Post #31: Barcelona, Day 2.

Las Ramblas from our balcony 1st thing in the morning.The HoHo bus.
and waiting in line for it.
A view from the bus...one of Mr. Gaudi's works.
1st sight of Sagrada Familia.

Apartments across the street from SF...never any privacy?
Walking to SF from the HoHo.
This sign confirms we are in the right place.
Amazing artistry.
Really beyond description.

Beautiful and ornates stained glass windows.
Windows cast great colors inside.
What a ceiling.
Stiff necks after this tour.
Then we moved outside.

...and more stiff necks.
It is beautiful.
The adjacent school house/museum.
Going to lunch.
Bring on that house wine!

This is what an omelette sandwich looks like...yummie! (?)
Now on to the park.
Approaching we knew we were in for something special.
A grand entrance.
I expected to see Hobbits at every turn.

What a great park.
Look at that great Gaudi artwork.
I've never seen anything like this before.
Are we having fun yet?
What a cool place to just hang out.

...and have an ice cream.
Gaudi's house.
ditto
Back on the HoHo...typical view.
What a City...great architecture.

Nice scenery from the bus.
Clearly that sign means...what DOES the sign mean?
Yes, there is modern here too.
The sky should have given us a warning of what was to come.These great buildings are not unique, but typical.

See.
Back to the Gaudi building.
Not sure what this is, but it looks cool. and so does this.
and this.

Looking down Las Ramblas from the bus. Our room is behind the trees on the left.
Neat picture. The HoHo behind the motorscooters.
Las Ramblas empty during the rain storm.
Las Ramblas starting to wake up a couple of hours later.
Las Ramblas after dark.

In search of a Tapas restaurant on Las Ramblas.
Bingo! Buckets of beer and Sangria.
Are we having fun, or what!?!
A very bad picture of a very bad Napoleon with a gladiator hat and a horn. What a schtick!
A wonderful looking building walking back to the hotel.

A very scenic walkway...day or night.

The view from our balcony at night. One can take a lot of 'cheesy' for a view like this.

The Blog:

We had heard that noise from Las Ramblas
Could be a problem.
The worst noise was all the police/ambulance sirens
Earplugs had been recommend…mine were at the ready
But I guess with enough wine you can sleep through anything!
Slept in until 8:00
Went downstairs to the 24/7 small buffet
Great little coffee machine
8 choices: ‘long’ coffee, espresso, decaf, with milk, etc.
I mixed two espresso with a long…quite nice!
Had some pastries and juice
Showered, shaved and hit the road
Left a little past 10:00
Bought our HoHo tix
Caught the “A” line bus to go to Sagrada Familia
Had to wait a long time to get an upper deck seat
If you just wanted to ‘travel’,
lots of lower deck seats open (and stayed open)
When you get on the bus
they give you a set of ear plug head phones
You dial in your language. Pretty cool.
Sagrada Familia is an amazing place
We did the self guided head-set tour
Very nice.
Had a sprinkle while there
But very light.
We then headed out to find some lunch.
We found a nice little restaurant around the corner.
The house wine (of course) was great, but we discovered
A sandwich can vary from country to country.
Tasty, but plain was mine.
And Rich’s omelette sandwich…well, too funny.
But the wine was great!
Then back on the HoHo to the Parc Guell
Another very nice!
A large, meandering, multi-level (free) park.
Lots of Gaudi designed stuff
Benches, arches, buildings…fun.
Lots of kids, locals and tourists.
Reading, working (computers), playing, gawking.
Has Gaudi’s home
Quite a place
Fun architecture
Very unique
After we stopped for an ice cream,
we took the HoHo back to Placa Catalunya.
Went through some great parts of Barcelona
What an amazing city it is
VERY well laid out
Got back to our hotel just as sky opened
Quite a thunderstorm for a LONG time
Wind, rain, thunder and lightening
Great to watch from our balcony!
It was quite entertaining…especially watching
The people on Las Ramblas run for cover.
Took a nap and the sky had cleared.
Decided to start happy hour
No ice…nothing on floor layout, and no bucket.
Went to the front desk and asked
None, nada, zip…go figure.
We do have a microwave and frig
With small tray…very small though.
Free sodas though, so picked up a tonic
Had some vodka tonic sans ice
Met R/L and Strolled La Rambla
Checked out the Tapas places to people watch
Picked a good one
Two large variety trays of tapas
That gave us each a sampling of 10 items
The ladies got their ‘bowls’ of Sangria
And the guys got ‘bowls’ of local beer
And we all had a grand time people watching
As anyone walking up and/or down La Ramba
Had to walk right by our table.
Across from us…a Mime and a guy in a Napoleon-type uniform
with Gladiator-type hat stopped to talk.
I started to take their picture and ‘Napoleon’
Dashed over and held out his had for a ‘donation’
He was just playing around, and we had a good time.
It was a perfect evening
Then back to our room for some deserved sleep
Woke up to noise coming from the street at 1:15am
Louder than night before
Realized the door had not ‘sealed’ all the way
After closing it properly no problem at all.