jewels1916
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2009
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Day 3 July 25th, 2009 - Part One
So where last we left off, we had been awake for 31 hours and were finally going to bed after a long day(s) of travel and touring.
Well, we woke up at 9am and at 9:30 we headed up to the 23rd floor of the hotel to have breakfast. The entire restaurant was surrounded by windows, so we had a 360 degree panoramic view of Barcelona. It was wonderful. The food was good too I was a fan of the chocolate croissants.
The view from the restaurant in the hotel.
Well, we were all full from breakfast, and for the first time since wed arrived, we felt like wed had plenty to drink with our meal. Lets take a second to discuss the two ice cube phenomenon. If you ask for ice, your server will bring you two ice cubes. Two. This must be a standard thing, because it happened everywhere. Well, at the buffet, we were able to get our own ice. And I noticed the people around me were putting two ice cubes in their drinks. Granted, the glasses were very small, think hotel bathroom glasses. I managed to fit three ice cubes in mine. Anyway, it was just one of the many differences I noticed while we were traveling.
After breakfast, we got on the metro and headed back to La Rambla. From La Rambla, we started walking towards the Barcelona Cathedral. Or, so we thought. Well, we came upon this really pretty church, and there were a lot of people taking pictures of it, so we did too.
Isnt it pretty?
Well, after a few minutes, I realized that this was not the Barcelona Cathedral, because we were on the wrong street ha ha. I was amused to see a bar next door to the church. We have laws against such things in Texas! After consulting our map again, we were back on track towards the cathedral. Walking. Luckily, it was a tad cloudy outside and a decent breeze was blowing. We made it to the cathedral about 15 minutes later. Yes, this is the right one. Its gorgeous. Its not as big as the Sagrada Familia. They must be working on all of the churches in Barcelona, because there is scaffolding in all of my pictures.
I love the spires! Next door to this cathedral is the Gaudi museum (one of them). We didnt go in, because we got a pretty good taste of all the Gaudi architecture while we were there. Our time in Barcelona could appropriately be renamed A Tour of Gaudi.
Just across the street from the cathedral were a few little tourist-y gift shops, and we stopped in one to pick up a few postcards. Inside I snapped this picture.
Surely you can see why
In the courtyard in front of the church, some Flamenco dancers had just set up a stereo and began dancing, so we watched them for a few minutes. Barcelona is full of street artists.
Then Mom wanted to head over to the Barri Gotic, or the Gothic Quarter to see all of the Gothic architecture. I wanted to as well, I like Gothic architecture, its all big and old and slightly menacing. Or perhaps I just perceive it as menacing because of the name. Anyway, on our way we ran across this tiny little store called Happy Pills, with a big red cross on it. Hmmm ..insert big question mark here.
Well, our curiosity got the better of us and we headed in.
Turns out, it was a candy store!
Clever, huh? I thought so.
We kept walking, and walking, and walking, and I am almost positive that we are not going in the right direction, but Dad is insistent. And then his got distracted by a group of protesters, so he stopped to ask them what all the commotion was about. *insert eye roll*. Turns out, that the FDIC (or, the Spanish equivalent) had fallen through and tons of people were going to be losing their homes and their business if something wasnt fixed. This was at least what I understood of it. They were positioned in front of the Bank of Spain. This was the only sign of political unrest or economic problems we saw while we were gone. We continued past the protestors and walked through what I later discovered was the Parc la Citudella. Basically the center of the city. I wish I had known then, or I might have taken a few pictures. By this time it was about 12:30, and it was getting quite a bit warmer outside. Across the park, Dad spots this:
The Hard Rock Café. He suggested we stop in for a pint. Ok, Dad. Weirdo.
As we were crossing the street, I stopped to snap this picture.
The Vespa, or scooter, or motorcycle, or whatever is one of the main forms of transportation around Barcelona. There were so many everywhere!
