Fun and Sun in Barcelona!

We arrived in Barcelona to great weather, lots of sunshine and the big blue Mediterranean Sea. Jen was happy because she could now wear her summer clothes that she brought and Jason was happy to switch from sneakers to flip flops. So many things to see and so many things to eat. Right away we checked into our hotel which we both loved.. its modern, new, and much more spacious compared to the ones in London.

After checking in we headed straight for the infamous Las Ramblas, the main shopping and tourist boulevard that leads straight to the ocean. Of course we dined on tapas right away as we headed towards the sea. To Jen´s delight, there were all kinds of food for us to try and Jason enjoyed the Gothic Architecture which he read so much about prior to the trip. Dinner was had at a little cafe run by someone from China, a ¨chino¨... at first communication was a bit ill, but then we noticed his chinese writing and finally we were able to communicate in broken Mandarin. We had the typical ¨menu del dia¨ which is usually a 3 course meal had in the mid to late afternoon. After our 3 hour siesta, we decided to head to the Restaurante Salimanca, which Jen´s brother suggested, where we feasted on razor clams and seafood paella. With our bellies full, we decided to trek back to the hotel since the metros by now were shut down. We walked from Barceloneta back to our hotel which Jason estimated to be about 3 miles or 5km for those readers accustomed to the metric system.

Our second day was filled with more siteseeing as we checked out our local area and went to the Park Montjuic where the 1992 Olympic games were held. The view was incredible as we could see all the city. We then toured the Ramblas again and had another ¨menu del dia¨ where Jason ordered the only thing he could pronounce which ended up being steak, potatoes and grean peas so he was happy. Jen ended up with a Spanish potato salad and some nice fish. We then headed to the Picasso museum and walked to the beach to soak in some sun. We finally ended the day with some tapas and being hungry for Asian food, we went to the local chino restaurant and had some of the best fried rice and beef noodles we´ve ever had. More to come from Barca!