Not all we wished.
I’ll start this final blog post by saying this is not all we had planned for Barcelona. It was amazing to see Jane after 8 days. Because of flight changes, I had a late-ish flight from Arlanda Airport in Sweden (about 4pm) I had to travel through Frankfurt with a couple of hours stopping over in what was the best Airport Lounge I had every been in. Thank you Lufthansa. But at the completion of that journey, I met Jane at about midnight in Barcelona Airport. Jane had booked a room at the Barcelona Airport Hotel and we totally crashed over night.
At about 1:00 pm, the following day, we made it to near our Airbnb in the middle of the what would be considered the centre of the city. We had caught a Taxi and been held up by a large mob of people parading down the main streets, causing havoc with traffic. It was the Catalan Independence Movement marching, demonstrating for independence fro Spain. We made our way, like those tourist you often see dragging and forcing our overized luggage over cobbled stones and uneven pavers.
The Airbnb we rented was quite nice, but as is the case, a little smaller and a little more “worn” than the images showed. People who had reviewed the property before us had complained about how tiny the WC was, but you could sit in there without having to leave the door open, which was way better than a previous one we had in Edinburgh, once upon a time. The toilet seat was busted, but we kinda managed for a day before our host had it repaired for us. Nadia was a fantastic and helpful Airbnb host. The lounge space was plenty big enough and the kitchen was quite small, but very usable for the 2 of us. We made it work.
We decided we’d brave the cold and the crowds and went for a little walk to get some supplies.
Up until now, we hadn’t been anywhere where English was not well used. Certainly the Scottish were easy to understand because we use the same Kings English, and getting used to accents and dialects was probably more fun that it should be. But we quickly realised this was going to provide a little more work. We knew usual greetings like ‘Ola or Gracias, but that didn’t buy us anything.
The Coffee
If you go to France, you can easily ask for a Café au lait, meaning ‘white coffee’. But we actually didn’t know what it was in Spanish. ‘Cafe’ is pretty universal, but a Flat White? Or an Americano with Milk? What the hell was Milk in Spanish? Mjolk in Nordic Countries was one I had learned. Anyway, we tried to explain to the person behind the counter in a regular cafe chain in Barcelona (Cafe 365) waht we wanted, because Café au lait wasn’t working. He was pretty good about it discussed it with a colleague and we ended up with probably a Cafe Late, but one of those ones in a tall glass (reserved for tourists) with a bottom half light brown liquid and the top half all froth. Warm at best, and not really enjoyable. Work to be done here…
After a quick bite (one of those baguette things we pointed at thank you very much) and we found a small 7 day supermarket and bought some supplies. We returned to the apartment before doing what good Spanish people do, and had a siesta. Jane loves this 2-4 back in bed thing, The apartment was on the first floor down a small alley. Cafe 365 was literally 15 metres away which became super handy, as I would end up getting coffees when I had gone out without Jane on those few occasions, but more work to do be done on the coffee front (keep reading). To get into the apartment there was a locked door to the foyer and one of those elevators only 2 suitcases without a person could fit. Stairs would be used as much as possible.
After we had got in, made ourselves a coffee in house (so much easier) and chilled for a bit, we needed to find somewhere for dinner. First night in Barcelona would be a nice restaurant and good food with the smallest effort. Spain is all about food, right?
So there is a pretty popular restaurant called “Els 4 Gats” (The 4 Cats). It has been around for about 120 years (athough it was closed for about 40 of those years) and used to be a place frequented by a lot of artists in Barcelona, the most notable being Pablo Picasso. And I have to say the food really was as good as we had have hoped. The steaks were near perfect, and the food was lovely. Then the question came. The cheesecake was probably the best I every had and I will be trying to replicate it when I get home. Would you like a coffee?
So, I was ready. I had done my research. I had looked at all the popular coffees in Spain that I could find online, and knew what I had to say,
Café con leche – directly translate to “Coffee with Milk” which is effectively a Flat White. So I practiced in my head before I said it. New words right? “Café con leche, Café con leche” I said to myself.
Here goes: “Uno café con peche gracias” Pardon?