Back to Hard Rock Café. I was surprised that at 12:30 they were able to seat us immediately. We would learn later that in Spain, they like to eat later than at least my family does. The later we would wait to eat, the longer wait times we would have at restaurants. Ryan (a big fan of the younger drinking age of Europe) and Dad both had a local beer (Estella) and I had a raspberry lemonade (Bacardi rum, raspberry syrup, raspberries and lemonade) yum! Everyone else was drinking pepsi. No pints for them. We also ordered and appetizer sampler which was a ton of food. There were six of us and we didnt eat it all. While we were there, we got into a debate about what person from our generation (my siblings and I) would have the same impact as Michael Jackson if they died. We considered MJ to be our parents generation. I know we discussed Tiger Woods and Bon Jovi. We didnt ever settle on one. We had a hard time deciding who was as international as Michael Jackson.
After we left Hard Rock (and picked up a few t-shirts), Ryan mentioned that he wanted to go on this sky trolley that we had seen. The sky trolley, or tram is called a funicular. So Ryan and Dad (self-proclaimed map experts) read the map and we started walking. I should point out here that we never actually made it to the Barri Gotic. We kept walking. And walking. And walking. And after having to turn around twice because we were going the wrong direction (*fake cough expert map readers fake cough*), we finally made it to the exact spot the map said the funicular was. It was no where insight. No wires, no station, nothing. Finally, Dad stopped someone and used his minimal Spanish to ask. Well, she points down. Huh? How could a sky trolley be underground? Just when we think she is crazy, we looked up at the sign, and sure enough, it said that we had to go underground to get to the funicular. Turns out we had to ride a specific metro to actually get to the station. Soon enough, all six of us were in line to ride the sky trolley.
It should be mentioned that I am not the best with heights. I dont let that hinder my experience at WDW, I still ride every single ride there, no matter what. (Ok, so I skip Living with the Land most of the time, but you get my drift. I dont skip the thrill rides.) But for some reason, I chose this moment to become terrified. It wasnt even so much the height that was bothering me, it was more the prospect of all that weight on that one little wire.
So did I unclench enough to ride the sky trolley? Find out in part 2!
So where last we left off, we had been awake for 31 hours and were finally going to bed after a long day(s) of travel and touring.
Well, we woke up at 9am and at 9:30 we headed up to the 23rd floor of the hotel to have breakfast. The entire restaurant was surrounded by windows, so we had a 360 degree panoramic view of Barcelona. It was wonderful. The food was good too I was a fan of the chocolate croissants.
The view from the restaurant in the hotel.
Well, we were all full from breakfast, and for the first time since wed arrived, we felt like wed had plenty to drink with our meal. Lets take a second to discuss the two ice cube phenomenon. If you ask for ice, your server will bring you two ice cubes. Two. This must be a standard thing, because it happened everywhere. Well, at the buffet, we were able to get our own ice. And I noticed the people around me were putting two ice cubes in their drinks. Granted, the glasses were very small, think hotel bathroom glasses. I managed to fit three ice cubes in mine. Anyway, it was just one of the many differences I noticed while we were traveling.
After breakfast, we got on the metro and headed back to La Rambla. From La Rambla, we started walking towards the Barcelona Cathedral. Or, so we thought. Well, we came upon this really pretty church, and there were a lot of people taking pictures of it, so we did too.
Isnt it pretty?
Well, after a few minutes, I realized that this was not the Barcelona Cathedral, because we were on the wrong street ha ha. I was amused to see a bar next door to the church. We have laws against such things in Texas! After consulting our map again, we were back on track towards the cathedral. Walking. Luckily, it was a tad cloudy outside and a decent breeze was blowing. We made it to the cathedral about 15 minutes later. Yes, this is the right one. Its gorgeous. Its not as big as the Sagrada Familia. They must be working on all of the churches in Barcelona, because there is scaffolding in all of my pictures.
I love the spires! Next door to this cathedral is the Gaudi museum (one of them). We didnt go in, because we got a pretty good taste of all the Gaudi architecture while we were there. Our time in Barcelona could appropriately be renamed A Tour of Gaudi.
Just across the street from the cathedral were a few little tourist-y gift shops, and we stopped in one to pick up a few postcards. Inside I snapped this picture.
Surely you can see why
In the courtyard in front of the church, some Flamenco dancers had just set up a stereo and began dancing, so we watched them for a few minutes. Barcelona is full of street artists.
