, so we wouldn't have to worry about finding a hotel in Madrid. I'm holding our breath that the strike won't affect the bus. We're going to be so tired. To decompress, we ate our cheese/Iberico ham/bread tapas and watched BoJack Horseman.
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| Montserrat (16 Oct) |
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| Can Bonastre (16 Oct) |
17 Oct - I woke around 8 and felt to restless to sleep in. I got ready and Nick got ready shortly after. Once we were ready and had eaten, we set off on foot to the Barcelona Cathedral. We went in and wandered around for a while. It seemed pretty dark and stagnant inside. It was almost a relief to exit. We walked from there to Mercat de Santa Catarina, where we bought a magnet for our fridge. From there, we walked back toward La Rambla. We found a bar with many beers on tap. We each tried a local beer (black currant hefeweissen for me - good!) and had some bread w/tomatoes and fried almonds as a snack. Nick had a second beer (an Abbey) before we walked back to our apartment. It's another beautiful mid-70s day. Once we got back, we contacted the airline to make sure everything is okay with our flight plans for tomorrow. Unfortunately for our peace of mind, we aren't able to check-in online yet. Argh! We rested a bit, then headed up to explore more of Montjuïc. We walked past gardens, fountains, museums. We walked up to the Olympic Stadium and walked a little inside. Outside, we found an interesting walk of fame showing the show/foot imprint of 1990s famous athletes. We walked back to our apartment ~4:30. There had been more demonstrations and protests. I can hear a helicopter overhead and don't know what its doing near Poble Sec. It's rather unnerving and I'm crossing my fingers we'll be able to leave Barcelona tonight as planned. I rested for a bit, then we packed, and watched more BoJack. Shortly after 6, we walked down the Carrer de Blai. Had tapas (pinxos) and vermouth. After dinner, there was a lovely sunset starting, so we went up on the terrace/roof and got some nice views between buildings. We both finished packing and took showers. Watched more BoJack, and shared a little bottle of the liquor we bought at Montserrat. Killed time until it was time to go. We bid our apartment adieu, and walked down to the Parel-lel Metro station. We were expecting some potential trouble due to the protests, but didn't encounter any slowdowns on our way to the Arc de Triomf station. We got to the bus station around 10:15 and joined the throng of travelers bound for Madrid. There were two coaches leaving at 11 pm and, with some waiting, we got on and into our assigned seats. Chatted briefly with Mom about our progress so far. Relieved to be on a bus and headed to Madrid.
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| Cathedral & Montjuïc |
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| 17 Oct headlines |
18 Oct - We both managed to sleep a bit on the bus. It brought us to the Madrid bus station at 6 am. Once off, we refreshed ourselves and caught the airport-bound city bus right before it departed. We got to our terminal ~6:30. It was still pitch black, so we didn't see anything on the way. We checked into our flight and made it through various checks to arrive at our gate. The terminal out of which we're flying is nearly deserted. Kinda surreal. I changed and bought us "XXL americanos" from a vending machine (turned out to be ~6 oz). Ni ( both rested on the uncomfortable seats until the sky brightened enough to show us it's a gray day. I don't mind. We're out of Catalunya without today's general strike causing us too many headaches. Only a few. It's now 8:45 am, and the gates around us are still deserted. We waited and were the first through the gate passport check. As such, we got to go through a "random security check." Yay! We were taken in a group of 10 and called individually to open our bags. No problems for us
{grumbling from Nick, though}, so back to the gate waiting area. They are boarding around 10:55, in ~15 min. We got on and had to wait for others to get through their security checks [seriously, I think about a third of the plan was "randomly selected."] Our 11:35 am flight was only a few minutes late pushing off from the gate. We were in row 52 of 54. There was some major BO on the plane near us. Ugh. It was a long flight. I watched Toy Story 4, rested, watched Bohemian Rhapsody, rested, watched Lego Movie 2, and rested or stared out the window the remaining 2 hours. Landed and got to our gate ~2:30 pm. Off the plane and through all the check points, waited for a bus and got to the car only an hour later (impressive!). We paid for parking ($119) and headed for some coffee. Fought, then talked civilly about miscommunication and other things. Stopped in Madison to charge and ate some pizza at HyVee. We called Nick's parents to let them know we were back. We then called mine to talk to them and the kids, letting them know when we'll be home. Drove out of Madison to a lovely sunset, that, unfortunately, my eyes are too blurry to see well (allergies? cold? infection? don't know, just started today). We got home safe and sound to Roary, Amy and Robin, and Mom & Dad brought Felix & Iris to us shortly thereafter.
On the way home, I read that protesters blocked the entrance to the Sagrada Familia basilica today, our flight from Barcelona to Madrid had been cancelled, and there were ~500,000 protesters wrecking havoc across Catalonya today. We were lucky that our trip was only minorly inconvenienced, unlike others trying to come in to the city today.
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| random sights |
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| Beverages |
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| Market offerings |
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| Textures |
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| Painted shop doors |
Total trip cost: $2,782.45
{transcribed 2/3/2020}
