Buenos Dias. Day 2 (Monday) and the sky is pure blue. I’m out on the balcony, the birds are singing, and the only other sounds are the occasional distant clatter of pans from some breakfast prep going on in far flung kitchens. Granted it’s not a seaview here but it’s serene at least.
The realisation that there’s no tea/coffee making facilities means I have to go out while Lisa does the beauty routine. The guy on reception recommends the place we’d already planned to go for brekky. The streets are really quiet. A little walk to Sandwichez, where there’s a couple of Gen Z on laptops in the corner. Some light jazz adds to the ambience. My “¿Hablas inglés?” is met with a hand gesture that suggests not much, then some confused discussion about tea/English breakfast tea/infusion; I exit with 2 coffees. That’ll do. Eyes scanning for dog turd with each step. There is none.
The plan today is to go to Montjuic Castle. This means a train trip to Espanya and then a bus. We get out by 11am.
At Urquinaona Station the barriers are not accepting our tickets. A helpful guy sees our plight and tries to do what we had been trying. After more failed attempts, it turns out only one of the barriers works for our tickets, others are broken so we get through.
When on the train the is pan pipe music from the other end. As the journey progresses it gets louder and louder. With a stop to go the guy is in our carriage, with stereo system blaring while he pipes away. Train pulls into Espanya and we get the hell out.
The station is next to an old bull fighting ring which is now a shopping centre. Should be plenty of brunch options there. There is. Boca is the first place we check, the guy thrusts a menu into my hand. Els not happy with veg options. I pop menu back and we look elsewhere. Els reflects – she can have chips. Then decide to go back with our tails between our legs and say we changed our minds 😊.
Man gets us cheese and ham toasties without ham, ham and tomato bocadilla without tomatoes, amongst other things.
After brunch we go up to the viewing gallery and do a circuit.
A lady is giving out free bottles of water – I’ll have two thanks. Then head for bus stop to head to castle. It’s hot as balls but the bus is there quickly…phew.
When checking the route earlier I saw this:
Stupid Axel Rose. As we pass the Olympic Stadium I see a bloke in an Appetite for Destruction tee-shirt. There’s no disruption, let alone destruction, thankfully. We hear a bus announcement for Funicular Railway and we get off.
Panic sets in when I see the cable car… this is not the funicular… I’m not getting on that. Oh it’s ok, the funicular is below that. We’re in and on straight away.
The Funicular takes about 5 mins, and is going downhill. I thought we’d be going up to the castle. After getting off and walking through a really long tunnel, we arrive at a metro station, no where near the castle or anything 😕. We’re back in the heart of the city – we goofed up there. So no castle, or scenic views. Just a walk to La Rambla in this oppressive heat.
La Rambla is busy with street artists, market stalls, cafes, bars. We are reaching our limits in terms of heat, tiredness. Need to stop. The search for a suitable place drags on. Lisa has become Barcemoaner. After an age we find a slushie shop and this is a much needed rest.
It’s here that Lizzie finds that she’s had her latest grades come through. They’ve yet to aggregate the scores for the whole course but we reckon she’s got a Desmond…we’re very happy and proud of her. Her reward is a lovely mini break in Barcelona with us 😂.
Lisa comes up with the title of today’s blog. We decide to go back to hotel, siesta, and then head out for food about 8pm. On the way back we see some shizz. Back at the hotel we look at the terrace and it’s nothing to write home about.
After a 3-4hr siesta we head out to Suki Ramen and over order. The food and decor is good. We’ve decided on the moment to get a bus down to the beach after to have a stroll and get cocktails. It takes a little too long to get the bill and as we leave we see our bus just going past, and the other one just leaving the bus stop. Hang on, there’s another we can get which is good enough. It takes us to the cost where we see the terminus for the cable car which looks like some Heath-Robinson style monstrosity.
Cocktails: three Pina Coladas and a Sex on the Beach por favor. The PC did not pass the Lisa test but was generally ok.
Lisa starts to Barcemoan about being cold because I said she wouldn’t need her cardie. My bad 😔. So we head to another bar for warmth. We find one nearby – Barraca. Some kind of protest with drumming and police ‘n shit is going on there, but we need a place that’s inside and has a good bog – Els needs a dump. She goes off and we order a round; my drink is forgotten but the waitress was very apologetic – we can see she’s been non-stop busy. So just the ladies are getting tanked-up tonight then. Waitress doesn’t ask for a tip so fairs fair. She tells me that the drums are not a protest but it’s a neighborhood party, which they get to hold once a year. They are waving fake access around. It’s closed lots of the streets; one I wanted to get the bus back from too, so we’ve got some walking to do.
The whole time we were in the bar, some guy was getting breathalysed, did so about 4 times. He looked ok tbh. Police were having none of it.
It takes a while to find a road that isn’t closed to the party. End up running for the V15 bus and just as we get there the doors close but nice bus man re-opens them for us. Don’t think a London bus driver would do the same.
All in all it’s been a day of two halves; messing up the castle visit in the morn and getting overheated, followed by a great meal and some cocktails by the beach with plenty of entertainment to boot. Not quite sure about plan tomorrow but it’s either beach or Sagrada Familiar or both.
Link to a couple of vids from the neighborhood street party to give a flavour:
https://1drv.ms/f/c/1db00bd88f7e50f9/Els6c4Q-CPNKk1BtdVL0aEABIcTaM6eGrkTUCH-EtCh8Vw
Cargill Travel Blog 