Touring Barcelona

May 3 - After yesterday's fiasco, I book the hotel with breakfast. At least hunger won't be an issue right away. The tourist bus we will use won't be by until 10 so we can have a relaxed morning. They have an espresso machine here. We put cups underneath and push the button. Water come out. Oops it's a Nepresso machine. We need to put in pods. 

I eat the bacon, donut and melon before I remember to take a picture. 

Here's the "bacon" light but good. 

The plain yogurt isn't very good but strawberry jam saves it. 

We don't leave until well after 10. We miss the bus trying to figure out where the stop is. Fortunately they come ever 7-15 minutes.

Not my thing but maybe one of you out there cares. 

We decide to get off at the palace stop. 

The actual palace. 

Next door is Pavellons Guell. 

Guadi's first work is here. He did a horse stable for the royal family. 

The stables. 

This gets us ready for church and Park Guell. 

We hop back on and hop off in the downtown corridor.

We see La Pedrera. We check out the ticket line but decide to pass for now as its already 1. Maybe we should eat soon. We hop the other bus line and they say we will get to Sagrada Familia around 2:25. Our tour is at 3 so that works. 

The monument to Fancesc Macia and it was made by Josep Maria Subirachs, (the same sculptor that did the Sagrada Familia’s passion façade).

They have this abomination in Barcelona too. 

The open top buses are great for getting an overview of places but aren't always great for picture taking. 

Aparna wants to hop off and see the Frank Gehry sculpture along the way. We stop off at the beach and walk the beach walk towards the sculpture.

Dominos at the beach. 

It's hard to get a good picture with the other buildings, etc around. 

I'm a bit concerned about time now. We look to see where the next stop is or if it makes sense to double back. According to their paper map it make sense to double back. I check my phone and the next stop looks close. Turns out it's way closer than doubling back.

Torre Agbar - not so bad from the bus. 

We arrive at the Sagrada Familia with a few minutes to find food. 

I see McDonalds, Subway and a few other restaurants. I was going to wait it out but we decide to buy a sandwich from a small shop next to the tourist office. It's a half triple decker with egg, salmon and some caviar. Nice picture right?  Too hungry and I don't think about it until afterwards.

We capture dessert. 

The church is impressive. It's been going on since 1883 but was partially destroyed during the civil war. It's all funded by donations. Apparently since the Olympics in 1992 the donations have ramped up and they are scheduled to finish in 2026?  After the roof was complete it was consacrated in 2010.

I never think fun and church in the same sentence but this seems like a fun church. 

A bird enjoying the nature on the Nativity facade. 

Passion facade

The nativity facade faces east and is lined with mainly blue and green windows for the morning light. 

The passion side faces west and is red and orange for the afternoon. 

Gaudi's tomb underneath. We finish the tour and looking around. It's 5. 

Aparna really wants paella. I check my stay.com app. The closest and top search result is the place we ate lunch at yesterday. Nice. If we take tourist bus it will be a long time before we get to the downtown corridor. We decide to walk it since its 20 minutes or so. As we wander we don't see anywhere interesting.

I pull the app again and fine a place called Taller de tapas. Apparently a scene from Vicky Christina Barcelona was filmed there. Aparna asks for white wine. He pours a taste for her. She say "oui". I start laughing. The waiter says that's 150 km north of here. 

Asparagus that is surprisingly spicy hot in a good way. 

Sardines 

This paella is different as its dark brown. 

This also leads to another conversation about shrimp versus langoustines. We have seen a bunch of langoustine in France. Finally having both in front of her, she understands. 

At the end of the meal, the waiter comes by and Aparna says "finito". He looks at her and says that Italian. Again I bust out laughing. I understand the French. We were just there but Spanish is probably the European language she know most.

We wander around the corner to a wine bar on my app but it's really expensive. Maybe it was the cheap food in San Sebastián. Paying 9 euros for a glass of wine suddenly seems ridiculous. We decide to take the tourist bus back to the hotel and see more of the town. 

As we board the bus, I notice this sign. If you are more than a third crippled you get a discount?  How is that determined?

More photos from the bus. I don't get any good ones from the Olympic Park. 

When we get back we decide to find the place that was closed yesterday as we are still a bit hungry. 

Black and white sausage. I like the white one and Aparna likes the dark one better so it works out. 

Croquettes and some house specialty. It's like mashed potatoes with a spicy sauce on top but that description really doesn't do it justice. 

Catalon noodles - like our paella but with noodles instead.