It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged … Since it is so time-consuming, I am probably going to blog less frequently now (likely once every few days or once-per-city/place).
With that, here is how we spent the last several days in Barcelona, first continuing our adventures with our friends/neighbors, the Osburn-Bopps (aka, the Griswolds) and more recently with the Tews (aka, the Millers).**
Day 49: Oddly, I continue to lose track of days of the week. I can manage “dates” (like July 19), but not days of the week. I wonder if this is a phenomenon shared by people who have retired… (my loss of vocabulary, presumably from not reading as much as when I “lawyered” every day, is another frustrating matter entirely). Anyway, day 49 of our trip was pretty tame, but amusing: we visited our first Barcelona beach, took an afternoon siesta, visited our local market, and then had a fun, child-free dinner with Kevin and Monica “Griswold,” while our kids hung out together at their apartment.
The Beaches: The beaches in Barcelona are beautiful, and there are seemingly miles of them along the coast. The water — the Mediterranean Sea — is warm and beautiful, except where the humans have spoiled it with plastic… not overwhelming, but noticeable and unavoidable (at least where we swam). Another “feature” of the beach we first visited was that it was a nude beach… Not the “good” kind of nude beach, with people who should bear no shame of being naked… no, this was not that kind of beach… this was the unfortunate kind of nude beach, with naked people who apparently don’t have mirrors in their homes… or at least not in rooms where they might be naked and, thus, have come to a certain self-realization. Oh, there were still people at the beach who could carry it off well, but I exercised discretion in my photo-journalism here.
After our swim, we gave the Osbopps a tour of the Sant Antoni market, just across the street from our apartment. I really love this market — which has butchers, fresh produce, seafood, small restaurants/bars, and clothing/jewelry and a variety of other goods for sale. It seems busy most of the time, and it is just a fun place to walk through.
Pla de la Garsa: My brother, foodie Stephen, suggested we try a favorite restuarant of his here in Barcelona, Pla de la Garsa. The food was good, but the ambience of the restaurant was better. It was also located in the gothic quarter, and we roamed the streets after dinner and found a fantastic and lively plaza right next to Barcelona Cathedral (circa 13th Century). People were singing, dancing, and selling a variety of goods… sadly, we really just don’t have anything that compares to this aspect of “public” life in Indianpolis. Sure, we have our special events, festivals and parades, but the daily “buzz” of the public squares here — and there are LOTS of them — is without equal in our home town.
Day 50: the Clampetts, the Griswolds and the Millers take Barcelona.
We started our day late today. The kids had a sleepover with the Griswold children (Austin and Audrey Osbopp), so Jackie and I slept in … that is, until the non-english speaking cleaning crew let themselves into our apartment without knocking and kind of freaked us out a bit. Anyway, the activity of the day was a visit to Castell de Montjuïc, which afforded fantastic views of the City and ports in all directions.
A beer with the boy: Happily, while the ladies took a nap, Max “gifted” me time and attention enough for us to walk down the street to one of the half-dozen or so neighborhood bars for a beer.
Second reunion: After returning to our apartment for a rest, we later reconvened in the Gothic Quarter, near La Rambla (more specifically, in Placa Reial) for dinner, with the second wave of infidels from Indianapolis, Kip and Robin Tew (and their daughter Riley and her friend). They came all the way to Barcelona just to have dinner with us! (Well, that’s our story… they might have already been planning a trip and our itineraries happily converged). In any event, it was a great evening and opportunity for all three families: The Clampetts, the Griswolds, and the Millers** to get together for a dinner.
** The story behind our nicknames relates to the fact that we (Suesses) have had a series of “we don’t quite fit in here”-moments, and have adopted TV family name of Clampetts as shorthand… since then, we have bestowed similar designations of Griswolds (Osburn-Bopp) and Millers (Tews) — if you are movie buffs, you’ll get the references. It has stuck throughout our trip.
Day 51: We started our day with a send-off breakfast for the Osbopps/Griswolds, who are heading east to Italy, while we stay here for another day before leaving for Lisbon, Portugal.
A little theft and then Parc Guell: We spent the rest of the day with the Tews/Millers. After a fairly lengthy discussion about the pick-pockets in Barcelona — and the number of warnings we have all received from friends and family — Kip had his entire back-pack stolen from the ground right next to his seat during lunch. (Fortunately, there was nothing too valuable in the bag.). We didn’t let it ruin our day, as we visited the famous Parc Guell, a fantastic public park and UNESCO World Heritage site, with significant elements designed by Gaudi (the same architect who designed the Cathedral, Sagrada Familia) — it has wonderful gardens, and stunning views of the City, as it is located near the mountains with a decent elevation. (Photos of our visit follow)
Finally, a bike ride! Zoe has been asking me when we would bike again. This afternoon, we found a bike store not far from our apartment and rode around the City a bit. Here are some highlights.
Farewell dinner: Tonight was our last evening in Barcelona… we had a nice meal with the Millers and we will leave in the morning to Lisbon!
Adios Barcelona!
