We'’re out of it! A summer 14 “MAGICal” Med adventure Day 14/Aug 05 updated 05/05

[perfectmatch300]

What beautiful pictures of Barcelona! That looked like a really good bus tour you took.

 

[jedijill]

I gave to get back to Barcelona...there us so much I missed. Looks like a great tour.

Jill in CO

 

[pas130]

YUM for tapas and carrot cake. The seafood looked great Karin! And Barcelona is a beautiful city! Keep the pics coming

 

[superme80]

I'm in! Sorry it took so long! Poor DH. After seeing your pics I am adding the many European Countries I eventually want to visit. Love your report so far!

 

[MEK]

Thanks for the heads up Karin!

What a full travel day! Your accommodations in Barcelona look lovely. It must have been nice to have all that room to spread out in.

Dinner looks super yummy and the city is just beautiful. Loving all the pictures. You know I love to see new places that I will probably never go.

Your trip is off to a great start!

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Some very nice pictures from your tour! You got a lot of great shots of the architecture, port and beach!!!

 

[dizneeat]

The city looks beautiful. I love the beach pictures too.

Does tapas mean "appetizer"?

Barcelona was much more beautiful than I remembered and we will definitely return. The time we had was not enough.

Tapas means "small plates" or "fingerfood", but I guess you could call it appetizer.

Wonderful pictures, Karin.

Nice to have some elbow room and for both of you to be able to take pictures.

Was it a weekday when you did this? The beach, which looks lovely, doesn't look very crowded.

Thank you, Kathy.

It was awesome to have that room, especially since those benches are not very comfortable. But we had to squeeze into the same row eventually.
Yes, it was a Thursday when we took the tour and I think the locals enjoy the "New Marbella" beach more than this one. I would too, we went there lateron.

Great photos!

How did you like using the Nesspresso machine?

Thank you!
We loved the Nespresso machine. But then we have some at home as well. (I think Tom has got three of them. )
It is very easy to use, too. Put the capsule in, close the lid and press the button and a minute later you'll enjoy some really nice coffee.

Hi Karin! Oh - I am just loving the little picture tour of Barcelona. I have been to Madrid briefly, but never Barcelona. It looks beautiful!

Oh my goodness! Your tapas meal looks sooooo delicious!

The bus tour seems like a good one - covering a lot of ground and a lot of sights.

Can’t wait for more!!!

I am glad you enjoy the tour as there are A LOT more pics to come. And, as I said before, Barcelona is really beautiful.

We loved the HOHO tour. So easy to use and you got to see so much from the upper deck of the bus.

 

[dizneeat]

What beautiful pictures of Barcelona! That looked like a really good bus tour you took.

The tour was really nice, very good value for money and it covered a lot of the main sights.
Have a fun trip!

I gave to get back to Barcelona...there us so much I missed. Looks like a great tour.

Jill in CO

You really have to put it on your list, Jill. It is a really beautiful place to visit.

YUM for tapas and carrot cake. The seafood looked great Karin! And Barcelona is a beautiful city! Keep the pics coming

They were nice tapas, but just "an introduction" on what delicious things were yet to come.
More pics? Your wish is my command.

I'm in! Sorry it took so long! Poor DH. After seeing your pics I am adding the many European Countries I eventually want to visit. Love your report so far!

You are not late at all. I have just started, loads more days to go.

 

[dizneeat]

Thanks for the heads up Karin!

What a full travel day! Your accommodations in Barcelona look lovely. It must have been nice to have all that room to spread out in.

Dinner looks super yummy and the city is just beautiful. Loving all the pictures. You know I love to see new places that I will probably never go.

Your trip is off to a great start!

Mary Ellen!

We loved that aparthotel and will definitely return when we go back. It was so spacious!

Tom and I really fell in love with Barcelona. We saw so much in the few days we had to visit and there is still so much to see, so we decided to definitely return.

Some very nice pictures from your tour! You got a lot of great shots of the architecture, port and beach!!!

Thank you!
There was so much to see that it was good we had two cameras.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 2, July 24

So much to see, so little time …. Part 2

We soon were riding along the street again, passing a lot of beach areas and big hotels before coming to the Forum and then on to the Sagrada Familia.











