Just Add Water: On to Barcelona

Ok, I must get down to business and finish our trip to Europe! (Since it was in May!) This is why my children have no scrapbooks, and probably never will!

So...a few more pictures of Paris...before we go on to Barcelona.

These were the garbage "cans" on the streets. Pretty yucky looking to be sure, but I guess they would stay cleaner and be easier to deal with.

Ok, here is a cafe we were eating dinner at around, I would say 11:30ish PM. Crowded and loud.

Here is a cafe on one of the mornings...mind you it is close to 9:00AM...no one around...when do these people go to work, I wondered?

There were some beautiful purse shops...unfortunately we did not have the money to buy one :(

So here is a traditional meal. We have the onion soup, the cheese, and our bread. This cafe had ice..hooray!

Here are some menus for your perusing pleasure. Almost all the cafes offered the same fare. Remember this is Euros, multiply by about 1.5 to convert to dollars. ....And you think Starbucks is expensive, check out the prices on the second picture.

Here is your 8 Euro hot dog (but it has grilled cheese on top!) and your amazing grilled cheese sandwich (croque-monsieur)

We finally (well David finally) ordered an espresso. Yes, it was small, and it was very strong!

In the basement of our hotel they served breakfast each morning. It was on the expensive side, but we ate here a couple times. They had all kinds of cheeses, croissants, yogurt, jams and fruit. It was a very quaint little room...with brick walls and curved (barrel) ceilings.

So from Paris we flew to Barcelona. We got tickets on line with a European airline and it was sooo much cheaper than the train. The taxes were more than the ticket itself. Then of course you have to pay for bags separately... and your carryons cannot be too heavy. Packing was interesting to say the least, especially since the hotel had no scale to weigh the bags. The lady at check in was nice and let our bags go through, even though a couple were overweight.

Here are pictures of the plane and the weird people mover things at the Barcelona airport. I think it would best be described as "uber-modern" .

Barcelona has a very modern feel to it. It seems it built up a lot in the 20th century; I found much of it quite ugly to be honest. Here is the view from the plane.

Street after street of buildings that looked like this....

Here is our hotel...the bright blue made it easy to find! Our room was huge with hard wood floors and minimalistic furnishings.

So here is our great tourist story...as to why I am sometimes ashamed to be an American in foreign countries. Just after we finish checking in, this middle aged, slightly overweight American, wearing a perfectly pressed powder blue shirt, bermuda shorts and sporting a southern accent, hurriedly approaches the gentleman at the front desk. He (the American) is sweaty and out of breath. He starts talking very loudly in English (he doesn't even say hello in Spanish or anything) "Excuse me, sir, I need change for this $100 right now" (It is American dollars, not Euros) The gentleman behind the front desk explains, in perfect English, that they do not have dollars, only Euros, but there is an exchange around the corner. Sweaty American tourist: "But my taxi is right out front, and he won't accept dollars either, so I need you to exchange this for me right now." Again, the clerk says, " I am sorry, I can not, but there is the exchange just around the corner." Tourist..."well, if I had known, I would have exchanged my money at the airport, but I thought you all would take my dollars"....(you have got to be kidding!!!)

David and I had the horrendous realization that this guy is part of the Colonial trip we are on, and I wanted to hide. This is crazy, I thought....this guy is so ego-centric that he thinks all other countries accept our money, so he didn't bother to exchange it at the airport, and now he is blaming the guy behind the desk for his problem. So then he proceeds to beg everyone in the lobby for money...OMG! I quickly pushed the elevator button....I told David "I think we should go check out our room"... and turned away, hoping sweaty American tourist wouldn't ask us for anything. I was completely disgusted, and understood why other countries just might, just sometimes, have an issue with us Americans.

FYI, when you travel to Europe a double bed is really a "double bed", you must ask for a "large double" if you want what we call a double bed...since Colonial's travel agency made this hotel reservation, we had no choice.