When I woke up in the morning, we were already docked in Barcelona. I had signed up for a late disembarkation slot, so I was going to be hanging around the ship for awhile. The dining rooms were open, so I headed down for breakfast. Last day on the ship and I discovered this is where the turkey sausage was hiding...
Anyway, my group was called and I headed down, grabbed my suitcase and headed to the hotel to get the rest of my luggage. Got my stuff without incident and headed back to the subway station to get to my new hotel. I was warned twice by nice old ladies that the pickpockets were watching me. Fun times.
I made it out unscathed and with all of my belongings, although the station I arrived at did not have an elevator. 2 big bags...so that was fun. I made it without incident to the hotel and was told...surprise...that my room wasn't ready yet (another 3pm check-in time). Left my luggage in their storage and headed out to find lunch.
Ended up back on La Rambla and at Mercat de la Boqueria. As usual, it was packed, but I wanted to eat at one of the stalls surrounded by stools. Finally found a free seat and settled in. The guy behind the counter was a gorgeous Spanish hunk...and it dawned on me that the majority of people seated here were women. Yeah, I'm a bit slow...
Anyway, got some grilled scallops and a glass of lovely white wine. It was delicious.
I decided to do a strolling Tapas tour of the market and ended up at one of the eateries on the parameter of the market advertising "authentic Catalonian food."
Here we have a homemade sangria and oil-cured Manchego cheese. I also had some gazpacho, just because I love it and it was on the menu.
This was above me and another pigeon was eyeing my food. I sat for a while, just watching people in the market. I eventually went to a fruit stall and got Dubai strawberries (strawberries covered in pistachio cream and Nutella). Soooooooooo good!
It was getting close to 3, so I headed back to my hotel...
Passing another Gaudi design on the way. This is Palau Güell. A mansion designed for the same guy responsible for financing the park I had visited the previous week, Eusebi Güell. He was Gaudi's patron for the most part and financed a lot of his work.
Actually, Barcelona is a pretty architecturally cool city to begin with.
As you can see.
I just thought this was cool. This is a pretty well known piece of street art at the Sala Apolo, a music venue.
After I got checked into my room I re-sorted my luggage to better distribute the weight. Organized myself for the flight home, and crashed. I was pretty tired. I had organized a taxi ride to the airport with the hotel, so that was taken care of. This place included breakfast (a conscious decision on my part), so I was ready to go.
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