Spain Day 1 - Arriving in Barcelona
Welcome back to the accounts of our wanderings. This time, we travel to Spain, specifically to Barcelona, Madrid, and Segovia. This trip was planned on a bit of a whim, when Lauren sent us notification of a flight sale to Europe via Scott's Cheap Flight Deals. It somehow worked out that we could get tickets to Barcelona leaving on a Friday and returning the following Saturday, right around our first anniversary, for a mere $380 a piece! After some vacation time calculations and realizing we could make it work, it seemed too good a deal to pass up, and I'm sure glad we took advantage of it because Spain was pretty awesome.
We departed Raleigh in a bit of a whirlwind this time, not leaving ourselves enough time at the airport with our checked bag. We are so used to having pre-check and no bags to check that we don't need much time, and I've never really seen a long line for bags in Raleigh so when we got to the airport and saw a huge line at Delta we were very worried. I admit, I had to be "that guy" and skip the line to get our bag checked so we would make our flight. Huge shout out to Richard B. though, who got us sorted out and off to security, where we got through in no time as usual.
Once settled, the flights were pretty standard - through JFK on the way over. Both Charlie and I slept most of the flight over, which was good because we landed at about 10am Spain time and were ready to go, more or less. A bus ride from the airport took us to the Plaça de Catalunya in the city center, about 6 blocks away from our hotel. Of course it was quite early so the hotel wasn't ready for us to check in yet (their check in time wasn't until 3pm), so we left our luggage there and set out to explore a bit.
From the plaza, you can walk to many interesting places, and we chose to check out Las Ramblas first, which is a very famous shopping street. It is a neat street, and along its length are many interesting building, squares, and markets. The first one we saw was La Boqueria market, which held an array of interesting stalls. There were many, many stalls selling cured meats, especially Iberian Ham. The hams hung from the stalls, feet still attached, and thin slices are cut from the whole shebang. It was pretty funny, actually, to see the pig leg holding devices sold in kitchen supply stores - talk about a one use item. There were also fruits and vegetables, other meats, olives, and just about everything in between.
Nearer the end of Las Ramblas is Plaza Reial, which boasts light posts designed by Anton Gaudi - our first but certainly not last interaction with his work. Las Ramblas ends near the waterfront in a traffic circle with a huge statue of Christopher Columbus on a pedestal in the middle. We stopped there for a snack, and walked along the harbor a ways, discovering a natural food festival type thing that provided some more entertainment. Eventually though, we turned up another large street and started making our way back to the hotel to see if they were ready for us.
The hotel still wasn't quite ready (it was about 1pm by that time) so we got a recommendation for lunch and headed out once more. Lunch was tapas, at a nice and apparently famous restaurant. We had Iberian ham baguette sandwiches, potatas bravas (fried potatoes with a spicy sauce and mayo), bread with olive oil and tomato, and sangria to drink. All was delicious, but we were quickly losing steam, so finally we made it back to the hotel for a real check in and short siesta.
In the evening, we made a short trip out to the grocery store, passing by a fun street band, and had ourselves a nice picnic dinner of bread, ham, olives, and fruit. Then it was early to bed, as I'm sure you can imagine we were quite tired.
We departed Raleigh in a bit of a whirlwind this time, not leaving ourselves enough time at the airport with our checked bag. We are so used to having pre-check and no bags to check that we don't need much time, and I've never really seen a long line for bags in Raleigh so when we got to the airport and saw a huge line at Delta we were very worried. I admit, I had to be "that guy" and skip the line to get our bag checked so we would make our flight. Huge shout out to Richard B. though, who got us sorted out and off to security, where we got through in no time as usual.
Once settled, the flights were pretty standard - through JFK on the way over. Both Charlie and I slept most of the flight over, which was good because we landed at about 10am Spain time and were ready to go, more or less. A bus ride from the airport took us to the Plaça de Catalunya in the city center, about 6 blocks away from our hotel. Of course it was quite early so the hotel wasn't ready for us to check in yet (their check in time wasn't until 3pm), so we left our luggage there and set out to explore a bit.
From the plaza, you can walk to many interesting places, and we chose to check out Las Ramblas first, which is a very famous shopping street. It is a neat street, and along its length are many interesting building, squares, and markets. The first one we saw was La Boqueria market, which held an array of interesting stalls. There were many, many stalls selling cured meats, especially Iberian Ham. The hams hung from the stalls, feet still attached, and thin slices are cut from the whole shebang. It was pretty funny, actually, to see the pig leg holding devices sold in kitchen supply stores - talk about a one use item. There were also fruits and vegetables, other meats, olives, and just about everything in between.
Nearer the end of Las Ramblas is Plaza Reial, which boasts light posts designed by Anton Gaudi - our first but certainly not last interaction with his work. Las Ramblas ends near the waterfront in a traffic circle with a huge statue of Christopher Columbus on a pedestal in the middle. We stopped there for a snack, and walked along the harbor a ways, discovering a natural food festival type thing that provided some more entertainment. Eventually though, we turned up another large street and started making our way back to the hotel to see if they were ready for us.
The hotel still wasn't quite ready (it was about 1pm by that time) so we got a recommendation for lunch and headed out once more. Lunch was tapas, at a nice and apparently famous restaurant. We had Iberian ham baguette sandwiches, potatas bravas (fried potatoes with a spicy sauce and mayo), bread with olive oil and tomato, and sangria to drink. All was delicious, but we were quickly losing steam, so finally we made it back to the hotel for a real check in and short siesta.
In the evening, we made a short trip out to the grocery store, passing by a fun street band, and had ourselves a nice picnic dinner of bread, ham, olives, and fruit. Then it was early to bed, as I'm sure you can imagine we were quite tired.
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