We know we have gone up in hotel class when we have a bidet

As we mentioned yesterday this hotel on the University campus is stylish.And we have a bidet!!
We are now starting to rank our hotel stays in Europe by whether our bathroom has a bidet or not and we are seriously thinking of getting one installed when we get home!!Without getting into too much detail for those who haven’t experienced a bidet in their bathroom,they are a delight and so hygienic!!They are one thing that Europeans have over us Kiwis!!
Anyway onto things more serious and our day in Barcelona.
The weather forecast is for rain later in the day but we are hoping that if it does arrive it will be after dark so we can do the sightseeing we have planned without us having to put our ANZAC ponchos on to keep dry.
Our hotel room is so quiet and with the sun getting up later by the day we slept in until after 7.30am.However we were up and showered and had breakfast and were still on the railway station before 10am.
Here we struck a problem.Yesterday when we visited the shop for supplies we also called into the railway station,which is unmanned,to see what ticket options were available to us for our planned two days travelling into and out of Barcelona.The website for the metro indicated that there was a two day pass available at a very good price and that would enable us to travel on all transport in Barcelona including a couple of funiculars we thought we might try out.
A man at the station who spoke no English but could see we were having difficulties with the automatic ticket machine stepped up and showed us how to buy a 10 trip ticket for a discounted price.We couldn’t make ourselves understood that we wanted to know if we could buy a two day pass so would have to try again today when we headed to the city.
We could not find an option that was obvious for the two day pass on the automatic machine even though we got it to translate to English.There was however an option styled T2 DIA and we thought that this must be the one so paid €9.20 each and took the two tickets.
One of the funiculars we wanted to ride was at a station on the way into the city so we thought we should do that now while the sun was shining.From the top of the funicular ride there was supposed to be views over the city.
The funicular ride was relatively short and as we were still at a good altitude when we got off the train and onto the funicular we didn’t actually climb that far.
The view was very expansive over the city but again the sun wasn’t in the best position for photos from the site we were at and we couldn’t get to a spot where we had the sun behind or at least to the side of us.
As we walked back to the funicular we found a little of what Barcelona’s mountain bikers like to do on a Saturday morning and that is to ride at breakneck speed down the streets of the hillside suburb we were in.Watching a couple of them take a blind corner quite fearless of what might have coming up by way of traffic was amazing!!Oh to be young and stupid again,and able to ride a bike so damn fast!!!
We didn’t have to wait long for a train to carry on into the city and we emerged from the underground metro station at the top of La s Ramblas shortly after 11.30am.
Las Ramblas is the main throughfare from the city’s square of Placa de Catalunya down to the waterfront.It is a wide boulevard with most of it given over to a pedestrian mall down the middle with traffic having one narrow lane on each side.
It is all downhill to the waterfront and from our starting point all we could see ahead of us were people.......thousands of them!!!The mall was packed.Many of them were tourists,especially Americans and English(we stand out against the olive/darker skinned locals)but also many Barcelonians who come to stroll Las Ramblas and enjoy the huge number of entertainers that line the 2 kilometres or so down to the harbour.
We could have spent all day watching the various people out to make a living doing things from standing as still as a statue to singing to a guy who acted like a baby making noises at passing people and attracting the largest audience.
We stopped in at the local marketplace just off Las Ramblas and spent an hour or so wandering around taking in the sights and smells of food from meats to fish to vegetables on sale.There were some stalls doing food to go and we purchased a couple of potatoes filled with a cheese and spice flavour to keep us going for the next couple of hours as we plan to have an early dinner before heading home at the end of the day.
The types of meat and fish on sale was extensive and the prices looked to be very good so it was no wonder the locals were buying up large.If you lived in the city you wouldn’t need a supermarket for the food items on sale.
A short distance further La Rambla and we came to the Gran Teatro del Liceu or Opera House.It is the second largest in Europe and has seating in the 5 tiered auditorium for 2300 people.We took the unguided 30 minute tour although we did actually have a woman who gave a background to the areas we were allowed to visit including the 4th tier of the auditorium.Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos inside the auditorium but we can attest to the beauty of the restored opera house.
The building has been destroyed by fire twice in its 150 odd years,the most recent occasion only 14 years ago and the rebuild, which was faithfully carried out from the original plans,took 5 years to complete.
Another area within the building which is still in original condition having been saved from the fires was the mirror meeting room which was also very beautiful and you could imagine being there in your finery on the night of the ballet or opera.
At the bottom of Las Ramblas is a staute to Columbus.A bit strange as he was actually a native of Genoa,Italy although his world travels discovering far off places was done for Spain!!
It was then onto the waterfront area which was reclaimed years ago increasing the area of downtown Barcelona considerably and giving the locals an area by the water and sea that they could relax,shop and dine at right on their doorstep.
We had seen a cableway trundling between the waterfront and Montjuic a hill southwest of the centre of the city.It looked like a fun ride and it would give good views of the city as well as taking us up a hill for a different perspective.
However by the time we got down to where the cableway started from the wind off the sea had got up to a point where the cableway had to be closed and with the wind predicted to continue it was not clear when the cableway would be operating again.
So after a look at the beachfront we walked back towards the downtown area.On the way back we watched as dozens of Africans ,who sell their fake designer handbags and sunglasses off white sheets on the pavement,got wind of approaching police and scarpered for somewhere else to sell their wares.They have it all down to a tee with their goods laid out on a white sheet with a light rope attached to each corner and tied in the middle of the sheet that they quickly pull to bundle their goods up and they are on their way in 10 seconds flat!!!
We wandered back through some of the backstreets of the Barri Gothic area to find Barcelona Cathedral which was built on the ruins of an 11th century Romanesque church.Like so many of these structures it was partly covered up because of renovations but even so it is a striking building with neo Gothic spires.The admission fee also enabled us to ride the dodgiest lift with 6 other people to the roof for some different views of the downtown city area.In the distance we could see another local landmark,the La Sagrada Familia, that we will get to tomorrow.
By now the sun had set and we decided we would return to Las Ramblas and have dinner at one of the sidewalk restaurants we had passed earlier in the day advertising 2 tapas,paella for 2 and desert all for €9.90.
It was a tasty introduction to traditional Spanish food and we enjoyed sitting there for an hour or so drinking the biggest beer we have been served on this adventure,having dinner and people watching as the crowds on Las Ramblas went by.
Gretchen and I disagree on the size of the beers.She reckons the glass was no more than half a litre but the glass took us all dinner to drink so I reckon it had to be bigger,more like 650 or 700mls.
What we hadn’t thought about though was that with the ‘cheap’price for dinner the restaurant would hit us over the head with the price of the beer at €8.50 EACH!!!Bloody heck the beer was nearly as much as 2 tapas,paella and desert!!!
Anyway we got over it quickly as it had been a tasty dinner and we had enjoyed the spot we had chosen watching the crowds pass by.
We didn’t get home after the train ride back toi the University until after 8.30pm making it one of the longer days that we have had out since daylight saving had finished.
We have been able to tick about half of what we want to see in Barcelona and so tomorrow we will finish off the job.
Oh, by the way it didn’t rain either!!

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