I said again, “Uno café con peche?”
I mean “Uno café con leche“. He replied: Gracias, I will get it for you, as he walked away, no doubt slightly confused, amused and shaking his head. Bloody Tourists!
I had tried to order “Coffee with Fishes! I’d like to say close enough, but not really. The coffee was nice though, especially without the fishbones.
Upon returning to the apartment was when trouble started. I’d had a little cough after leaving Sweden but that quickly turn to the Flu. My body was tired and ached, but I thought that was just the trip. I was quite hot, even though the weather was still cold. (around 8-9°). I was bed ridden for 2 days with a fever and aching all over. Jane wasn’t yet effected and went out for some small walks around town, getting some fresh air and starting to know the place. As I started to improve on probably the 3rd day, Jane was struck down with what I had passed on. Bed ridden for 2 more days. FRUSTRATING! We were coughing non stoop, and had headaches, slept for way too many hours. We felt like we were in a nightmare. The Apartment whilst comfortable enough, was quite dark most of the time with small windows facing the alley.
Each day we would go for a walk around the town, but we really didn’t want to do much. And when we returned we would be exhausted. We both tested Negative for Covid (Jane was clever in bringing some PCR kits with us on the trip), and we made several trips to the Green Cross Stores (Farmacias) who were ever so helpful. But we had to get out, but didn’t really have the energy.
To minimise our walking, we did what good tourists do and we bought tickets for the Hop on, Hop off buses. There were 2 routes for the tickets we got. One was East and the other was West. The first day we went East and got off for lunch at a quite nice restaurant near the beach. I had my first of 2 Paellas of the trip at this restaurent. There were more staff than customers and they weren’t really interested but the food was good. The first Spanish Paella I had in Spain was really quite nice.
The Hop on, Hop off bus is never a fun thing for me. Mainly because they only exist in large cities with a lot of traffic and you are stationary in some of the ugliest parts of town. It takes around 2 1/2 hours to do a loop, but you do get to see some of the landmark areas. I don’t recall a lot of the first day, but it did go past Sagrada Familia, which was pretty cool. Sagrada Familia, for those not in the know, it’s the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world. It was started in 1882 and was designed by Antoni Gaudí, aiming to be a large Church, but not a cathederal. It’s a Gothic/Art Nouveau design. More on the church later, other than to say when Gaudi died in 1926, it was less than a 1/4 complete.
The next day was the West side of town. Protests in the city meant we had more trouble getting on the bus, as they moved the central bus stop, but as we found the new one, the protest had finished and we had to go back to the original, but they forgot to tell the bus drivers. Eventually though, everyone got on the same page. The west seemed far prettier than the east side and featured Montserrat which is the mountain range just near the city. We saw the 1992 Olympic Games stadium, several art museums, some wonderful views and many other lovely places in the area. We didn’t stop anywhere, as we were pretty knackered still, but we enjoyed the 2 1/2 hour round trip.
I have no idea what actual day it was at this point, but the following day we visisted the Picasso Museum about 20 minutes walk from our apartment. It was pretty interesting, but it confirmed my view on Picasso. I think the guy was naturally a bonafide art genius, and in that there is no doubt at all. I think I kind of understand Cubism, but I’m not really a massive fan. Some of his work was really interesting and enjoyable, but I am more in love with some of his other work, like his studies of form, his sketches and his early paintings. Maybe because he started as an Impressionist and then moved away. I love impressionist paintings where he was similar to Paul Cézanne, and his are amongst the best in that area. But impressionism was waning at the point of Picasso as he was Post Impressionist at best before he moved into Cubism. It was an interesting trip and worth seeing.
Off to dinner at 7 Portes
7 Portes Restaurent by the water, or at least in the beach district has been around for 182 years at this point. It has hosted pretty much anybody who is somebody. The entire meal, I hadn’t realised that I had been sitting in the same seat as revolutionist Che Guevara. There’s another interesting chap. A person who freed countries, and started governments. He opposed capitalism and enabled socialism. He brought Russia to Cuba and fought of the Americans. He enabled the people of Cuba but made enemies in the west. He was loved and he was hated.
