We're off to Barcelona...???

It’s Sunday morning

We get up early (for us) at 7:00 am.

We have a 3-4 hour drive to Barcelona.

We are to meet Rosa Sarabia, owner of the Buenos Aires apartment

at 1:00 pm for lunch

We’re packed and ready to go.

We jump in the car and are off.

Across the bridge to D117 towards Quillan
and Barcelona!

We are in Quillan (8 km from Esperaza), John notices a warning light.

We check the car –

a scratch on the back bumper and the windshield wipers are missing.

We go back to Esperaza to make a police report – the gendarmerie is locked.

We see the policeman walking back to the office.

We try to tell him what we want…

We have to go back to Quillan to make a police report.

We make the police report with non English speaking policeman who uses

his phone translator to communicate with us.

We then drive the hour in the opposite direction from Spain to Carcassonne for the exchange of the broken car for a car with windshield wipers –

there's RAIN in SPAIN.

We now call Rosa to reschedule our meeting – it’s noon

we won’t be able to make the 1:00 lunch date.

We are now on our way –

taking the toll roads all the way (much faster, but not scenic.)

After a few toll booths, we see the sign we are waiting for

We arrive Barcelona around  4:30 pm  -

mapquest directions are confusing, we get lost.

We take 45 minutes to find the hotel –

The 4 Points Sheraton Hotel , Avinguda Diagonal

The 4 Points Sheraton

The giant "Pickle" - Torre Agbar
walking along Av. Diagonal from the hotel

 We try to recover from the bad  start by relaxing –

John goes for a long walk by himself,

I go down to the bar for a drink and papas fritas. 

Yes, they have Jameson Whiskey!!!

When John gets back we have a drink together

and then have dinner at the restaurant - Just hamburgers and beer.

Monday

We get up, clean up and go out for coffee.

Starbucks at the Glories Shopping Center

 

We then find the Hop on-Hop off  tour bus just across the street from  the “Giant Pickle”

We're off on the Barcelona City Tour

Plaza de Toros
Barcelona Bull Ring

Sagrada Familia
Working on the cathedral  since 1883
-Antoni Gaudi-

 

We get off at Parc Guell
-Antoni Gaudi-

Entrance to Parc Guell



The first terrace of the Parc

View of Barcelona from the first terrace

Higher up - windy and cold
but you can see the Sagrada Familia

The Entrance and the terraces
can see the first house, too.

Tower of one of the homes in the Parc

Lots of places to sit and admire in the parc,
and the views of Barcelona are everywhere

We get back on the bus.

What we see on Passeig de Gracia

More Gaudi...
Casa Pedrera

Patio ornament on
Casa Pedrera

Restoration of a tower

Copper colored towers

Plaza Catalunya

We get off at Cathedral Gothic and walk La Rambla

Gaudi's Gothic Cathedral

Next to the Boqueria
we find a restaurant for tapas

Spanish Omlete

Shrimp and Mussels



Calamari



Left overs anyone?    not a chance...

La Rambla on "Dia de St Jordi"
Lots of books and roses

Port Vell

We walk to Port Vell to catch the bus back to the Torre Agbar, the “Pickle”

Hotel leaving Port Olimpic

The Forum
Inside is the pool for the Olympic Games

Back near the hotel
Torre Agbar in the distance

We rest a bit then John works in the hotel after a long day.

I rest my feet

John works a little on the computer

We have drinks and dessert at the hotel and go to bed.

Tuesday

We want to have our passports stamped - It’s a nice day so we walk the area for the local police and drive to another area looking for the national police office – no luck - no stamps

We now check out of the hotel and drive down to Port Olimpic,
Barnabier Restaurant to meet Rosa

We have the Paella - delicious!

Susie, Rosa and John
We had a great time getting to know Rosa

Walking to the car there's the
circle, square and triangle with Fran Gehry's Peix

Peix - Frank Gehry

We now drive home

Leaving Barcelona

Yes, it will be good to be back "home"

Going into the foothills of the Pyrenees
miles of vinyards

In the foothills
Esperaza just around the corner

We are welcomed home by
blooming pink wisteria.

 Barcelona was wonderful, the start of the trip made it hard to get a full feel for the beautiful, exciting city.
I hope we can return, sometime...

Wednesday

We return the car to Carcassonne

On the road to Carcassonne

Thursday

We have French class

Our classmates and teacher
Sabastian, Marie-Pierre (teacher), Brian and Tina

 

We do our work – John writing, I paint

John at his work space

Pink Wisteria - outside our windows

Friday

We find out that our visas are only good for 90 days
in the EU/SCHENCEN countries.
We have to leave here a month earlier than we planned...

We start the process of our departure from the EU – not fun.

We divert ourselves by walking to Couiza (3 km) for Tango.

On the walk toward Couiza

Saturday

We continue working our departure plans

as well as write (john)  and paint (me)



Trying to emulate what
I see out this window...

Sunday

We spend the day enjoying the beautiful spring day in Esperaza

A lovely way to end the week of many, many stressful surprises.