There, we were stunned by the sheer amount of people queueing up to get inside the church and the amount of people who wanted to get onto our bus. So I moved back to Tom’s row to make more room for other travelers. We drove all around the Sagrada Familia



before we headed towards Park Guell and the stop for the little blue tram that heads up to the Tipidabo, a mountain towering over the city and on its top there is a beautiful church and an amusement park. We stayed on board the bus as we had decided on doing a full round in the morning



and then in the afternoon using the bus to take us to places we wanted to visit and explore. Soon we were driving towards the Casa Batllo again









and reached the Placa Catalunya again.
The trip had taken 2 ½ hours and it was getting close to noon, so we decided to walk around a bit in the area and find a place to eat.



Well, easier said than done. Spaniards eat late, so we were pretty early and about every restaurant we walked up to was still closed. The ones that were open didn’t look too inviting so we gave them a miss. It was hot, we were thirsty and getting tired and we desperately wanted to find somewhere that looked inviting. After about half an hour we decided to head back to Plaza de Catalunya and bite the bullet and eat at one of the tourist trap restaurants there. And while we were heading there we saw a small restaurant right at the next corner, which looked well lit and people were heading inside. Well, so did we.
It was tiny, but we were quickly led to a table for two and handed a menu.





I think Tom had ordered a beer, while I had some Diet Coke and then we decided to share some tapas and order two appetizers as our lunch. Drinks were served immediately and our tapas arrived pretty soon after that.
We had ordered



Fried Mushrooms with herbs, garlic and ham, which were a bit on the greasy side, but very tasty,



Patatas Bravas, which are practically fried junks of potato, nicely seasoned and dowsed in Sauce Catalan which was made from mayonnaise, ketchup and spices – think cocktail sauce. We started munching on both and they really hit the spot but filled you up quickly because of the sauce. We had ordered a third tapas and it was served a little later, the



Croquettes which were potato croquettes filled with ham. They came out sitting on the Sauce Catalan and there was even more of it on top. We scraped most of it off and tried it, but it wasn’t as good as the ones we had had the day before. It took us quite some time to nibble on the tapas but since our appetizers took some time to come out we didn’t mind. Well, our appetizers were still not served once we had actually finished our tapas and ordered second drinks.
About 10 minutes later a server came by to apologize as they had forgotten about the appetizers and they were now on their way. Tom had ordered some



Open Faced Toasted Focaccia with smoked salmon, grilled veggies and anchovies which was very tasty and nice and I had ordered the



Grilled Vegetable Stack with goat’s cheese and Balsamic glaze. I was expecting this to be hot, but it came out just luke warm, but it still was very tasty and much lighter than it looked. Once we finished our meal we rolled out of the restaurant and thought about what to do.
There was not enough time to do the other route of the sightseeing tour as we had tickets for Park Guell this afternoon. It was hot and we decided to just take a break. So we slowly strolled towards Plaza Catalunya and since we were passing El Corte Ingles, a huge department store, we decided to hop inside and have a look if we could find some snacks and local drinks to take back to our hotel. The food store was enormous and we bought some cookies, chips and drinks to try. With that heavy load in hand we slowly made our way up the Rambla Catalunya



until we reached our hotel.

To be continued ..........​

 

[Poolrat]

What a nice tour of Barcelona.

Looks like you saw a little bit of everything.

 

[franandaj]

OK, I'm here now. Better late than never. You haven't even boarded the ship yet!

What a way to start a vacation with a fender bender! I have never been to Spain, so it's neat to see your pictures and hear about the city. The apartment is great! So spacious!

 

[KatMark]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this tour with you...beautiful pictures.

 

[Douvres Family]

OMG...Just started reading...very excited!!!

 

[pas130]

More yumminess!! Oh Karin, I am loving the pics, the architecture is just gorgeous!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Beautiful pictures of Barcelona.

 

[jenseib]

What a beautiful city!

 

[mickeystoontown]

My boss absolutely loves Barcelona and has talked about some of the places that you saw. He's not much of a picture taker so I haven't seen the sites, just heard of them. Now, I can tell him that I've seen them in your pictures!

 

[scottny]

Bumping the car ii front of you is not a good start.

The room is very nice.

My SIL is very nervous of the pickpocketers in Italy.

The city looks so pretty.

MMM, the tapas looked good.

The city looks so pretty.

Strange but funny they said they forgot your apps.

Great pics.

All caught up.

 

[Leshaface]

Mmm look at that yummy food! I've never seen round calamari like that. It looks like onion rings. And the shrimp looks soooo delicious.

Too bad about the Starbucks cake, it really does look good.

Barcelona looks like such a beautiful city.

I totally forgot how late everyone eats over there! That would be difficult for us I think. We eat so early for every meal it seems, we already act like senior citizens