The seat was also used by the King of Spain S.M. El Rey Felipe VI and Princess Margarita de Suecia of Sweden. Noice
7 Portes. One of the oldest, most authentic restaurants in Spain. It is noted as having the best Paella in the world and has seated Kings, artists, actors, revolutionists but the people there are also super friendly, fun people. It’s like a family restaurant where every guest seems to be treated as one of them as certainly, we were. All but insisting that I photograph the Paella before he broke it down onto my plate (I’m not really into photographing my dinner), but maybe I should have. If you ever go to Barcelona, this is where you need to go for paella!
Sagrada Familia – The inside.
Catching a couple of trains from near the apartment at Place de Catalunya we had booked a 12:30 pm entry to the Sagrada Familia and 1:00 pm Tower climb up the Passion Facade (the other is the Navity Facade). The Sagrada Familia is an amazing structure, based on the idea of a forest inside the church with various types of stones used to create trees, that branch out to hold up the amazing roof. The side of the church determines the colour of the stain glass windows (east is warm and contains yellows, and reds, whilst the west is colder with blues and greens). The following photos give a sense of what it is like, but like 7 Portes, it is a MUST see in Barcelona. Buy tickets before you get there and enjoy the space.
There are several towers in the Sagrada Familia that you would have seen in photos, if not in person. The unfinished Tower is the Jesus or Christ Tower that will finally reach the height of 172.5 metres because as Gaudi put it, “no man may build something higher than God’s own work” and he deliberately kept it lower than the hill of Montjuïc, 177 meters high.
So getting to the top of the Passion Tower was easy. Rising up many metres the only way up is with a 6 person lift that takes you to the top in seconds. Then you have to walk down. I am not sure exactly how many steps there are in this very thin spiral staircase, but googling says the Nativity Tower has 504 steps! I believe it. There are several place you stop and enjoy the view, and photograph the city, and this is exactly what Jane did. I on the other hand, once getting to the top, needed to come down.
And with that, our trip was almost done.
The rest is small talk. We went to some other eatery’s and returned to 4Gats for the cheesecake and no coffee, but the most notable restaurant was Luigi’s. A fantastic italian restaurant not far from our apartment that had the best Spaghetti Carbonara I had ever had and a Lasagne that I will be replicating upon my return home. We went there twice.
We had lots of little stops at cafe’s where I could easily order a coffee without skipping a bit. “‘ola, dos café con leche gracias. Do you speak inglés“? and without doubt the food is the highlight of Barcelona. There is plenty to see and do in Barcelona, and although our health experience didn’t easily lend itself to do this, we still thoroughly enjoyed our time there (minus the first week specifically). Just as well we had 2 weeks in Barcelona.
Singapore
From Barcelona is was a 13 hour trip to Singapore including a 1 hour stop over in Milano, Italy.
I starting writing this blog at 5:30 am as I really couldn’t sleep and decided I would make use of this awake time . Jane just woke up and it’s 8:40 am. She had no sleep on the plane and watched 5 movies, whilst I had an hour and watched only 4. These blogs take a long time and this has taken me just over 3 hours to write and complete.
It has been a great start to our trip here, and we have only 1 full complete day. The aim is to go to Gardens by the Bay this evening if we are up for it, but will spend most of the day in the vicinity and the beautiful location we are in, at The Fullarton Hotel (old GPO). It’s a beautiful building and the scenery is pretty much perfect. Singapore is a lovely place and we stop off here on almost every return from a European Vacation. Time to rest and relax before the rat race is out of the starting blocks. A massage is planned for this afternoon.
I will leave you with a couple of iPhone photos I took last night outside of our hotel. With that, I will sign off and say that I hope I catch up with those who have gotten this far into my Blog and I will try not to bore you in person by repeating any of what I have talked about, as best I can. My immediate plan when I return is tend to my garden, my vegie patches and when indoors prepare a photo book of our adventures. Sooner the better or I won’t do it. This blog will form a big part of that, and part of the reason I do it. Thanks for tuning in and I will see you soon xxx