Sunny Spain

Last Friday, after an eventful Thanksgiving, we headed out of the country once again. Barcelona turned out to be a beautiful and interesting vacation weekend. After enduring near-freezing temperatures, constant cloudiness, and continual rain almost all last week we were looking forward to the warm weather and sunshine Spain promised. While we were blessed with three days of sunshine and cloudless skies, we didn't experience the typical warmth of Barcleona. Even the locals were complaining about the unseasonably cold weather they had last weekend! Instead of daytime temperatures in the upper 60's, it was more like low 50's, which was still considerably warmer than in Berlin, London, or Amsterdam. Overall, we were extremely pleased with the weather. It's amazing the difference being in the sun for a few days makes!

John did not exactly print out the hotel itinerary for our weekend, but he remembered the name of the hotel. When the taxi picked us up Friday evening (after being delayed, delayed, and delayed some more because of the fog in Amsterdam), John found the hotel name in our travel guide and showed the address to our driver. Since our flight was late, we got to Barcelona just in time for rush hour. After spending 45 minutes in the taxi, our driver dropped us at our apparent destination. However, it seems the driver decided to let us off at a side door of the hotel. After wandering around aimlessly for 15 minutes, we finally found the front lobby and reception desk. By this time, Erin was so tired of traveling, she just wanted to get to the room to take a shower a little nap before dinner at 9. To our dismay, the hotel we arrived at did not have reservations for us. Hmmm. Apparently there are three different hotels in Barcelona owned by this hotel chain. Who knew? The hotel was kind enough to call the other hotels to help us figure out to which one we really belonged and then hailed a cab for us. (The doorman took forever to hail a cab, so Erin had a good long cry wondering if we would ever reach our destination after traveling far too long that day.) This taxi ride was only about 5 minutes, and ended happily. To our surprise the hotel we were staying in was nicer than any hotel we have ever stayed in, or probably ever will stay in again.

We both had to try out the super fancy shower in our hotel room and got to rest a little before meeting some other people for dinner at 9. We ate with a group both Friday and Saturday nights at extremely nice restaraunts, though we are not completely sure we would choose to eat octopus or duck liver if we had our choice. It is indeed true that the Spanish people eat pretty late and enjoy their meals over a long time period. Our reservations at 9 were about an hour early than most people start eating, but we're glad we started at 9 since meals both nights lasted about 4 hours! Besides the octopus and foie gras, the food was really excellent!

Saturday we took a van tour with the group we were in Barcelona with. During a few hours we saw everything on our list to see in Barcelona and learned all the history and interesting facts there are to know about those sights. It turned out to be a good thing we saw so much on Saturday because after dinner Saturday night John started a fit of throwing up everything he'd eaten in the past two days, which was to last all night Saturday and through the day Sunday. We don't know quite what the food poisoning was from, but we're guessing the shellfish salads that we ate as appetizers on Saturday evening. Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep Saturday night. Erin was feeling fine, just tired, when she woke up Sunday, so she went downstairs to eat breakfast and returned to take another nap. Sunday afternoon Erin wanted to take a walk to the big park nearby the hotel and also go out onto the beach. John insisted he felt better and went along too. He only got sick once, in the Parc de la Ciutadella, which Erin will now always remember as the park where John threw up in the bushes. Fortunately after sitting with Erin at dinner that evening John felt completely better. We say fortunate because Erin started feeling pains in her stomach after dinner Sunday. She never lost any of her food, but she sure didn't sleep well Sunday night.

Ah yes, Saturday afternoon. This was the afternoon at the spa. We do not know how to "spa." Erin has had massages before, but never full spa treatment. It turns out the package Erin got at the spa included time in the steam/sauna/ice fountain/jacuzzi room, a massage, a manicure, and a facial. This was too many hours of sitting for Erin so she cut out the facial at the end. When the woman left her in the changing room she was not quite sure what to do. She had not brought a bathing suit with her since it is obviously not swimming weather right now. So, wearing the cotton bathrobe provided, she stood around in the sauna/steam/ice fountain/jacuzzi room wondering what to do. The sauna and steam room were just too hot to stay in. She still has no idea what to do with an ice fountain. Yikes! Fortunately soon after the masseuse came in to get her for her massage. Even John got a manicure and massage! While Erin enjoyed her manicure lying down, eyes covered, with a hand and arm massage, John had his manicure while getting his hair cut. John also enjoyed his very first massage. It was a unique experience, but we are definitely not "spa" people.

In summary, Barcelona is absolutely beautiful and sunny. In fact, Spain is so beautiful we would really love to travel back there sometime, hopefully without any illness to disturb our vacation. Our trip was stressful, fun, relaxing, and miserable all rolled up into three days. It is good to be home. If you go to Barcelona watch out for the shellfish.