Then Mom wanted to head over to the Barri Gotic, or the Gothic Quarter to see all of the Gothic architecture. I wanted to as well, I like Gothic architecture, its all big and old and slightly menacing. Or perhaps I just perceive it as menacing because of the name. Anyway, on our way we ran across this tiny little store called Happy Pills, with a big red cross on it. Hmmm ..insert big question mark here.
Well, our curiosity got the better of us and we headed in.
Turns out, it was a candy store!
Clever, huh? I thought so.
We kept walking, and walking, and walking, and I am almost positive that we are not going in the right direction, but Dad is insistent. And then his got distracted by a group of protesters, so he stopped to ask them what all the commotion was about. *insert eye roll*. Turns out, that the FDIC (or, the Spanish equivalent) had fallen through and tons of people were going to be losing their homes and their business if something wasnt fixed. This was at least what I understood of it. They were positioned in front of the Bank of Spain. This was the only sign of political unrest or economic problems we saw while we were gone. We continued past the protestors and walked through what I later discovered was the Parc la Citudella. Basically the center of the city. I wish I had known then, or I might have taken a few pictures. By this time it was about 12:30, and it was getting quite a bit warmer outside. Across the park, Dad spots this:
The Hard Rock Café. He suggested we stop in for a pint. Ok, Dad. Weirdo.
As we were crossing the street, I stopped to snap this picture.
The Vespa, or scooter, or motorcycle, or whatever is one of the main forms of transportation around Barcelona. There were so many everywhere!
Back to Hard Rock Café. I was surprised that at 12:30 they were able to seat us immediately. We would learn later that in Spain, they like to eat later than at least my family does. The later we would wait to eat, the longer wait times we would have at restaurants. Ryan (a big fan of the younger drinking age of Europe) and Dad both had a local beer (Estella) and I had a raspberry lemonade (Bacardi rum, raspberry syrup, raspberries and lemonade) yum! Everyone else was drinking pepsi. No pints for them. We also ordered and appetizer sampler which was a ton of food. There were six of us and we didnt eat it all. While we were there, we got into a debate about what person from our generation (my siblings and I) would have the same impact as Michael Jackson if they died. We considered MJ to be our parents generation. I know we discussed Tiger Woods and Bon Jovi. We didnt ever settle on one. We had a hard time deciding who was as international as Michael Jackson.
After we left Hard Rock (and picked up a few t-shirts), Ryan mentioned that he wanted to go on this sky trolley that we had seen. The sky trolley, or tram is called a funicular. So Ryan and Dad (self-proclaimed map experts) read the map and we started walking. I should point out here that we never actually made it to the Barri Gotic. We kept walking. And walking. And walking. And after having to turn around twice because we were going the wrong direction (*fake cough expert map readers fake cough*), we finally made it to the exact spot the map said the funicular was. It was no where insight. No wires, no station, nothing. Finally, Dad stopped someone and used his minimal Spanish to ask. Well, she points down. Huh? How could a sky trolley be underground? Just when we think she is crazy, we looked up at the sign, and sure enough, it said that we had to go underground to get to the funicular. Turns out we had to ride a specific metro to actually get to the station. Soon enough, all six of us were in line to ride the sky trolley.
It should be mentioned that I am not the best with heights. I dont let that hinder my experience at WDW, I still ride every single ride there, no matter what. (Ok, so I skip Living with the Land most of the time, but you get my drift. I dont skip the thrill rides.) But for some reason, I chose this moment to become terrified. It wasnt even so much the height that was bothering me, it was more the prospect of all that weight on that one little wire.
So did I unclench enough to ride the sky trolley? Find out in part 2!
I love the candy store called Happy Pills. What a clever idea!! I would buy candy from there just on sure principal that the name is so clever. Did you guys get anything?? That's awesome that you found a Hard Rock. Was it like the ones here in the US? And as for your debate at lunch, I'm not sure we have someone as impacting on any kind of culture in our generation. Hmmmmm......I would really have to think about that one to come up with someone.
seriously though, that is 
Please post pics!!! 
