After months of planning, our big trip for the year is finally here! Yesterday, we closed up shop in Seattle at 4am, and headed out to Spain, with a connection at JFK. All went smoothly, and we made it into Barcelona at 7am, on Sunday, April 5. We had a whole day to explore the city before we had to catch a plane on Ryan Airlines from Girona airport (about 1 hour and 15 minutes outside of Barcelona) to Porto, Portugal, where we would be meeting up with our buddies from Seattle, S & K. Unfortunately, neither one of us slept very much on our plane ride, and due to time changes, it was akin to a couple of zombies landing in a foreign country. But alas, we did our best.
First, some fuel. After locking our luggage up in a locker at the train station, we popped out of the metro, and the first thing we saw was a pastisseria! I think it was a sign that it would be a good day.
The morning was calm and quiet, and the streets of Barcelona seemed to be barely waking up at 9am.
We wandered through old town and came upon the Church of Santa Maria del Mar.
We walked in briefly, and realized that it was Palm Sunday, when we saw the ladies selling palm leaves out front.
After some more wandering, we mused to ourselves how quiet the streets were still, when suddenly, we heard a u2 song blaring around the corner and a huge roar from a crowd. We headed in the direction of the commotion, and caught a glimpse of the runners heading out from the start line at the Barcelona marathon! Pretty cool, though I was by no means about to jump in and join them...
Due to our lack of sleep, we were both craving calories, so we grabbed a few pastries, a cafe con leche, and jumped in line for the Picasso Museum... first Sundays of the month are free! We weren't aloud to take pictures inside, but the lovely courtyard was very photogenic.
Down the street from the Picasso Museum was the Chocolate Museum! Did you know that Mayans were the first to cultivate the cacao bean, but Barcelona was the first port through which they passed and were introduced to the rest of Europe, and consequently the world? And also, the Swiss are the highest consumer of chocolate in the world... 10 kilos per person on average per year! That's over 20 pounds! Our tickets to the museum were chocolate bars with the word "tiquet," and indeed chocolate is everywhere in the city.
Seeing all that chocolate all over the place certainly whet our appetities, so we popped into a tapas bar that looked super croweded with post Palm Sunday church goers, and squeezed our way up to the bar. What a treat! Being our first tapas experience in Spain, we didn't quite know what to expect, but the family running the business was friendly and supportive of our broken Spanish, and the small plates they put before us carried all sorts of simply prepared but truly delicious treats, like jamon sec, and sardines soaked in olive oil.
We found it interesting that Spaniards are big on tin canning their seafood, but instead of tasting bland and metallic, the berberechos, mussels, and clams were fresh tasting with an almost silky texture.
By the afternoon, our lack of sleep had certainly caught up with us, and we found a beautiful courtyard behind the Frederic Mares Museum. Jack fell asleep in the sunshine while sitting on a bench, underneath the orange trees laden with fruit, as a cello and a guitar played the Aranguez Guitar Concerto by Rodrigo somewhere around the corner. I sat next to him and spaced out for about an hour before realizing that it was time to head to the train station, pick up our luggage and catch the bus to the airport in Girona.
We got to the bus station just as the next bus to the airport left at 4:10 pm, and the next one was at 5. With our flight to Porto at 7pm, and the bus ride to be about an hour and 20 minutes, we were sweating bullets a bit about the timing. Jack bought me an ice cream to soothe the stress, and as I sat there eating it and staring at the tv screen broadcasting departures and arrivals, I saw that another bus had been added, leaving for Girona airport at 4:45! We grabbed our bags and ran outside just in time to throw them into the bus belly, and find seats together on an already crowded bus.
We made it to the airport at 6pm, checked our bags onto our flight, and even were able to sleep about 2 hours en route to Porto.
After one heck of a long day, we finally made it to our hotel, cleaned ourselves up, and met up in the lobby with... K & S! Yay! Together at last!
We went out to a traditional, Portugese restaurant down the street from our hotel and ate a late but filling dinner featuring Arroz y pulpa, octopus rice. Yum!
Returning to the hotel, I fell into bed and finally felt my body relax into the deep sleep that I'd been craving. I need my rest... tomorrow is going to be a big day of tasting ports!!!!
Despite how tired we were, we arrived in Madrid without problem, dropped off our luggage at our hotel, and managed to get ourselves to the train station to catch a fast train to Toledo, about 3o minutes outside of Madrid.
Red rooftops of the Jewish quarter... 
...and the royal alcazar high on the hill.
Each bar had a different character and tapas specialty, but in the end, our most treasured memory of this night was spending the time with good friends. How often do you get to spend good quality time with loved ones halfway across the world?
...and the royal alcazar high on the hill.
Each bar had a different character and tapas specialty, but in the end, our most treasured memory of this night was spending the time with good friends. How often do you get to spend good quality time with loved ones halfway across the world?
